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.

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

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

We are getting a very precise experience working on our finances with Xero. It has made it easy for us to streamline all our financial activities. Xero keeps us in check on our expenses and budget.

Xero provides us with very informative financial reports that allows us to gauge and weigh our financial position. Its security tools are so good and keeps all our data secure. It makes it so easy to keep a close look into our expenditure by tracking our expenses. Xero has a very secure book keeping space that helps us consolidate our financial files abd receipts.

No concerns whatsoever about Xero. It has been great and has shown us it great value.

Appalling. They do not listen to their customers. Look at the Xero Central feedback and comments. A very unhappy customer base.

It used to be good - but now the 'improvements team' have ruined a good product.

The development team are taking their lead from govt depts to incorporate e-invoicing and other 'goals' but dropping essential functionality. Listen to your customer base. Look at the Xero Central reviews. Your customers are leaving in droves, hence the marketing push for 75% discount to new users. Filling up your customer tank to replace those who were dissatisfied and left.

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.

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.

Xero makes accounting really quick and easy. It's easy to create, edit and manage transactions, and it makes organisation a breeze.

Integration with other software packages such as WorkflowMax and Rapport3, the number of reports available, easy bank reconciliation and automatic bank account syncing.

It takes a working day to pull through bank account data. This is an understandable limitation, but I'd love to see Xero create a way around it one day. Waiting a day to see if payments have come in is a pain, especially over the weekend.

The Xero experience is nothing short of amazing! The user interface is very easy to navigate so anyone can use it. There are various report that can be extracted to create various client reports. They have quarterly updates to keep up with the new trends and address new client concerns.

They have quarterly updates. Meaning, everything is up to par with what is latest in the market. It is continuously improving to help more more clients and target bottlenecks encountered in the operations. Plus the customer service is top notched :)

There are some updates that caused some hiccups in the payroll processing. However, all have been addressed.

It's user-friendly interface. It hardly, or never crashes leaving you with all your work lost. It's very reliable.

Although there is a way to create customizable invoices templates, its not very user-friendly. It must be made using merge fields in Windows word, a tool not very familiar to regular people. Maybe an upgrade on the invoice template/layouts would be nice received by the community.

A secure, trustworthy platform to keep track of our business finances in check.

Pricing can be seen as fairly steep, however aware it’s one of the leading products out there.

Overall the experience to use Xero is swift and smooth. The interface is fantastic with some very good features but pricing of the software needs to be looked upon and make it more pocket friendly.

Software has nice and interacting user interface with easy to use features. The best part is it allows multiple users to access the account and proves very useful for small businesses.

The initial cost of purchasing the software is high alongwith maintenance cost which creates hinderance for small businesses.

Reoccurring invoices and the simplicity of the program were essential factors to enhance our monthly invoice procedure and Xero delivered. Highly recommend

One of the things was that when attaching things you need to be extra sure you add them to the invoice so the client will see them.

Xero give me, an accountant, a tool to provide my clients with that effectively gives them a tool for keeping their daily records in an orderly fashion make my job easier at the end of each month.

Xero have been designed to be used by non-account business folks. However, once the data has been listed an accountant has a great tool to use to finish the company financial records (Monthly, Quarterly & Annually). It is also priced at a rate that works for most business owners.

I really do not know of any areas within the software that I can list as "Least" liked. I do not know of any significant problems which I believe need correcting.

Xero is an awesome bookkeeping and accounting software solution for startups and small business owners. It is indeed a good match for business owners who know nothing about accounting in order to keep their books and to properly manage their finances. From my own experience, I found that Xero is very user-friendly and its accounting interface is streamlined, almost seamless, and uncluttered. The Demo Company is very useful as you can manipulate data without worrying about messing up vital information in your practice company. Xero’s accounting dashboard shows the snapshot of your business (i.e., bank balances and reconciling items, outstanding invoices, and bills, accounts on the watchlist, etc.) and fully customizable depending on your needs. Quickbooks had been the leader of accounting software for small businesses for quite some time but Xero is becoming more popular because of its competitive offering and value proposition. Xero’s starting plan is very affordable and you have the option to add-on some features depending on your need. It also offers a basic inventory and fixed asset management functionality in all of its plans, which is very cool! And the best thing about Xero is the unlimited users allowed to access the financial information.

- Affordable and cost less for startups and small businesses - Includes fixed assets and inventory management in all of its plans - Very user-friendly especially during migration or conversion of data - Allows unlimited users - Friendly 24/7 customer support

- Some countries lack a built-in payroll option. - Customized reporting options are still limited. I wish Xero can allow you to create your own report. - The contact list of customers and suppliers is mixed together and needs to set-up manually to organize.

