Xero
Xero
I finally got around to having a look at Xero – and I’m glad I did.
We’ve been using KashFlow for a while now, but have a new requirement to handle multiple currencies.
KashFlow can’t currently handle bank accounts in multiple currencies – which is what we now need to do.
The people behind Xero seem to be based in New Zealand, but that hasn’t stopped them creating a beautiful, UK-specific app.
I suspect that they have country-specific tweaks for other countries too – but I didn’t get in to that.
Xero offer a free demo login to have a look at a set of demo accounts, and a free 30 day login to create your own set of accounts. The set up process was easy and logical and the app is a dream to use.
Having tested a few multi-currency applications, Xero has done the best job by far. You specify which bank accounts you have and in which currencies they are denominated. You invoice clients in whatever currency you like and, when you reconcile payment of that invoice, you choose which bank account the payment will be credited to.
If the payment currency and bank account currency are different, you’re prompted for an exchange rate – easy!
Xero also uses live currency feeds from FX specialist Xe.com to show you consolidated single-currency balance sheet figures – smart!
There is an API which we’re about to take a look at to ensure we can integrate Xero with our own systems – I’ll let you know how we get on.
For now, Xero has passed the first stage of ’can it do what we want it to do’ and our accounts people are trying to find fault with it 
– Here’s hoping they can’t.
27. August 2009 at 4:30 pm :
Great website and very useful for deciding outside of Sage and Quickbooks. They really are terrible to integrate with, I couldn’t agree more. Did you manage to try the Zero API?
29. August 2009 at 12:25 pm :
We did take a look at the Xero API and it’s looking hopeful. There’s already a Ruby wrapper for the Xero API: http://github.com/tlconnor/xero_gateway/network This is cool for us because our internal systems are written in Ruby on Rails and this wrapper means it’ll be quicker and easier to integrate them with Xero.
On the downside, the API does not currently support payments, although this looks like its coming soon: http://xero.uservoice.com/pages/5528-xero-api
From a usability point of view, Xero does look like it’s the best out there. Our accounts people love it and it has a nice budget feature which lets us compare actual performance against a budget – that’ll save us lots of spreadsheet work hopefully.
I’m optimistic that Xero will get their API more fully featured – if they do, I think this will be the app of choice for us.
3. September 2009 at 11:10 am :
Had some great support from Xero regarding their API – unfortunately it’s not yet in a state where we can make use of it.
From Tony at Xero:
So the problem for us is that as we generate invoices using our own app, we won’t have a way of fully automating the invoice creation & approval process until Xero address this issue: http://xero.uservoice.com/pages/5528-xero-api/suggestions/72870-be-able-to-approve-and-send-invoices-via-the-api
I’m pretty confident that Xero will get there, but for now, that’s a show-stopper for us integrating with them – back to the drawing board I guess. Probably for now, we’ll continue to use KashFlow and somehow fudge the multi-currency support – or do that part of our accounts manually – bah
6. October 2009 at 2:00 pm :
I had a look and they now have support for adding payments – and added it only a few days after your last comment!
23. October 2009 at 2:38 pm :
Sounds like Xero fits the bill for you…. and you did the legwork. Any follow reviews to report?