Xero Full Review

Introduction

Xero is aimed at small businesses that want to grow. Xero has its own set of reliable advisors who can help business owners and entrepreneurs make better financial decisions by organising finances better. The software package overall, even without the help of advisors, aims to simplify a business owner’s life by providing one space to help with paying bills, overseeing expenses, creating invoices and generally keeping track of all ingoings and outgoings. The result? A streamlined approach to accounting that ensures that it is more accurate, more reliable and therefore more useful for future purposes.

Price

Plans for its starter package start from £12 a month

Key Feature

Optional add ons make even standardised packages customisable

Key features and prices

Xero accounting has a range of packages that are at different price points. The £12 a month starter package is aimed at sole traders, new businesses or or the self employed. The Standard package is £26 a month and aimed at growing, though still small, businesses. The most expensive package, its Premium package, is £33 a month. Xero claims that it is suitable for any established business of any or all sizes.

So what do they all do?

The starter package allows a sole trader or entrepreneur the ability to send quotes and 20 invoices a month. Within that month, a business owner can also enter 5 bills, reconcile bank transactions, submit VAT returns to HMRC while also capturing other bills and receipts in its Hubdoc. A great feature is the automatic CIS calculations and reports tool. Users can also add on features that help with payroll, claim expenses, track projects, submit CIS returns, Xero pay with Wise and also an analytics tool that can use all input data to return meaningful insights into a company’s finances. These additional features are free for a certain period of time but then do cost an extra fee afterwards.

The higher costing packages offer the same abilities but with no limits on the number of bills and invoices or quotes that can be sent through the software. Additionally, they both allow for bulk reconciling of transactions and a short term cash flow and business snapshot. The Premium package additionally allows users to do business in multiple currencies. The extra features are the same as with the Starter package and requires payment once the free trial periods are finished.

Conclusion

Xero accounting is a good option for many different types of businesses which want to streamline their finances and ensure their cash flow is the best that it can be. By having a piece of software that ensures that invoices are sent on time, and quickly, a company is able to improve the speed at which it receives payments for its goods or services. And improving cash flow is key to allowing a company to grow and prosper. When cash flow is not an issue, any business of any size is able to make more timely decisions that can help improve a business’s operations. Be that from investment or simply having more cash in reserve for the future when cash flow is less positive.

Importantly, unlike many other accounting software packages, Xero has unlimited users for every plan which is really handy as it means you can choose the package that is most suitable for your needs, not the number of users you have. When you have to choose in that way, you often are paying for features you do not need to utilise, simply so you can have a larger amount of user accounts.

Ultimately, Xero accounting is a powerful piece of software at a range of affordable pricing. It is definitely worth trying for the 30 day free trial at the very least.