Xero was the best choice back in 2015 (when no one gave multi-currency) and still is in 2021 (when there are some who do). I have now added another company to Xero and cannot imagine shifting to another platform....ever.

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.

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.

Xero changed the face of accounting for our business. It has made accounting work far less painful than it used to be. And the true cloud-based setup makes it so much easier to access from anywhere.

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.

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

We moved from Sage line 50 to Xero, this has mainly been a positive experience. From our day-to-day usage, sending invoices, chasing debt, bank reconciliation it is very easy to use. Our accountant set up Dext to import receipts and expenses which means we spend much less time with data entry now and we are much more paperless than we were. The key driver for us was to work in a cloud based system that would integrate with other business management systems and Xero kept coming up as the one that plays nicely with lots of other services. Our managment accountant has taken a lot more convincing as the web-based interface can be a little more clumsy in some 'pure-accountancy' areas and getting the chart of accounts nicely presented has taken a bit of effort. Generally we're really happy with Xero and are also happy with the split that the CRM/MRP/ERP system is supported by that vendor leaving the accountancy to the accountancy experts.

Ease of use from a day-to-day perspective for a non accountant and integration with other cloud software such as Dext and Flowlens

We have had a couple of glitches where bank feeds have stopped working for periods of time, manual import of bank statements can take a few attempts to get right.

Since starting with Xero over six years ago, we couldn't be happier. We've centralised all our financial activity into one platform, which is great for non-finance people like myself!

Xero makes managing the finances for a business really straightforward. The user interface is intuitive and it centralises all my accounts information. One of my favourite features is the the dashboard, which is clear and customisable, and gives a great summary of the position position at any time. The software also integrates really well to other platforms for things like receipt capture and detailed business analysis.

I'm really happy with how it performs, however, our bookkeeper still does some levels of manual reporting, which he finds easier in Excel, than in Xero. The integration of BA tools does negate this issue.

My experience with Xero can be described as fulfilling, it has simplified my workflow and saved me a lot of time and effort, I no longer spend long hours at the office. This has also impacted positively on my health. I would recommend this software to everyone.

“It’s so clean to apply, even for non-financial human beings” My financial institution transactions are robotically connect to Xero so I don’t have to manually input them myself. I get my Financial statements the first week after the year end Another charming issue of this software is that it is a great idea if a corporation is unfolded across a couple of places with personnel operating in various locations. The accountants from every location can get admission to the financial data of all branches at any moment irrespective of their vicinity or time. As a world main provider of online accounting software program, Xero utilizes world-elegance cloud safety. Your data is appropriately saved in the cloud, and guarded from both Cyber criminals and perils like fire or flood.

The expenses tracking can be formatted to allow multiply currencies to be easily uploaded in batches or real time. No integrated ‘Debtor Chasing’ function so companies will have to manually follow up on their unpaid invoices.

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

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.

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.

We came to Xero from Sage and has changed the way we manage our accounts, and helped the team be more productive.

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.

certain functionality around automation and AI is not there but can be added via connected apps.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I use Xero in two roles in my life, one as an employee and the other for the accounting software for my husband's business. In my work New Zealand schools use this software as it is relatively easy to learn, quite intuitive and uses cloud accounting, enables document uploads for accountants to view etc. Once well set up it is also fast to use on a day to day basis. At home I assist my husband to reconcile our business transactions for our accountant. We don't have to go in to the accountant's office or email invoices etc as we can upload them to Xero for him to see. You can set up the dashboard to get an overall view of your business and how much money is owed to you, and bills you owe, how you are tracking month to month, and the balances of your accounts you have linked to Xero.

I like the ease of reconciling because once you get set up and code a few items it remembers them for next time for a faster job (you still have to check them to see if they are correct first). I find it fun and satisfying to reconcile in Xero as it is quite visual, you see several lines waiting to be reconciled and then as you work through the transactions, coding them and clicking on the middle button, they disappear. Setting up bank rules is also a huge benefit, as they get coded automatically, ready for you to just hit the green 'ok' button. You can use this for your usual bills for example, electricity bill, local cafe, cell phone bill, internet charges. Although it does take time to set bank rules up to make sure all details are accurate, it saves time in the long run. I like the fact that customers can upload documents into the files section of Xero and their accountant can see these documents immediately to work on them or code them. I also like the search function as you can search for a particular number, or the first few letters of a name or business to find relevant transactions. Being able to generate invoices and email them direct from Xero is great as it saves time.

It is not the software's fault exactly, but because reconciling is so easy there is a temptation to accept what Xero suggests for a transaction and reconcile to this account, instead of pausing and really checking if the code is the best one. Xero is first and foremost a business accounting software, so the reports it can generate may not be exactly what other users of the software need, like schools for example, who may need a Xero add-on to get what they most need in regards to reports.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.