Xero Reviews

Pros

How easy it is to manage expenses in their various statuses - it's transparent with helpful notifications and also easy to upload new recipets and details.

Cons

Creating a login requires a seperate phone app for verification which is understandable from a security perspective but does slow down the setup process.

Pros

Xero has got very good set of features and it is considered a market leader with regards to online bookkeeping software.

Cons

Xero is slow to listen to their customers feedback and often prioritizes other work and development rather than the features most required.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online Advanced

Reasons for Choosing Xero

We wanted an online system that actually works

Switched From

Sage Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero

Xero is more reliable in terms of VAT management, as QuickBooks often has problems with full reconciliation of the VAT account.

Pros

REDUCED TIME-RELATED TO DATA CAPTURING and cloud-based - no backup needed or software updates

Cons

The support is very basic and no real solutions are provided. If you have an issue with Xero - you are on your own!!!!

Alternatives Considered

Sage 300cloud

Reasons for Choosing Xero

Xero is expensive and support in pretty useless

Switched From

Sage Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero

I like the option that capturing is easy

Pros

The custom reporting and I love cash coding - so quick. Great customer service.

Cons

The only con with Xero is that it does not have payroll applications yet.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero

Wanted to be cloud based not on desk top

Switched From

Sage Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero

Better reporting features, way better customer service support

Pros

Simplicity and ease of use. You don't have to be a qualified accountant to be able to use it, but if you are, the whole system is very helpful and you can automate so much!

Cons

The support takes time to get your ticket answered but when it is, any follow-ups are quick.

Pros

The best thing about Xero, or any decent accounting package, is just how time saving they can be when used properly. As the owner of a growing and busy small business, Xero has taken a massive load off my mind when it comes to invoicing and tracking what we are owed. I wouldn't be without it now.

Cons

We switched to Xero from Quickbooks and the only thing I miss is that Quickbooks had a feature in the search where you can search individual line items on invoices, very useful to find out what a specific customer was charged.

Pros

If fully utilised Xero is a very powerful business tool that can encapsulate everything financial - from integrated stock systems and product costing, to sales tracking and customer management.

Cons

The dashboard can be a little cluttered together - in some instances you need to click through a few hyperlinks to get to where you want to go.

Pros

Xero's intuitive interface and seamless integration with various third-party apps make it an excellent choice for users. The real-time updates on finances and cash flow significantly aid in making informed business decisions. Additionally, it offers cloud-based accounting for SMEs, enabling easy management of invoicing and bank reconciliation from anywhere.

Cons

While Xero is generally user-friendly, the learning curve can be steep for those new to accounting. Despite its strengths, beginners might find it challenging to navigate at first.

Pros

Its user-friendly interface and cloud based platform features. I can do the accounting anywhere

Cons

I love this software but one thing xero can improve which is some time its buffering

Pros

We use Xero as a small business accounting application for payroll in our accounting.

Cons

No inventory assemblies and email-only support

Alternatives Considered

Rippling

Reasons for Switching to Xero

We keep both, this one is for our part-time employees

Pros

As a small business we found Xero to be a simple and very cost effective solution for all our accounting - book keeping needs. Xero is very easy to set up with your accountant and reduces the time you need to spend on book keeping tasks each month. With automatic bank feeds the time we need to reconcile our accounts each month is minimal. The audit trail features mean any issues that arise can be quickly found and fixed. Being able to notate any transactions enables our accountant to quickly respond to our queries. As a small business keeping our external accountant costs down is very important to us and by using Xero means the time our accountant has to actually spend on our accounts is less and therefore so are the invoices we receive from him!

Cons

Some of the automatic accounts Xero suggests you reconcile to are not correct so it is important to double check each transaction before reconciling. We had issues setting up some of the automatic bank feeds and still have one bank account that will not process the feeds so we need to enter those transactions manually. When uploading a file of transactions we also had some issues and found it quicker just to manually enter them into the software.

