Xero

Xero is cloud accounting software for small businesses and their bookkeepers, covering bank feeds, invoicing and bills. Payroll is a paid add-on.

Xero is cloud accounting software for small businesses and for the accountants and bookkeepers who work alongside them. It holds the ledger, the bank data, the invoices and the bills in one organization that an owner and an advisor open at the same time. Xero Limited has built and sold it since 2006, from its own site at xero.com, and it runs in a browser and in the Xero Accounting app. Bank connections pull transactions in on their own, and reconciliation offers suggested matches that the AI finance partner, JAX, proposes for approval. Bank rules treat groups of similar transactions the same way every time. Invoicing sends quotes and invoices with a Pay now button, automated reminders and payment options from Stripe, including cards, digital wallets, ACH Debit, Buy Now Pay Later through Klarna and Tap to Pay, with direct debit through GoCardless for repeat collections. Bills arrive through Smart Document Capture and are paid by domestic ACH, cross border or international transfer. Reporting covers profit and loss, balance sheets, cash flow forecasting, performance dashboards, financial health scorecards and industry benchmarking, and Xero Projects, expense claims in Xero Me, multiple currencies and Inventory Plus extend the platform further. Xero suits owner-run businesses that would rather reconcile on a phone than keep a spreadsheet, and practices that need client records open at any time. Service firms billing by the hour and retailers holding stock both find their tools here, though on different plans. Companies with staff can add Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto, and run a small team's pay inside the same ledger. It is bought as one monthly subscription per organization, with no per-user license fees, and payroll and Inventory Plus priced on top. The work lands on Xero at moments a business already recognizes: the morning bank reconciliation, the invoice sent from the van, the receipt snapped at the counter, the quarter-end report a lender asks for. Accountants and bookkeepers open the same organization to close a period and prepare filings, which is the collaboration the product is built around. The Xero App Store carries third-party apps for payments, inventory, time tracking and industry needs, and Stripe and GoCardless sit behind the payment options on invoices. Beside a point of sale or a project tool, Xero stays the ledger that the rest of the stack reports into.