I switched to Xero because I had heard it was great for freelancers but honestly I’ve been a little disappointed with the invoice customisation options. You can’t add custom fields like Invoice Comment or Purchase Order number or Role ID number, there is only one user-defined field which is Reference number. Also a big thing which annoys me is the inability to send invoices from your own email client so you can’t send invoices with you own custom email signature which is important for businesses wanting to keep a professional look. Also customised docx branding themes are limited to Web Safe fonts which means you can’t make invoices and quotes that use your own brand fonts. Functionality is good but needs work on the branding customisation.

The latest update prompted me to write a review. I like the program but have to use my laptop to do most things on it. I pretty much only use the iPhone app to add receipts and sometimes to match up transactions. It used to be good for those functionsI updated the app two days ago and find it extremely clunky and slow now, which is really frustrating. It’s non-responsive or delayed when I try to scroll or fill in fields/search bars. When filling in the “where’d you spend?” field in purchases, the keyboard pops up and so does your contact list- but the field disappears, so you can’t see what you’re typing as you’re typing it. Very frustrating when I’m trying to add a new name/contact and can’t see whether I’ve spelt it correctly before I add it. It takes me much longer to add receipts now because of how slowly the app responds, and on top of that, it’s happened multiple times that I’ve gotten to the point where I want to add the receipt, or I have one more field to fill in, and the screen disappears and it takes me back to the overview purchases section. And I have to start all over again and re-add all the information. It’s like it just randomly cancels the receipt entry you were working on.I also can’t see all the receipts I’ve added since the day I updated the app, even though I’ve reconciled them. The app needed work beforehand but adding receipt was a breeze... now even that is a total pain. Not sure what broke in the update but it’s not working too well for me now 😞

Sounds good, but even my small business with what I assume would be simple accounting still has the numbers all messed up. Linked to my business account and I reconcile all transactions, but I still get different numbers between the actual bank balance and the two Xero balances. There is no tech support to call and walk through the issues. As a business I am told I need this, but I don’t know why I pay for it. I can’t even find time to solve the problems it causes. In the end I will likely end up paying someone else to handle it. In my industry we call that double handling. Not an efficient way to work.

Update: Response to Xero - I’ve been using your product as a professional bookkeeper since 2017, it’s not user error as your not so subtle post suggests. Your product has lost the edge it used to have over other products in the industry. Nowhere in your eduction central is there information on how to reduce the number of clicks it takes to create a new invoice when compared to the classic. Or how I can no longer create a new invoice from a file in Files, it doesn’t attach to the invoice it creates like it does in Classic.Or how you can’t type +30 into the due date field anymore.Or how the default clients settings don’t flow through to the invoice.New reports take an extra 3-5 seconds to load now whereas the older versions are almost instant. Yes I’ve tried all different browsers, the issue remains.Perhaps work on creating a more efficient product by implementing the customers suggestions on your product ideas page instead of removing current features and acting like it’s an upgrade when in fact it’s a downgrade.Product quality and improvements haven’t happened in years. In fact the “improvements” they have done have reduced functionality and made it run slower. Price increases are also rediculous given you getting nothing extra for your dollar. In fact compared to last year your getting less for your dollar when you consider the reduced functionality of new invoicing and the changes to reporting making it slower and harder to read - see the new activity detail report as an example. If you’re considering Xero, don’t, find an alternative, Quickbooks, ReckonOne or MYOB