Alternatives Considered

MYOB Business

Reasons for Choosing Xero

We found MYOB to be very time intensive on our part. As non booking experts our accountant recommended we make the switch and set up automatic bank feeds which we did. It has improved out book keeping efficiency tremendously. It has also saved us money in software costs and we don't need to be constantly ringing our accountant for help in reconciling transactions.

Switched From

MYOB Business

Reasons for Switching to Xero

N/a. We were using MYOB and on our accountants advice we made the switch to Xero.

Pros

As a former quickbooks user of about 20 years, it was a big deal to switch platforms. At first glance it looked like it would do everything we wanted. I loved the price point, the interface and relative ease of use. The multi currency was great as was the ability to integrate with Stripe. You make a lot of compromises to save on the huge monthly cost of quickbooks but there are workarounds.

Cons

There are so many things that are just common/must have's for any business. Things like progressive billing, job costing and even the ability to make your own journal entries are missing. We had to hire a consultant and spend around $800 just to get it to add purchases easier to the mix with HubDoc. You see job costing catagories at the invoice level but not software or 3rd party app to back it up. The single most annoying thing about it is the support. It's non existent. You complain, They tell you its not a problem and ignore your requests. I struggle daily with the search function. I can't get about 50% of my searches to work. The clients I'm looking for are entered. I'm typing them in fine but you often have to visit contacts menu and find them manually by quote number or just never ending scrolling. Upon complaining numerous times the best they can do is say "it might take up to two weeks for your contacts to sync. " Xero: It's 2020 and the dark ages of cloud software have passed. You need to fix the search function and add job costing to be considered a contender. So here we are in 2020, manually adding each of our sales to a spreadsheet and adding the subsequent bills to it to see if we made $. They make it incredibly hard to contact support and they are quite unresponsive when they do reply to your ticket. They try really hard to push you to support forums, where there are literally hundreds of complaints on the same issue with the ability to comment closed.

Pros

Xero is an accounting software that just works. I have used so many different platforms, and Xero has been the easiest and most reliable software I have found.

Cons

1099 reports are too limited. Tracking categories are too limited. Support can phone it in when you first reach out to them, but if you set up a time to chat with someone they are extremely helpful.

Alternatives Considered

AccountingSuite and Wave

Reasons for Choosing Xero

Quickbooks ethics and support was enough to drive me crazy. When you would call QBO support 5 times, you will most likely get 5 different answers and they will usually contradict each other.

Switched From

QuickBooks Online

Pros

Customisable dashboard is a time saver and ability to customise templates helps with consistency for our company branding. Customisation of user permissions means the bonus of staff being able to enter their own expenses which is a further time saver. Being able to work across multiple currencies now is a plus, albeit I wish we could manually adjust exchange rates being used.

Cons

Many advanced features that are standard for longer established accounting software solutions are available, but as "bolt on" packages, so costs can escalate quickly if you need full "bells and whistles".
Customer service response can be very slow compared to other cloud software providers we use - in the beginning they were responsive for engagement but over time they're clearly pushing all customers towards getting answers from their user community and/or through the Q&A section. I appreciate that customer service probably don't want to be wasting time with queries better addressed by professional book-keepers or accountants, but in our instance, as "advanced users", our customer service queries tend to be related to technical challenges with the product. It would be great of Xero could analyse the types of queries coming from their customers and perhaps have a priority helpline on offer for "low maintenance" subscribers.

Alternatives Considered

Quicken, Sage Accounting, QuickBooks Online Advanced and FreshBooks

Reasons for Switching to Xero

Felt more user friendly, especially for team members who, at the time, had limited or zero accounting knowledge

Pros

Ease of use from a day-to-day perspective for a non accountant and integration with other cloud software such as Dext and Flowlens

Cons

We have had a couple of glitches where bank feeds have stopped working for periods of time, manual import of bank statements can take a few attempts to get right.

Alternatives Considered

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Reasons for Choosing Xero

Compatibility with CRM/ERP, Cloud system

Switched From

Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero

Ease of use, Established brand, Integrated Payroll, migration support, ongoing cost

Pros

Xero makes managing the finances for a business really straightforward. The user interface is intuitive and it centralises all my accounts information.

