Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Xero

Xero

Overview

What is Xero?

Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features…

Read more
Recent Reviews

Xero to Hero

8 out of 10
March 18, 2024
Incentivized
My business uses Xero as a gauge for all financial optics. It helps manage monies in and out, account visibility and solves invoicing …
Continue reading

Xero the Hero

10 out of 10
March 04, 2024
Incentivized
I use Xero for invoicing, reconciling our monthly revenue and spending, and providing our accountants with the information they need for …
Continue reading

Xero or Zero

1 out of 10
March 01, 2024
I use it as an accounting program. <br>The program constantly loses the ability to connect to my bank. When reported this problem takes …
Continue reading

Xero

4 out of 10
February 02, 2024
It is an accounting system we use for billing, paying bills, and producing financial reports. It also has payroll capabilities, but I am …
Continue reading

Efficient User

8 out of 10
January 11, 2024
Incentivized
Xero caters excellently to businesses of various sizes, offering a remarkably clean interface that's incredibly user-friendly, even for …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 44 features
  • Bank reconciliation (188)
    9.1
    91%
  • Accounts receivable (181)
    9.0
    90%
  • Standard reports (183)
    8.3
    83%
  • Dashboards (180)
    8.0
    80%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons

Video Reviews

1 video

"Straight-Forward" Accounting. How Xero Helped a Business Owner Manage Expenses
03:08
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Early

$13

Cloud
per month

Growing

$37

Cloud
per month

Established

$70

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $13 per month
Return to navigation

Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

7.8
Avg 7.5

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

7.5
Avg 7.1

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

8
Avg 8.0

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

8.1
Avg 7.6

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

7.4
Avg 7.4

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

6.5
Avg 7.0

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

6.8
Avg 7.4
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Xero?

Xero is an online accounting software platform for small businesses and their advisors, as well as for personal finance. Xero competes most often with QuickBooks Online. Its features, beyond the ubiquitous general ledger and double-entry bookkeeping support, include invoicing with quotes, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, tax management, and it is mobile-accessible. Xero integrates with over 800 third-party applications, covering everything from inventory and logistics to cash flow, project management, customer relationship management, and e-commerce.

The product is sold by subscription (a distribution model commonly known as software as a service or SaaS) requiring the payment of a monthly fee. This charge is proportionate to the number (and type) of company entities managed by the subscriber. The lowest tiered pricing option is the $9 per month Starter pack, which supports unlimited users but a limited number of transactions. The $30 Standard pack breaks open usage limits and adds e-filing and payroll options. The $70 Premium package doubles the number of supported employees on payroll from 5 to 10, and supports multiple currencies.

Xero Features

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting Features

  • Supported: Accounts payable
  • Supported: Accounts receivable
  • Supported: Cash management
  • Supported: Bank reconciliation
  • Supported: Expense management
  • Supported: Time tracking
  • Supported: Fixed asset management
  • Supported: Multi-currency support
  • Supported: Multi-division support
  • Supported: Regulations compliance
  • Supported: Electronic tax filing
  • Supported: Self-service portal
  • Supported: Global Financial Support
  • Supported: Primary and Secondary Ledgers

Inventory Management Features

  • Supported: Inventory tracking

Reporting & Analytics Features

  • Supported: Dashboards
  • Supported: Standard reports
  • Supported: Custom reports

Customization Features

  • Supported: Plug-ins

Security Features

  • Supported: Role-based user permissions
  • Supported: Multi-factor authentication

Xero Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Xero Video

Xero is accounting software for small businesses and their advisors. It reveals a business's cashflow in real-time with online accounting, invoicing, payroll, billing & banking.

Xero Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.

Xero starts at $13.

Priority AccountEdge, QuickBooks Online, and Sage 50cloud Accounting are common alternatives for Xero.

Reviewers rate Journals and Reconciliations highest, with a score of 9.2.

