Xero Reviews: 4.4/5 — Solid Choice

I like the layout and format for reviewing and reconciling transactions. I also like the explanatory videos they provide when you need to learn a new process.

I haven't had this issue personally, but a handful of other bookkeepers I know say that they have poor customer service.

Xero makes it easy to manage multiple bookkeeping clients in one central location. I save a lot of time and energy when it comes to reviewing and reconciling transactions throughout the month.

Hard to include everything but for the average small business it really is your one stop shop for your accounting requirements: Customised reports Pleasant UI Ease of access (destop / mobile / no user restriction / invite your accountant) Bank reconciliation is made super easy and can complete from your mobile phone also Super easy invoicing (accept online payment, custom templates, auto invoice reminders) Multi currency with Xe.com rates saves a heap of time compared to the old way, makes reconciliations easy and auto books the gains / losses for you. Really don't have to think too much about it. Xero touch app (alerts on touch smartpone app for changes in daily bank balance also) Ample integrated apps (CRM, Inventory, Document storage, Payroll etc) Free xero education / learning platform Wealth of support (help centre / support tickets) Xero community

Currently does not support other languages except English (I do consulting to Japanese / Chinese based businesses which have come up with some nice work arounds). Budget manager is for performance budgets only (not cash or balance sheet) but in saying that you have available integration apps that can do full budgets for you.

Access anytime anywhere. Customise reports to suit business owner / stakeholder needs Make recording source data (bank transactions, loose expenses) as painless as possible with little effort, by using automated bank feeds, xero touch app, xero expenses app. It's proven to save larges amounts of time for the clients I've assisted and also allowed for visibility over business operations where previously there was a strong reliance on the accounting division before understanding where your business was at.

Xero does just what we need it to. It helps us keep payments/receivables clearly organized.

I wouldn't say it is the best software we could be using. There are some things that make it confusing.

Collecting and sending out payments to our partners and customers.

I like that Xero includes payroll as part of the pricing package. This is great for budget-minded small businesses.

I found reporting to be a bit lackluster. I wish Xero also did a better job tracking different locations.

At my last job I converted us from Quicken to Xero. My boss was afraid of QuickBooks but loved that in Xero he could track payables.

Xero is easy to learn, and can be customized to anything you wish. When you "wish for a feature" there is a strong chance Xero has it. Mobile app allows for on the go access

Some "shortcuts" provided in Xero can cause minor mistakes. Make sure to take your time when going through

Steam lining processes. The ability to create an invoice, bill a client and offer various payment options through the Xero platform has allowed for a continued growth in the business and less paperwork

Very clean interface for billing and sending invoices. When you see what the client is sent is it a very professional interaction. We can also set up click to pay for our clients to make bill pay easy. We are using the workflow feature for a multi-step review process before anything is released. That is a nice feature. I also like the Dashboards and ability to search and find saved invoices. The ability to copy and old invoice is also very helpful.

Since I am not in the system all the time I find that sometimes I am not sure if an invoice is really sent to a client. I tend to make sure I am cc'd. We also have some issues with workflow where the approver may send a draft to a client because they can see an invoice created right away.

Invoicing and purchase orders.

The customer service is fantastic. I've been on a first name basis with my personal customer service representative since day 2. Every time I have a problem he quickly helps me figure it out, regardless of how basic.

Setting this service up was a PAIN. I hate dealing with accounting anything, and honestly quickbooks was a way easier and painless setup. But now that I have it up and running it's going okay.

It takes care of my accounting in the background, so I can spend more time on my business. The most basic benefit I'm seeing recently is now that it's all set up, it's crazy easy for me to see my basic numbers- money going out and money coming in.

It is very easy to use, and handles most small to medium enterprise accounting requirements

It would be great if it handled SAAS software subscriptions, and had more HR functions covered in the payroll solution

We do all our accounting and payroll via Xero, and it is really intuiitive and easy to use

I like how simple it is to process transactions directly from your bank accounts, with transactions imported on a daily basis. I also like how easy it is to integrate with Stripe and other apps, such as Zapier.

Most support is handled through external advisors, rather than from the Xero team themselves.

Simplified bookkeeping and financial reporting. I love having a daily look at the business.

Xero is very easy to use and customizable. The reports and features are all easy to find and self-explanatory to use. There are many fields that can be used to track sales and expenditures. It is completely in the cloud which makes it easy to access.

