Accounting software helps to manage businesses’ financial and accounting processes. With so many accounting software in the market, it can get a little difficult to narrow down to the right one for your business. Zoho Books and Xero are very popular accounting software for small businesses. However, each of them has some unique features, drawbacks, price points and capabilities.
This guide will help you choose between Xero and Zoho Books based on their pricing, features, integrations capabilities, customer support and ease of use.
For clarity, we have divided the features of each accounting software per plan.
Needless to say, Zoho Books has more extensive and varied list of features at no additional cost to the customer. It also has significantly more advanced features (like client portal and workflow rules) that are not on Xero.
As Zoho is a global provider of CRM systems, it also includes significantly more branding options and even the ability to issue emails from the accounting software via your own custom web domain.
In our opinion, the only substantial benefit of Xero is it's flexibility when adding users to the system without impacting your pricing or plan. Whereas when using Zoho Books each pricing plan restricts the amount of users - although you can always pay for an additional user instead of switching to a higher plan.
Based on features, Zoho trumps Xero for micro businesses just starting out, through to the more sophisticated organisations with complex requirements.
Refer to the tables above for both Zoho Books and Xero pricing plans.
Xero accounting software has unlimited users and unlimited tracking of vendors, customers, and employees in its standard and premium plans. Xero also has full Accounts Payable in all its plans.
Whereas, the Zoho Books paid plans give you access to advanced features - sales orders and purchase orders management, time tracking, and budgeting. You should also bear in mind Zoho Books’ pocket-friendly invoicing capabilities.
Both Zoho Books and Xero have a convenient interface that is easy to navigate. Each of them has a customizable and interactive dashboard that you see as soon as you log in.
Even though Xero is easy to use, it has some parts that might be challenging to set up for users with no accounting or bookkeeping background, whereas Zoho Books has a nicely organised user interface that is easy to set up without being an accountant. However, it can get challenging to navigate through the Zoho Books features because it has some panels that are hidden within each other.
Understanding your business needs will guide you in choosing between Zoho Books and Xero. Choose Zoho Books if you are a product-based business that needs advanced inventory tracking, gives few people access to accounting data, occasionally use the mobile app and are planning to use other Zoho products. However, if you are already using a number of third-party apps - Xero should be the right accounting software for you.
Have more questions about accounting software? Contact us for support in choosing accounting software, or migrating from one software to another.
