Xero

Pros

Xero has transformed our financial management and provides us with all the real time data we could imagine, and where it lacks, integrations take over. While more "accountancy" friendly than some of the more simple products, once you work with your accountants to get this right, you won't regret it. The detail, features and holistic approach to managing company finances means that we are using this every day and with pleasure.

Cons

The interface is being updated, and it is needed as it is a little old fashioned in its design. That said, it is clean and clear and otherwise we love everything about Xero.

Pros

Ease of use - seriously. Nothing comes close. And trust me, I've tried a number of accounting software and they're all a nightmare to use unless you're an accountant.

Cons

Customer support could be quicker, and phone support would help.

Pros

Not much to say here anymore, they pretty much used to be good and totally lost faith.

Cons

As an accounting firm I would be very cautious with using Xero or recommending it to clients. Outside of Xero billing for things that were supposed to be free, which after complaining they claim they will reconcile but I had to threaten with a lawyer to get that reaction. As an accounting firm it is a very risky move to partner with the Xero software platform. As a firm Your clients will know your using Xero and as a result will likely start to follow Xero using social media. When this happen your clients will receive advertisements about other Accounting firms partnered with Xero. The problem isn’t that you will loose your clients, but this makes you look really bad in front of your clients that you are recommending a software that recommends other accountants outside your firm. This actually happened to me in Canada, and the response of the Canadian Xero team was simply that they didn’t intend on these promotions to be received by the clients of my firm. They didn’t care, they didn’t apologize, they didn’t even acknowledge what they did was wrong, it was evident that they prioritized their growth over their existing partners, at least in Canada. Even The Canadian director of Xero comments where limited to telling me ” I understand that you need to make important decisions in the best interest of your firm”. To me this was a clear message that he doesn’t care. As a small business the software was historically leading, recently, many clients are having issues logging in

Pros

Xero has a lot of automated features that make the process of accounts preparation easy and reliable. The bank feeds work smoothly and it is easy to set up rules to make the process automated on regular transactions - just a click to confirm entry. I have been able to integrate woocommerce, amazon and ebay transactions to ensure I am correctly treating VAT and International orders and purchases correctly.

Cons

As with any new accountancy software, there is a bit of technical detail to get your head around but that is probably to be expected. There are good help articles that are useful for the set up phase.

Pros

With most clients abroads, we find its best to bill them in their local currency. Luckily for us, Xero is there to help sort our books out and keep them in order. It integrates with many bank feeds & popular wallets/fintechs like PayPal, Payoneer & TransferWise so accounts are upto date - always.

Another feature we really use is their tracking fields. Xero allows users to setup 2 tracking fields that can be added to invoices, expenses, bills and assigned to each line. This helps us keep track of project based work and has been our way since before Xero ventured into Project based accounting (that users need to pay additional fee for)

It also integrates with online payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, GoCardless, and a few others; thus payments are a breeze for clients.

As a non-accountant, Xero is easy to use even when you get into all the features it provides.

Cons

They have made some changes to their UI esp where invoices and expenses are concerned. Luckily for older users, expenses are still free however, for new users it isnt and each person filing expenses on it needs to pay a small fee. I think it should be free for a small number of users (atleast 2) and then charged.