Having to remove & redo reconciled payments before being able to edit the invoices. Not easy to quickly pull sales data by customer for sales reporting. Difficult to manage contacts.

Tracking different types of sales to different sales channels. Xero allowed us the ability for more data entry for more useful insights. Compared to the other options on the market, Xero is the better software.

I love the usability with Xero. It is extremely user friendly for even the beginner accountants or ones that have no accounting background.

1099 process at year end needs to be streamlined and created.

The fx functions are great as we are a multi currency business. Really time saving as it is streamlined and takes out manual work.

The bank rules - they allow FAST reconciling

I can't set up bank rules for transfers between my accounts, and I can't import XML documents (not that I'm aware of anyway)

Minimised my bookkeeping time and cost

Xero has an intuitive platform wherein you could just move around and you would be able to learn how to use it.

It would be great if they could provide a more tight filter for invoices.

tracking accounts payable and receivables with invoicing features.

Xero has easy to use reporting tools to allow me to manage my annual, quarterly and monthly budgets. I can easily update my budget if circumstances change, record all of my outgoings and go back to review previous months and/ or compare with other time periods. It also allows me to group by expenditure type and stuff can electronically submit expense claims and allocate the expenditure type.

When you are drilling down into the expenditure type it's difficult to get back to the overview report. you need to use the browser back button that usually it does not work at all and it is a bad experience for the user.

Budget management

A good small business software for businesses that don't need advanced features. Very good onboarding tools and resources

Cloud synchronization can be slow at times. Terminology is clearly designed for another market. It's Payroll in North America, not Pay Run. Not a huge issue though.

Needed a user-friendly cloud-based accounting software with mobile access.

We like that Xero's features/functionality and cost are vast improvements over Quickbooks.

We dislike that they didn't do more to help us migrate/transition from Quickbooks to Xero. The extent of their migration assistance was sending us links to information.

Solving our accounting needs while adding simplicity and lowering costs versus Quickbooks

Very clear to use, once it's setup a lot of previously manual processes are automated. It also integrates very nicely with several other backend systems.

There's a definite learning curve, getting it configured and getting the team up to speed

Getting clearer management accounts & integrating with other business systems (CRM, Project Management, etc)

I like how easy it is to use and the pricing structure. I struggled a lot in quick books and it just seemed like the online version was too stripped down. Xero gave us the power back with an easy to use and robust cloud system.

We have been awaiting payroll in our state since signing up, we are on to year 2 with Xero. Every time we ask it's either coming by then end of the year or we're told it's been pushed back.

We needed a cloud based system that could be activated from anywhere. We also wanted the freedom to add as many users as needed the unlimited users was a huge selling point. Bonus was having an iOS app!

The simple interface Reliable performance Customisable reporting

There are features which are hidden (e.g. Trust/Fund reporting) from people who are not tax agents or registered accountants. The support is only delayed/online - you cannot call, chat or email a real person! There are some irate people in the Xero Community discussion forums and some who have had to move to other products because it was too frustrating for them (I was ALMOST one of those myself, if it had not been for my superb financial controller who got us out of a jam). The multi-currency FX feature exists but NOT for expense claims (the most common need my business has for FX)!

Management accounting and reporting Tracking of income/expenses by asset Statutory reporting

The user experience is strong, as is the ability to push invoices and purchases as drafts prior to running a review process. The tracking categories allow is to segment our financial data above and beyond the usual charts of accounts, which lets us track profitability by division very effectively.

There are limits around API access, which can be frustrating. Also, the limit of two tracking categories is often too restrictive for the elements we'd like to track. The reporting is also somewhat limited.

Clear understanding of business profitability and cashflow, simpler commission calculation, clear understanding of business performance per division.

The API enables a small business to create a great cloud accounting solution with connected software platforms. Additionally, the software was created for the non-CPA... so the average business owner can make sense of the software better than other solutions.

Converting data from QuickBooks or QB online is still not great. Though there is a conversion tool, it still requires more manual work than most would guess.

As an accounting firm, we want to help clients extract real time + accurate data from their financial performance. Xero has helped us create a virtual accounting platform to manage the back end of the business and create a management dashboard leadership teams find helpful.

- Very user-friendly user interface - Large number of add-ons - Built ground up with mobile users in mind - Integrated payroll Caveat: My review is based on experience for a short period.

