As a seasoned businessman, I’ve discovered that Xero accounting software is an indispensable tool for managing my seven businesses. This cloud-based solution provides a robust array of features tailored for small business accounting, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, with three subscription tiers to accommodate various business requirements.

In our comprehensive Xero accounting software review, we’ll delve into the platform’s pricing, plans, and features, highlighting the ease of use and how it simplifies accounting tasks such as bank reconciliation and payroll management. Additionally, we’ll examine Xero’s integration capabilities, along with the extensive user support and xero resources available to help users maximize the software’s potential.

Xero Pricing and Plans

Xero caters to companies at various stages of business growth with three xero pricing plans: Early, Growing, and Established, each designed to meet the evolving needs of businesses. The xero Early plan is ideal for sole proprietors, start-ups, and self-employed individuals, offering up to 20 invoices, five bills, bank transaction reconciliation, as well as bill and receipt capture functionalities, facilitating efficient invoicing and financial management. At $42/month, the xero Growing plan encompasses all the features of the Early plan, with the added benefit of bulk transaction reconciliation, which streamlines financial operations for expanding businesses. The xero Established plan, priced at $78/month, extends the Growing plan’s offerings with additional capabilities such as multi-currency support, project tracking, expense management, and comprehensive analytics, providing an all-encompassing solution for well-established enterprises.

Xero’s pricing structure is tailored to feature access rather than the number of users, positioning it as an ideal solution for financial management across various business growth stages. All Xero plans boast unlimited user permissions and encompass 24/7 xero online support, the flexibility of cancellation with one month’s notice, robust data protection measures, and the option to integrate Gusto payroll software for enhanced payroll management. The software offers a 30-day free trial with access to all features.

As a veteran entrepreneur overseeing seven ventures, I find the xero Established plan instrumental in fostering business growth. It empowers me to streamline operations, reconcile transactions effortlessly, and grants immediate access to financials across all entities. The payroll feature is a particular boon, simplifying employee payments. In addition, the xero Float App is an invaluable tool for predictive financial forecasting that I employ, integrating flawlessly with Xero. The inventory management and payroll management capabilities are especially beneficial for the efficient administration of my enterprises.

Features and Usability

The xero user-friendly interface and insightful visualizations transform complex accounting data into easily comprehensible information, catering to users regardless of their accounting platform expertise. The software’s suite includes automatic invoicing, a sophisticated xero mobile app, and dedicated 24/7 customer support, enhancing the overall user experience. Xero’s reporting tools adeptly simplify accounting data into clear bar charts, pie charts, and various graphs, streamlining data analytics for business owners to easily interpret their financial landscape.

As a seasoned businessman overseeing seven ventures, I deem Xero’s capabilities crucial for efficient financial management. The platform streamlines transaction reconciliation and grants me immediate financial data access across all my enterprises. Moreover, the Xero Payroll feature is a game-changer, enabling me to compensate my workforce swiftly and effortlessly. In addition, I leverage the Xero Float App for insightful future forecasting, which integrates flawlessly with Xero. Its inventory management and payroll management functionalities are indispensable for the smooth operation of my businesses.

Xero’s key features include:

• Pay bills and claim expenses.
• Bank connections and reconciliation.
• Accept payments and track projects.
• Payroll with Gusto.
• Manage contacts and capture data.
• Online invoicing and multi-currency accounting.
• Purchase orders, quotes, and sales tax.
• Analytics and accounting dashboard.
• Manage fixed assets and integrate apps.
• Mobile app for running your business from anywhere.

General Accounting Features

Xero’s comprehensive accounting features are designed to enhance financial management for companies of various sizes. Utilizing Xero’s tools, I can simplify complex processes and enjoy real-time financial data access, which is vital for the success of my seven businesses.

