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Not as enthusiastic as everyone else is with Xero, but I do use it and it works well.
Updated August 29, 2015

Not as enthusiastic as everyone else is with Xero, but I do use it and it works well.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Xero

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.
  • 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.
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?

Xero Feature Ratings

7.6
Accounts payable
7
Accounts receivable
7
Cash management
8
Bank reconciliation
9
Expense management
6
Fixed asset management
Not Rated
Multi-currency support
8
Regulations compliance
Not Rated
Electronic tax filing
8
Inventory Management ()
Not Rated
6.5
Order entry
6
Cost of goods sold
7
6.0
Pay calculation
9
Benefit plan administration
2
Direct deposit files
5
Salary revision and increment management
7
Reimbursement management
7
8.7
Dashboards
8
Standard reports
9
Custom reports
9
9.5
API for custom integration
9
Plug-ins
10
10.0
Role-based user permissions
10
Single sign-on capability
Not Rated

Using Xero

2 - My billing manager and I use Xero.
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.

Evaluating Xero and Competitors

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.

Xero Implementation

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).
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal
  • Figuring out how to use transaction categorization -- something that's turned out to be one of our favorite Xero features.

Xero Training

  • 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.

Xero Support

Xero's email-based support is slow and there's no way to tell whether they definitely get my messages.
ProsCons
Knowledgeable team
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Slow Resolution
Difficult to get immediate help
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.
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.

Using Xero

Xero is minimalistic, but I believe over time the app will become easier and easier to use.
ProsCons
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Consistent
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • 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 Reliability

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.

Integrating Xero

  • 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.

Relationship with Xero

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/.

Upgrading Xero

  • 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.