The most common users of Xero are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(720)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 37)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero for our bookkeeping services and we are also tracking are invoice histories with it. In invoicing, we can always keep and verify our previous invoice to clients and provide them with copies if they need it. We provide clients with monthly reports and annual reports of their books. Also, we don't just use Xero for current year books, we can use it for previous years bookkeeping services! We can also pick up if they have their books currently recorded so we can assist and provide service with reconciling them.We can also provide access to our clients with their Xero Financials so they can have an easy access to their financials progress in real-time.

  • Monthly Reports
  • Invoice
  • Annual Reports
  • Financial Statements
  • Transparency
  • Easy access
  • Integration with other platforms
  • It could be also used for a broader CRM-like software, just with a few more features
  • Sidenotes conversations on books, for real-time reviewing
Xero is one of the easy-to-learn accounting software that anyone could start and settle with! Even a teenager could learn on how to use it. Accountants and Bookkeepers who are new to the industry could give them a good boost on their profile if they have certification and fluency with using Xero. Xero is kind of one of the basic requirement
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are an accounting firm that uses Xero internally and for our clients. For my position, I am in billing for the firm, so I work in invoicing and reconciliation. Using Xero has been such a great help. We made the switch from QB years ago and have never looked back. We refer all clients to Xero and require they switch to Xero from QB, unless there is third part app integration that Xero has not yet partnered with. The ease of reconciliation and running of reports saves me so much time. Any mistakes that I make or changes that need to be made are easily done in the software. Xero support has always been great as well.
  • Matching during reconciliation.
  • Invoicing and accepting online payments is a game changer.
  • Great Customer Support. Every time I have submitted a ticket, the response time is quick and always helpful.
  • We also use XPM for our CRM. When creating tasks in XPM, it would be helpful if the entire chart of accounts was an option in the Income Account drop-down box. Sometimes, tasks or costs need to be coded back to an expense or COG's account.
  • When editing an invoice in Xero, that change is not reflected in XPM. Since I am the only employee privy to the Xero side, other employees only accessing XPM cannot see the change unless I make a note.
  • When setting up third-party payment apps such as Stripe. Xero would not allow me to code transaction fees back to an expense or COGS account. Each morning, I must go in and find and recode these fees.
I believe that Xero is suited for most business types and levels of income. The user-friendliness of the software is great.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero to manage invoicing of our clients and keep track of our spending.
We have lots of clients with varying amounts of spend each month and it allows up to keep trackof them and easily see what is outstanding.
  • Easy to create invoices
  • Recurring invoices with automated email invoicing
  • Simple dashboard showing the finance status
  • Our accountant can log in to do our end of year
  • Multiple users
  • as a non accountant - the reports can be difficult to get to where you need
  • an activity log of all users actions would be really handy
As a small business without an in-house accountant Xero make it easy for us to keep our accounts up to date and magae our customer billing without having to spend hours and hours pouring over paperwork.
Invoicing of customers is very easy and means we can send quotes and invoices to customer quickly and easily.
When payments come in the can be reconciled with a quick button-press which saves us loads of time over the month.
November 30, 2023

Not too bad

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Recording of all business transactions and preparation of monthly management financial reports for all entities in 3 countries. Unable to post journal entries in foreign currencies and manually preparing consolidation reports
  • easy to use
  • flexibility in customising reports but with limitations
  • able to integrate with numerous third party solutions
  • allow posting of manual journal in foreign curriencies
  • preparation of consolidated financial reports
  • more flexibility in customising reports
  • allow reports to be tracked in more categories
for start ups
Ryan Freeman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero to track our financial activity for three companies. The international banking integrations are very helpful for managing companies in Canada and the USA. Due to some basic functionality lacking in the billing tools, we use Freshbooks for invoicing and rely on integration between the platforms to keep billing up to date.
  • Bank rec is really easy and forgiving when correcting a mistake.
  • Basic financial reports are built in and useful.
  • It's popular enough that there are numerous integration options with other platforms.
  • No invoicing, late fees - despite years and years and thousands of clients requesting it, Xero has decided not to develop any kind of interest or late fee functionality. Their only solution is to suggest a 3rd party tool that is quite expensive.
  • No bundling/assembly tracking. If you are selling an item or service that requires multiple products or multiple revenue accounts, you're out of luck. Unless you want to manually make adjustments, or pay hundreds of dollars for a 3rd party tool.
Xero is great if you simply want bank reconciliation and tracking. The cloud aspect is great...but if you're looking for feature parity with QB or Simply/Sage, expect to pay a lot for 3rd party extras.

