Thomas
Moving to Xero? Manager's Choice
Have any of you actually migrated to Xero (from QB, etc.). I just attended their webinar and it seems attractive on many levles... but always like to get real feedback!
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FranciscoEspecialista en PYMES hispanasTop ContributorYes it will be great to hear comments altough I do not think I will change QBO for Xero... I'm to happy with QBO...
EricOwner, Hjortness CPAsTop ContributorI would be very interested in hearing about Xero. I just worked on a year-end with QBO. What a difficult program to have to work with for the next 10-20 years - a complete opposite from the desktop version.
Marilee R.CPA, MST at Wilhelm & Wilhelm, LLCI have one client on it. Reports are limited but easy to access. It was easy to download data to Excel. I didn't make any entries, just pulled down reports. I didn't need to read through any instructions or go in search of any help functions to figure it out. I'll probably take a closer look after tax season.
ChuckOwner, Charles E Strand CPAI spent a day in San Francisco at their West Coast offices and went through their adviser training for one day. I plan to bring a lot of smaller entities - nonprofits and small govt agencies to try it as it is a very easy learn curve. Marilee had some problems with the report function, but what I saw was just the opposite, as government and non profits presentations require a lot of wording change that quickbooks only addresses through their Financial Statement writer which I have had a lot of problems with
HeidiH H Schunke, MA, CPA, CGMA, CMSTTXero has telephoned me for followup, and I am looking at it. Sage One on line is highly recommended. I was a blissful proadvisor for Simply Accounting for a decade to find it recently became Sage 50 in the US only in 2012/2013. Then late in 2013 apparently my full service Sage 50 was rolled into/migrated to Sage One online. I have been a qb advisor for years. I prefer more vigorous software than qb, ie no required addons for inventory, etc..
ChuckOwner, Charles E Strand CPAHeidi, my sage representative lead me to believe that sage one was a lower end shoe box program, with a balance sheet, is it more than that, they gave me such a short time frame to experiment with the program I really did not get to use it
ThomasSole Proprietor at Thomas Amsberry CPATop ContributorThanks for all your comments. I had a few clients this last year that got thrown into running non-profits or businesses and just did not click with QB and so it was a royal mess trying to get their books up to snuff for tax purposes. (I also have problems with big companies that tend to nickel and dime you!) Anyway, I'm attracted to Xero because I would be able to help guide them in real time and on for my client's sake ... it is very intuitive and you don't have to have much accounting background. I also like that they give non-profits 25% discount. Anyway thanks for your comments. I'm grateful for this group as I have much to learn and your wisdom and insights are so helpful!
CarlaFounder at Carla Dirk, CPA & AssociatesI have one small non-profit that is disenchanted with QuickBooks. I would like to try Xero. How do I get in touch for a demo?
Chuck
JerryOwner of Jerry Levey CoI have been following the Xero growth but to make the huge change from QB Enterprise for Accountants that I use in the hosted cloud environment, not QBO which is horrible as noted in other comments but supposedly undergoing a major rewrite, would be a major undertaking that would be extremely expensive in time for training alone. That doesn't count trying to convince dozens of clients to change who would wonder what is going on. Always good to have a fallback plan though.
JerryOwner of Jerry Levey CoI have a client who is running a couple of small businesses who said he is using a QBO version costing $170 a year plus $35 a month for payroll. Will be interesting to see how that looks and any issues. Not too thrilled he is doing that because my experience with QBO is not good.
Comparing a desktop to a cloud base can't really be done in today's environment. Cost isn't everything and you will pay for better service and functionality. Up to us to show the client why the change to a cloud environment is necessary, unless of course you like working with multiple versions of a program, no easy access to their data, misused data files, the usual negative stuff.
I personally had to get over the fact that Xero's interface does not seem logical to my accounting mind, because it is laid out for non-accountants and that is their target audience. Overall I think Xero does a great job within their niche.
This is VERY helpful. My bottom-line question is this. What does Xero cost them, and for those who switched from QuickBooks desktop are they glad they did?
I also question whether its ethical to promote a product that you benefit from.
Most of my clients are using the $30 per month version and it works fine for them. A few of them have add-ons which run $25-$40 per month.
I don't think anyone switched from QB Desktop. 2 were on QBO, 1 was on Sage Businessworks, 1 was on nothing and the other 4 I am not sure about, but I think Xero was also their first bookkeeping app.
If someone is using Desktop QB, then price is a consideration, but the payoff is just like with QBO, you get access from anywhere and it can also be a time savings with automatic bank feeds and ability to allow remote access for other users.