Xero

Kirkwood Wilson Accountants offers support for a variety of cloud accounting packages which include Xero, Sage and Quickbooks. Our favourite piece of software is most definitely Xero! We’re really proud to say that we are Xero gold partners and all of our staff are Xero champions. We’ve invested heavily into really getting under the skin of Xero, allowing us to give our clients the best experience possible. Xero is constantly making innovations in our sector, driving the industry forward and saving us time on our day-to-day workload.

Although we love Xero, sometimes the client might need a little more than it currently offers. It has a pretty comprehensive product offering, but it doesn’t deal fantastically well with some things such as stock. Instead, it’s open API means app developers can integrate their software with Xero, meaning our clients can move to Xero knowing their accountancy software does everything they need it to, with the help of the add-on marketplace.

Xero’s cloud-based features mean that it can be accessed from any location in the world as long as there’s an internet connection. I always remember a client telling me they were invoicing their customers from a sun lounger on the Costa del Sol. Not my idea of a holiday but handy in any case!

It's user-friendly, and staff can be given specific levels of access which mean they can invoice, but won’t be able to see payroll information or the company’s bank account. It’s a really useful tool, meaning the company director doesn’t need to be in charge of invoicing anymore. It gives them some of their time back and they can focus on taking their business forward! It’s completely changed the way our practise operates over the last five years, and has really helped free up our time so that we can help clients with the things that really matter.

I switched to Xero from QBO a few years ago, and it has been working well . Though my accountant is not as familiar with the platform, she has been able to access the necessary information and run pertinent reports as needed. Things I like about Xero: • Seems more lightweight than QBO so responds more quickly and feels less buggy • Ability to import time tracking invoices from Everhour to Xero as well as auto-generate recurring invoices without conflicting invoice numbers (that was an issue with QBO — it didn't like that I was generating invoices from two different sources) • Ability to integrate easily with Stripe and PayPal for digital payment methods (QBO offers credit card processing, but I think you have to use their service... or at least you did at the time) • Automated reconciliation and bank record matching works pretty well, and it handles the credit card processing fees & transfers much more smoothly than QBO ever did (QBO was always confused about processing fees and where the money was moving from, so it required a lot of manual processes) Areas of improvement: • The Xero reporting options are pretty basic with very limited customization options, so you basically have to export your data to a CSV and manipulate it there for anything more complex • The interface feels dated, and while it's still fairly intuitive, it's not as 'pretty' as it could be. There are some upgraded views that you can optionally enable, but then you lose some features, so I haven't adopted them fully yet • All contacts just get lumped into one giant list, which is great if you have clients who are also vendors (which I do); however, it also makes it difficult to view specific groups (without manual work to categorize them into 'client' & 'vendor' groups) • Because of the combined contact list including vendors & clients, when Xero integrates with Everhour, the full contact list is pulled into Everhour, and I have to manually archive any non-client contacts to keep my Everhour client list accurate (since presumably I won't be billing Amazon.com for hourly projects lol). While archiving them isn't required for Everhour functionality, I prefer to keep my records tidy. Overall, I'm pleased with the decision to switch to Xero, and I would recommend it to other small business owners depending on their specific needs.

Xero was the worst business decision we ever made. Their customer service can't even be put into words. Be very careful before choosing Xero. There are a lot of product failings as well such as no Delivery Note/Dispatch Docket capability (they'll tell you about a "workaround" which there is BUT it means 10 clicks to get it done and that's after you set it up). We're in Ireland, it can't manage our VAT returns effectively, it can't do Return of Trading details at end of year, you can't lock out VAT periods so users can easily go back and screw up retruned VAT periods. You can't dupicate a product/service in order to easily create a new one, it's hard work to move a line item in a quote or invoice, there are so many glitches and annoyances with the system. Many of these seem small and you'd expect they'd fix/improve them but even with hundreds and thousands of requests from hundreds and thousands of customers, they just fall on deaf ears. With all their faults, easily the worst one is their customer service - basically they don't have any and they don't care about their customers. At all. They don't even have a way to contact them, no email, no phone number, just their Xero central database that you have to log on to, just to ask a question. If you're a micro business like a sole trader with no employees, maybe it will do fo you, but if you plan on getting any bigger, you WILL be moving away again and that's a difficult ordeal and bulk of work so I urge you to consider alternatives now.

Xero has made working in a virtual space due to covid and working with offshore accountants and bookkeepers a breeze. Would highly recommend to anyone wanting to increase productivity and its also user friendly.