Key accounting features include:

1. Online invoicing is revolutionized with Xero, allowing the creation and dispatch of professional invoices, automation of payment reminders, and management of transactions from any device, desktop or mobile.
2. Expense tracking is made effortless with Xero, offering a system to oversee spending, process expense claims, and facilitate reimbursements through smart receipt capture and seamless payment features.
3. Xero’s multi-currency accounting capability is a boon for global commerce, supporting transactions in over 160 currencies with simplified calculations and comprehensive reporting for businesses engaged in international trade.
4. Sales tax management is streamlined through the automatic calculation of sales tax on invoices, which is determined by the recipient’s address, simplifying the process of sales tax management and enabling the preparation of detailed reports.
5. Purchase orders and quotes: Create and send digital purchase orders and professional estimates.
6. Inventory management: Track inventory levels, manage stock, and monitor costs for efficient business operations.
7. Payroll processes are enhanced with Xero payroll, offering seamless Gusto integration to pay employees, reconcile payments with the general ledger, and efficiently manage payroll taxes.
8. Financial reporting within Xero provides in-depth reports and actionable insights that are tailored to your industry, featuring customizable visualizations for the metrics that matter most to your business.
9. Fixed asset management is made easier when you collaborate with your accountant using Xero to manage fixed assets and maintain an accurate register, ensuring precision in your financial records.

I extensively utilize Xero’s inventory and payroll features across my businesses, and the software’s robust integration capabilities, like the Float app for cash flow forecasting, amplify its utility in managing my companies with high efficiency.^[6].

Easy Bank Reconciliation

As a seasoned businessman managing seven businesses, I find Xero’s bank reconciliation features, including financial institutions integration, to be invaluable. These features streamline my financial processes by connecting to over 21,000 financial institutions globally, saving me an average of 5.5 hours per week through bank feeds and automated reconciliation. This seamless financial management integration with Xero provides me with instant access to my accounts across all my businesses, ensuring I can effortlessly stay on top of my finances and make informed decisions.

One of the standout features of Xero is its support for unlimited users, which is a part of all xero plans, offering unparalleled flexibility for businesses of all sizes. This flexibility allows me to tailor user permissions and provide team member access to my accountants, bookkeepers, and other team members as needed, ensuring everyone has the essential information to perform their roles effectively.

Xero’s bank reconciliation features, along with its user-friendly interface and robust reporting capabilities, have revolutionized my financial management processes. The software’s automation of tasks, such as matching transactions and pinpointing discrepancies, minimizes errors and liberates time for me to focus on business growth. With Xero, I’m equipped with the tools and insights necessary for making informed financial decisions and propelling my companies forward.

Quoting Management

Xero’s quoting management feature is a game-changer in simplifying the creation and handling of quotes, which is crucial for optimizing business processes. As a seasoned businessman overseeing seven ventures, I consider this feature essential for enhancing efficiency and conserving time.

• Create online estimates and quotes in minutes using the desktop software or mobile app.
• Easily convert quotes into invoices and add, edit, or remove items as needed.
• Customize quotes with my logo and details, and use multiple customized branding themes.
• Download or print quotes, and respond to comments, revise, and resend quotes.

Additionally, xero quoting management enhances customer interaction by allowing them to effortlessly accept or decline quotes with a single click, streamlining the decision-making process. With Xero, I gain real-time business insights as I can monitor whether a quote has been viewed, revised, accepted, or declined, keeping me informed about client engagement and quote status.

Furthermore, the xero Quoter integration seamlessly connects with Xero, facilitating the automatic creation of customers, invoices, and inventory items in Xero whenever there’s a change in a quote’s status, thus ensuring a smooth workflow. The Xero Quoter integration streamlines the billing process by automatically applying invoice payments to the corresponding invoice in Xero when a payment is accepted for a quote through Quoter. These enhancements, including the ability to save invoice item presets for frequently used items, optimize invoicing efficiency and accuracy, make Xero’s quoting management a powerful tool for managing my businesses efficiently.