Ultimately, it's a cheap, simple solution that suits us well enough for the moment, but we do have to rely on tools like Freshbooks for basic features.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Well at its core this is a great cloud accounting platform and at its most basic level, it fulfills this function brilliantly. It really becomes super powerful once you start making use of its 3rd party marketplace which allows you to manage business functions in software purpose-built for this but with direct integration to your accounting system.
  • Integration
  • Ease of Use.
  • API
  • Recurring Invoice API.
  • Local currency pricing.
This can work for any business small to large, it is scalable and provides an intuitive interface for the new or seasoned user. Its marketplace for 3rd party apps & integrations is second to none. This allows you to create the ideal automated business processes and workflows.
Mohsin Ejaz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is one of the more popular options among our clients (along with QuickBooks). Xero is reliable, user-friendly (for non-accountants i.e. business owners), and doesn't cost an arm and leg. It has most of the major features that small and medium business owners need from cloud accounting software. The Xero ledger and Cashbook options are a great offering for accounting firms for clients who don't want to spend a lot of money on subscriptions or no money at all.
  • Reporting (customizing look and contents and the ability to add multiple comparative periods is brilliant and not found in many other competitors.
  • Bank feeds. The way they organize bank feed and subsequent matching or coding is very user-friendly for non-accountants and fast for accountants.
  • Can file VAT returns and is MTD compliant in UK.
  • Customer support has been helpful (at least in my experience).
  • Bank reconciliations. I would like them to try something like QBO where reconciled transactions are marked and then locked, so when editing or deleting those transactions, you are shown an extra warning.
  • Vendor and customer pages. It should be easier to see a list of activities and then access those transactions from there. Again QBO does it better, in my opinion.
  • Search feature. Once again their main competitor does that better, you can search an invoice number, amount, date, vendor name, and account head in QBO and it will show relevant results. Xero global search functionality is pretty basic.
It is great for small businesses especially:
- If there is a local variant for your country (US, UK, NZ, etc), so you can file GST / VAT returns directly, CIS returns (UK).
- If you are a business owner who wants to maintain books on your own because it is very friendly for non-accountants and rarely uses accounting jargon anywhere. They have done a good job of translating everything to layman's terms.
- If you don't mind paying slightly more than some of the basic options and get a huge set of features, reports, integrations, and customer support. All you usually need from cloud accounting software.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Xero in our accounting practice. Many customers come to us frustrated with Intuit products and have no idea there is another and often better solution. All my clients enjoy Xero for UX, ease of use, and integrations with their other 3rd party applications. Xero also recognizes that accounting platforms need accountant expertise and advises customers when they sign up to find an advisor. Our practice operates 95% in Xero and we love it.
  • Customer Service
  • Recommending accountant advisor for the accounting
  • User interface
  • Fair pricing
  • Xero Projects easier to use and implement
  • Being able to cancel subscription right away- no 30 day wait
  • While pricing is fair, their billing department is terrible
Garreth Collard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We use Xero.com accounting software for multiple tasks including bank account reconciliation, coding the general ledger and trial balance, producing end-of-financial-year financial statements, for GST returns, business analysis, etc. We don’t use any of the practice management elements.
  • Bank reconciliation.
  • GST returns.
  • Automatic bank feeds.
  • Financial statements.
  • Support is only through email.
  • Outage advisement is poor.
This software as a service is specially designed for the end-user who does not have a lot of accounting experience. It is far more user-friendly and intuitive than other comparable accounting packages. Gradually over time, Xero has built up the backend so that it is more suitable for accounting firms as well.
Jessica Meadows Rich | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Xero to manage the books of my eCommerce company. It allows me to connect my bank accounts and automatically pull in all transactions, which I then reconcile and share with my CPA so that they may calculate quarterly tax payments. Before using Xero, I was doing this all manually with spreadsheets.
  • Allows me to quickly label transactions
  • Allows me to easily pull reports like Balance Sheets and P&Ls
  • Removes the human element and automates my transactions
  • The bank feed doesn't always work as expected, still requiring some manual entry
For a smaller company like myself ($500K annual revenue) with around 150 transactions a month, Xero is robust enough for my needs. Perhaps a larger company or even a more complicated company with more transactions/more varied transactions may need something more robust. The price is very attractive and I feel fits my needs.
Kelvin Leong | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have a number of businesses that use Xero. For NonCam.com, we handle loads of multi-currency sales and payments to suppliers from different payment gateways. Accounting with other software used to be a huge hassle in terms of transaction reconciliation, but Xero makes this a breeze. Tasks that used to take hours now take minutes, and it is significantly much easier. The automated transaction matching, bank feeds, invoicing, the bill payments feature are among the most used features for my team.
  • Bank feeds from banks are consistent and reliable.
  • "Smart" transaction matching is a huge time-saver.
  • Turns anyone capable enough to do basic accounting data-entry/processing.
  • Very easy flow and terminologies, yet remaining true to accounting core.
  • Multiple modes for users of varying levels.
  • Raw API integration is largely difficult to work with, but will probably only affect a small group of power users.
  • More integration points in terms of task automation could be good.
  • Price point is good for larger businesses but a little painful for smaller businesses.
High transaction volumes e-commerce retailers who want to keep track of their transactions with integrations to other platforms such as WooCommerce, Shopify, etc. You don't need a whole accounting team anymore, this takes the bulk of the pain with accounting away. Definitely recommended at the top of my own list.
December 23, 2021

