Xero Review

COMPLETE REVIEW

Xero was developed by the company with the same name, a company founded in 2006 and based in New Zeeland.

Xero also has offices in the US, UK, Australia and Singapore.

The company has over 1 million subscribers and its products are used in more than 180 countries worldwide.

Xero’s products are cloud-based and are especially suited for small and medium-sized businesses. They come with a free 30-days trial, with no credit card requirements. In order to benefit from the free trial, you have to fill in a form on their official website, with your name, e-mail address, phone number and country.

The three plans from Xero include the following features: the ability to send invoices and quotes, enter bills, reconcile bank transactions and multi-currency (only for the Premium plan). There are also 24/7 customer support included, regular updates, financial performance reports, inventory tracking, integrations with over 500 apps, secure SSL encryption, payroll processing (only for Standard and Premium, though Xero currently offers payroll support only for 37 states) and more.

Being the cheapest option, Starter does have some limitations: it only allows to enter up to 5 bills and reconcile 20 bank transactions.

All three plans can be tried for free.

There are also apps that are compatible with iOS and Android devices and that allow you to track your sales & income, perform invoicing related tasks and so on.

The interface is very appealing and easy enough to use. While it’s not the most intuitive and simple we’ve tested, it won’t give you that much trouble, especially when it comes to its basic features. More advanced tools might be a bit harder to find. The setup process is not difficult, but it is quit lengthy. There’s a lot of data that needs to be imported, such as products, contacts, bank statements and so on.

On the top of your screen you will have the Xero tabs: dashboard, accounts, payroll, reports, contacts, settings and from the ‘+’ button at the right you can add bills, quotes, invoices, etc.

We liked the fact that Xero has plenty of guiding tools, more than Quickbooks for instance, who is its main competitor. There are instructional videos for when you get started, a lot of guides, so even if you don’t get everything by yourself, you will receive sufficient assistance and support.

What we didn’t like were the customization options for invoicing. This is definitely not a strength for Xero, since you don’t have any templates to choose from, because they only offer a single one. If you want to modify and personalize anything, you have to do it outside the program, in MS Word or so. Other than that, there are a lot of useful options related to invoicing: automatic reminders, recurring invoicing, there is bulk invoicing, you can set an end date and the frequency, add files to invoices and more.

Bills can also be added much like the invoices. Xero lets you add recurring bills and purchase orders.

In terms of bank reconciliation, Xero connects to your bank account and each time you make a deposit or withdraw money from your bank account, the transaction becomes visible in your Xero account.

Another important aspect is financial reporting and Xero can run over 40 different and customizable reports.

Also, you should be pleased to know that this program includes integrations with over 500 apps as well as integration with Zapier. The only thing you should pay attention to is the fact that some of them depend on your country, so make sure they are compatible. You can find on Xero’s app marketplace apps for inventory, payment, e-commerce, time tracking and much more. Some examples: PayPal, Stripe, Square, Vend, Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.