Xero Reviews

A straight-forward system for managing business finances

Comments: An easy-to-use finance system that meets multiple requirements in a simplistic and user-friendly way.

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.

Amazing at efficiency

Comments: Overall I can't imagine using different software. We briefly used Sage for payroll and it was too detailed and clunky, with Xero it was an easy setup and efficient process each time.

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.

Do ot use Xero acciunt if you will need support

Comments: Fairly satisfactory, I had an issue with updating my payment details but there was an issue and support was useless.

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

Xero is a Team Player

Pros:

Xero has helped us reduce the amount of admin time we used to spend by automating and simplifying some of the most time consuming daily tasks. We love the ability to connect and reconcile our accounts, easily process payroll, sign up new staff and process credit card payments for better cashflow.

Cons:

There's nothing I don't like about Xero. I'm just looking forward to more features and the ability to integrate with more external software in the future, increasing automation wherever possible.

Timesaver!

Comments: Very good, nice and snappy. Paired with Hubdoc it is a fantastic tool.

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.

Excellent for bookkeeping

Comments: Excellent tool for small businesses. Can produce standard management reports allowing small business to have real time data. Great customer service and can be set up quickly

Pros:

Modern user interface, easy tonuse Can link bank accounts and Receipt Bank Easy to balance books, even for new bookkeepers, so this allows small business to easily do their bookkeeping and save on accountancy costs

Cons:

Is more expensive than other product in the market Bank account sometime lose their coonection and need to be refreshed

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero: Sage was did not good features and was more expensive

Switched From: Sage Accounting

Reasons for Switching to Xero: Better customer service experience, so I was provided all the information I needed

Xero review

Comments: Overall, my experience with Xero has been positive. It has greatly streamlined my company's accounting processes and facilitated effective collaboration with my accountant.

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.

Small tool can do most jobs

Comments: Easy to use for small business with low cost

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

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.

One of the best cloud based accounting software

Comments: It is such a user friendly software that bookkeeper finds it really easy to navigate through the entire software. There are so many search options and shortcut methods like cash coding and uploading bulk journals and credit notes in CSV are available, which make the life of accountant very easy. Also, the simplicity VAT returns generated in XERO and ease of creating new chart of accounts is unparalleled.

Pros:

One of the most user friendly software and fantastic 24*7 support team.

Cons:

Pretty expensive. It does create a mess when you change the VAT scheme from one to another and the user might end up paying more VAT than actually due, due to miscalculation by XERO.

Super Simple Accounting Software for Small to Medium Sized Businesses

Comments: As a small business our main priority is to keep our monthly book keeping tasks simple and quick. Since moving to Xero from MYOB we have found a significant reduction in our book keeping time input. We are NOT accountants or book keeping experts and Xero as an accounting system has definitely made this part of our business much more efficient. We are guided by our accountant as how best to use the software and have been able to develop a simple client - accountant relationship with Xero being the main conduit of information between us.

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.

I can't wait for it to be finished!

Comments: It's a lot of money to get setup with a certified consultant. Very few consultants available in Canada. When we did find one she was great but she bills you for every second she works. As in not any free advice. My lawyer is easier to work with.

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.

Solid platform

Comments: So far, it has been amazing. I have little to no complaints. Everyone that I have moved to Xero have told me thank you.

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

Xero for Business

Comments: I am happy, can be connected with my clients all the time, can prepare reports anywhere, anytime. I think the price for South Africa is a bit high

Pros:

I like the product is easy to use, no need high knowledge of accounting, the person who never was doing accounting can easily manage this product

Cons:

there is still missing a few things as inventory shall be a bit changed as people with two inventories in different places can not have two storages, there are few things that missing and can make it easier to work with

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Choosing Xero: the cloud, it is an advantage to be cloud due to my work I am travelling a lot and if client need help can do it on the move

Switched From: Pastel

Reasons for Switching to Xero: more user friendly I think

It took me a while, but I am a Xero convert!

Comments: When I first began using Xero, I had heard a lot about it and was skeptical. Surely, no software could be so "all that"! I was introduced to it by a colleague who has converted the whole of her mid-size accountancy practice to it, and literally within a day and a half (which did include watching some of the short but very clear tutorial videos) I was not only up and running, but felt confident using it, finding my way around it, locating and fixing errors etc. It's literally that simple and straightforward. It's also incredibly stable - I think in 3 years it's only been offline (to my knowledge) 3 times, each for a very short period. I've also not found ANY bugs so far - almost unheard of! - and the support is fantastic, even though it's online.