XERO review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is used in the business for both accounts payable and receivable. We submit our timesheets through Xero and receive all payslips and leave information through there as well. We also use Xero for all of our invoicing when enrolling students. Xero also gives us the ability to generate template invoices as well as third-party invoices when needed.
  • Ability to keep invoice templates
  • Stores all payslip and leave information in an easy accessible way
  • Efficient and fool proof way to generate and send invoices
  • no issues
  • no issues
  • no issues
Xero is well suited to all administrative duties and accounts payable/receivable duties across the board. The system is very easy to understand and gives the user abilities to keep contact information and invoice templates stored for later use, in turn improving efficiency. The software is also useful for timesheets and payslips and keeps a log of all previous timesheets that have been submitted.
November 27, 2021

Xero

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero allows us to manage the Bookkeeping for our clients in the cloud. It provides up-to-date information at an instant allowing us to assist our clients in more meaningful and relevant ways. Prior accounting software packages were often complex and the everyday business owner could not navigate their way around the platform with ease. Xero was really a game-changer allowing everyday people to access their accounts in a more meaningful way they could actually understand.
  • Bank Feeds
  • Reconciliation
  • Invoicing
  • User Access
  • Inventory
I personally find most businesses that come to us are well suited for Xero's software. Clients who would like to run the day-to-day bookkeeping functions and have us do a monthly or quarterly review also benefit from the user-friendly interface. Payroll can become a bit slow above the 100 employee mark, so for larger-scale businesses, we might recommend alternative software packages or using a third-party provider that integrates to Xero.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero Integrates with our POS system, Rostering system and bank accounts. By being connected to all parts of our busines, we get a great holistic view of everything that is happening within the business. Xero becomes the source of truth and we use it for our reporting and decision making.
  • Integration.
  • Reporting.
  • Ease of use.
  • Further integration with financial institutes to be able to pay bills within Xero.
Xero is great for small and medium business as it is cost-effective, easy to setup, intgerates well with 3rd parties and scales as you grow. larger organisations that have more technical requirements may need a full ERP system and professional implementation, Xero does the basics well but may not be enough for larger companies.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Accrualify is robust spend management software that integrates with Xero. Xero customers can use Accrualify to gain the benefits of its platform and sync data to Xero in real-time. Accrualify integrates with Xero's accounts payable module that includes vendors, bills, payments, and its non-transactional data accounts. Departments, items, terms and business units.
  • Accounts payable.
  • User interface.
  • Application programming interface (API).
  • Customs extension modules.
  • Better API.
  • Subsidiaries.
Xero is the best fit for a small business that operates as a single subsidiary and does not foray its operations into manufacturing and require inventory as a core module. If a company's evaluating if Xero fits their needs, then it should consider if their accounting complexity increases too quickly and if there is a need to go for enterprise ERP instead.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is being used to manage all business transactions from multiple accounts and currencies. It gives us a great overview of the company cash position and is essential in planning budgets and forecasting sales and revenue.
  • Customized reports
  • Multiple bank accounts support
  • Expenses support
  • Payroll
  • Design, UI
Xero works great for smaller companies and is easy to use and adapt. However, for larger scale companies I imagine a more sophisticated solution would be needed with much more automation and custom functions.
Jennifer Hess | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We switched from QuickBooks Online to Xero at the beginning of 2019, so we've been using it as our primary bookkeeping system for just over a year. I was attracted to it for its pricing, interface and integrations — specifically with my time tracking solution (Everhour) and credit card processor (Stripe). With QBO, it felt like all their new product development was just bolted on to an existing structure, but not well thought-out or easily navigable. Every year it seemed they were increasing the cost of my plan for services that were more difficult to use and poorly executed. With Xero, I was able to set up not only credit card options for my clients (which QBO also offers), but autopay solutions, PayPal (much easier to use & reconcile than in QBO) and ACH transfer options. While those take a fee, it helps to reduce the amount of time spent hunting down client payments.

