Why choose Xero?

As a small or medium business owner, one of the questions you will need to ask yourself is which cloud accounting software you should choose. There are so many options available, with different USP’s and price points, that it can seem overwhelming, and often easy to be swayed by the lowest price or current offer, on the assumption that they will all do the same thing.

At Charterhouse our strong recommendation is to use Xero, who we have worked with for over 8 years as a Platinum Partner meaning it is what we know best, which in turn allows us to give our clients the very best advice to help them understand their financial information, resolve queries, or advise on decisions that will shape the future growth and success of the business.

To ensure this continues, all of our team in the Business Support Unit are Xero Certified Advisors and undertake regular training and attend product updates to stay on top of the latest developments in the Xero world in order to give the best service when it is needed the most.

Much of today’s world is centred around having everything at our fingertips and not waiting for results, and we believe that should apply to your business’s performance too, rather than only seeing these results several months after the activity has occurred. Xero helps with that proactive approach.

Some of the key features of Xero are:

• Raise and send invoices to your customers through the software; see when they’ve been viewed, and follow up with automated reminders.
• Connect with payment services such as Stripe and GoCardless to get paid quicker.
• Integrate data capture apps such as Dext to ensure supplier invoices and receipts are captured and categorised correctly in an instant, by uploading pictures taken on your phone.
• With a copy of the document saved as an attachment, you have no need to keep the original document and can free up physical space.
• Pay bills through Xero’s Pay with Wise add-on.
• Bank feeds which connect Xero to your bank and credit card accounts, pulling in transactions on a daily basis allowing for easy and frequent bank reconciliation.
• Full compliance with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital, Xero calculates VAT returns and connects with HMRC for submissions.
• A free mobile app allows you to work on the go and view your business activity, including creating professional quotes and raising invoices.
• A huge number of pre-created reports enabling you to see what’s important to you, but with the ability to create custom reports if needed.
• Free 24/7 support through the Xero Central hub, which gives you articles and tips to solve any queries, and access to a community of other Xero users around the world.

As you can see from the above inexhaustive list, Xero provides a single end-to-end solution for your business covering all the major bases of its record-keeping requirements.

There is a strong focus on automating as many processes as possible, which frees up your time while increasing the accuracy of the data, and opening up avenues for collaboration with us as your accountants, allowing us to analyse the real-time information and give the proactive advice you need to help you make decisions, or simply to know how the business is really performing and what tax liabilities may be building up.

Why choose Xero over Quickbooks or Sage?

The answer to this question is that in our view, Xero has the edge due to its user-friendly nature, modern design, online support, and overall functionality.

Both of those above named options, in particular, are established brand names and were market leaders as desktop solutions in the age before cloud accounting. However, time waits for no accounting software, and Xero was created with the important and ever-evolving cloud aspect in mind, while the others are now playing catch up.

Charterhouse can provide you with one-off or ongoing training and support to get the best out of your Xero experience, and are happy to assist you on your journey with the software.

Click here to receive 50% off your first 6 months subscription to Xero.