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See moreXero's target users are small businesses and their accountant/ bookkeeper. The online accounting app meets the needs of small businesses across multiple industries.
The software is ideal for small business owners managing their accounts independently, as well as in collaboration with their accountants from dispersed locations. The collaboration features of the software also make it suitable for business owners and their clients on financial activity.
Xero's cloud application currently serves the accounting needs of some 370,000 companies worldwide and copious individual users . The customer feedback and reviews found on the web about Xero are positively overwhelming.
Read the full GetApp AnalysisGetApp’s ranking highlights the top 25 apps in different categories on GetApp. If an app is listed in more than one category, it has the potential to be ranked in each of these categories. The ranking is independent of any commercial campaign an app vendor has with GetApp. The ranking is based on 5 data points, each scored out of 20: reviews, integrations, mobile apps, media presence, and security.
Available plans cost $9/month, $30/month, $70/month (USD). No setup or upgrade fees or contracts. All plans include access for unlimited users.
Xero is an online accounting software suite that utilizes a modern cloud network to fully accommodate the complete range of accounting needs. The app allows you to coordinate and manage all financial processes within an easy to use platform, accessible from all internet-enabled devices.
The software is geared towards small to medium-sized businesses looking to increase their accounting efficiency while at the same time adding a little fun to the process. The app also serves as a remote collaboration and advisory platform for accounting professionals, eliminating the need for client visits and unnecessary paperwork.
The user-friendly dashboard transforms the resource draining and time-consuming tasks of transaction monitoring, bill paying, invoice issuing, purchase order creation and expenses management - to name a few - into enjoyable activities that support accountants in their daily tasks and free-up business owners to get more out of their limited time. Xero also provides payroll management for users, customers or businesses in the US and Australia.
Xero's main purpose is to transform the accounting processes into a more efficient and enjoyable experience for small business owners and their accountants. The app succeeds in doing this by allowing all team members concerned in financial operations to connect to the company's financial database via their desktop computers, laptops and mobile devices. This enables all stakeholders and the company accountant to track, collaborate on, and complete accounting tasks from home or on the go.
The benefits of using Xero to manage your accounting activity are evident in the enhanced accessibility of financial data, the collaboration opportunities, the transparent pricing and processes, and the unburdening of time and human resources.
Using Xero, small businesses who previously relied on spreadsheets, messy paperwork and dispersed files to manage their balance sheets, can rest in the knowledge that their financial data is more accurate and up-to-date than ever.
Getting an overview of the balance sheet.
All financial transactions are automatically imported into the Xero database and linked to the corresponding accounting transactions. All the user has to do in order to confirm that the match is correct, is to press the "OK" button and the transaction will be reconciled in the system. Users who need to import feeds from more bank accounts, credit cards and PayPal accounts, will be happy to know that Xero can do this in a few minutes.
Xero also lets you reconcile more complex transactions, such as split payments, by defining your own custom rules. Furthermore, this feature includes fast cash coding, providing the ability to import and automatically reconcile pre-coded bank statements. This is the perfect tool for reconciling large numbers of transactions and for importing data from other systems.
The Xero dashboard is where business owners can get a complete picture of their key accounts, income and expense reports, upcoming bills and pending invoices. This feature provides a valuable overview that gives users a clear understand of all their company's financial activities in a glance. Moreover, certain accounts can be watch-listed and monitored in greater detail by enabling notifications.
The layout of the dashboard makes it easy to use and navigate, while the intuitive graphs provide a visual understanding of key data that helps users compare account activity in a more tangible way. The dashboard not only displays data, it also allows you to perform tasks such as adding accounts, bills and issuing invoices by clicking on the corresponding buttons.
Main Xero dashboard showing a financial overview.
Xero's invoicing system forms an important part of the accounting suite letting you generate and customize professionally branded invoices. The customization options include the addition of your company's logo, foreign currency conversion, and the ability to save different templates to be used for separate clients.
The online invoicing system can issue invoices for payments that come from PayPal accounts, bank transfers or credit cards, with no country-related exceptions. One of the key features of Xero's invoicing tool is the notification system that alerts you when your invoice has been opened by the recipient, eliminating any confusion over "lost invoices".
If the payee is based in a foreign country and using a different currency, Xero will undertake the task of automatically converting the invoice into the currency used by the client. This means that you never have to worry about calculating exchange rates. Xero covers over 160 currencies and automatically updates exchange rates every hour.
Issuing a payment receipt in Xero.