We've used Xero for nearly 10 years, and in many ways it has made life easier. Customer support is solid enough, and the bank rec features really help to keep book keeping labour to a minimum. As the platform has expanded their invoicing capabilities (at the same time Freshbooks was undermining their legacy customers), we shifted billing to Xero as well. For basic accounting, bank recs, expenses, and tax reporting it's very good. I have used and trained other people on Simply Accounting, QuickBooks, and QuickBooks online, and a few others, so I'm pretty confident in using and evaluating accounting software. Where Xero falls flat is first the lack of some basic features, and secondly a profound and bizarre habit of ignoring customer requests for basic features. For example, the inability to charge interest on overdue invoices. That's a pretty basic item, but Xero has not only opted not to add the feature, they have ignored a multi-year customer feedback thread with thousands of users supporting the request. Similarly, they don't support bundle/inventory pricing (ex: Sell Pkg A for $500, but account for multiple items or services sold). The answer for these shortcomings is always "find a 3rd party vendor" (like we had to do for recurring billing). These 3rd party services are costly, less reliable, and really shouldn't be necessary. If you're considering Xero, look carefully at what features you really need, and confirm they exist here. What it does, Xero does pretty well. What it does not do, is just puzzling.

In a world where everything needs to be connected, Xero is simply the best software for accounting where you can connect it to the CRM, your website, your bank (revolut) and simply scale. Better than QB in terms of interface and possibilities, especially if you plan to have subsidiaries.

For the field in which it is focused, it has all the most useful options in the market, in our opinion, since they fulfill their objectives very well without problems.

I have been using Xero in a reputed firm Cogneesol.com from last 6 years now and can recommend it! The usability is good, the ability to see really clearly how the accounts work is groundbreaking in its field. I love to use it for all the invoice processing and accounting tasks. The data automation is actually fun and linking it into the add-ons can make efforts a lot easier and save time and money. It is a great way to keep things simple and clear. For me, the biggest benefit is the clarity of the data and the ability to drill down into virtually anything to handle all the invoice processing tasks. It is enjoyable to use this software and it definitely does the basics very well.

Are you concerned about developing a stable and high-quality product then Xero deliver the goods. The service is fast and lots of care and unique output. What do you like about the company? service is fast and lots of care and unique output.

I find that Xero for most businesses is the best solution. Xero integrates into all of the different areas where we create invoices. It integrates into all of the different payment gateways that we use at Dorks Delivered, and it lets us see and make sure that we're doing everything that we should be doing with the government. It also predicts how much our BAS is going to be very easy and know that it is up to date near exactly as to what the numbers should be. The reason Xero is so popular is that it has that flexibility with what's called APIs or Application Programming Interfaces, but it's also because it's a robust system that's available anywhere that links into all of the major banks within Australia.

At waster.com.au, we find it very useful from an ease of use basis - i.e. for a smaller company with limited customers. Very simple system and easy to learn. Negatives - the functionality can be limited for larger businesses when you seek to scale.

As a CMO of Maple Holistics, following is my opinion regarding Xero Software:

Xero is one of the most underrated accounting software programs out there. Although it is not the most versatile software out there, keep in mind that it was designed to be an affordable option for small businesses. That being the case, it's more than capable of handling small business accounting, even for business owners with little bookkeeping or accounting experience.

The functionality and use of Xero meet the needs of their users. The customer service is great and the apps that can be used with Xero are very dynamic. Setting up a start-up or a small business with Xero and the right apps allows for a scalable back-office that can grow with an organization. For example, Amplify leverages Xero to help all size businesses automate and set up so that processes & the team can handle 10,000 transactions as easily and cost-effectively as they managed 10. Amplify researched a number of alternatives and we still work with clients on various other software but Xero is our preferred solution. The one thing that is missing however is consolidation. Our clients that have complex organizational structures and have grown to have multiple legal entities and divisions are not well-served with Xero or any of the available apps. In those cases we are moving to full ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems such as Microsoft Dynamics. Ironically there are times that the apps and functionality of Xero are more advanced than that you'd find in full-scale ERP solutions however the need to consolidate and have a full enterprise system outweighs those. The apps have limitations when you have multiple legal entities as well because they tend to sync one to o ne (one application to one legal entity) as opposed to one to many where you could see a consolidated or combined view of an organization. Where Xero shines is where they target - small and medium business and start-ups. A SMB or start-up that sets up with Xero and invests in the processes and technology that pairs with Xero will be able to use the platform for much of their growth and they'll find it to be cost-effective. Pair this with a Finance Leader that is able to use the functionality of Xero and the apps to provide financial information that supports business decisions and strategy and the success and growth rate will exceed competition and typical results.

Makes bookkeeping easy for me. Very easy to navigate rent payments and such. The reports setting and it's a filter, the automatic bankline features and the fact that it does stick rigidly to accounting principles so you can't go that wrong. The import from excel feature does save hours.