Xero Reviews

Xero - The Cloud Based Software of the future

Comments: Fantastic product with fantastic support and really meaningful input from the actual company staff

Pros:

Xero's main benefit to us as a mid tier accounting firm is the ease of importing information. It supports multiple bank feeds on a reliable basis and its open API allows for the support of many add in apps

Cons:

Being a non-technical software, it does sometimes give the impression of not being as robust in terms of ease of change of prior information. This can be overcome by locking down periods, one just has to remember to do this though.

Alternatives Considered: Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Choosing Xero: The capital development expenditure and size of Xero simply mean that it is outpacing other software in terms of speed of development, effectively future-proofing our practice.

Switched From: Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero: The main factors were cost and engagement with the Xero South Africa team

To keep track of finances, Xero is a small business' best friend

Comments: We've suggested Xero to a few clients and even forced them to switch from their current accounting software because of how much superior it is than its competitors.

Pros:

If you're not an accountant, Xero is still simple and straightforward to use. Daily operations are based on the straightforward processes of making payments to suppliers and receiving money. It's the best option for a company of that size. It's simple and straightforward to use this accounting software to keep track of your company's money. This program is something I use constantly.

Cons:

Xero is designed for small businesses, therefore it has basic restrictions (journal approvals, etc.). As a company's billing operations reach a certain mass, they outgrow a single Xero instance and require the use of many instances running in parallel to process all of the bills.

Very stable and reliable 'Point of Truth'

Comments: We started using this in 2014 and this has just got better and better. very stable

Pros:

So intuitive, stable and easy to use and integrates well with our other software.

Cons:

Lack of inbuilt AI at the moment though I understand JAX is coming.

All hat and no cowboy.

Comments: Didn't have one really. I was looking forward to it.

Pros:

I didn't get to really use this program. The trial company was as far as I got.

Cons:

They say that they can convert your old Quickbooks file to xero but after starting the process they turn around and say they couldn't do it. Then I had to look at another convert firm to do it. Very expensive.

Alternatives Considered: Zoho CRM

Reasons for Choosing Xero: Not happy with QBO. It does not work without pro help.

Switched From: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Price and good reviews were the only thing going for them. Being headquartered in New Zealand was going to be a challenge.

Xero certified

Pros:

Xero is user friendly, easy to navigate things. And they have useful updates quarterly. They make sure they step up their game every now and then.

Cons:

Can't think of any right now cause going back to what I just said, they continuously update the software so it will be useful to their users.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Xero is user friendly, easy to navigate things. And they have useful updates quarterly. They make sure they step up their game every now and then.

Xero Accounting Software Review

Comments: Overall, Xero has been excellent at providing an accounting software system for small business clients that is user friendly and has excellent product support.

Pros:

Xero offers excellent support resources and communicates regularly with customers, advising of product updates and features. Using Xero is easy and with the on-screen support Xero Central support feature, help is always at hand.

Cons:

Xero is not scaled for manufacturing clients and lacks stock management capability. Larger clients may be looking for a more scalable solution with stock management and offline access.

Alternatives Considered: MYOB Business, Odoo and QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: No. I'm an accounting software partner, so the more products I have access to the better.

Easy to use

Comments: Been with zero for almost 10 years and despite being offered other software for free have remained with xero

Pros:

Easy to use while giving me all the data I require quickly

Cons:

Sometimes the changes take a little bit of time to work out

Alternatives Considered: FreeAgent

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Liked the overall feel of the product and the ability to find things quickly

Makes tax time super simple!

Pros:

Easy to manage invoices, and track payments and bank account reconciliation. Makes tax time SUPER simple!

Cons:

Payroll can be tricky, especially when temporarily offboarding an employee (for parental leave). Very expensive and keeps on getting more expensive.

Alternatives Considered: MYOB Business

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Based on my accountant's recommendation for my small business.

Xeeo praise

Comments: Brilliant, the leading accounting software presently.

Pros:

It is so user friendly and difficult to make a mistake. It is a forward thinking software and constantly moving with the times. The clients we have trained have picked up the basics after just 2 or 3 sessions.

Cons:

Corrections are hard to make but this helps to avoid cover ups and deliberate fraud.

Excellent software for beginner, mid, to high level accounting skills. Not as much of a shortcut as it seems for everyone.

Comments: Fully featured and exciting for accounting projects like self assessment filing.

Pros:

Great do it yourself interface with supplementary tools that help the lay accountant sort out essential data for financial statements.

Cons:

Great features that offer solutions, without a walkthrough or popular academy for free that teaches people where to start, lose their application for new and inexperienced self employed workers without considerable motivation and patience for accounting.