Pros:

Provided it's set up properly, Xero is probably the most friendly accounting software - to non-accountants that is - of any I've ever come across. Back in the 90's, MYOB revolutionised accounting software for small business, but Xero takes it to a whole new level, by removing so much of the data entry work that takes time, leaves room for errors and is in general a pain, when you'd rather be - you know, running your business. With Xero, it's up to the individual operator how much they want to automate their accounting transactions; if you want to, you can use the really powerful, but still simple tools to do a lot of the legwork for you. If you prefer to do it more manually, that's OK too - it's still simple and very quick and easy to use.

Cons:

Xero is constantly adding and refining its software. Inventory control is an area I'd like to see strengthened, but that's already way ahead of where it was a couple of years ago. Similarly processing payments in advance. But these are relatively small niggles which for the majority of small businesses don't present any issue.

Alternatives Considered: MYOB Business

Reasons for Choosing Xero: I was contracting to an accountancy firm who had converted their entire practice to Xero.

Switched From: MYOB Business

Xero has helped us transform and streamline our processes

Comments: Xero has streamlined our operations, and simplified our record keeping, and notification of when bills are due for payment or invoices due for collection. The dashboard is fantastic for an overall picture. The reporting tools are excellent, and the ease of use is so logical and straightforward, that it's simple l to self-teach even for a beginner. On top of that when you have any questions the how-to guides are thorough in themselves, and support is excellent and very quick to come back to you with an in depth answer.

Pros:

The ease of use is fantastic, and a beginner is able to self-teach quite easily with the fantastic guides and webinars that are available from Xero. The support is also exceptional and I have always had my queries answered in great detail and very quickly.

Cons:

My main issue was that I would like to be able to create different delivery addresses on invoices that have one invoice address but different delivery locations, as it's important to specify. To workaround we write it in the body of the invoice, however with previous systems we have been able to enter multiple delivery addresses, for one invoice address and select the required one each time.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: We watched several comparison videos but it was the ease of use that sold us. I had used Sage and Zoho books in the past and knew that I didn't want to use either of them again, and I was so pleased that we chose Xero as has been fantastic for us.

Great online software for SMEs

Comments: It has been great software that helped many business to grow with up to date, online financial information.

Pros:

Xero has been one of the first solutions for cloud bookkeeping and accounting and has successfully competed with the likes of Sage and QuickBooks. It has probably the most other software providers that link directly with Xero over APIs.

Cons:

Over the years there were some features that were requested and it took a long time for them to be implemented, also more and more features are additional paid for addons.

Alternatives Considered: FreshBooks, Sage 50cloud Accounting, QuickBooks Online, Wave, FreeAgent and Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Choosing Xero: Clients were unhappy with existing software.

Switched From: Sage 50cloud Accounting and QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Xero: It has the most connections with other apps, links with workpapers among other things.

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.

Great accounting package for any business

Comments: Overall Xero provides business with all the basics at a reasonable price. Support is only via online chat request and can take some time to return the answers (which you need to login to the account to see) but overall its a good well rounded program that is fairly easy to use by all.

Pros:

Bank feeds are simple and easy to use. Entry of sales invoices and sending easy. Can upload documents and evidence for almost every transaction whether in sales, purchases or journals area which is very handy - dont need to go searching for docs at EOFY for the accountants.

Cons:

Reports can be a bit restricted on what you can include or exclude so can be tricky to get the right one to pull the info you need. Sometimes setting up bank feed can be tricky. Payroll needs more features and simplified. You have lots of different tabs and areas for the information to go so its a process to ensure nothing is missed

The best at what it does

Comments: Full Disclosure: I am an accountant and I recommend Xero to many of my clients. When the expectations are in alignment with the capabilities of the software, then everyone is happy. People get into trouble with ANY software when they jump in thinking they know what it does and are then disappointed. All accounting and ERP software has limitations and Xero is no exception, but what it does, it does well. It provides payables, receivables, bank reconciliation and general ledger as its core functionality. There is a very capable estimating/quoting/order/ process that ties into AR invoices smoothly. But, the requisition/purchase/inventory side is very, very basic. In fact there are no requisitions and the purchase orders are so limited that I recommend you not use them. The inventory is only what is needed to make the sales side functional. So, if you need strong inventory support, you have to use a third-party add-on designed just for this purpose.

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.

The best accounting software that meets all of your requirements

Comments: In particular, my experience with Xero has been beneficial in that it has enabled me to organize and manage all financial affairs of the branch in which I work without the need for a full-time accountant in the branch, as it allows me to prepare financial statements, pay bills, and organize payment dates myself.

