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Xero Reviews: 4.4/5 — Solid Choice
Xero is a mature, cloud-based accounting platform for small and growing businesses that offers invoicing, bank reconciliation, expense capture, reporting, cash flow forecasting, multi-currency support and a large integrations ecosystem.
| Company | Xero Limited |
|---|---|
| Year founded | 2006 |
| Company size | 1000+ employees |
| Headquarters | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Capabilities |
AI
API
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Freelancer
|
| Ease of use |
Beginner
Advanced
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPhone |
| Support | Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base |
| Training | Documentation, Videos |
| Languages | English |
Xero Pros and Cons
- Comprehensive core accounting, invoicing, expense tracking and reporting features
- Unlimited users with no per-user license fees in core plans
- Strong mobile app support and substantial feature parity on mobile
- Large ecosystem and open API with many integrations
- Transparent pricing with introductory discounts and multi-currency/localization support
- Some advanced features (multi-currency, project costing, expense claims) are available only in higher tiers
- Payroll in the US is via partner (Gusto), so native payroll varies by country
- No standard inbound phone support; phone contact is by callback rather than a public phone line
- Some features (e.g., auto-reconcile) are in Beta and may evolve
- Developer API terms prohibit using API data to train AI/ML models
Compare Xero with other popular tools in the same category.
Xero not only has a fantastic platform that is easy to use thanks to their instructions, but their customer service is also outstanding!
The app on my iPad has been a little buggy since I updated IOS.
It saves me a lot of time and since using Xero my revenue has increased. I love watching my grow- literally- on their graphs!
Easy to use platform, can work around it even without tutorial
I have not tried contacting their support yet, that means no issues so far using Xero :)
Can run report of what our most profitable product is
It's cloud accounting, bank and credit card feeds, great support, intuitive, has a huge number of third party apps to integrate with. A large number of reports available, easy to use, built for the Internet from scratch. Allows tracking for projects, giving P&L for all projects. Bank Rules save a huge amount of bookkeeping time.
Good, but not great with inventory, but has great apps to link with. Internal Payroll Processing needs to be better.
Auto bank feeds eliminate data entry for almost all transactions. Bank Rules cut down on reconciling bank and credit card accounts.
Bank reconciliations, integrations and super integration
Doesn't allow multiple companies under a single account.
Accounts
Super easy to invoice and track expenses.
Sales tax treatment in Canada is not very elegant.
Billing, expense tracking, financials.
I love the value of Xero. You can do so much in it and it has an amazing ecosystem of apps that integrate with Xero. There is a lot of flexibility/functionality with Xero.
As a Canadian user, we do see some limitations how xero functions. For example, we cannot create a CSV direct from xero to upload to our bank to create an EFT/ACH.
We are able to handle the "plumbing"of accounting, meaning its something thats in the background and just works.
It actually sync effortlessly, without duplicate records, manual uploads and all the other glitches I had with quicken.
price is a little too high for very small businesses.
easy and automated categorizing of expenses.
Xero is a super user friendly platform that allows me to invoice all our customers with ease
The api for xero can sometimes be difficult but it’s mostly ok
Xero streamlines the invoicing process of our business
Integration with banking systems which promote easy account reconciliation.
The user interface is "big" and wasteful of space.
Remote working; Xero provides us the facility to access our accounting over the cloud. This works seamlessly when working away from our head office.
As a sales person it's nice and easy to record expenses
Easy to make a mistake in not submitting your expenses and you aren't notified if you have not yet done that.
Expenses
I like using Xero Accounting for the following reasons: 1. It's Easy to use, understand or grasp even though I'm not a CA. 2. Integration with almost any platform you can think of, seamlessly. 3. I like blue. 4. It's online, no backup issues, server crashing, tape backups, all my data is where it's supposed to be. 5. Templates for any documentation you can think of, even the emails sent out to your clients happens smoothly, whether they are sent manually, automated yearly, monthly, daily etc. 6. After 5 years, I'm still the happiest pig around.
The mobile application can include more features, but since I'm a developer. I know that the mobile application space will eventually move back to the cloud anyway.
My auditors phoned me up near the end of my company's first year in business. They needed my accounting history, whether it's receipts, little notepads lying around invoices made by hand etc. I browsed to www.xero.com and added my auditor to my company as an accountant with read-only access. Xero sent them an invitation to which they could create their own password and BANG. 15 minutes later my audit was done with the results requested.
