Flashy, trendy, pretty reports, not full featured, and company incents accountants to bring clients to XERO, suitable or not
May 11, 2015
Flashy, trendy, pretty reports, not full featured, and company incents accountants to bring clients to XERO, suitable or not
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Xero
I have moved away from using it for my small business clients.
- XERO does produce a nice set of financial reports - but not anything that cannot be done in other accounting softwares
- XERO could save bookkeeping time. Hopefully the bookkeepers / accountants using XERO pass these saving on to their customers.
- Good for companies that pay VAT
- Xero cannot and apparently does not plan to be U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principals), in that it cannot produce a Statement of Cash Flows, one of the 3 standard financial reports in the US. I'd venture that many businesses owners are not well familiar with the report; tho it is very informative and worth getting familiar with. Even if many small businesses are not required to be GAAP compliant, not having that ability when the time comes concerns me. Banks and investors will want to see it - and you may not be able to produce it just when it is most critical to have it.
- The XERO LinkedIn group seems to be getting taken over by posts for get rich quick schemes. The majority of other posts are inquiries about finding add-ons for things I would have thought would be included in a full-featured accounting package. I take that as a sign there is much missing and the actual cost is likely to be higher than expected. It is therefore potentially embarassing for me to recommend it to my clients, even if I like it myself.
- Know that XERO requires its certified users to bring them at least 5 clients before they will be listed as XERO- approved even if they have passed the training exams. As an accountant, XERO expected me to convert at least that many of my clients to XERO, whether or not it seemed the best solution or worth the effort to convert to XERO for my clients. I am not XERO's marketing department.
- XERO is good at VAT - but none of my clients need that.
- QuickBooks Pro,QuickBooks Premier,QuickBooks Online
I usually don't prefer XERO.