Stock Inventory

As a seasoned businessman managing seven businesses, I find the Xero inventory management features to be indispensable tools for streamlining my operations and maintaining accurate stock levels across all my enterprises. Xero’s strategic LOCATE Inventory acquisition has significantly bolstered its inventory capabilities, offering small businesses a comprehensive view of their stock.

Key features of Xero’s inventory management include:

1. Real-time inventory tracking for up to 4000 finished items.
2. Inventory performance reports identifying best-selling and worst-selling items, and analysing profitability.
3. Import or export of inventory details using CSV templates.
4. Attaching photos or contracts to inventory items.
5. Adjusting item quantities, average costs, or total values.

Xero’s Inventory Plus add-on, accessible from the dashboard, offers advanced inventory management features. Xero’s native functionality is perfectly tailored for small retailers selling finished products in low volumes. However, as businesses expand, wholesalers, distributors, or manufacturers might find the Unleashed add-on necessary to continue leveraging Xero effectively.

The Xero inventory management guide is a valuable resource that delves into critical topics such as understanding inventory, types of inventory, inventory accounting, and management systems, providing a solid foundation for effective stock control. A complimentary PDF of the Xero inventory software guide is available for download, requiring only an email address and the selection of a business industry and type to gain insights tailored to your specific business needs. Xero’s inventory software is adept at stock level tracking, allowing users to effortlessly monitor stock levels and seamlessly integrate items into invoices and orders, simplifying the process and improving revenue.

Paying Employees with Xero

As a veteran entrepreneur overseeing seven enterprises, I consider Xero’s payroll features to be essential for optimizing my operations and ensuring my staff are paid promptly and with ease. While Xero functions efficiently as an accounting platform, it is important to note that it is not a Xero payroll intermediary and does not conduct payments on behalf of a company, it simplifies the payroll process by allowing users to:

1. Set up payroll, including adding employees and their opening balances.
2. Add a pay calendar and create employee pay templates.
3. Approve all employee leave requests and timesheets before processing the pay run.
4. Enter employee payment amounts and quantities.
5. Enhance employee benefits management by effortlessly adding additional perks or deductions to any staff member’s profile with a pay item in a draft pay run.
6. Batch pay employees or send them their payslips.
7. Download the payment file (ABA file) from Xero and import it into internet banking.

Xero simplifies financial transactions by generating Xero payment files, including ABA files, for download, which can then be uploaded into internet banking systems for convenient batch payments. Should Xero not support a user’s bank, there are alternative payment methods available, such as distributing wages via cash, cheque, or individual online transfers. Once paid, payslips can be emailed directly from Xero.

To process a pay run in Xero:

1. In the business menu, select ‘Pay Run’.
2. Open the approved pay run you want to make payments from.
3. To manage employee compensation with precision, simply click on the amount next to the employee’s name to access and review the payslip, ensuring effective payslip management.
4. Under ‘Make a Payment’, complete the fields and click ‘ADD Payment’.
5. Once a pay is fully processed, the ‘payslip status’ transitions from ‘Awaiting Payment’ to ‘Paid’, indicating a successful transaction.
6. To efficiently manage payroll, simply click ‘Batch Pay Employees’, choose the appropriate payment date and bank account, and proceed by clicking ‘Make Payments’.

The Xero Gusto partnership enhances HR functions, integrating payroll services, onboarding new hires, administering employee benefits, tracking hours and paid time off, alongside automatic payroll tax filings.

Integration and Ecosystem

Xero’s app ecosystem is extensive, offering a wealth of connected apps and integrations that cater to diverse business needs, ensuring high adaptability. Leveraging third-party app integration, Xero’s accounting software connects with over 1,000 apps, allowing users to customize the platform to meet their unique business requirements.

