Xero Accounting Software - August, 24 2017
I attended a Intro to Xero workshop today. I learned that cloud accounting is the way of the future and not moving forward with this trend maybe costly if you do not merge your clients to the cloud. The promise of the cloud is working with one data on one platform which allows for a better connection with clients because you can always check in with clients as they are going through the bookkeeping process rather than at year end. Furthermore, with the bank feeds which makes data entry easier and less error prone. Client will actual use the software more frequently and get better reports for sale figures and HST reports. Therefore, the cloud enables so much more than the traditional bookkeeping software which is usually on the clients desktop inaccessible to the accountant, so mistakes cannot be identified until year end.
Xero had options for accountants for clients that do not need a full accrual accounting solution as well for a lower monthly subscription price. That provides accountants with an option to have client records on the cloud rather than on the accountants server or local computer. This is a great transformation because at my work we have lots of clients on various versions of QuickBooks and Quicken files which sometimes get damaged or lost(we can still recover from backups, but it is usually expensive and time consuming process).
Xero is expensive solution at $30 USD per month, which is a lot of money per month for software. However, the Xero solution has many features that makes it worthwhile. The best feature is the control matrix which allows different users to perform different actions. For instance, giving a junior staff authority to draft invoices; however, a more senior person must approve and send them to clients. There is also batch processing and complex rules setting for certain transactions which allows faster Bookkeeping.
Therefore, Xero has a lot of offer accountants and bookkeepers well beyond QuickBooks.