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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…

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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 (184)
    9.1
    91%
  • Accounts receivable (177)
    8.9
    89%
  • Standard reports (179)
    8.2
    82%
  • Dashboards (176)
    7.9
    79%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons

Video Reviews

1 video

"Straight-Forward" Accounting. How Xero Helped a Business Owner Manage Expenses
03:08
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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
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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 7.0

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.

8.1
Avg 7.9

Reporting & Analytics

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

8
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.

6.9
Avg 7.4
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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).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(718)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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.
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting (19)
78.94736842105263%
7.9
Accounts payable
80%
8.0
Accounts receivable
90%
9.0
Cash management
100%
10.0
Bank reconciliation
100%
10.0
Expense management
50%
5.0
Fixed asset management
70%
7.0
Multi-currency support
100%
10.0
Multi-division support
70%
7.0
Regulations compliance
70%
7.0
Electronic tax filing
50%
5.0
Self-service portal
80%
8.0
Global Financial Support
50%
5.0
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
100%
10.0
Intercompany Accounting
80%
8.0
Localizations
50%
5.0
Journals and Reconciliations
100%
10.0
Enterprise Accounting
90%
9.0
Configurable Accounting
80%
8.0
Standardized Processes
90%
9.0
Inventory Management (1)
30%
3.0
Inventory tracking
30%
3.0
Order Management (7)
32.857142857142854%
3.3
Pricing
30%
3.0
Order entry
30%
3.0
Credit card processing
80%
8.0
Cost of goods sold
30%
3.0
Order Orchestration
30%
3.0
End-to-end order visibility
20%
2.0
Order exception Resolution
10%
1.0
Payroll Management (4)
65%
6.5
Pay calculation
70%
7.0
Direct deposit files
70%
7.0
Salary revision and increment management
70%
7.0
Reimbursement management
50%
5.0
Reporting & Analytics (3)
73.33333333333333%
7.3
Dashboards
90%
9.0
Standard reports
80%
8.0
Custom reports
50%
5.0
Customization (2)
100%
10.0
API for custom integration
100%
10.0
Plug-ins
100%
10.0
Security (1)
80%
8.0
Role-based user permissions
80%
8.0
  • Quicker, more efficient client closing process
  • Eliminates need to transfer data files or company versions
  • SaaS model, like QuickBooks Online or similar software vs. one-time fee for desktop or enterprise or other multi-licensed desktop software; include as part of fixed, monthly value fee
  • Standard reporting functionality allows consistency across multiple entities and users.
Previously exclusively a desktop QuickBooks "shop". Hate the version control issues and need to collect and transfer data files to get source documents. Auto bank downloads clunky and not as intuitive as Xero bank recon features. Few clients use FreshBooks - nice customer invoicing tool, but not a real accounting system. Selected Xero because it's easy to learn, dashboard view is great and bank recon makes accounting efficient and easy.
  • Fewer than 25% of my clients
4
Accounting, office management
3
Xero certification, bookkeeping or accounting background
  • Automated bank feeds
  • Open API & integrations
  • Bank rules
  • Hubdoc to Bill.com to Xero integration for full accounts payable and payment system
  • Better use of standard report templates
  • Convert more clients from QuickBooks
Beside what's already covered, the "discussion" feature in Xero, and the "Cash Coding" feature as well as "Find & Recode" feature allow classification or reclassification of many transactions quickly.
Yes
QuickBooks desktop and QuickBooks Online. Hated the multiple version issues or accountants copy limitations in QB desktop. QBO is simply an inferior, less intuitive product from bank coding, payments vs. deposits, etc.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Third-party Reviews
Ease of use was most important factor. The single ledger and use of bank reconciliation as central features are brilliant and intuitive. Base features such as multi-currency and fixed assets are often additional cost in other systems, but not Xero. Saas model allows automatic upgrades, so no tracking versions of software and no loading of upgrades.
Wouldn't change. I would suggest taking advantage of free trial.
  • Implemented in-house
No
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation
Should make it part of switch to digital, online office. Look to digitize all, or as much as possible, of your documents as well as full investigate other apps in Xero marketplace for integration for real-time, powerful end to end systems and automation of most processes. Make sure credit cards are used exclusively for business, otherwise have to sort personal or other entity transactions.