We also began using Earth Class Mail (virtual mailbox) a few years ago, which automatically deposits any received checks to our bank, and has a Xero integration so I can record the deposit directly from the ECM interface (it has limitations, but that's an ECM issue not a Xero issue, though Xero may benefit from improving / expanding their API).
  • Simpler, more streamlined interface
  • Easy integration with payment services like Stripe, PayPal & GoCardless
  • Customizable email templates with merge tag support, including reminder emails and recurring invoice email templates
  • Recurring invoices are easier to setup, manage & modify (as compared to QBO)
  • Integration with time tracking solution (Everhour) is easy to manage, and doesn't create any invoice numbering issues due to the generation of invoices from two platforms (e.g., recurring Xero invoices and Everhour time tracking invoices). The system just uses the next sequential Xero invoice number regardless of which platform the invoice comes from. This was a problem on QBO + Harvest.
  • Vendors and clients are all lumped into a giant 'Contacts' pile, which makes it easier to manage contacts who fall into both categories (QBO gets confused about that), as I have clients who are also sometimes vendors.
  • The reporting options are VERY limited, especially as compared to QBO. Minimal support for filters, and it can be tricky to refine some reports by client.
  • Vendors and clients are all lumped into a giant 'Contacts' list, which can make management & organization there difficult. Especially considering the limited reporting options. You can group them, and it has some 'smart grouping' options, but if you don't create an official 'bill' for every expense, or generate an invoice for every past client on your books, the system won't auto-identify 'suppliers' or 'customers'. So, basically, the groups have to be set up manually.
  • All of the digital payment solutions are paid platforms. There is no free bank-to-bank option like with QBO. Likely due to the use of 3rd party vendors for its payment services.
  • There's a 'classic' and 'new' interface, and users can switch between them. But they don't offer the same features, so I find myself using the 'classic' (less pretty) more often. Though I periodically check the 'new' interface, which seems to be improving.
  • Limited support by accounting professionals (in the US at least). My CPA hates it. But I do most of the day-to-day management myself anyway.
  • You can assign billable expenses to a customer, however, sometimes you want to assign it to a customer without actually billing it on their invoice (e.g., it's included in a flat project rate). The system doesn't allow for that. You either have to assign & bill it to the client, or just list it as a regular expense (I add a manual note as to which client it was used for).
Xero is great for small businesses who don't need a lot of complex features, or who will be managing accounting internally. It has robust integration capability that can grow with you (more so than, say FreshBooks), but won't break the bank.

