Here’s our comparison of the core features provided by Xero and QuickBooks. Both solutions performed very well in our testing, with small business expense tracking QuickBooks earning an overall score of 4.7 out of 5 from our accounting experts, compared to Xero’s 4.5 out of 5. These are the two highest scores our research team gave any accounting solutions. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
Plans to suit your business
Xero allows seamless mileage tracking by letting its users enter the start and extra large bath tub destination locations on the map. Admins can review and approve mileage claims to reimburse employees quickly. It also sends notifications, accepts receipt photos, and offers analytics data to monitor employee spending. QuickBooks allows users to track and manage various expenses, including bills, checks, purchase orders, etc.
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The cheapest plan, Early, lets you send 20 invoices and enter five bills. For example, you can’t bulk reconcile transactions, subsidiary company and you don’t have access to Xero’s most advanced analytics. That’s a big deal for small businesses with a limited budget but a lot of team members. QuickBooks has an online portal that users with common problems can check to resolve any issues without involving customer support.
Expense Tracking
More specific categories – Business, Accounting, Payroll, Projects, and more – have their own dashboards, accessible with a horizontal sidebar. You can click any data to see a full, detailed breakdown, complete with historical context, and you can set up data tracking to automatically generate specific reports. Core offers the basics, while Premium adds same-day direct deposit, role-based access, and auto time tracking.
Check out our comparison pages below for accounting software alternatives to QuickBooks and Xero. Send invoices, automate reminders and so much more from the comfort of your desktop or mobile app. Includes audit trails and easy accountant access; has millions of users so your accountant will likely be familiar with it. More than 750 app integrations, including live, in-house bookkeeping. Entry-level plan limits bills and invoices to five and 20 per month, respectively.
Like QuickBooks, Xero has a function to automatically calculate sales taxes for each invoice, as well as state or city taxes. A tax default can be set for any purchase, and Xero offers an integration with Avalara TrustFile in order to help you file your returns. Xero’s software also lets you map your accounts to different categories of tax form, keeping everything organized. With QuickBooks, you can even take photos of your physical receipts, which the software automatically matches to existing expenses. Transactions can be imported from bank accounts, credit cards, or third-party services like PayPal and Square. QuickBooks and Xero both offer a lot of features, including all the core abilities that make these two options the best small business accounting software around.
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- Both do a great job of accounting for inventory and calculating the cost of your inventory sold automatically.
- You can get your bank data into Xero from over 21,000 financial institutions globally.
- Using the QuickBooks mobile app, users can take pictures of receipts, and the software will automatically match its information with existing transactions.
The best choice depends on your needs — go through your existing business software and financial tools and see which platform they’ll integrate with. Also, consider whether you want to add other services, like payroll or inventory management, that are available through integrations. QuickBooks offers a main dashboard that can be customized with a series of tile-like graphs or lists, which lets you see real-time KPIs at a glance. Premium includes scheduling for jobs and shifts, real-time reporting, custom alerts, and time-off management. The base fee for both plans is half off for the first three months.