  • Need good opening balance sheet
  • Identification of correct bank for initial bank feed set-up
  • Bank security questions. Not a Xero issue, but rather financial institutions.
Should take minimal effort and be fully implemented within a few hours. Payment system and other app integration may take a little longer, but well worth the effort. Look at Xero Files and Xero Practice Manager for receipt storage and attachments and project workflow tracking. Great Vimeo video library available. Might look a little different than used to for older accountants, but take the time to learn and get more comfortable.
  • Online training
  • Self-taught
Great videos available on "Xero TV" on Vimeo platform. Covers both basic and specific tasks.
Yes. Recommend viewing videos and one or two training sessions.
Xero itself not really configurable in traditional, ERP sense. But availability of Xero app marketplace makes functionality endlessly configurable. Bank rules within Xero very useful and time saving.
Xero uses bank reconciliation as central feature, so if using journal entries before you'll need to think about coding from bank receipt or debit instead.
No - there is no facility to customize the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
Take time to set-up bank rules. If defined correctly up front will have tons of time going forward. Well worth the effort.
No
No such thing. Support is included with monthly fee. No different support levels or maintenance fees. It's all included. Video library is first rate and so often don't need support.
Knowledgeable support team available on real-time chat, videos, help function with search capability and online community. Do have off hours.
Yes
Just once. Downloaded duplicate bank transactions. However, Xero's internal rules identified them in bank reconciliation and automatically flagged as duplicates.
QuickBooks to Xero conversation team was able to convert QuickBooks Pro database to new Xero subscription in 2 days. Huge value add. Some review and clean-up needed, but minimal compared to effort would have required on my part. Highly recommend to current QB desktop users.
  • Bank reconciliations
  • Connecting apps in Xero marketplace
  • Files to attach receipt or other document to transaction
  • Payments or receipts that included a standard invoice or bill plus another, unusual component
  • New vs old reporting structure unnecessary and clumsy
Yes
Mobile apps truncates some functionality to most commonly used, but can access full functionality if needed. Mobile app has same look and feel as normal view.
Ease of use, especially for new accounting system users. Older users may need some time to get used to bank reconciliation as main conduit.
Over 600 plus apps available for integration and easy to create standard charts of account and report templates to implement across multiple entities. Same pricing regardless of number of transactions or users. Real benefit is variety of integrated apps that allow you to automate processes and have functionality that 10 years ago was only available in ERP systems costing hundreds of thousands.
cloud-based service with very high uptime, reliability. Customer support available most of time, but is some off hours.
As long as you have fast internet, Xero is as fast as you can go. Just be careful when reconciling multiple transactions or using bank rules to make sure information is correct.
  • Stripe
  • Square
  • Expensify
  • Bill.com
  • ADP
  • Paychex
  • SurePayroll
  • Authorize.net
Very easy to integrate. Usually integration set-up in other system that needs to be tested vs within Xero.
  • Vend
  • Spotlight Reporting
yes, already support.
  • File import/export
  • AppExchange or similar marketplace
No. Xero app marketplace and open API makes integration easy.
Xero pre-qualifies vendor partners and has open API.
Just look in Xero app marketplace by function or industry, then check out the most popular, existing apps.
Free trial, easy conversion, transparent pricing. A Xero rep is dedicated for accounting partners.
Responsive customer support, large video and help library can find 95% of any questions without going to customer support.
Standard pricing. Have discount tiers for partners.
No. Just try free trial.
Yes
Xero pushes out upgrades periodically. As part of SaaS model, done on back end without any effort or work on our end. Seamless!
  • Greater payroll functionality and efiling capability
  • Enhanced reporting
  • More integrated apps
  • More states for payroll
  • More flexible reporting tools
Yes
Had clients move from starter to standard versions as invoicing or bank transactions grew. Seamless change with no effort other than some set-up in Invoicing.
No
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Xero is being used across my entire organization as the accounting system of record. The business problems it solves are reconciliation of bank / external accounts against internally recorded transactions, internal reporting and accountability in case of a tax audit.