It's not as well suited for larger organizations or those with more complex reporting needs. For example, I acquired another business several years ago, and needed to pull quarterly reports of income from specific clients in order to calculate my pay-out for that quarter. I did that in QBO fairly easily, and had a saved template that I could use to generate it. Luckily I made the switch to Xero after the final pay-out because it would be very difficult to generate such a report now, since there aren't any report filters where you can select only specific customers from your contact list. Xero does support customized report templates that can be saved, the filtering options are just very limited. Essentially, you have to export all of the data to a CSV and then manipulate the spreadsheet locally.
Steven Duran | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is being used as our accounting package for our entire organization. It enables us to handle the invoicing of clients and purchasing of inventory. We utilize Xero's reporting functionality daily to track incoming revenues, expenses, and asset management. It's been incredibly helpful for my own particular line of business that I am responsible for.
  • Reporting
  • Invoicing
  • Cloud accounting
  • Integrations with 3rd party logistic software
  • Additional reporting features
  • Out of the box integrations with ecommerce platforms
If you're running a relatively small business that needs a robust accounting package in a cloud environment, then I'd probably recommend Xero for them. If you're running a highly enterprise operation with many revenue sources that need to be closely tied to thousands of SKUs, then Xero is probably not the best solution for your company.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Xero is the accounting software we use to manage our income and expenses. It is mainly used by the COO and the accounts department. It is mainly used to manage the accounting needs of the business. We use it to raise invoices and track accounts receivables, keep track of expenses and manage cashflow, and finally to produce the financial statements.
  • There is a live feed with the bank account (though there is a 1 day lag). In addition to the integration with Receipt Bank. It helps a lot with the bank reconciliation as the payments can be allocated to the invoices with a click of a button.
  • There is a function to auto generate invoices and send these periodically with an email template.
  • Software is user-friendly and easy to navigate as a non-accountant. It is quite intuitive and modern. Even the reporting for financial statements is easy to work with.
  • There must be a simpler way to process the refunds from the bank feeds. There must be a way to raise the refund from the bank reconciliation and allocate to an existing invoice or account.
  • Seems there is a difference if there is a bill raised or not which affects the reporting. There must be a way to raise the bill when reconciling with the bank feed.
Xero is pretty user-friendly, especially for a non-accountant. It works very well for a small company with simple accounting requirements. I have not used this for larger businesses so I do not know how this will work in a larger set-up. The reports are easy, they seem to have integrations with 3rd party systems which helps. Flexibility in the software is good.

