Xero

Avantages

Great design, intuitive, great support files and videos, invoicing features are very good, being able to add files to transactions is a big time saver, the fact that it is a full accounting system is great in its price range, although for more complex features you may need an add-on application for example full stock management and stock control.

Inconvénients

The way the contacts database has been developed could be improved to make importing and exporting data easier, that has improved recently with the addition of client codes field. Also greater flexibility of controlling features a user can access would be great.

Avantages

Easy to use, easy to input data and there's often little popup boxes to explain what elements are. It's cloud managed, so no need to download any software or store anything locally.

Inconvénients

Support is a bit, there isn't a live chat support like there is with competitors and it lacks the aesthetics of products like Quicbooks and the same level of reports.

Avantages

Pretty, easy to use.

Love the bank reconciliation and VAT and PAYE submission.

Love being able to quickly generate P&L and Balance Sheets.

Inconvénients

A few rough edges especially in allocating payments, inherited I think from originally trying to abstract away the accounting functionality.

The UK Payroll feature can get complex, but frankly not sure how they can make it any easier.

Miss an easy way of generating a remittance advice when paying .

Avantages

Xero has transformed our financial management and provides us with all the real time data we could imagine, and where it lacks, integrations take over. While more "accountancy" friendly than some of the more simple products, once you work with your accountants to get this right, you won't regret it. The detail, features and holistic approach to managing company finances means that we are using this every day and with pleasure.

Inconvénients

The interface is being updated, and it is needed as it is a little old fashioned in its design. That said, it is clean and clear and otherwise we love everything about Xero.

Avantages

Not much to say here anymore, they pretty much used to be good and totally lost faith.

Inconvénients

As an accounting firm I would be very cautious with using Xero or recommending it to clients. Outside of Xero billing for things that were supposed to be free, which after complaining they claim they will reconcile but I had to threaten with a lawyer to get that reaction. As an accounting firm it is a very risky move to partner with the Xero software platform. As a firm Your clients will know your using Xero and as a result will likely start to follow Xero using social media. When this happen your clients will receive advertisements about other Accounting firms partnered with Xero. The problem isn’t that you will loose your clients, but this makes you look really bad in front of your clients that you are recommending a software that recommends other accountants outside your firm. This actually happened to me in Canada, and the response of the Canadian Xero team was simply that they didn’t intend on these promotions to be received by the clients of my firm. They didn’t care, they didn’t apologize, they didn’t even acknowledge what they did was wrong, it was evident that they prioritized their growth over their existing partners, at least in Canada. Even The Canadian director of Xero comments where limited to telling me ” I understand that you need to make important decisions in the best interest of your firm”. To me this was a clear message that he doesn’t care. As a small business the software was historically leading, recently, many clients are having issues logging in