We evaluated Xero vs QuickBooks based on ease of use, pricing, and how well each performed against the ideal features we’re seeking—including project accounting, inventory management, and mobile accounting. QuickBooks Live doesn’t offer tax filing or payroll services, unlike Bookkeeper360. Prices for QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping scale with the monthly expenses of your business, which means higher costs for businesses with higher expenses. We break down the prices in our QuickBooks Live review’s pricing section.
Xero may be harder to learn than a simpler invoicing platform like Square Invoices or Zoho Invoice. The Early subscription is tailored for solopreneurs and business owners who are just getting started. You’re able to send 20 quotes and invoices per month, enter five bills, reconcile bank transactions, capture bills and receipts with Hubdoc and view a short-term cash flow and business snapshot. In terms of report layouts in Xero, the layout on the monthly reports goes from left to right—most recent month to oldest.
- Along these lines, it’s also safe to say that Xero and Quickbooks Online are pretty evenly matched in terms of overall features, usability, and accessibility.
- While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe.
- Xero is a great option for large teams and small- to medium-sized businesses that need high-level accounting systems.
- With Xero, you can view the number of items you have available and see the total value of stock on hand for any item.
- With Xero, you have to connect your account to reconcile your transactions.
Customer support
Xero’s unlimited-users feature makes it a winner among larger businesses and well-established small businesses that require more than five users. It’s also less expensive than QuickBooks Online and a bit easier to use, thanks to its customizable dashboard and simple layout. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. QuickBooks has a wide network of banking partners, making it easy to securely import your bank feeds from a variety of banks and credit card companies.
While both software will let you create recurring bills, only QuickBooks will allow you to schedule automatic recurring payments. In addition, because QuickBooks is so well known and widely used, it is easy to find a local bookkeeper fluent in QuickBooks accounting software. In addition to the shared features listed above, both QuickBooks and Xero have inventory management tools. However, QuickBooks only offers them with its higher-tiered plans, while they come standard with all Xero plans. Ease of use gets the highest weight in this case study because we want to give more credit to easy accounting software. For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score.
Unlimited users for a low cost
So, you can technically access an uncleared transaction report in Xero, but it’s not a report that can be exported and sent out. Additionally, when it comes to customizing reports, QuickBooks Online has more to offer versus Xero. To transfer transactions in QuickBooks Online, you can use the left-hand navigation, clicking “Sales” to enter customer and revenue-related transactions. In this section, you can easily move transactions from “All Sales” to “Invoices,” “Customers,” and your “Products and Services” list as necessary. Moreover, in the “Expenses” area, you can easily access your expense transactions, as well as your vendor list in the top navigation.
Do I need accounting software for my small business?
All three plans come with an optional add-on for payroll with Gusto for $40 per month plus $6 per month per person. Gusto is a platform that automates payroll filing for all 50 states in addition to automating payroll taxes, deductions and filings and providing employees with the platform to view pay stubs and W-2s online. Therefore, t will be up to you to decide how their differences will affect your business and which option will work best for you. This being said, if you’re looking for the ultimate winner between QuickBooks Online vs. Xero, it’s difficult to say one solution is objectively better than the other. Instead, the Xero vs. QuickBooks Online winner ultimately depends on your business—what features you need, what your budget looks like, and what capabilities are most important to you. Another way that Xero stands out against QuickBooks Online is with their integration options.
QuickBooks and Xero are two of the best accounting software options with a range of pricing plans to fit multiple budgets. We researched both tools extensively to help you choose the right accounting software for your business. In this article, we compare their core features, pricing and pros and cons to help you decide which one is the right accounting software for your company. This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections. Xero is more affordable and scalable than QuickBooks since all subscriptions have unlimited users. If you have a microbusiness and only need to manage and track a few bills and invoices, then you might do well with Xero’s Early plan.
Explore additional comparisons
The Growing plan is best suited for growing businesses, grants the same capabilities in addition to the ability to send unlimited quotes and invoices, enter unlimited bills, and reconcile transactions in bulk. At the end of the day, whether you choose Xero or QuickBooks Online, you’ll be using a top accounting software platform that will allow you to efficiently manage and streamline your accounting processes. Although Xero does provide time tracking functionality, they only do so within their Projects feature set—which is only available with the highest level plan, Established. Finally, the time tracking calculating adjusted tax basis in a partnership or llc capabilities that QuickBooks Online offers sets this solution apart from Xero. When entering a transaction, you have an area for entering transactions directly by account and an area for entering by item (products and services). As we mentioned previously, you are somewhat locked into how your items are mapped.