The 2 best features are that it is easy for non-accountants to use and it is cloud based. Clients like being able to call and I can log in and see exactly what they are seeing.
The biggest challenge for me was the conversion from QuickBooks to Xero if the accounts payable and accounts receivable were not cleaned up prior to conversion.
Quick real-time access for clients to their financials and for their accountants to also have real-time access has been wonderful. No more transferring huge QuickBooks back up files on thumb drives months after the most recent close of a month.
Beautiful, easy to use, automatically syncs with bank accounts, easy to get started. The bank reconciliation feature is incredible, and the visual history of bank accounts is extremely useful.
Xero is still in development and missing some features, and the product support team is very inefficient at answering queries. There is no option to automatically send invoices out at a certain time. Payroll is slightly clunky.
We've streamlined our accounting department and made our accounts visible, and our accounts team accountable. It's greatly simplified working with our external accountants, as they can just log in and have all our information, rather than having to export a huge report at the end of the year.
- Web based so I can access this anytime, anywhere - Great, reasonable and affordable price even for a small business - Over 400 add ons such as Expensify, HubDoc, Square, Stripe, PayPal, among others - User friendly, it is easy to navigate throughout the website once you have set up your account. - Great customer service - If you don't understand something, there is always someone you can contact
I haven't found anything too significant that's negative in Xero, but some add-ons do cost an additional fee. Also, the fact that it is web-based is a huge benefit but can sometimes play against you. If you need to check something on account, you are required to be connected to the internet otherwise the software will not work.
Easier, faster and more reliable invoices and quotes. Easy to use so our whole staff can use it. It's all online so when we send invoices or quotes to our clientes they are able to approve, and pay online without a problem. Often times our clients ask us about Xero, and we gladly recommend it to them.
What I like best is the unlimited user capability for no extra charge. It is also convenient to have multiple people logged in at the same time. This allows people to be using it in the field as well as the bookkeeper in the office.
The phone app is not as expansive or fully functional as I would like. It can be used but not the best. It is sometimes easier to log in through my phones web browser than through the app.
I use this program for the bookkeeping part of my business. My clients find it easy to use and very intuitive. I also find it much easier to get things done with then the other bookkeeping apps and programs that are out there.
Awesome user interface to help with accounting. I like that they integrate directly with many different banks and the can pull in a live-feed. For the price, you can't beat it.
The invoicing templates could use more flexibility so that I could potentially create a fully customized invoice that would replicate what I do in Google Slides currently.
Every business needs to be able to have accurate accounting of expenses and cash flow in. Using Xero enables this because they directly integrate with my bank account so it makes it really easy.
Reconciliation with automatic bank feeds, submitting VAT returns, Financial Planning Integrating with Capsule CRM for customer set-up and account status
absolutely nothing, Xero nails our company finances!
Invoicing, Reconciliation, Tax positioning, chasing invoices, sending statements
I love the organization and ease of the entire program!
I would like more report filtering options.
Invoicing and POs
Easy to use and manage and environmentally friendly as there no paper trails to pick up. Staff costs is reduced as requires lesser manpower to get the job done
Nothing, the software is easy to use and available on all devices.
Helps with file sharing which was an issue in the past.
The user friendly platform and accessibility
Not all the features it apps available to QBO are available on xero
We use xero as a solution for our clients when they want cloud based accounting but have reservations about QBO.
Allows me to view the financial position of my company at a glance (including converting invoices in foreign currencies) and plan cashflow which is vital to us as a new business. Raising invoices is simple, we've integrated with Stripe (super easy to set up) to allow customers to pay invoices by card which helps us take payments easily and quickly. VAT returns have gone from being a bit of a headache to a 30 second task and the Payroll system is much easier to use than the HMRC tool. Genuinely one of the best decisions we've made as a business to start using Xero.
Really nothing I can think of, every feature I have felt was missing since I started using it last year has been added since!
We previously used spreadsheets to track our finances (importing bank statements) which was becoming quite cumbersome as the company grew. Xero has allowed us to stay on top of our finances through fast growth, given us more up to date and accurate figures to work with and allowed us to collaborate more effectively with our accountants. There are a whole bunch of time saving features including automated bank feeds, rules for automatically coding transactions, payroll features and invoice reminders.
