Xero Review 2023: Pricing & Features

The software also enables collaboration with multiple users and offers flexible and affordable pricing plans. We researched and analyzed dozens of the best accounting and invoicing software solutions to help small businesses choose the ideal accounting software for their needs. Our information sources included the company’s website and software demos. Additionally, we studied user reviews for independent opinions on the software’s pros and cons.

• These reports help small business owners identify areas for improvement and make evidence-based decisions in real time.
• One of Xero’s main distinguishing features is the fact that it offers unlimited users even on the lowest tier plan.
• Some say it’s the best, while others run into inexplicable and ultra-rare issues and have a horrible time.
• Xero Early ($13 per month) has monthly limits of 20 invoices and quotes and five bills.

Once you sign up, Xero provides several guided tutorials to acquaint you with its tools, such as connecting your business bank account, adding customers and creating invoices. Many pages within the app have how-to videos and links to a step-by-step guide, which is great for business owners who aren’t very tech-savvy. Additionally, Xero offers a 30-day free trial, so you and your employees can try out the software before you buy it. Not every accounting software provider offers a free trial, so we appreciate this feature.

Xero Mobile

The initial setup for Xero accounting software isn’t difficult but requires a fair amount of information. You can try Xero for free for 30 days with access to all the features. After your trial period, you can decide which plan is right for you and your business. There’s also a timer for recording billable hours per task and tying it to an invoice. You can invoice by time entry or task, and you can mark up your prices based on your estimates in just one click. We liked that Xero makes it easy to manage your projects and make them more profitable.

But if your business needs project management or multicurrency support, Xero doesn’t come cheap. If you run a small business, explore all of your options by checking out the top alternatives to Xero. Xero Expenses and Xero Projects are rated 4.6 and 4.8, respectively, on Apple’s app store.

FreshBooks

The customization capabilities is probably the best out of all online accounting software. It’s best to judge accounting software based on what you need it to do, rather than what it can be capable of doing. Whereas QuickBooks is the market leader in the U.S., Xero holds a major market share in countries such as Australia.

We broadly recommend Xero for those who want a solid, reliable accounting software tool that won’t break the bank. We suggest that all businesses, except for freelancers, opt for the Established Plan for the most functionality and best value. The expenses section within Xero will allow you to manage your bills, purchase orders, and employee expense claim tracking, which includes a receipt analysis feature.

Xero is also a very secure platform; security measures include data encryption, two-step authentication, and 24/7 monitoring at multiple locations. Reports under the “purchases” category work the same way as the ones under “sales.” These reports are used to see which suppliers you pay the slowest and which you owe the most. A minor flaw in Xero’s invoicing is that you can’t add a note to your customer in your invoice. If there’s any important information, you can only communicate it through the personalized email that comes with your invoice. The second way is through your dashboard, in the “invoices owed to you” tab.

Is Xero Right for You or Your Business?

In our expert evaluation, we found that Xero has many great, useful features that can work with different businesses. Overall, it did an excellent job in most of the areas we examined, even though it fell short in customer service and the mobile app. Let’s look at our accounting expert’s walkthrough, analysis, and evaluation of Xero’s accounting Xero Review features. All and all, it’s an excellent option for sole proprietors and growing companies requiring an inexpensive way to manage finances and basic inventory. Xero is not free, though it does provide a free trial of the software for 30 days. Wave, Zoho Books, and ZipBooks are a few of our top picks for free accounting software.

Furthermore, you can scale it up as your company grows; Xero integrates with over 1,000 third-party apps for payroll, time-tracking, and more. Big data is changing businesses, affecting operations more each year. Growing businesses need data presented in an easily-digestible manner so business owners can act on the insights.

Inventory Tracking and Purchase Ordering

Users of the Established plan also get access to full expense management with features such as Expense claims, Automatic receipt scanning, Expense analytics, and the Xero expenses app. It lets you add basic contact information, as well as discounts and sales tax rates for customers. You can even create groups, which are lists of contacts to target particular groups of contacts. For example, you can create a list of loyal customers or customers in a specific state to offer promotional deals or send invoices in bulk. The Established plan opens the door to more advanced features such as multiple currency support, project management, expense claims, and in-depth analytics. Xero accounting software is remarkable for its scalable nature, making it a good choice for both simple and more complex accounting needs.

Kirsty is exceptional in her support and the fact tat she can access my computer to assist me makes the job easy. We transferred mid-year which creates all kinds of issues which the knowledge hub does not cover well. You can also assign the expense to either a company bank account you’ve set up, which would be non-reimbursable or a personal account, which would be reimbursed.

Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security features like data encryption, secure credential tokenization and more. While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe. We’ve been working hard to make sure the integration works beautifully for all our customers and we take your feedback seriously.

Honest Review ( Xero

Or you can snap a picture in the Xero Expenses mobile app and create an expense, which will then appear in the desktop version with a picture of the receipt (more on that later). If you’re starting fresh, you can use the site’s thorough setup screens to get started. An introductory video suggests early actions you should take to set up the site for your own company. You can put them into practice by following the exact steps outlined after that. These steps include connecting your bank accounts so you can import transactions, reviewing transaction categories, and managing bills. Some introductory material teaches you about these functions, followed by links that take you to the pages where you can either practice using the sample data or start entering your own.

price increase in 14 months

Like every other small business accounting application, Xero presents key financial data and links to related activities on its dashboard. The dashboard displays account balances along with links to reconciliation screens, which have been revamped and simplified. The dashboard also shows numbers and graphs representing outstanding invoices and unpaid bills, as well as total cash in and out.

Xero offers a highly guided setup process that walks you through every aspect of the software with pop-up windows and tutorials (Figure C). It also provides a demo company account that allows you to practice on dummy data. Customers who are brand new to accounting software will especially benefit from this level of help. Xero offers good import and export capability, so you can import contacts, budgets, bank statements, and PayPal statements into the product using a CSV file format. You can also export reports and other data using a CSV file format or through Excel. Xero does not offer payroll in any of its plans, but it does integrate with Gusto for those who need to pay employees.