Xero Accounting Solution Reviews

“xero keeps accounting simple”

Pros

Running accounting for our 100 person company with Xero over the past 3 years has been very hassle free. My staff regularly tell me how good it is and the mobile app is something I really appreciate as well.

Cons

I don't have any major complaints. Submitting expense claims could be more user friendly although I was able to work it out in the end.

“You NEED this software”

Pros

Excellent software with a good, intuitive, and smart design. The accounting system is awesome.

Cons

A little more flexibility will make this software the best.

“frustrating reports and pricey add-ons”

Pros

Reconciling accounts is easy although that's pretty standard across most accounting platforms these days.

Cons

Trying to customize reports and pull the data I actually need is incredibly frustrating. The overall layout is poorly designed and not very user friendly. A lot of the terminology might be familiar to accountants but for small business owners it often makes little sense. The online help is pretty much useless and getting a response takes far too long. Feature requests seem to be completely ignored, with no reply at all. There are other products out there with a much simpler interface that cost a fraction of what it does. I only ended up using it because it was the only system my accountant would work with. Because of that, I constantly have to call the accountant for help and they charge a lot even for basic guidance. On top of that nearly every feature I need comes with an extra add-on fee. The 'remember me' login doesn't function properly so I keep wasting time with two-step authentication every time I step away from the computer for a few minutes. It also performs poorly on a tablet. The bank feeds don't provide all the transaction detail which makes some businesses hard to identify. Even simple tasks like memorizing transactions and splitting purchases end up taking far more time than they should.

“helpful reports and banking links”

Pros

The system is easy to use and it delivers a thorough range of reports along with the supporting schedules. Setting up accounts is simple and the banking integrations make day to day work much more convenient.

Cons

One limitation I ran into was not being able to generate a vendor payment history report for some reporting I needed to finish. It may have been user error but I was told that feature isn't available.

“clear reports for small businesses”

Pros

It is pretty simple and the layout is clear with useful visualizations and reports. It works especially well for someone new to accounting and running a small business.

Cons

A few features still feel missing and it doesn't seem to perform that well outside the UK. With our US and Spanish entities, there are quite a few things we haven't been able to use.

“overpriced and frustrating to use”

Pros

About the only positive I can point to is that it integrates with my bank account which is expected and something other platforms offer too.

Cons

It's extremely expensive, the support is very poor and the software is difficult to use.

“Overall good tool”

Pros

The platform is very user friendly, with a simple setup that makes it simple for people to use.

Cons

The reporting tools can be a little inconsistent at times and do not always perform as reliably as expected.

“simple payroll and leave tracking”

Pros

Across my last two roles Xero was the payroll system in use and it was easy to navigate for things like checking payroll and submitting leave requests.

Cons

It would be nice to have calendar integration though it's not essential. Aside from that, it handled everything I needed it to do.

“smart reconciliation features”

Pros

The reconciliation tools are genuinely impressive. Matching transactions is easy now, the system is user friendly and you can handle items in batches which saves a lot of time. It also does a nice job suggesting categories or accounts based on previous transactions.

Cons

Using the mobile app feels quite different from the desktop version. I only rely on it for quickly checking a few things but the overall user experience on mobile still needs improvement.

“Good for growth-stage bookkeeping”

Pros

At that stage of our business, it handled the basics we needed and did the job well enough while we were still growing. That said, there were several features missing that would have made a real difference especially things like partial payment support and discount options.

Cons

A big limitation was not being able to take partial payments on jobs and once an invoice was created, there was no way to apply discounts to specific items. That ended up making things pretty difficult for us at one point.

“reporting and reconciliation win”

Pros

Generating reports is easy and it also makes reconciliation much easier for the bookkeeper.

Cons

It still falls short when it comes to integrating with Shopify especially for handling invoices and inventory management.

“fantastic invoicing and bank sync”

Pros

Xero really shines when it comes to day to day accounting. I can send invoices to clients directly from the platform and it handles foreign currency much better than many other tools I have used. The direct bank connection is a big plus and the business summary gives me a clear snapshot without digging around. It also makes double-entry accounting much simpler and keeps everything quick, efficient and manageable. For small businesses and freelancers, it's a very strong fit and I also appreciate that it works across Windows android, iPhone/iPad, Mac and the web.