There are many activities related to running a small business outside of bookkeeping and accounting, however most of these activities are interlinked in some way. Many small businesses already use a number of other systems such as CRMs, inventory management tools, time trackers, receipt scanners and so forth. Importing all this data from multiple apps to Xero can seem like a daunting task, however this is made hassle-free through the some 500 plus add-ons offered on the Xero Marketplace.
The marketplace provides easy navigation and search options that let users find what they are looking for fast. Add-ons are listed across 15 horizontal categories and 11 industry verticals. The Xero Marketplace is your one-stop source for all integration needs, with seamless integration offered between Xero and any app you sign-up for on the marketplace.
The add-on Marketplace on Bills and Expenses category.
For a system that holds strictly private information in the cloud, it is of the utmost importance to remain secure and impenetrable by hackers and other malevolent attackers. Xero developers are perfectly aware of this potential security threat and for this reason provide a dedicated security team whose job it is to keep your data safe on a daily basis.
As users go about their daily business, the Xero team are busy providing constant improvements to their service, adding small adjustments and new features on a constant basis. New features are added every 3-6 weeks to ensure that the efficiency of the app and your user experience are always at the most optimal level.
Integrations is an area that Xero has covered one hundred percent. As a business owner running multiple apps, having the ability to have your apps speak to each other is fundamental. For this reason, the Xero Marketplace is a stroke of genius.
The Marketplace offers an ever growing list of more than 500 add-ons categorized by the business needs they serve. Some of the most popular of these add-ons include: Bill.com, Constant Contact, Square, Squarespace, Zen Payroll, Stitch Labs, Kabbage, and BodeTree.
Further popular add-ons include: Harvest, Batchbook CRM, Vend, Evernote, PayPal, Xpenditure, Expensify, Unleashed, WorkflowMax, Spotlight, Magento, Podio, Eventbrite, Infusionsoft, and Receipt Bank.
Xero's pricing plans differ according to region. Prospective users should consult the official pricing page of the corresponding Xero website for their location. In general, Xero is offered through 3 different plans. The most basic is the "Starter" plan that costs $9 per month and is limited to five invoices, five bills and 20 bank transactions.
The next plan is the "Standard" package that costs $30 per month and offers an unlimited number of invoices, bills and transactions.The "Premium" plan, costing $70 per month in total, supports multi-currency transactions and is thereby aimed at businesses that have multi-national clients and collaborators. A 30-day free trial of the "Starter" pack is available.
Gina Carroll, Office and Accounts Manager
I have used Xero for over 2 years now. It was easy enough to self teach from an MYOB background. Its simplistic interface means that you have more time to think about what you are doing as opposed to how to do it in your accounting software.
Pros: Easy to learn, easy to use.
Cons: Xero's development team seem reluctant to develop features that globally are being asked for.
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Features
Customer support
Time used
1-2 years
Frequency of use
Daily
Likelihood to recommend
A verified reviewer
Makes doing accounts probably as easy as possible. Links into my bank account and imports transactions automatically everyday. Then it has a guess at which transactions match to whichever invoice is mostly likely to match - then you tick a box to confirm - so easy.
Pros: Intuitive interface - wraps sound accounting practises up in a reasonably bullet proof package. Has a huge number of solid integrations with hundreds of other services online. Really good.
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Features
Customer support
Time used
2+ years
Frequency of use
Daily
Likelihood to recommend
Alison Cary - Peters, Business Consultant & Project Manager
Xero allows basic book-keeping functions to be completed easily and remotely, but it doesn't do much else. Don't expect sales analysis options or reports beyond the financial basics.
It does a few things really well...like taking you bank statement and turns it to a P&L etc.
Pros: Remote access. It has allowed me to outsource my book-keeping function, which is the only reason I swopped systems from what I was using prior. Xero is well known and well-liked by book-keepers in New Zealand. Plenty of Add-ins options to develop capability.
Cons: Poor inventory managements. No real sales analysis. There are no management accounts just financial accounts. Add-ins start to get expensive to build in the functionality that your business needs to get the business management tools you are looking for.
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
1-2 years
Judy Kensington, Digital Director at Phancybox
Xero is a really user friendly accounting system, allowing you to stay on top of your business, without needing to be a qualified accountant!
They've created step by step video's and an easy way to locate them regardless of which function you're using, and their support is fantastic - they always over elaborate (i.e. assume you're not a qualified accountant!) and share further information on each point.
It's almost fun to use (in a geeky way!) and is really intuitive throughout each process.
Their app makes it easy to photograph paper receipts while on the go - it's really conducive to proactive finance, letting you easily stay on top of invoices, sales, quotes and receipts.