Pros:

I appreciate that Xero is responsive and simple to use for everyone, as it does not necessitate a great deal of prior experience. Once connected to the Internet, the user will be able to connect with all of his bank accounts, both those through which he wishes to make payments and those to which he wishes to transfer money, and monitor and follow them accurately and professionally, as well as track and report on them. It is extremely adaptable to a wide range of requirements, including those of freelancers and huge corporations. Furthermore, it serves as a vital database for all financial data, as it will allow you to download documents and invoices quickly and easily, and also through the phone application, where it is sufficient to scan documents and invoices in order to enter information from them into the system and schedule payments quickly and easily. I particularly appreciate the reports that are generated by Xero since they are comprehensive in that they include all of the financial transactions that occurred during the time period under consideration.

Cons:

there are no noteworthy issues. The issue of dealing with recurring payments does not operate as expected, as you must occasionally complete the procedure manually.

This is a self-taught product

Comments: From day one, I was absolutely on my own setting this up. We were a new company and did not have anything to import from another product. There was no, and still is no, customer support at all. There is a help center where you can search and search to find an answer to your question(s). As long as the product is working, you will do ok once you figure it all out. However, if something stops functioning, it may be months before it gets fixed. This made it very difficult for me to be able to do month-end, quarter-end and year-end reconciliations and reporting. The product worked for a couple weeks in the month of January which caused multiple duplications that had to be worked through then the product stopped working again for about another month. I don't care what the cost of a product is, if you can't use it because of their product defects, what is it truly worth? It cost my employer more money to pay me to work through all this than if I had done it all manually on spreadsheets.

Pros:

After six years of use, I am comfortable using Xero when it is working.

Cons:

Read your reviews on the customer service aspect of this product. It doesn't matter how well a product is rated when there is zero customer service. All the negatives you read about their customer service are TRUE. We have used Xero for 6.5 years and it was six years before I ever got to message with what seemed to be a human. There is no phone number to call nor is there live chat. You can submit a customer support ticket but good luck getting a timely response or a response at all. You can ask the "community" for help but a reply from the Xero community may never come.

Xero truly puts powerful data in the hands of small business owners

Pros:

I have been using Xero for a good number of years now and can only recommend it! The usability is fantastic, the ability to see really clearly how the accounts work is groundbreaking in its field. I love the bank reconciliation and the bank feeds. The automation of data is actually fun and linking it into the add-ons can make life a lot easier and save time and money. It is a great way to keep things simple and clear. I love the advisor features, that you can't break it (although you can make a real mess if not careful). For me the biggest benefit is the clarity of the data and the ability to drill down into virtually anything. Don't use Xero in super complex scenarios and I would recommend that you employ a proper XERO accountant - who actually knows how to use Xero and uses the data when using it though or you will end up paying twice - once for entering the data to xero - and again when the accountant pulls it out into their own software. Overall I would absolutely recommend Xero for people who are more serious than working in spreadsheets but who are turning over £50k-£3m+ with a fairly simple process.

Cons:

We have found that Xero does not work well in all scenarios but there are work arounds - the bigger the business and the more complex the processes the less it suits but then if you are bigger/more complex you should arguably be using something else! Support is not awesome! It can take time and you are often met with unhelpful suggestions. There has been an increased number of 'blips' in the software in more recent months and the support has been almost useless in those cases and I have had to find workarounds. Conversation/instant message support should surely be on the cards? Another thing that I don't like is the highly evangelical nature of the conferences! It borders on the cultish and if you are not 'in' then you are definitely 'out'! I have not found there to be any benefit to being on the 'directory' for that same reason.

Can't contact xero and more

Comments: Can’t contact Xero
A little note for anyone out there looking to move to Xero Accounting. Xero will not allow you to contact them, except via their non customer friendly Xero Central. Xero will not take phone calls. Xero will not take emails. They don’t do “chat”. At all. Does that say enough about their customer service? This is just one of their many, many faults. Their customer service is genuinely the worst that I or anyone at our company have ever seen in a combined 200 years working with software packages. I strongly urge you, if you’re considering Xero as an accounting package, to think again and do your research first. They do not and will not listen to their customers. Don’t take my word for it, do your research and you’ll find out. There are dozens of requests to their product development and customer service, for VERY BASIC accounting functionality, some of which are ongoing for around 10 YEARS and despite hundreds of customers making the same request in some cases, they still choose to ignore it.
It’s hard to leave an accounting package, once you get involved but I promise you, that you will, once you see how terrible this company is, how little regard they have for paying customers, how silly some of the issues are and once you get the time to go through the whole change process again. Once again, I urge you to do your research and think again. I’ve spent the time writing this email in the hope that I can help someone to avoid the frustration and despair that we

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.