Cons

One thing I'd still like to see is better acknowledgment of customer feature requests. It often feels like many suggestions from users are overlooked or ignored.

“affordable and versatile accounting”

Pros

The pricing is very affordable considering how many services are included. Xero also works well with Stripe and supports multiple foreign currencies which makes it even more useful.

Cons

One limitation I noticed is that I cannot add my own documented notes in certain fields. That feels like an important feature they should include in a future update.

“reliable trial with full access”

Pros

During the trial, I put Xero through its paces to see whether it could replace our current accounting software and it performed exactly as expected. Everything functioned properly and I didn't run into any bugs, glitches or unexpected issues while testing it.

Cons

At this point, I haven't come across any downsides with the software. It does what it's supposed to do and I am able to use all the features I need without any problems.

“usable but support is painfully slow”

Pros

It is fairly easy to use when everything is running properly. Unfortunately, it seems to stop working far too often.

Cons

Getting help is frustrating because the only way to reach customer service is through their online portal. Responses can take hours, days or even weeks and even then, there's no guarantee the reply will actually fix the problem.

“paper-free remote workflow win”

Pros

The newer integrations especially with tools like Hub-Doc, have been a big plus. They're helping us move toward a paper-free setup which has been incredibly useful in this newer remote-working environment.

Cons

Getting the live feed integrated with our system was a bit complicated at first but it's working properly now.

“cancellation billing never fixed”

Pros

It worked well when I first started using it three years ago and honestly that's about the only positive thing I can say now.

Cons

After canceling, they still squeeze another 30 days of subscription out of you. On top of that the bug never gets fixed.

“Packed with powerful features!”

Pros

Switching over after roughly 20 years on QuickBooks was a major step for us so I didn't take it lightly. From the start Xero seemed capable of handling most of what we needed. The pricing was a big plus and I really liked the interface and how relatively easy it was to use. Multi-currency support was another strong point and the Stripe integration worked out really well for our setup. You definitely end up accepting some compromises in exchange for avoiding QuickBooks massive monthly cost but there are ways to work around them.

Cons

At the same time, there are far too many basic business features missing that really should be standard. Progressive billing, job costing and even the ability to create your own journal entries just aren't there. We even had to bring in a consultant and spend about $800 just to make adding purchases work better alongside HubDoc. You can see job costing categories on the invoice side but there's no real software functionality or reliable third-party app behind it to properly support that. The most frustrating part by far is the support which is basically nonexistent. When you raise an issue, they tell you it isn't a problem and then ignore the request. I also deal with the search function failing on me constantly. About half the time, I cannot get searches to return the client I know is already entered correctly, even when I type everything in properly. Instead, I end up going into the contacts menu and manually hunting things down by quote number or scrolling endlessly. After bringing this up multiple times, the best response I got was that contact syncing might take up to two weeks. This is cloud software in 2020, not the dark ages so that kind of answer is pretty unacceptable. Until they fix search and add real job costing, it's hard to see it as a serious contender for us. Right now, we're still manually entering every sale into a spreadsheet and then adding the related bills just to figure out whether we actually made money. On top of that they make support difficult to reach and when they do respond to tickets, they're not very helpful. They push users toward support forums, where there are already hundreds of complaints about the exact same issues and the threads are often closed to further comments.

“accountant-friendly account tracking”

Pros

It integrates directly to my bank accounts and my accountant can monitor everything as needed.

Cons

There's a slight learning curve at first but it actually helps you get a better grasp of accounting.

“reliable daily profit tracking”

Pros

Keeping up with revenue and expenses is much clearer with this software because it breaks things down day by day. Having that level of control over spending really matters and this tool does a good job of helping with it. It also reports profit and loss accurately, whether you want to check it daily, weekly or monthly.

Cons

Compared with other accounting apps, the features and functions feel pretty similar and don't stand out much. That said it does have a great cloud system for storing and protecting your data.