Xero has a clean, easy-to-understand interface that makes the learning curve short for new users. For accountants, it facilitates diagnosing and correcting client's mistakes. Xero has nice reporting which has recently been revised so that reports can be customized to fit a client's business. Reports can be downloaded in several formats which can be further manipulated in a spreadsheet application or sent as-is to the client.
My dislikes are more along the lines of needed enhancements. Cash coding allows for bulk classification of transactions, but needs some work to streamline its interface with contacts. Bank feeds are facilitated by Yodlee which frequently requires refreshing to keep transactions up to date. Both are minor annoyances that are far outweighed by the efficiencies that Xero brings to the accountant. I would also love to see an interface with popular tax prep products such as Drake or ATX.
Providing real time financial information to clients so they can make good business decisions. A big side benefit to my small business clients is the ability to target certain transaction timing to realize tax efficiencies and enhance tax planning capability.
Every day you discover something new with Xero. Not being an accountant and/or an IT person I was able to implement the software for three companies, working on implementing it for two more right now. Xero is easy to use and when you think you reached a dead end, there is always a solution.
Support is only available via email, which makes it harder to explain and for them to understand some issues. Sometimes a phone call is faster then 10 emails. Each company has its own peculiarities and explaining them by email makes it hard.
We were looking to change the software we were using to an updated, friendly-user and less expensive software, and we found all of that in Xero..
I like the simple look-and-feel of the system. Xero enables me to email invoices into the system and then enter the details another time. The dashboard quickly shows me the money I have available and any invoices I need to chase up. The VAT Return feature makes it very simple to calculate and submit my return - which could otherwise be quite time consuming.
I cannot think of anything that doesn't work how I would like it to in the main accounting system. The payroll system doesn't seem to be able to automatically update with changes to staff's tax codes, which seems like quite a basic requirement.
All businesses need accounts. This allows me to keep them up to date throughout the month.
Xero is very easy to use, has a great user experience, and almost makes accounting a fun thing to do! Additional mobile apps make things like expense claims etc. very easy as well. Particularly for small businesses a great tool to do your own accounts and saving on having to hire too many accountants.
Can't really think of that much negatives, even though I could imagine in larger organisations there will be certain features that could be improved. For a small business it's great as is!
Doing our monthly accounts, expense claims, budget tracking etc. The main benefit is that you can do many things yourself (as a small business owner), and you can save on having to hire accountants
I like how user-friendly Xero is. I can categorize all my expenses using the app, very quickly and easily. I'm still learning the ins and outs of the detailed reports, but I like that I can run a report about basically anything.
There's not much I dislike. Other than the monthly fee :-) I guess the reports are a little tricky, but that's coming from someone with zero accounting experience.
I'm able to keep up with all of my income, expenses, assets, and liabilities as they occur. So come tax time, everything is already organized and ready to go.
Very smart system, super easy to use. Connections to accounts are seamless. Great reports
I do not dislike anything about Xero. Much better than my former "solution", Quickbooks
Keep my accounts under control. Tax reporting
Xero is incredibly easy to use. I really like the approving of transactions function.
The overall format is a little annoying.
Staying organized! Xero has helped me figure out where I am losing money in my biz and the areas that I can improve on.
Xero is very comprehensive and easy to use. After formerly using other online accounting software I was very pleased to switch over to Xero and find it so intuitive and user friendly.
There are some features of Xero that could be improved, including accessibilty to client payment history
By using this software we are able to easily track various bank accounts, A/R, A/P and cash flow.
Their UI is great and you get a great overview of your accounts from the dashboard without any hassle. It's easy to setup bank accounts and credits cards to sync and reconciling transactions is a breeze. I also love that you can use Word documents for Invoice and Quote templates instead of the built in template editor (which is limited, but still does the job in some cases). They have a lot of partner integrations available to. I am also using bill.com, and it syncs without any issues. Their mobile app, while missing a few features, makes it easy to manage and track my accounts on the go.
I would really like to be able to pay an expense through the bill.com integration, but only invoices are synced. The mobile app should offer the ability to view outstanding quotes.
I am able to track quotes, invoices, and expenses and make sure I get paid and pay the right people in time.