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Xero Review

Beatrice Manuel

In a Nutshell

Founded in 2006 in New Zealand, XeroXero was initially named Accounting 2.0 and came to the market with the vision to change desktop accounting. It can be accessed online or via mobile app and comes packed with features like automated bookkeeping, bank, and credit card account syncing, an invoicing system, accounting tools, and financial document management tools, though payroll is notably absent without paid integrations.

pros

  • All plans support unlimited users
  • Exceptional online support
  • Interactive quotes and lists

cons

  • The database search functionality is basic
  • Limits on bills and invoices with entry-level plans
  • Not scalable for larger organizations

Xero. at a Glance

8.2
Editorial Score

Products

Accounting, bookkeeping, invoicing
9.0

Features

Billing management, inventory management
7.0

Promotions

30-day free trial
8.0

Integrations

Integrations with various accounting, POS and other solution
7.0

Customer Support

Xero’s support team is available online for all its users 24/7
10.0

Xero. Xero. Visit Site

Xero at a Glance

Best for 

Small and medium-sized businesses

Price range

$12—$65 a month

Key features

  • Bookkeeping tools

  • Journal entries

  • Audit trails

  • Invoice customization

  • Financial statements

  • Custom reporting

  • Workflow capability with user, role and access management

  • Multi-currency management

Apps

Offers three Android and iOS apps. One is a mobile app, the second is an employee cost reimbursement app, and the third is for project management.

Integrations

Xero has close integrations with HubDoc. HubDoc is compatible with QuickBooks Online and Bill.com.


Xero Ease of Setup and Use

Using its direct conversion tool, Xero makes it easy to import records, transactions, and other information from QuickBooks Online. You can also import CSV or TXT-formatted files, such as contacts, inventory items, invoices, etc.

If you're new to Xero, you may utilize the site's comprehensive setup page to get started. An introduction video outlines the initial steps for establishing the website for your own business. You can put them into practice by following the detailed instructions

This involves linking your bank accounts, examining Xero's transaction categories, and managing your invoices. Some introductory information explains these functions, followed by connections to pages where you can experiment with example data or begin inputting your own.

Xero’s setup tool is superior to what most rivals provide, as it introduces you to accounting principles like the Chart of Accounts early on. This can be advantageous to first-time users, who will better understand Xero workflows after completing the setup process.

However, the lengthy introduction may discourage better-oriented customers who wish to begin working immediately. Thankfully, if you want, you can hide these steps and return to them later.

Overall, Xero’s layout and interfaces are neat and accessible for people even without any accounting experience. The user interface centralizes all of the user’s account information on a dashboard. The dashboard itself is customizable and provides a snapshot of the financial status at one glance.

Xero Pricing and Plans

Xero follows a software as a service (SaaS) model with subscriptions based on the type and number of company entities managed by the user. After a 30-day free trial, Xero is available in three pricing tiers.

Xero Early ($12 per month) has unlimited bank transaction reconciliation but is restricted to 20 invoices and quotes and five bills.

Xero Growing ($34 per month), which is the most popular plan, includes limitless billing and invoicing estimates and invoices.

Only Xero Established ($65 per month) has support for several currencies and allows for tracking of projects and claiming expenses. It also supports all the functions offered by Xero Early and Growing. 

All plans also include Hubdoc integration. 

While Xero’s Established plan targets corporations with more than 100 employees, larger businesses may still face some trouble adapting the Xero features for their business model if they make use of several payment processing options or multiple bank accounts. 

Overall, Xero’s plans are best suited for startups and small-to-medium-sized businesses. 

Xero Features

Ever since its inception, Xero has improved and continually added more new features to enhance its usability and functionality. Key features include the following.

General ledger and expense tracking

Xero enables users to track and record all spending. The mobile app features a receipt scanner that makes it simple to post receipts, and, if the receipt is digital, you can import it.

Xero users can also save supplier, product, and customer information to account for each expense properly.