Some notable integrations include:

1. BILL Partnership Xero’s BILL partnership is set to revolutionize accounts payable for US customers, offering advanced capabilities through this strategic alliance. Xero customers can now tap into BILL’s expansive financial network, which includes 5.8 million members, to streamline financial automation and enhance cash flow management.
2. Lightspeed Integration Xero’s partnership with Lightspeed POS integration, a leading Point of Sale (POS) system, has revolutionized accounting processes by automating time-consuming administrative tasks, thereby increasing efficiency and enhancing accuracy.
3. Avalara Partnership Xero announced a strategic Avalara partnership aimed at developing a robust US sales tax solution within the platform, marking a significant enhancement for US-based users.
4. Float App IntegrationI personally leverage the Xero Float App for future forecasting, which integrates flawlessly with Xero, empowering me to manage my seven businesses with unparalleled efficiency.

Xero’s contact information is comprehensive, encompassing platforms like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, offering users a variety of channels for support and community engagement. With its extensive ecosystem and unwavering commitment to partnerships, Xero continuously broadens its capabilities, providing users with a comprehensive and adaptable accounting solution that caters to diverse business needs.

Customer Support and Resources

As a seasoned businessman overseeing seven ventures, I consider Xero’s customer support and resources indispensable. They offer free and unlimited online customer support to subscribers, with a dedicated team available 24/7 to ensure smooth operations across all my companies. Existing users can tap into Xero Central, the primary hub for online help, learning resources, and community discussions, to receive timely assistance and maximize their use of the platform.

For assistance, users seeking Xero Central support can navigate to Xero Central and utilise the ‘Get in Touch’ button after searching through the support articles. Xero will respond via email and, if requested, contact users by phone. However, it’s crucial to exercise customer service caution as Xero does not offer a direct customer service phone number. Users should remain vigilant against potential scams from numbers found online.

In addition to customer support, Xero provides a wealth of resources, including:

• Product updates.
• The Xero Small Business Insights program is a key source of small business insights, leveraging anonymized and aggregated data from a multitude of customers to shed light on the performance of small businesses.
• Guides and templates.
• An accounting glossary.
• Business resources.
• Customer stories.
• TheState of the industry special report: Leveraging the app advantage, which reveals how app usage fuels profit and client growth for Australian practices.

Xero extends a variety of resources for different business types, alongside features tailored for everyday business needs, and specialized support for accountants and bookkeepers. The Xero App Store is a gateway to a plethora of integrations designed to amplify the functionality of the Xero platform.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Xero accounting software stands out as a comprehensive solution, offering an array of features and integrations suitable for businesses of all sizes. As an entrepreneur overseeing seven ventures, I’ve found Xero indispensable for optimizing my financial management processes, swiftly reconciling transactions, and accessing accounts on-the-go across all my enterprises. Its intuitive interface, powerful reporting tools, and a vast network of connected applications have greatly streamlined my financial operations, freeing me to concentrate on business expansion.

Xero’s inventory management and payroll features have been particularly beneficial in the efficient running of my businesses. The Float App integration has further bolstered my financial decision-making prowess. With a strong focus on partnerships and ongoing enhancement, Xero is poised to maintain its status as a premier accounting solution for businesses globally.

FAQs

Is Xero considered a reliable accounting software for businesses?

Xero is widely recognized as the best accounting software for growing companies, offering a suite of service plans, robust features, and seamless integrations tailored to support small businesses at different growth phases and adapt to their expanding business needs.

What makes Xero a popular choice for managing financial tasks?

As the leading software for tracking and paying bills, Xero excels with features that allow users to schedule payments, securely store bills, and effortlessly upload receipts. Its popularity is bolstered by the convenience of one-click payment tools, which simplify the bill payment process for users.

Is there a way to use Xero without any cost?

To discover if Xero is the right fit for your business, you can initiate your journey with a xero free trial, available for 30 days without requiring a credit card. Just provide your name, email, and phone number—the latter to ensure you receive personalized support as you start exploring Xero’s capabilities.

What is the learning curve like for new Xero users?

Mastering Xero software varies individually, with some users learning the basics in mere hours and others taking weeks to gain confidence. The key to proficiency in using Xero is consistent practice, starting with basic tasks and gradually advancing your skill set through regular weekly sessions.