Xero Accounting System

As a successful and growing company within the ever changing world of IT, we are currently exploring the various finance packages that are now on offer within the market place. Here at Excellimore it is not only the frontline staff who help keep us at the forefront of cutting edge technology: all our staff are dedicated to delivering the best service we can for our clients. Because many of our small business clients work from Macs, our starting point was to look into Xero accounting as it is entirely online-based, and compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Thinking of changing to a new finance system can be very daunting for many companies as the finance system is often the hub of all the administration that goes on behind the scenes. Getting the correct system that can improve on your current one but can also allow your business to grow and develop never mind the time it takes to train your staff is a decision not to be taken lightly. We found the best way to explore the system was to use it within a test basis, working through everything we use the system for, starting with producing quotes for our clients, sales and purchase invoicing through to management accounts. Pros and cons of what we found: Pros

Easy to navigate and looks slick.
Cloud based, system App can be downloaded for use on the go.
Quotes can be emailed and accepted online.
Sales invoices can be emailed and paid online through PayPal.
Purchase orders are easy to raise and can be emailed direct to your supplier.
Can assign an expense / purchase invoice directly to a client’s sales invoice assisting greatly with month end accounting.

Cons

There appears to be no easy way of part invoicing your clients without going through the invoice history manually to check what has already been invoiced.
This makes the process very time consuming and opens up the possibility of invoicing clients twice for the same goods. The only other alternative is to raise two or more quotes per job which can be confusing for clients, most like to see one quote per job showing a total price.
Most companies would require to purchase add-ons to get the best from the system, depending on how many users you have this could become very expensive.
Being cloud based can be great as long as your internet connection is good.

To summarise, we think it is a good system for small firms on the go or companies who invoice quotes in full. Clients can pay using PayPal giving both parties payment security in turn cutting down on bad debts. Less need for paper which is good for the environment as well are your costs. Month end matching of sales and expenses ismuch less time consuming and more accurate, improving efficiency and reporting. On the down side it is not so good for companies who part invoice quotes, this could lead to errors when producing sales invoices. To alleviate this multiple quotes would have to be raised to make the assigning of the expenses work which could be confusing for your clients and time consuming. Like many other forward thinking companies we at Excellimore are up for the challenge of finding systems that will streamline our accounting and administration allowing us more time to assist our clients. Unfortunately at present Xero is unable to meet our needs, however as they are constantly updating and developing their system our hope is that there will be more flexibility on the quotes part of the system. We will definitely relook at it again in the near future.