Accounting Software Design for the Business Owner

Comments: Xero give me, an accountant, a tool to provide my clients with that effectively gives them a tool for keeping their daily records in an orderly fashion make my job easier at the end of each month.

Pros:

Xero have been designed to be used by non-account business folks. However, once the data has been listed an accountant has a great tool to use to finish the company financial records (Monthly, Quarterly & Annually). It is also priced at a rate that works for most business owners.

Cons:

I really do not know of any areas within the software that I can list as "Least" liked. I do not know of any significant problems which I believe need correcting.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Enterprise

Reasons for Choosing Xero: I found Xero to be better designed for the average business owner at a lower rate.

Switched From: QuickBooks Enterprise

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Because of its design for the business owner.

Xero is made for accountants and not small business or tradies.

Comments: Xero is quick to reconcile but so are the other brand options. I am making a lot of money for my accountant because I always need to ring and get help.

Pros:

Easy reconciliation but this is a feature of most brands now.

Cons:

Reports are impossible to configure and source the data I need. The layout is poor and not user friendly. The technical terms used are common to accountants but make no sense to small business operators. The online help is useless and takes forever to get a response. Feature requests are ignored and not even responded to. There are other brands that offer a much easier user interface and at a fraction of the cost. I was forced into XERO as it was the only brand my accountant would support. I have to ring the accountants for help all the time who change a fortune for simple advice. Every feature I need is an extra add on charge. The remember me at login does not work and I have to waste time with 2 step login every time I leave the computer for 5 minutes. XERO does not work well on the tablet. The bank feeds do not deliver all the transaction data detail and its very difficult to identify some businesses. Memorizing transactions and splitting purchases is a real time-waster.

Alternatives Considered: MYOB Business, QuickBooks Enterprise and Reckon One

Reasons for Switching to Xero: I was forced to use it by my accountant who would not support the other brands.

Pretty good, but in the end, more complicated than needed for two person practice

Comments: largely positive, but when they got rid of payroll, given my business of 2 employee/owner s-corp in a medical practice, with no retail/inventory, it made things a ton easier to just do my accounting in Excel. It was really the payroll that made this a no brainer for me.

Pros:

I loved the usability of this software. It was super easy to set up relatively sophisticated accounting with no accounting background. I thought the bank reconciliation was dynamite, and while they still had it, I loved the payroll. When I would eventually get triaged to tech support, the person was so patient, and so helpful it was really great, and they never seemed to mind spending a long time helping to fix some oddball problems that I'd made. Oh yes, loved it that they did the quarterly tax filings for me, but that also went away with the payroll

Cons:

One thing about this accounting software - when you have a question their first response is to tell you to have your accountant look at it. I was using this software as a replacement for an accountant, in order to save money, so that advice didn't help much. When you do a google for help, you run into a problem: Xero seems to be doing accounting software for all the english speaking countries,e.g. new zealand, australia, UK, USA and canada. each of these countries has different business formations/corporations, different taxation rules, etc, as well as meaningfully different accounting vernacular. I would end up mnost of the time getting somewhere only to realize I'd pulled up the UK instructions to solve a problem.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Enterprise

Reasons for Switching to Xero: good recommendation from another provider who had a similar size busness. Was SUPER easy to set up, and the account reconciliation was a godsend.

Xero is the One

Comments: I am very satisfied to be building my practice on Xero. They have a good product with a good company behind it. They seem to really care about their advisors and see them as key to their business model. They have a great community and great support.

Pros:

What I like most about Xero is its open-platform ethos. It's not one particular feature, it's the whole way that Xero approaches what it does, and it shows up all over the product. One small example is how easy it is to manually import bank transactions via CSV file, and then how easy it is to undo that import if it went wrong. It's less about features (although Cash Coding and Find & Recode are brilliant) and more about design choices.

Cons:

I want them to hurry up and integrate Hubdoc into Xero itself. And when that happens, I want there to be a way to generate a report that shows which GL transactions don't have a source document.

Alternatives Considered: Accounting Power and Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Choosing Xero: Quickbooks treats their ProAdvisors the way Scar treats the hyenas in the Lion King. For Quickbooks, the advisor community will always be a means to an end. Their products are built for consumers, not professionals, and I expect they always will be.

Switched From: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: In the end, I decided that the ability to integrate apps was going to be determinative over the long term. Xero and QBO are way out in front when it comes to integration and I expect that as the market matures, they will end up with a Coke-and-Pepsi-level of market dominance. They may already be there. Early on, I tried to get someone to sell me Accounting Power and/or Sage 50, but neither company seemed organized enough to close the sale. I was looking for a software partner that I could build my practice on and Xero were the ones who showed me they wanted to be that and had a plan to make it happen.