Through the "accounts/transactions," "insights," and "monthly review" sections, Xero helps small companies monitor outgoing spending. These sections allow you to filter reports by dates and spending categories.

Inventory Management

One huge advantage Xero has over its competitors is its robust inventory management tool. With this feature, you can keep track of what’s in stock and populate invoices and orders with items you buy and sell.

Using Xero’s inventory management system, you can track up to 4,000 finished items. Other features enable you to do the following.

  • Look up the number of items on hand and available to sell

  • See the total value of the stock on hand for any item

  • See the best-selling and worst-selling items

  • See the most profitable and least profitable lines, etc.

Billing and Invoicing

Xero provides customized invoice templates that can be modified to contain your company's logo, items, prices, and other information. You can also save your templates for later use.

You can allow online payments for your invoices. If you pick this option, consumers will be able to pay using their bank account, Amex, Visa, Discover, or Mastercard through the invoice.

A few years ago, Xero developed a new invoice form. This new form expedites the invoicing process for customers due to its intelligent simplicity and visual appeal. It seems more modern and is less crowded than earlier versions, and it automatically saves your work every few seconds.

Xero can send invoices to your clients automatically using the information you provide. The software has the capability to issue reminders to clients whose invoices remain unpaid past the due date.

For payroll features, third-party integration is required. All three plans have an optional add-on with Gusto, a popular payroll application, for $39 per month and $6 per month per person.

Xero Integrations

Xero integrates with some powerful tools and applications, including the following.

  • Spendesk

  • Receipt Bank

  • BigCommerce

  • Timely

  • Stripe

  • PayPal


And the list goes on. You can have a look at Xero’s App store to check out all the available apps and integrations that Xero offers now.

Xero Mobile Apps

Three apps are available from Xero, each with an Android and iOS version.

The first application delivers a condensed version of the website's content. It’s divided into four sections: Dashboard, Sales, Purchases, and Contacts. The dashboard presents account balances, sales and buy totals, monthly profit, and cash in/out chart. 

In the Sales section, you may examine and create new invoices and quotations, while the Purchases button allows you to examine bills, purchase orders, and costs and manually produce bills and receipts.

The second mobile app, Xero Expenditures, is for workers who must submit reimbursable expenses but do not require main site access. This software allows employees to photograph receipts using their smartphones. Then, Xero extracts information from the receipts and populates it into the browser-based expense forms.

The third app, Xero Projects, allows you to examine ongoing projects and monitor tasks, time, expected costs, spending, and locations. This app is meant for employees who contribute to projects but do not require full access to Xero.

Xero. Xero. Visit Site

Xero Customer Support

The importance of support for small company accounting website users cannot be overstated. The worldwide network of advisers for Xero comprises application specialists that can assist small companies. Xero’s support team is available online for all its users 24/7.

There are no specific phone numbers provided for customer support on the website. However, the team responds quickly to email support. After getting in touch through email, users can also schedule a time slot for a chat. 

The site's online documentation is superior, providing detailed instructions for using the product. This includes a vast database of self-help resources like blogs, video lessons and podcasts.   

Xero has received 5/5 from multiple users and online communities in customer support and expert guidance.

Bottom Line

Xero is a cloud-based accounting solution designed for small enterprises. It provides features for spending management, accounting, and billing. Its mobile app is user friendly and can perform all the functions commonly performed on the website.

Xero includes excellent facilities for account reconciliation, project monitoring, and managing sales and buying transactions. Though it’s not highly scalable, recent enhancements to its setup procedure and company overviews make it a decent option for small firms.

Beatrice is a seasoned personal and business finance writer for Top10. She has completed a triple major in Commerce, Finance, and Insurance from Christ University with a CIMA (UK) accountant certification, where she won multiple awards at both national and global levels. After working as Executive Officer Analyst at Goldman Sachs, she worked as Head of Content & Operations for MediaBerry, a digital PR firm trusted by HubSpot, SemRush, Cloudtalk, and more.

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