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Xero, our first general ledger/accounting app helps me sleep well at night!
Updated January 09, 2018

Xero, our first general ledger/accounting app helps me sleep well at night!

Andre Yeu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Xero

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.
  • Using the Service Line feature has given me better insight into the P/L of our multiple locations.
  • The Reconciliation feature has helped us ensure accuracy when it comes to our financial reporting.
We switched off of FreshBooks to Xero. It is somewhat apples to oranges, in that FreshBooks is not a general ledger nor does it claim to be (at least at the time 2 years ago). Our business grew though and having a general ledger with reconcillation features like Xero was important to ensure accuracy in our financial reporting, filing our taxes accurately, and increasing visibility into the p/l of our business.
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).

Xero Feature Ratings

9.8
Accounts payable
10
Accounts receivable
10
Cash management
10
Bank reconciliation
10
Expense management
10
Fixed asset management
Not Rated
Multi-currency support
Not Rated
Multi-division support
10
Regulations compliance
Not Rated
Electronic tax filing
Not Rated
Self-service portal
Not Rated
Global Financial Support
Not Rated
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
Not Rated
Intercompany Accounting
Not Rated
Localizations
Not Rated
Journals and Reconciliations
10
Enterprise Accounting
Not Rated
Configurable Accounting
8
Centralized Rules Framework
Not Rated
Standardized Processes
Not Rated
10.0
Inventory tracking
10
Automatic reordering
Not Rated
Location management
Not Rated
Manufacturing module
Not Rated
10.0
Pricing
10
Order entry
10
Credit card processing
10
Cost of goods sold
Not Rated
Order Orchestration
Not Rated
End-to-end order visibility
Not Rated
Order exception Resolution
Not Rated
Not Rated
Pay calculation
Not Rated
Benefit plan administration
Not Rated
Direct deposit files
Not Rated
Salary revision and increment management
Not Rated
Reimbursement management
Not Rated
10.0
Dashboards
10
Standard reports
10
Custom reports
10
10.0
API for custom integration
10
Plug-ins
10
5.0
Role-based user permissions
5
Single sign-on capability
Not Rated

Using Xero

4 - Administrative Assistant, Service Delivery Staff (For invoicing clients)
1 - As the owner of a small business, I am pretty capable at day to day support of my staff in their use of Xero.
  • General Ledger (Revenue/Expenses)
  • Invoicing and Payment Collection
  • System of Record for Client Revenue
  • Service Line feature is pretty effective at being able to do profitability/margin analysis of different locations at our business.
  • I need to invest more time in the reporting tool to pull out useful business intelligence. We are underutilizing this area.
It's a reliable service and has the featureset we need for now and the forseeable future.

Evaluating Xero and Competitors

Yes - FreshBooks. When we hired a new accounting firm, they encouraged us to move to Xero for it's general ledger and reconcilliation features.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
I chose an accounting firm that is a Xero firm, so that was the primary decision criteria.
No change.

Xero Implementation

If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.
  • Professional services company
Fuel Accounting Corporation
Yes - Basically, ledger setup, importing of previous financial data/balances, reconcilliation of fiscal year data to date, and then end-user support to ramp me up.
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - Business processes end up having to bend/change slightly when implementing a new system, therefore being flexible to get feedback from end users so then modifications to process workflow can be made and standardized is important. Sometimes these required changes are not apparent until after the system launches.
  • Bank integration feeds didn't always work early on

Xero Support

I haven't really required support from Xero as a vendor. From time to time, Bank Integration feeds have been down, but very rarely, and they resolve the matter on it's own.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No - It doesn't really require it. The system is straightforward.
Yes - Years ago there was a time where there were broken feeds to our bank vendors, but Xero was aware of the matter and it was resolved on their end. I didn't have to escalate, just had to wait.
Not really, because I haven't had to use their support!

Using Xero

Everything loads fast and a lot of thought is put into minimizing keystrokes or mouse clicks.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • Reconcilliation is very easy
  • Reporting is intuitive
  • Data entry forms load fast and are slick
  • Editing old records requires you to "edit" and open up the editing screen. More in-line/in-screen editing features would be nice.
Yes, but I don't use it