Across all pricing plans, you can also create custom tags for your reports. Xero is an excellent solution for daily accounting activities like tracking and paying bills. The platform makes it extraordinarily easy to review and pay outstanding bills. FreshBooks is one such option that has gained popularity in recent years. It’s designed specifically for small businesses and offers invoicing, time tracking and expense management.
The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions. A/P features include creating vendors and bills, recording purchase orders and converting joe waters footballer them to bills, creating service items, and recording full or partial bill payments. While it’s not part of our case study, we evaluated Xero vs QuickBooks Online in terms of assisted bookkeeping. QuickBooks Online is the clear winner because of its wide range of services available for users of the software. Not only does it offer QuickBooks Live, but most online services also work with QuickBooks Online, such as Bench, Brainy Advisors, and Merritt Bookkeeping. While Bookkeeper360 provides bookkeeping services for Xero users, it is also compatible with QuickBooks Online.
For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score. Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance. The banking section of this case study focuses on cash management, bank reconciliation, and bank feed connections.
Alternative Accounting Software Options
Another key difference between the two companies is the maximum number of users it allows. Xero has no limit to how many users can access data, whereas QuickBooks limits this to 40 with its Enterprise plan. Xero offers this through Hubdoc so you can access your documents online. QuickBooks offers receipt and document organization with its mobile app as well as the online version. All of your bank and credit card transactions automatically sync to QuickBooks to help you seamlessly track your income and expenses. With plans designed for businesses of every size, there’s no limit to the number of invoices, quotes and bills you can send.
As a larger business, you can also look into Intuit’s wider software suite, including QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, which claims to have 6x the capacity of other QuickBooks editions. The Enterprise edition scales up to 30 users, supports up to 1 million list items, and direct costs and facilities and administrative costs offers advanced reporting, inventory, and printing. These ratings are meant to provide clarity in the decision-making process, but what’s best for your business will depend on its size, growth trajectory and which features you need most. We encourage you to research and compare multiple accounting software products before choosing one. If you need to give accounting access to more than five people, Xero could be the better option for you. QuickBooks Online’s most popular Plus plan tops out at five users; its highest-tier Advanced plan allows up to 25 users, but that plan is expensive at $235 per month.
Transfer your data for FREE
Once connected, QuickBooks bank feeds give you an accurate, real-time view of your cashflow and finances. The platform will download all transactions from the last 90 days, and will also let you import up to 2 years of historical transactions. Data imports are automatic and secure, but you will need to reconfirm the connection occasionally for security purposes. All three plans have optional add-ons for an extra cost, such as Payroll from an additional £5 a month. Send invoices, automate reminders and so much more from the comfort of your desktop or mobile app.
- Xero is also a better option for businesses that are expanding internationally as it offers multicurrency support.
- While Xero’s lowest-tiered plan allows you to send and approve up to 20 invoices, partner apps that initiate transactions can automatically contribute to your limit.
- It takes just a few clicks to run through various accounting functions and get your expenses in order.
- Xero does add more customization in places, but is a little more clumsy with its reports.
- Our editorial team independently evaluates products based on thousands of hours of research.
- The banking section of this case study focuses on cash management, bank reconciliation, and bank feed connections.
Invoicing
QuickBooks also includes impressive unique accounting tools, including adding outstanding balance amounts to client payment reminders. You can also automatically record and match customer payments, accept tips via invoices, and split estimates into several invoices. We like that the latter feature, which isn’t common in accounting software, boosts cash flow for businesses operating on estimates. QuickBooks has long been the gold standard among small business accounting platforms.
We were especially impressed with Xero’s built-in Gusto payroll integration. When we tested Xero, this seamless integration powered the entirely automatic updating of our accounting records when we ran payroll through Gusto. We also liked Xero’s built-in integrations with the payment processor Stripe, the CRM HubSpot, the email marketing platform Mailchimp and the e-commerce platform Shopify. Business News Daily provides resources, advice and product reviews to drive business growth. join the quickbooks ambassador program Our mission is to equip business owners with the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions. As part of that, we recommend products and services for their success.
If you’re in the market for accounting software, you might be feeling overwhelmed by all the options out there. While Xero and QuickBooks are wildly popular, they’re not the only options available. There are a number of alternative accounting software programs that can offer powerful features and a user-friendly interface. QuickBooks goes beyond accounting with 750+ integrated apps, streamlining everything from payroll to customer relationships. This eliminates the need for multiple platforms, reducing time and effort while empowering smarter business decisions.