Powerful Accounting Software that Enables Anyone to Effectively Manage Their Accounts

Comments: Overall, Xero was a truly powerful software that took the dread of dealing with accounting and reconciliation and made it rather straightforward. The accounting process can effectively be handled by any person, which is rather refreshing. As an attorney, I'm not an accountant. So having something else to learn and utilize while already extremely busy would be a major inconvenience. However, Xero took what would have been a terrible experience and made it manageable.

Pros:

Xero is a pretty straightforward product that is effectively almost immediately deployable. Xero's dashboard is not bulky or overwhelming like a significant number of other accounting software tends to be. Xero's help manuals and tutorials were also very useful and are great for helping users quickly refamiliarize themselves with the software. Xero worked well for my law firm for IOLTA (Lawyer Trust Account) reconciliation purposes. With the software linked to your desired account, you can easily reconcile all incoming and outgoing payments and expenses on a given account. Once set up, you literally can log in right after making a purchase to reconcile your accounts without having to fumble through old receipts later to try to remember specific actions that were taken on behalf of a client.

Cons:

The only con that I personally experienced with Xero was that I routinely was required to relink and subsequently "resync" my banking account with Xero. Admittedly, this may have been a banking issue and not necessarily a Xero issue. However, when the relinking had to happen, this created a significant amount of issues because I was forced to relink the account, reimport expenses and incoming sums and then ensure that all the amounts had actually synced appropriately from my physical bank account to the Xero software.

Alternatives Considered: Peach Software

Reasons for Choosing Xero: We switched from Quickbooks because the software felt really cumbersome and was not very user friendly to someone that isn't an accounting professional.

Switched From: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: The price of Xero and the ability to effectively use the software almost immediately made the decision to choose Xero a straightforward one.

Easy to Implement and Manage Global Business, Low Customization Options

Comments: Kanopy has found Xero to serve its needs well, but ultimately we moved on and migrated to NetSuite years later. We still keep Xero though for 1 international subsidiary that we found to be advantageous not to migrate. The mature business with complex operations may not find all needs are met with Xero, especially if the desire is to integrate many other tools/software with the ERP in a bi-directional data flow.

Pros:

Xero serves well as an "out of the box" accounting system, not unlike Quickbooks. It also has more functionality and use internationally, making it a superior choice to QB if your business operates on a global, multicurrency basis. There are some solid automations which can be implemented with Xero as well, and the canned reporting generally suffices for the majority of basic financial needs.

Cons:

Xero lacks the open customization options that software like Netsuite or Dynamics offers. For a small business this will often be fine, but a scaling operation looking to automate many functions based on unique business needs may someday find they have outgrown Xero and need to undergo an (often painful) ERP migration.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online Advanced

Reasons for Switching to Xero: International features are superior, and ability to manage multiple subsidiaries based in different countries is more manageable in Xero.

Xero leads the way for cloud based accounting software for small to medium businesses

Comments: Very good. It certainly seems to be market leader and for good reason.

Pros:

Although may not feature the type of reporting that would set it apart from competitors, it has good integration with other apps that can generally to the job. For accountants, the customer support is good enough. There is a large community so you can usually find the answer you need if you run into an issue

Cons:

Not every useful report is available. And may never get them if they arent on the roadmap. Only really found one strange issue around perpetual revaluing of forex that has not been resolved, and likely wont ever be. Its not critical, but would be useful.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero: Sage 50 wasnt cloud at the time, its the only way you can work these days. Sage cloud service wasn't up to scratch back then

Switched From: Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Most advanced at the time

Great software for SMB

Comments: We came to Xero from Sage and has changed the way we manage our accounts, and helped the team be more productive.

Pros:

customer service is great, even for an SMB like ours, we get good response times and knowledgeable people. the system is very easy to use and has great functionality for managing our sales and supplier invoices so that we can keep track of our cashflow accurately. Apps library is great and has everything that we need.

Cons:

certain functionality around automation and AI is not there but can be added via connected apps.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero: needed more functionality and fewer manual processes

Switched From: Sage Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Allowed for a more flexible account and functionality was better than other solutions and better connected to other apps and services

The clean and clear accounting software

Comments: Since I started using it, everything I have needed Xero for has been straightforward. It takes minutes to get a basic invoice setup and sent to a client, and not much longer to make a more advanced invoice. It is easy to connect to your bank account and reconcile incomings and outgoings. It is also easy to give your accountants access.Overall, Xero makes it easy for you to avoid mistakes, and very importantly it has plenty of functionality that will allow it to grow with a company, as you need more advanced features, they are there, often at little to no extra cost. Having Xero helped a lot when starting my business, by making handling my fiances and accounting clean and clear.