- Unavailability of live support - Limited invoice format

- Help small business owners become more data driven decision makers, and less guessers.

The navigation from screen to screen is very intuitive. Being web based you are able to open multiple screens. This online accounting software is a full accounting solution with traditional features such as chart of accounts, aged accounts receivable reports and general ledgers. It can also manage more complex accounting tasks such as fixed assets and depreciation

The VAT return is quite inflexible in terms of what you can include and exclude from the return. There needs to be more options around making manual adjustments to the return. It would also make the product more useable if it could handle partial exemption companies. An additional option to produce statutory accounts in IXBRL format would also be very useful. The link to the bank account does not always work well. There are often transactions that are missed off. Fixing this bug would make the software much better.

It is used to manage suppliers and customers. It is the basis for producing management accounts and cost center reports. The dashboard is useful for giving a snap shot on a daily basis. It is helping with cash management and tracking suppliers. The P&L report summary is very useful at the end of the month for getting the management accounts right. It would be useful to be able to see a fuller summary on screen as sometimes the report is very wide.

The Xero online accounting product is best fitted for progressive technology driven small businesses that want to control the design of their accounting systems and integrate them with other small business functions (inventory, CRM, HR). Xero has excellent customer service when migrating or setting up a new company. They worked with the bank and my small business clients to ensure bank feeds were setup properly. Xero's add-on partners support the Xero product with features that may be lacking. Xero's companion mobile app for Android and iOS provides mobile small businesses with access on the go to actually perform business functions (account reconciliations) instead of just a snapshot of account balances.

Currently Xero does not offer payroll for all U.S. states and the financial reporting functions leave a bit to be desired. A quick search of the add-on partners may provide some small businesses with additional reporting capabilities. Still waiting on U.S. tax software integration also.

Small business owners who have multiple users of their accounting software in addition to outsourced consultants (bookkeepers, accountants, and other financial consultants) who need access to financial data will be able to simultaneously use the Xero product. This alleviates the need to send data files back and forth which typically can cause data corruption. Xero's reconciliation functions also make account reconciling smoother and less time consuming.

Ease of use for reporting and data entry. Can access Xero from mobile devices or using any client kit with an internet connection.

For a company that "gets" accounting so well I am staggered that the mobile app only shows money coming in, not that going out. How am I supposed to get any idea of cashflow without it? To be honest it renders the app pretty superfluous. German tax accounting is too complicated for Xero so we can't use it for our German company.

We mainly operate from our client sites so all of our business support tools must be web-based and accessible from a standard browser. As the business grew we needed an accounting package that could grow with us and Xero has been the answer. We now have 4 countries running on Xero (alas not including Germany).

Bank Feeds directly into Xero. Quick and easy reconciliation

Lack of support for multi-currency expense reports. (Xero handles multi-currency invoices and other things, but not expense reports).

Not provided

The Dash board Payroll is relatively simple

App Xero Me is not up to scratch Employees need to be able to load paid and unpaid breaks App also needs to have geo fencing You also need a Schedule calendar app for trades that send teams to multiple sites in one day Employees need to be able to sign in when they arrive , & leave The location , customer and job name Also need to be able to load notes , E.g issues, extra time spent doing something e.g paint removal This then should be able to be turned into an invoice and link with quotes There also needs to be an estimate option in the quoting system Integration could be improved especiall with GMail, Google calendar or other scheduling devices Sometimes a brief explantion from customer support would be great instead of sending another article

Invoicing and payroll are simple This saves time and paperwork

I liked how it was easy to use, quite basic but had everything you needed to run accounting for a small to medium sized business. It has good integrations with PSPs and Banks too as well as a lot of other Software.

It has its limitations, such as transaction limit and others which means that once you scale and become big enough - you have to migrate to something like NetSuite, Dynamics or Sage Intacct.

It was solving all basic accounting tasks.

The features such as Find and record is really efficient and effective.

Since no overthe phone customer service it takes time to solve some problems.

Xero is solvining almost all the problem related to accounts in my organization.

I like the projects feature in Xero, as well as their invoice auto-pay options. Reporting is nice and reconciling accounts is super easy.

They hike up the price every single year without adding anything new. Their roadmap os features still shows the same stuff from 2-4 years back! Customer support is very, very slow. Mobile apps are severly lacking.

I need to send invoices and track project hours. Xero makes it easy to do both in one location!