One of my favourite features is the the dashboard, which is clear and customisable, and gives a great summary of the position position at any time.

The software also integrates really well to other platforms for things like receipt capture and detailed business analysis.

Cons

I'm really happy with how it performs, however, our bookkeeper still does some levels of manual reporting, which he finds easier in Excel, than in Xero. The integration of BA tools does negate this issue.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero

It wasn't SaaS at the time and was only able to be understood and used by our bookkeeper.

Switched From

MYOB Business

Reasons for Switching to Xero

At the time the product looked to have better features and functionality, and the user experience was excellent.

Pros

“It’s so clean to apply, even for non-financial human beings”

My financial institution transactions are robotically connect to Xero so I don’t have to manually input them myself.

I get my Financial statements the first week after the year end

Another charming issue of this software is that it is a great idea if a corporation is unfolded across a couple of places with personnel operating in various locations. The accountants from every location can get admission to the financial data of all branches at any moment irrespective of their vicinity or time.

As a world main provider of online accounting software program, Xero utilizes world-elegance cloud safety. Your data is appropriately saved in the cloud, and guarded from both Cyber criminals and perils like fire or flood.

Cons

The expenses tracking can be formatted to allow multiply currencies to be easily uploaded in batches or real time.

No integrated ‘Debtor Chasing’ function so companies will have to manually follow up on their unpaid invoices.

Pros

Xero is an incredibly comprehensive accounting software that is perfect for small businesses. It has all the necessary features for managing finances and the user interface is easy to use and understand. I love how it can be integrated with other accounting programs and it is constantly being updated with new features and improvements.

Cons

Xero can be quite expensive as compared to other accounting software and the customer support is not always as helpful as one would hope. I have also encountered some glitches that can cause problems when trying to get things done.

Pros

Online means that we can share information across the team as we do not work from a central office.

Cons

I did need an expert to help me set up Xero and make sure all the data was imported correctly. We bought in around 10 hours of expert help to get us started.

Alternatives Considered

Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Choosing Xero

We needed an online option... we were using Sage Line50 but that is not an option for me to choose here.

Switched From

Sage 50cloud Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero

Pretty sure it was recommendation from accountants. The costs were pretty comparable.

Pros

I loved how easy it was to integrate XERO with my bank accounts and Paypal. XERO seamlessly connected and kept my balances up to date. I also liked how easy it was to invoice clients and connect invoices to Paypal or Stripe.

Cons

Unfortunately, the reconciliation process in XERO is a no-go for me. Rather than the Quickbooks and standard approach, where you do a monthly reconciliation against a bank statement, XERO had no such function. Once an item was matched up to a bank transaction, it was considered "reconciled." No option to close out a month and double-check transactions. I went back to QBO to get that feature.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero

I wanted better connection with online banks. At the time, XERO performed that better than QB.

Reasons for Switching to Xero

I wanted better connection with online banks. At the time, XERO performed that better than QB. I have since switched to Quickbooks Online.

Pros

What is good about Xero are 1) Real-time bank feeds and bank reconciliation - this is what scared the pants off of Intuit and forced them to develop new functionality. 2) Xero fully embraces and enables third-party developers to provide niche solutions that have rich interaction with Xero. 3) The features keep getting better and better quarter after quarter. 4) Perhaps my relationship as a partner skews this, but I've had nothing but excellent support from Xero. I can call someone if I have to, but I almost always get issues resolved through technical support in a timely fashion.

Some of my favorite add-ons for Xero are GeoOp for field services, Deputy which integrates its scheduling, time and attendance functions with Xero payroll, and Float which projects cashflow. The new reporting and the tags are fantastic.

Cons

There are some features I would like to see "sooner," but they are on the roadmap for "later." People jump on Xero because of the price without having a Xero consultant evaluate their suitability for the application - that can create an expectation gap, and that inevitably leads to an unhappy customer. I just hate it when people let their wallet do their thinking for them and then blame the software because it "doesn't do enough."

