Xero says it now has 100,000 paying Australian customers after adding 25,000 new customers in the six months since the end of August

Peter Dinham for ITWire writes: Xero Managing Director Australia, Chris Ridd, says Australian customer numbers have grown by two and a half times at the same time 12 months ago, and include nine of Australia’s top 10 accounting firms.

Ridd said Xero (ASX:XRO) had 75,000 paying Australian customers at the end of August last year and had now reached the 100,000 milestone.

“We have seen a real shift in accountants, bookkeepers and small business owners wanting to use a pure cloud based accounting solution to manage their finances. Our customers are tired of managing software installs and paying for the required hardware upgrades that typically follow new releases. When they switch to Xero, it’s the last update they ever have to do.” 

Just last week, the New Zealand and Australian-listed company announced it had surpassed over a quarter of a million customers worldwide, passing the 250,000 mark at the end of January. 

Ridd said the 100,000 Australian milestone comes off the back of Xero’s “record breaking annual February roadshow, where the registered number of attendees totaled 5,500.”

“It was the biggest accounting and bookkeeping roadshow in Australia.” In a campaign launching in April, Ridd said the company was offering 10,000 free conversions for partners in Australia to switch to Xero from competitor accounting software packages. 

Melbourne furniture designer Anton Gerner was one of the first customers to use Xero in Australia.

“I was impressed with Xero from the get-go,” Gerner says. “I’m involved in every aspect of crafting furniture, so I don’t have a lot of time on my hands. Xero makes my life so much easier and more productive.

“From materials to accounting software, my business philosophy is to source the best suppliers in their respective fields and continue to work with them over time. Xero is certainly one of those partners, which is why I am happy to proudly endorse what they do. Because at the end of the day, Xero transformed how I did business when I first started using it, and it continues to do so years later.”