About Xero
What is Xero?
Xero is an online accounting system designed to simplify business tasks such as paying bills, managing expense claims, creating invoices, and more.
How do you use Xero?
Xero’s main hub is accessible online and used to manage staff and client data. Its Practice Manager tool is used to manage jobs, assign tasks, and track time. Xero can be integrated with external systems and connected to bank accounts to provide automated transaction feeds.
Who uses Xero?
Xero is primarily used by small business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers.
How much does Xero cost?
Xero offers three pricing plans. "Early" is for new businesses, sole traders, and the self-employed and is $5.50 per month. "Growing" is for small/growing businesses and is $16 per month. "Established" is for established businesses and is $31 per month.
Does Xero have an app?
Yes, the Xero Accounting mobile app (for iOS and Android) provides on-the-go access to invoices, contacts, bank account balances, spending, cashflow, and more.
Xero pricing
Xero does not have a free version but does offer a free trial. Xero paid version starts at £10.00/month.
Alternatives to Xero
Xero Reviews for UK Users
Feature rating
- Industry: Arts & Crafts
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Affordable professional level accounting software for small business
It's been easier to use Xero than I expected, but I had a nasty surprise at tax time when I realized the default accounts/descriptions for expenses did not correlate 1:1 to IRS categories. (I should have checked this more closely when I set up my accounts because it's a New Zealand company, and the previous product was local.) This means I will need to double-check all my transactions for 2018 and the IRS has my vastly overestimated tax payment until I can do that and file my return on an extension.
I've had a much better experience importing data from financial institutions because Xero uses a well-known importing service that is trusted by the institutions.
I like being able to match multiple invoices to bank deposits because I usually don't run to the bank for each check. This will be more valuable as my company grows.
I should probably find an accountant to assist me with this, but I haven't found an accountant who understands both craft businesses and Xero.
Pros
Professional double entry software at a very affordable price
Accommodates both cash and accrual accounting
Links to financial institutions to get transactions
Uses standard importer recognized by the financial institutions instead of just trying to log in remotely (and triggering fraud alerts)
Can match multiple invoices to a single deposit transaction imported from bank
Can keep using Xero as company grows
Cons
Pre-existing expense categories/descriptions don't map 1:1 with IRS definitions, so I'm having to go back to all my receipts to make sure expenses are entered in proper accounts because I didn't realize this when I switched
More difficult to focus on specific expense categories to check transactions
Have not been able to import historic data from previous app (possibly because it's not double entry) so I am still paying the subscription on that software to retain access to my data
No integration with Craftybase, so I have to enter supply purchases and customer invoices there independently
Alternatives Considered
Quickbooks OnlineReasons for Choosing Xero
Outright depends on importing data from financial institutions but they were extremely unreliable (apparently they don't use a standard importing service and my credit union kept flagging them as hackers for remote logins) and customer service kept giving me the runaround. It also isn't "professional" double-entry bookkeeping and can't be audited. Outright can't handle Cost of Goods Sold properly and requires manual workarounds. It can't generate professional reports needed when applying for loans.Switched From
GoDaddy Online BookkeepingReasons for Switching to Xero
QuickBooks introduced a special product for Etsy integration, but early adopters had problems with data disappearing and no way to recover it. Otherwise, the cost of QuickBooks to cover the same features I use in Xero would have been very expensive; even a QB consultant told me it's overkill for a business of my size. I forget which other products I looked at, but Xero was recommended by several owners of similar businesses.- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The best accounting software for small business
The software saves me so much time, I don't have to sit and do my accounts every three months for the VAT, it is always up to date and ready to view.
Pros
The software is so easy to use and I can reconcile on a daily basis to always keep my accounts up to date.
Cons
There is no easy option to add landed costs of goods without a workaround.
Alternatives Considered
Quickbooks OnlineReasons for Choosing Xero
To make my accounting simpler and easy to do, so our accounts are always up to date.Switched From
KashFlowReasons for Switching to Xero
Price and ease of reconciliation and use of software.
- Industry: Law Practice
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Relatively inexpensive and good features, but horrible feeds for bank reconciliation
I started using Xero back in 2012 after migrating from a desktop version of Quickbooks. Xero hasn't changed much in the decade since. It has not improved or gotten worse and the cost has only gone up slightly. Due to the poor quality of the bank feeds, though, I would not choose it again. The question now is whether Xero is bad enough to go through the hassle of moving all my data to another service.
Pros
Lots of features for a good price. You can do just about any type of accounting task you might need to do, even old-fashioned ones like printing checks. The price is about half of Quickbooks last I checked.
Cons
The bank feed (by Yodlee) is horrible. Years ago Xero representatives visited me at my office to get feedback on the product. I think they wanted to profile a happy small business owner to feature on their blog. I showed them how slow the bank feed refresh was and said that was my biggest complaint. Well, they didn't feature me on their blog and the bank feed never got better. For the past month it has not worked at all, so I have been manually reconciling transactions.
- Industry: Accounting
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
It took me a while, but I am a Xero convert!
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 BusinessReasons for Choosing Xero
I was contracting to an accountancy firm who had converted their entire practice to Xero.Switched From
MYOB Business- Industry: Consumer Services
- Company size: 2-10 Employees
- Used Daily for Free Trial
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Review Source
Math-phobic business owners no more - Easy to Follow tabs, instructions, with examples. Thank...
business 101 - understand your business reports - this makes it a lot easier and on google drive, perfect
Pros
reconciling bank statements with the software's created titles and tabs is so much easier.
Cons
this is easy for my level = I can check bookkeeping and accounting annual documents myself.