UPDATE: I've turned on Xero's Payroll features and loving it! I can't wait until it supports all US states.
  • Reconciliation feature is great as long as I log in regularly enough to do it.
  • Mobile app is brilliantly simple.
  • FreshBooks sync (although there are some annoyances)
  • Payroll features are FANTASTIC!
  • Freshbooks sync only works with one incoming account.
  • Unified cash flow graph. The at-a-glance ability to see where cash flow is at would be phenomenal in getting an instant feel of whether things are OK or not.
  • A quicker way to reconcile would make an already-fast process even faster. Right now I have to click OK to accept all the rules-based matches. I wish I could set rules to actually auto-reconcile.
It is well suited for an accounting-minded minimalist. It is poorly suited for someone who needs inventory management. What software are you using currently? How important is inventory reporting to your company? What is your approach to getting customers to pay?
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting (9)
58.88888888888889%
5.9
Accounts payable
70%
7.0
Accounts receivable
70%
7.0
Cash management
80%
8.0
Bank reconciliation
90%
9.0
Expense management
60%
6.0
Fixed asset management
N/A
N/A
Multi-currency support
80%
8.0
Regulations compliance
N/A
N/A
Electronic tax filing
80%
8.0
Inventory Management
N/A
N/A
Order Management (2)
65%
6.5
Order entry
60%
6.0
Cost of goods sold
70%
7.0
Payroll Management (5)
60%
6.0
Pay calculation
90%
9.0
Benefit plan administration
20%
2.0
Direct deposit files
50%
5.0
Salary revision and increment management
70%
7.0
Reimbursement management
70%
7.0
Reporting & Analytics (3)
86.66666666666666%
8.7
Dashboards
80%
8.0
Standard reports
90%
9.0
Custom reports
90%
9.0
Customization (2)
95%
9.5
API for custom integration
90%
9.0
Plug-ins
100%
10.0
Security (2)
50%
5.0
Role-based user permissions
100%
10.0
Single sign-on capability
N/A
N/A
  • Increased speed of accounting generally due to solid bank and Freshbooks integrations.
  • Not needing to deal with old-school payroll providers. LOVE IT!
Quicken is really old, that's what I used to use and I like it but there is no bank feed support.
QuickBooks is incredibly bloated.
Freshbooks is just for invoicing (we still use it for that).
QuickBooks Online may be a good competitor to Xero, I am just not excited about Intuit's approach to software any more.
Wave accounting is free and even simpler than Xero. I would have switched to it but they haven't opened API access.
2
My billing manager and I use Xero.
0
As a software nerd I understand Xero inside and out and have no need for a specialist to help with support.
  • Income and expense reporting by client (using Xero's flexible tracking categories)
  • Reconciliation of all our financial accounts.
  • Providing visibility on our company's financials for advisory and auditing purposes
  • We were very happy to find that Xero included integration with Freshbooks, an app we already knew and loved, and didn't want to leave.
  • Xero's personal finance management was another thing we were really happy to find in the app (very disappointingly this was removed).
  • Payroll
  • Expense reimbursement claims
As soon as Wave supports API, I'll probably switch to that since it's free. I'll also probably try QuickBooksOnline even though I expect not to be impressed. Trying to cut costs a bit.
Yes
Before Xero, we were using Freshbooks for time tracking and invoicing but as good as it is for that, it can't do accounting. We needed some way to track cash flow and do proper accounting reporting but didn't want to use something huge like QuickBooks so we used Quicken. But that had its own set of issues, most notably the lack of business-grade integration with banking and credit cards.
  • Product Features
Xero appeared to be the best of the "simplified cloud accounting" apps and provided the best integration opportunities, both with banks and other financial entities as well as 3rd party apps.
We followed a careful evaluation and selection process and wouldn't have made changes.
  • Implemented in-house
No
Change management was minimal
  • Figuring out how to use transaction categorization -- something that's turned out to be one of our favorite Xero features.
If you're not at all technical, consult with a Certified Advisor during implementation (this goes for implementing any kind of financial software; Xero is neither better nor worse than other software).
  • Self-taught
It wasn't quite as easy as we originally expected but after buckling down we figured out everything. Xero's extensive documentation and video library made it easy to clear up confusion. We would recommend non-technical staff going through at least some basic training.
No
It is my firm belief that you should not have to pay for premium support just to get an answer about how to use software.
Xero's email-based support is slow and there's no way to tell whether they definitely get my messages.
No
Before I originally decided to sign up for Xero I had a question about the Freshbooks integration. The response I received was very detailed and helpful.
  • Reconciliation
  • Retrieving Freshbooks invoices
  • Tracing down the reason an account balance is slightly off.
  • Changing the account a customer payment is made from.
Yes
Great! Very well thought out.
Xero is minimalistic, but I believe over time the app will become easier and easier to use.
Haven't had any issues with Xero managing any volume of data, but then again I don't have a huge amount of transactions.
I think there have been one or two times when Xero just wouldn't load and I'm pretty sure those were times of scheduled maintenance.
Pages generally load quickly, but it's a fairly common occurrence to have pages taking a bit longer than I'd like to load (as in, 4+ seconds). Occasionally I have to refresh a page to get it to work. Bank feed and integrations tend to be slow in general, but that could easily be due to API latency on the side of the other parties. Most of the time, though, the bank feeds refresh before I login so it's not a huge problem. Not necessarily good performance compared to a local app like QuickBooks desktop, but definitely good performance for a cloud application. Room for growth? yes.
  • FreshBooks, our billing software
We used the official Xero-provided integration with FreshBooks. It's pretty basic, but then again, it's free. Looked briefly at a third-party integration that would have covered all use cases we want, but the cost was not justifiable for us. Simplified our requirements and now we're doing great with the official integration.
  • Have thought about integrating with our time tracking software.
No.
Official Xero-provided integrations :)
Definitely check out the off the shelf apps...there are a ton of them and they will probably get you close to what you need.
By the time I talked to a sales rep, I had already all but finalized the decision to go with Xero. I was not impressed with the sales rep's responsiveness or knowledge of the product. This was years ago and I don't know if things are different now.
I have found Xero's email-based support excellent.
They told me the price and I said OK. (it's a well-priced product)
Xero is a bit more "to the point" than [insert competitive accounting application]. What I mean is if you ask them specific questions they will answer them very well and won't waste your time. Which I happen to love. If you need more hand-holding, get in touch with a good certified advisor at https://www.xero.com/us/advisors/.
No
  • Xero, being a cloud application, rolls out new functionality periodically. I haven't had any issues with any new functionality -- it's all been smooth sailing.
  • I am not aware of a publicly viewable product roadmap, so I'm not sure what's coming next.
No
No
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