Xero has proven itself a formidable option for online accounting software. But what exactly does it offer small business owners?
Xero specializes in providing cloud-based accounting software for small businesses, and it gives accountants and bookkeepers easy means to build trusted relationships with their clients through secure online collaboration. Xero has more than 16,000 partner accounting and bookkeeping firms globally, and it has a presence in 180 countries.
If you’re a Quickbooks customer currently, Xero offers a free conversion and you can try out all the features with a free 30 day trial. They also have two additional Premium plans and offer 30% off the first 6 months on all plans.
- Forbes rated Xero as the World’s Most Innovative Growth Company two years in a row, in 2014 and 2015.
Pricing and packages
If you’re not sure about whether or not you can benefit by using Xero, you can always opt for the 30 days free trial. Once you decide to pay for its services, you get to choose from the following payment plans:
| Starter | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| The starter pack allows for unlimited users, creating and sending up to five invoices, entering and paying up to five bills and you can reconcile up to 20 bank transactions. | The Standard plan does everything the Starter plan does with additional features, like unlimited invoices, unlimited bills and unlimited bank statement reconciliations. This plan also allows you to handle up to 5 employees at a time. | This plan features everything you get in the Standard plan but also gives you up to 10 payrolls per month and allows you to deal with multiple currencies. |
| $9.00 per month | $30.00 per month | $70 per month. |
As part of an ongoing promotional offer, you can save 30% on costs mentioned above for the first six months.
Features and benefits
Xero has an app library with 500+ integration options to help take the pain out of your business administration tasks. From inventory to payroll, Xero can find an app to make things easy.
- Cash flow. This online accounting platform gives you the ability to view up-to-date financial records from anywhere, at anytime, provided you have Internet connectivity. Bank reconciliation is automatic and requires no more than a single click. You can use the dashboard to view invoices, bills, expense claims and bank balances (and adding new transactions couldn’t be simpler). Creating budgets to account for future income and expenses is easy, and you can view and share a variety of reports in real time.
- Invoicing. You can use Xero to create professional invoices. Creating and managing quotes requires little work, and you can convert them into invoices upon completion of the work. You even get a notification when a client has opened an invoice.
- Payments. Xero is great at handling personal expenses – without complicating things, you can simply review and approve receipts. To save a receipt, you can simply take a photo of it using your phone. You have the option of scheduling payments and you can also batch pay suppliers. You can create and send custom purchase orders, and then copy them to bills for payment.
- Payroll. When you use Xero for payroll you minimize the need for manual entries and since the process combines accounting AND payroll, you can expect increased compliance. Tracking time and attendance becomes simpler, with employee hours automatically appearing in the payroll system.
- Tax. This accounting software lets you prepare W2s and 1099s. It prepares all the data you need for export, and you can also eFile directly using an add-on. You can export required details to import ready tax software, or you can export a trial balance that you can then upload to other tax software. You don’t have to worry about keeping track of changing sales tax rates, as Xero does this for you. Preparing and submitting tax returns should take no more than a few minutes.
How do I sign up for Xero?
Click “get deal” below to visit their webpage and sign up for the free 30-day trial. Your subscription will automatically renew, so If you are unhappy with the service make sure to cancel your subscription by visiting the My Xero tab on your homepage.