Item: Xero
Rating: 4
Author: Sheera Shell

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is an accounting system we use for billing, paying bills, and producing financial reports. It also has payroll capabilities, but I am not familiar with its abilities in that area. For the most part, it is very intuitive and easy to get up and running quite quickly. I particularly enjoy their customizable reports. Unfortunately, there are a lot of small, seemingly easy to implement recommendations that the Xero team have failed to implement after several years. Their statements for clients don't have an aging summary. Their quoting system does not send out reminders. There is no ability to route invoices to one email and quotes to a separate email. There are a lot of little important things missing that add up to a lot of frustration and manual input.

Pros and Cons

Ease of Use
Custom Reporting
Good Integrations

Quoting
Bank Reconciliation
Managing Contact Information

Return on Investment

It has helped streamline our billing process
Bank Recons take about twice as much time
Custom reporting saves time creating financial reports to present to boards, banks, & executive teams

Usability

Anyone can use it - you don't have to be an accountant. It's very user friendly and intuitive.

Cloud Costs

It's nice that you can access Xero from anywhere. Aside from Xero outages/planned updates, which thankfully are rare, there is no down time. It's a stark contrast to on prem solutions I have used that have frequent updates that keep you from being able to get your work done. Also, our workforce is hybrid, and being able to access everything from home is a game changer.

Ease of Integration

We've integrated Xero with our ticketing system to make billing easier. It was relatively easy to set up. The only part I can't seem to figure out is client syncing between the two systems. I can do it manually, but it doesn't want to auto-sync as advertised.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, NetSuite ERP and M3 Accounting Core Software

I've used a lot of different accounting systems. Many of them so big and powerful, but a hassle to get set up. Xero is light, inexpensive, and easy to use. When I originally selected them they seemed like they were developing new features at a quick rate as well. I was invited to be part of focus sessions to make the product better. That part has slowed down significantly though.

Key Insights

Do you think Xero delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Xero's feature set?

Yes

Did Xero live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Xero go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Xero again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

I see this working best for very small organizations that work with other small organizations. Once you start growing and needing more features, Xero will not grow with you. You will have to resort to add-ons or transition to a new service. I do also wish they had more open communication about the future of Xero, and an extended road map of planned features so we can see what their developers are up to. They certainly don't seem to be making much progress on the feature list recommended by users!

Xero

Overall Satisfaction with Xero