If you’re a business owner, you’ve got a lot of responsibilities. Some of those responsibilities you love and others you can do without. Regardless of your favorite and not-so-favorite to-dos, you have to make sure all your t’s are crossed and your i’s are dotted. Your business depends on it. 

When you think about the stuff you have to do for your business but like the least, what comes to mind first? Accounting is likely toward the top of that list. No business can properly function without an accurate financial record. But very few business owners and entrepreneurs have ever said, “I love accounting!”

It’s time to make life and business easier with an accounting software that works for you and eliminates the hassles you hate.

Hello, Xero accounting software!

What is Xero Accounting Software?

Xero is the cloud-based, easy-to-use accounting software made to make running your business easier.

Just because accounting is necessary doesn’t mean it’s fun. Xero makes accounting much more manageable for small to medium-sized businesses. (Though it can handle work for larger firms as well). This accounting software takes complex accounting processes and makes them easy. 

Paying bills? Claiming expenses? Tracking project costs? Managing contracts? Needing to accept payments? Xero can handle all of this and make you wonder why anyone ever had to get a certification to be an accountant. 

Well… almost!

Xero is widely used, with more than 2 million subscribers worldwide. There’s a reason Xero is such a great choice for businesses everywhere. It’s intuitive to use and offers an extensive 30-day free trial.

Main Features of Xero Accounting Software

When it comes to accounting there are a thousand things to consider. Thankfully, Xero makes things as simple as possible and makes even the most complex accounting tasks look easy. Xero has the features your business needs to manage every aspect of your accounting operations.

Pay Bills

Xero gives you a clear overview of your accounts payable to help you see your business’s outgoing cash flow. Xero’s bill pay feature makes it a breeze to track and pay bills on time. 

You can quickly see what bills are due, schedule payments in advance, and access all your bills from anywhere, on any device.

Claim Expenses

The expense tracker Xero provides will help you capture costs, submit and approve expense claims, reimburse those claims, and view your business spending. 

You can take a photo of your receipts and upload them into Xero, making claims fast and paperless. You can monitor employee spending and see analytics to help you manage your expenses. Better yet, you can do this all on the go with Xero’s ‘Expenses’ app.

Connect to Your Bank and Reconcile Transactions

Xero allows you to connect to your existing bank accounts and set up bank feeds. You’ll have all your transactions flowing immediately into your Xero feed each day. Bank connections are secure and allow you to easily keep track of money coming in and going out.

With your bank account connected, you can quickly reconcile your transactions and categorize them the way you need to. Xero makes suggested matches to help automate your reconciliations.

Quote, Invoice and Accept Payments

With Xero, it’s simple to create professional quotes and send them to your customers. They can accept quotes on the spot. Then, you can convert those quotes into invoices and send them back for payment.

Invoice functionality is great with Xero. You can customize your invoices with a company logo, set reminders for your customers to pay, and accept instant payments, all directly from the app and available on the go.

Customers can make payments easily by tapping ‘pay now’ on your online invoices, allowing you to get paid quickly. If you connect your Xero account to Stripe, GoCardless, or other payment processors, you can get paid up to twice as fast!

Contact and Project Management

Staying organized with all the data you have can be difficult. But not with Xero. Xero is great for managing your contacts and projects. 

Xero gives you the ability to see details for each of your customers and suppliers, and the invoices, sales, and payments associated with them, all in one place. Connecting your email to Xero allows you to see all of your communications with your business partners as well.

Besides organizing your accounting details by customer or supplier, you can also track transactions by project. This allows you to monitor profit margins on specific jobs.

Handle Payroll

While Xero does not have its own payroll functionality, it still provides a solution. Xero connects and integrates with over 1,000 other software products, including one of the most popular payroll solutions: Gusto!

With Gusto and Xero you can calculate pay for your employees and automate payroll taxes, deductions, and filings. You and your employees get easy access to paystubs and W-2s.

Get Needed Reporting

Reporting is important. Your leaders need data to make decisions and Xero can give it to you.

Xero lets you decide how you want to present data. Customize your reports, compare and calculate budget vs. actuals, and better understand your bottom line.

Xero also offers you the ability to collaborate with any of your accounting advisors online, in real-time.

See Everything On Your Accounting Dashboard

One of the great features of Xero is the accounting dashboard it offers. Your accounting dashboard can be customized to contain the data that’s most important to you. 

See outstanding invoices so you can follow up with customers or see your banking information so you can stay on top of your cash flow. This business snapshot can help your business flourish.

And More…

At this point, you see that Xero offers some amazing features and gives you all the accounting functions you need to take care of business.

In addition to everything already mentioned, Xero has a lot more functionality for your business, should you need it. Between Xero itself and the many other products it connects with, you can:

• Store needed files

• Manage multiple currencies

• Calculate and add sales taxes automatically

• Track inventories

• Manage fixed assets

• Make purchase orders

For everything accounting, Xero has you covered!

Xero Pricing Plans

Not all features mentioned above are available with every plan Xero offers. However, with the pricing options Xero has, you can find what’s right for your business and dive in.

For newer businesses or the self-employed, Xero offers its “Early” plan. For only $12/month, you can get the accounting basics you need to track and manage your finances.

For businesses that are growing, Xero offers its “Growing” plan for $34/month. This plan gives you an additional invoice, quote, and billing capability, as well as the ability to reconcile transactions in bulk.

If your business has been around for a while and is of larger size, you may benefit from Xero’s “Established” plan. This plan is $65/month and gives you every feature mentioned above.

One of the standout things about Xero is that with any plan you can have an unlimited number of users.

Let Lamplight Advisors Manage Your Accounting Needs

At Lamplight Advisors, we strive to help you keep business flowing. We know the difficulties of running a business and seek to assist companies in making the best financial decisions possible. 

We are a CFO services company that aims to assist creative firms in managing their profit plan and accounting needs. If you’d like help managing your accounting, bookkeeping, or any other operating needs, Lamplight Advisors can help.

To see how we can help you manage your day-to-day commitments so you can get back to painting the big picture for your business, click here to schedule a conversation today.