Highly recommended.
Pros: Easy to use Amazing support
Cons: Can't allocate multiple bank rows to 1 bill (i.e. when you have 1 credit card transaction, which comes with an additional foreign charge or bank fee, you have to recon 3 lines instead of just 1)
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
Less than 6 months
VP of Sales & Marketing (Information Technology and Services company, 11-50 employees)
We moved to Xero to replace Quicken and our expense tracking software. It's easy to use and provides great functionality for SMBs who don't necessarily have in-house accounting.
Pros: *Simple Invoicing *Simple Expense Reporting, including mobile app for real-time receipt capture *Great system
Cons: *Very few *Wish we could setup email triggers so that when invoices were marked paid by someone on the team, others could automatically be notified
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
1-2 years
A verified reviewer
Great accounting software. Unfortunately, some idipts decided that negative inventory is not needed, so it was a complete waste of time and money seting up their accounting and integrations.
They also do not advertise this lack of feature which i think is a bit dodgey as this is a fundamental feature for many business models.
Pros: Good sound accounting logic with a fairly simple approach. Also, offers some xreature features not found in other acct software
Cons: No negative inventory support, so there is no support for wholesale on demand or dropshipping.
Time used
Free Trial
Thanks for posting a review and for this feedback. We're pleased to offer a basic inventory system in Xero but do understand that the lack of negative inventory is a sticking point for those who need it. We have a really strong add-on ecosystem featuring inventory apps that sync directly with Xero, and can handle negative inventory e.g. Unleashed (https://www.unleashedsoftware.com/blog/negative-inventory). For those reading these reviews and wanting to understand more about the inventory function within Xero, here's a detailed look at what we offer: https://help.xero.com/InventoryOptions
Through our active community and messages to our support and product teams we're monitoring the demand for negative inventory so thanks again for raising this as a concern. -OG
Tammi DeVille Merrell, Owner, Hire With Ease - Affordable Hiring Support for Small Business!
I was a very frustrated Quickbooks Online user. Their support was atrocious!! I was so happy to discover xero.com and I tell everyone I know they should switch! Very intuitive and easy to use, great selection of built in reports, easy integration with banking and credit card processing and I love their large library of plug-ins. You can add virtually any functionality by adding a plug-in. They don't provide phone support, which concerned me at first, but their email support is on point - quick and effective.
Pros: Great support, great functionality, intuitive interface.
Cons: I have zero complaints with xero.
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
6-12 months
Jack Anderson, COO at Venture Domain Hosting
I started using Clientexec in-house version (year 2004) to generate invoices for our customers , then we move to Kbilling (year 2006) which is a standalone software, its a great software, but as it is not cloud based it is difficult to manage, then we move to Zoho Books (year 2013) which served most of our needs.
I decided to give Xero a run as apparently it can integrate with lots of other apps.
I am still trying to move data from Zoho books/Kbilling to Xero ,
May go back to Zoho Books...
Pros: Cloud based which allow many user to login to access system. Integrate with many appa
Cons: Not as easy to use as Zoho Books Cannot export data out Unable to sync banking in Singapore Unable to use Braintree as payment gateway Not easy to edit invoice template
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
Less than 6 months
Tiago Pereira Mendes, Managing Director at Multi-Mix IT Limited
I have been using Xero for a number of months after moving away from KashFlow. The product that Xero offers and pricing is great, sadly I wish there was more to say about their customer service. To contact customer support this can only be via email which raises a ticket, they assure you a response with 24 hours but this is regularly not met. If you phone through to their offices they say they have no inbound numbers they can transfer you to. Being stuck without access to the system because of an issue with a payment has left me sat around twiddling my thumbs. Not impressed.
If your self sufficient then I recommend this product, if you need a helping hand no and again - I would not recommend Xero.
Pros: Great cloud based accounting product
Cons: Poor customer support, lengthy email only support.
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
Less than 6 months
Claude Waddington, Business Development Manager at MyGravity
Xero is most definitely a brilliant alternative to Sage. If you're in the hands of a good Xero Partner, this experience can have a strong impact on your business performance and analytics as you can make great use of Xero's Adons Marketplace.
Pros: Xero syncs with CrunchBoards, ReceiptBank, Satago and many many others. Xero in collaboration with these other apps can help you gain further insight into your business performance and help you drive further growth.
Cons: Xero seems very keen to add further options to the platform, this could make the Xero platform harder to use for an accounting novice.
Rating breakdown
Value for money
Ease of use
Customer support
Time used
1-2 years
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