At the moment, my constant complaint is adding the credit cards to the bank feeds. Until now, this is still not working. Otherwise, we are happy with the software.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it primarily for inventory management for goods and services for our clients. It helps us to keep tabs on what we're using and what rates. We are also able to use it to draft invoices to bill to the government and 3rd parties for work we do on their behalf or at their behest. It makes a lot of our billing easier to process and account for.
  • Inventory Management - It's really easy to add goods/services and catalog them.
  • Invoicing - It provides detailed and customizable invoices for partner's organizations.
  • UI - It's a pretty easy to use software and very intuitive.
  • Auto-population - while this feature is useable there are always moments where something doesn't auto-populate the way I would expect it to.
  • Administrator controls - It would be nice to allow different users different levels of access.
  • Integration capacity - It would be really nice to integrate with the other inventory software we use.
  • Barcode scanning - we could use the ability to use a bar code scanner to speed up the inventory process.
Xero is great for inventory management and invoicing. It's pretty easy to use and lets you provide a lot of metadata for your items to its easier to search and catalog your inventory. Additionally, that translates to a well-produced invoicing system. Invoices are clean, easy to create, and easy to read. Combining inventory management with a good invoicing tool is a home run.
Michael Griffiths | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Xero was purchased as a less expensive version of QB. It interfaced with my bank very easily and seemed like it was going to be a homerun.
  • Cheap.
  • Easy to input data and rectify.
  • I wanted to do payroll on Xero. Direct deposit was unavailable to me. Apparently, it is a third party feature and I was denied access. I was unable to get a reason why, but its probably because I am a new entity. The customer support is simply a joke. They emailed me a clip from the online help menu when I tried to resolve it.
  • So, I cancelled the subscription two weeks into the "Free Trial". I have cancelled the subscription twice now and have been charged for two months. At this point I have contacted my bank's fraud department.
It seems great until something goes wrong. Then you are on your own.
Ronen Amit | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We were referred to Xero by our accountant who also helped us with migrating to Xero. We are currently using it for two different companies, one is a US based and the other is EU based. We are using different apps to streamline our accounting. One of the apps was supplied by our accountant in order to upload bills and receipts, which his company then reviews and inputs into Xero. Xero is also connected to a couple of other external apps, such as an eCommerce fulfillment app, which syncs manual and online orders into Xero, as well as, an invoice management app that allows us to sync unpaid invoices, send reminders to our clients and charge them using ACH and credit cards.
  • Easy to use interface
  • Handles both domestic and international companies
  • Lots of apps to compliment and streamline our accounting
  • Xero still lacks the ability to offer ACH payments, we needed to connect to an external app for that matter
  • App marketplace could get some improvements
  • Xero is probably not suitable for larger companies with over 100 employees
Xero is well suited for small businesses with less than 100 employees, especially if these companies require to streamline different sales channels. However, before making a decision the business should make sure it can automate as much as the business accounting with Xero. Not all third party apps and software, small businesses are using these days, are compatible with Xero, so each business needs to evaluate all its operational aspects in regards to this accounting system. If your business can sync most of its transactions with Xero either directly or via external apps, go for it. Otherwise look for a better candidate.
Andre Yeu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as our sole accounting application for our business. Our accountant utilizes it to prepare our year end as well. We use it to track all revenue and expenses, and reconcile it against our bank statements. We use the reports it can generate to give us insight into our profitability and margins.
  • Reconcilliation via automated feeds to our different online banking systems (chequing account, credit card, paypal) is a breeze and has lots of time saving features.
  • User Interface is very slick and makes data entry speedy.
  • Reporting is very strong and segmentation by Service Line, Product Item Code, etc., is useful for analyzing different parts of the business.
  • From time to time (once or twice a year) the feeds that serve bank data to Xero break. Fortunately you just have to wait for Xero to remedy them.
  • Payments that come through via the Invoicing feature do not automatically reconcile - I think it would be useful if a client paid an invoice via credit card/Paypal to have the payment automatically reconciled to the outstanding invoice.
Xero is well suited for any small business. Reconciliation with online bank statements is very strong. It allows for segmentation of revenue/expenses by service line which is useful if you are a multi-location or multi-division small business, although some larger companies may find the service line feature to be a bit simplistic (it works for us though).
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is used across our whole business for invoicing, credit control, and budget management. It is very intuitive to use, quick to train people in, and produces management reports at the click of a button.
  • Invoicing - quickly code things to the correct accounts code, but also has the ability to recode later (we have a double check system and occasionally have to edit invoices that have been incorrectly coded. Xero makes this very easy).
  • Budget management - the budget variance view lets you see at a glance how performance compares against forecasts, which is invaluable for managers.
  • VAT Return - the submission through Xero will take into account changes following the return, to be added to the next one.
  • I would love to see a proper cashflow feature - using the due dates of invoices, and likely payment dates from customers.
For a small business, Xero is perfect. It has literally halved the amount of time we are spending internally on bookkeeping, and it has halved the amount of time our accountants need to spend at year end to get everything in order.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Across the organization and a few of the clients we support. Addresses the version issues of QuickBooks and bank reconciliation as central core of product is superior to its competitors.
  • Bank feeds & reconciliation
  • Single ledger
  • Xero to Xero network invoices and bills
  • Integrations to various, more specific solutions
  • Multicurrency
  • Reporting query flexibility
  • Global search functionality
  • Easier return to prior pages after drill-down
It's Particularly well suited for service businesses. Product-based business require integrations for anything but rudimentary retailers / products. Need to be comfortable working with bank reconciliation process; other products allow multiple ways to create and edit transactions, while Xero is best suited for transactions which will ultimately flow through as a bank transaction. Reporting formats, few of the terms are more "European"; no problem for me, but may be a turn-off for some.
Return to navigation