Pros:

Xero provides a clean and straightforward experience. It has plenty of features for most use cases, but provides functionality that is easy for anyone to use from small business owners up. The integrations they provide, both with Open banking, and allowing you to give your accountants access, make it a breeze to correctly handle your finances and avoid time consuming mistakes come the end of the tax year.

Cons:

Having used Xero for many years, there is not much that I have found that I don't like about the system. Sole traders may find the 20 invoice a month restriction limiting, but that only applies to the Starter subscription. The prices of the others are more than reasonable to validate upgrading which gets you unlimited invoices. On occasion there will be bank feed issues, at which point you might be left wondering why your balances don't match. Finding out there is an issue with the feed from your particular bank is not obivous, but can be found by clicking through to their "Why is this different" page. From my experience this is the only con, and it is quite minor.

Alternatives Considered: FreshBooks

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Having had a trial with both Xero and FreshBooks, I much prefered the user interface and experience of Xero. Ultimately it was the ease of use that won me over.

Brilliant product

Comments: Really good, does what it says on the tin (so to speak!), perfect for our use case.

Pros:

Xero is very easy to use, it has a lot of useful features that make it stand out ahead of similar software

Cons:

There isn't much that I don't like, but maybe some more customisation to the interface would be nice, to make things cleared to see when needed or to remove bits I don't want to see.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero: Due to local 'making tax digital' regulations in the UK, we had to look at a cloud based solution and Xero came out on top for our use case.

Switched From: Sage Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Xero was recommended by our accountant, as well as several other people that we deal with.

Xero makes reconciling fun

Comments: I use Xero in two roles in my life, one as an employee and the other for the accounting software for my husband's business.
In my work New Zealand schools use this software as it is relatively easy to learn, quite intuitive and uses cloud accounting, enables document uploads for accountants to view etc. Once well set up it is also fast to use on a day to day basis.
At home I assist my husband to reconcile our business transactions for our accountant. We don't have to go in to the accountant's office or email invoices etc as we can upload them to Xero for him to see. You can set up the dashboard to get an overall view of your business and how much money is owed to you, and bills you owe, how you are tracking month to month, and the balances of your accounts you have linked to Xero.

Pros:

I like the ease of reconciling because once you get set up and code a few items it remembers them for next time for a faster job (you still have to check them to see if they are correct first). I find it fun and satisfying to reconcile in Xero as it is quite visual, you see several lines waiting to be reconciled and then as you work through the transactions, coding them and clicking on the middle button, they disappear. Setting up bank rules is also a huge benefit, as they get coded automatically, ready for you to just hit the green 'ok' button. You can use this for your usual bills for example, electricity bill, local cafe, cell phone bill, internet charges. Although it does take time to set bank rules up to make sure all details are accurate, it saves time in the long run. I like the fact that customers can upload documents into the files section of Xero and their accountant can see these documents immediately to work on them or code them. I also like the search function as you can search for a particular number, or the first few letters of a name or business to find relevant transactions. Being able to generate invoices and email them direct from Xero is great as it saves time.

Cons:

It is not the software's fault exactly, but because reconciling is so easy there is a temptation to accept what Xero suggests for a transaction and reconcile to this account, instead of pausing and really checking if the code is the best one. Xero is first and foremost a business accounting software, so the reports it can generate may not be exactly what other users of the software need, like schools for example, who may need a Xero add-on to get what they most need in regards to reports.

Effortless Accounting with Xero, but at a Price

Comments: I have been using Xero for accounting for quite some time now, and overall, I am quite satisfied with the software. The best thing I like about Xero is how easy it is to use. The interface is intuitive, and the software is designed to be user-friendly, even for those who are not accounting experts. It makes managing my financials a breeze and saves me a lot of time. The software has a wide range of features and integrations that allow me to keep my business finances organized and up to date.However, the one thing that I do not like about Xero is its pricing. It is quite expensive compared to other accounting software in the market. While I understand that Xero offers a lot of features, I believe that the pricing could be more affordable, especially for small businesses like mine.Overall, Xero is a great accounting software that is easy to use and has a lot of features that can help streamline your business finances. While the price may be a bit steep for some, I believe that the benefits it provides are worth the investment.

Pros:

I have been using Xero for accounting for quite some time now, and overall, I am quite satisfied with the software. The best thing I like about Xero is how easy it is to use. The interface is intuitive, and the software is designed to be user-friendly, even for those who are not accounting experts. It makes managing my financials a breeze and saves me a lot of time. The software has a wide range of features and integrations that allow me to keep my business finances organized and up to date.