The payroll is fine. I spoke to the VP in charge of payroll development and he is all about improving the functionality, so it will continue to improve. What is there now is very well designed to be comprehensive and flexible, but there are situations where a third-party payroll like Gusto will make more sense for your organization. They are the first ones to suggest you look at solutions like Gusto, ADP, Paychex and others that integrate seamlessly with Xero.

It is annoying that the tags are limited to two categories, and this won't be revised until they have their design for job costing completed. No word yet on when that will be.

Pros

For bookkeeping, small and medium-sized businesses this software is a dream. It is the most intuitive and easiest to use of all the accounting software that we reviewed. As an accountant, it is easy to fix user errors and mis-postings. There is a proper audit trail and safety checks built in. There are so many time-saving features like find and recode, repeating bills/invoices/journals, bank rules. The move toward AI is exciting too.

Cons

The reports aren't GAP or IAS compliant so it is no good for reporting, final accounts production or tax. To get accountants interested and recommending Xero in the early days, they promised accountants that Final Accounts Production and Corporation Tax software was in their development queue but it never materialised and they burnt a lot of bridges with accountants when they announced that they had dropped FAP plans. This is why Quickbooks are getting such a big foothold and stealing market share from Xero.

The software is expensive for what it is and you can get a lot more and better for your money with FreeAgent and QuickBooks.

The biggest let down for Xero is that there is no telephone support, at all. Not even call back. You have to email and if you are on the opposite side of the world from New Zealand, it can take a full day to get an inital response and if there is any misunderstanding or info required, it can take days to get your problem resolved. This is really useless and a deal breaker for serious businesses.

Another major failing in Xero is the number of times that the Bank Feed just doesn't work. This is outwith Xero's control and so it can often take months to resolve. This is amateur and best and negligent at worst.

Pros

The software is easy to setup, easy to use, very transparent and well-supported by many accountants. It is designed with the end-user in mind, rather than the accountant. Depending on your package, it allows filing direct with IRD for GST and Payroll.

Cons

There is no phone support, only via a web portal. Some matters are not documented well in any of the Xero-supplied "how to" e.g. best practice for issuing dividends.

Alternatives Considered

MYOB Business

Reasons for Choosing Xero

Accuracy and time.

Switched From

Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to Xero

Easier to use.

Pros

It’s very simple to use. It has all the features that our business requires from an accounting softwares. You can do payroll and VAT all in one place and submit from Xero with one click. It is extremely convenient. It is like another helpful staff in our company.

Cons

Nothing really. Everything about Xero is really good. We are absolutely satisfied.

Alternatives Considered

Sage 50cloud Accounting and QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero

Xero is more suitable for a small business.

Switched From

Sage 50cloud Accounting

Pros

It has some good features but unfortunately they are overcome by the poor ones.

Cons

There are so many negatives, it's hard to know where to start
They can't be contacted so if you have a problem, you'll have it for a long time (or maybe forever)
VAT retrun period can't be closed. So someone can amend an invoice or bill or add one in to a previous VAT period, which of course screws everything up
You can't set a date for stock to arrive. When you make the order, the system assumest that it's now in stock!
You can't save two customers with the same name! They will tell you to add a special character to duplicate names! Unbelievable but true!
There are no delivery notes/packing slips. They tout a "workaround" but be warned, it's exactly 10 extra clicks so it's really not an option if you need this feature
If you want to send a document after preparing it, first you have to save it, wait for it to save, it takes you out to a main screen, you have to click back into it and then send it (if you send directly, it will send a draft document only)
Invoice, quotation, calendar functions are jumpy and extremely diffult to edit. This applies to all browsers, incognito modes, etc., it's just a really bad editor.
If you enter a contact's account, system brings open documents to the top even if these are quotes which are no longer needed. Invoices, quotes, payments are then all muddled up together is it's very hard to see what you want. Extremely badly designed in this regard.
If you create a Draft invoice, it takes a sequential number. This screws up your sequences.