Cons:

However, the one thing that I do not like about Xero is its pricing. It is quite expensive compared to other accounting software in the market. While I understand that Xero offers a lot of features, I believe that the pricing could be more affordable, especially for small businesses like mine

Xero is the ideal accounting solution for small businesses - easy, comprehensive and integrated.

Comments: Overall, my experience with Xero has been extremely positive. I found the transition to the platform smooth and straightforward. The intuitive user interface allowed me to get started with the software quickly without the need for extensive training. I’m now able to easily manage invoices, payments, and track expenses. The integrations with banks and payment apps enabled me to automate financial processes. The reporting and dashboards helped me make better decisions to grow my business. I'm very happy with choosing Xero as my accounting solution, and would recommend any startup to consider it.

Pros:

What I liked most about Xero was its user-friendly interface. The dashboard is simple and streamlined, allowing me and my accounting team to use the software smoothly even without extensive accounting background. I also enjoy the mobile access on phones and tablets, enabling me to manage accounting tasks anywhere. Additionally, the seamless integration with other banking and invoicing apps is great. Overall, Xero is easy to use and helpful for handling the day-to-day accounting of my business.

Cons:

What I liked least about Xero was the limited custom reporting options. While Xero provides many standard financial reports, the ability to customize reports or create more complex accounting reports is restricted. So sometimes I need to export data to Excel to build custom reports. It also lacks advanced support for inventory or manufacturing accounting. But overall, Xero covers my needs as a small business for now, and I expect the platform will continue improving over time.

An ideal system for our financial management.

Comments: It is a software that allows the automation of routine tasks such as bank reconciliation has freed up valuable time, allowing me to focus on strategic financial analysis and achieve better decision making. With Xero I can generate personalized reports and in real time it gives me a clear vision of the company's financial performance, which makes it easier to identify areas for improvement and growth opportunities. Honestly, it is a system that greatly facilitates my duties as Finance Manager.

Pros:

Since I've been using Xero, I've really liked it, as it has proven to be an exceptional solution for optimizing our financial management. It has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that allows me to quickly access key financial data such as balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows. It has an automated bank reconciliation feature, which is a real plus, because it saves us time and ensures the accuracy of our financial records. It has characteristics that are key to our objectives.

Cons:

Xero is an almost perfect system, because it can have limitations in terms of customization. Some of the advanced reports and features may require technical knowledge or expert assistance. Another disadvantage is its integration with other business systems, which can be difficult in some cases and cause data synchronization difficulties.

Concerns with Xero

Comments: We've been using Xero for about two years now. There have been a few hiccups along the way but for the most part things have been ok. Recently however, we've had a problem with our bank feed uploading into Xero in order to reconcile transactions. We first encountered this issue on 2/10/18. We informed Xero and they said they would look into the issue. A couple of weeks went by without hearing anything about the feed working as it should. We contacted them again and they said they were still working on the issue but that we could manually download the transactions ourselves in the meantime. Today is 4/10/18 (2 months later) and they still have not fixed the issue. We are still having to manually download these transactions ourselves in order to reconcile our bank accounts within the Xero software. I spoke with Xero this morning and they still do not have a timeline for when this will be fixed. They said they use an outside company to perform the importing of bank feeds functions and that they are not responsible for it not working. They said when we signed up for the Xero service we were informed about the possibility of the feed possibly cutting out at some point in the fine print (terms & conditions). They refuse to issue any sort of refund for their monthly service during this time of inconvenience because they say the bank feed import function is a free service offered by a third party. The problem we have is that Xero is marketing this service as part of their overall monthly service package which you assume is really included in your monthly service fee you pay to them. When it doesn't work they take no accountability for it not working. We think it's very deceptive for them to market a service (bank import functionality) to prospective buyers, which you assume is included with your monthly service fee, but then take no responsibility for it not working when things breakdown. We believe they do this to gain a competitive advantage over other companies like Quickbooks. Instead of just charging for the bank import service which would increase their monthly service fee and make them less competitive on a price basis with their competition they artfully setup their service to be able to offer a more competitive price but not assume any of the responsibility when the service doesn't work as expected. The general consumer doesn't think to put this deceptive tactic together when they sign up for the service and Xero assumes once they have you onboard you'll deal with the issue until they can get it fixed because switching accounting software companies at a later date is extremely inconvenient.

Pros:

The service accomplishes most of what it was intended to do albiet at a bit of a learning curve for the new user.

Cons:

There is no customer service support number to call. Bank feeds do not work properly. IOS app is mising some functionaility