Pros and Cons of QuickBooks and Xero

QuickBooks​ - An accounting software that is developed by Intuit. It is geared more towards

small and medium sized businesses. It offers on-premises accounting applications as well as
cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.

PROS:
● Easy to use
● Efficient
● Offers good accounting reports
● Flexible with 3rd party applications
● Affordable price
CONS:
● Lack of reports outside of accounting
● Instability/System crashes
● Lack of direct professional support
● File-size issues
● Limitations on the number of users

Xero​ - An accounting cloud based platform geared towards small and medium sized businesses.
Allows people to connect with the right numbers anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Has
tools for managing invoicing, bank reconciliation, inventory, purchasing, expenses, bookkeeping
and more

PROS:
● Collaboration between companies
● Cost effective
● Multiple users
● Affordable pricing
● Real time reconciliation - all transactions can be
reconciled at the same time

CONS:
● No inventory tracking
● No notifications as customers pay
● The client isn’t allowed to pay partial amounts, without sending money to the company
● Limited mobile apps
● Not suitable for complex processes
 Reflection
At my internship I use QuickBooks everyday. Personally I love the platform and I think that it
allows Hardesty’s to do everything that they need to do for their business. One of the major
downfalls that I have seen is that in order for more than one person to be working on it you have
to be in multi-user mode. Most of the time this is okay but sometimes in order for Chelsy to do
some things she has to be in single user mode. I was not familiar with other platforms as the only
one Hardesty’s uses is QuickBooks. After my research I found that Xero is one of QuickBooks
major competitors. QuickBooks and Xero have a lot of the same pros and a lot of the same cons.
I think both of these platforms are good choices. It really depends on the company and what they
are needing in a software. Overall, I think QuickBooks is a great program and provides
Hardesty’s with the necessary tools that they need in order to be sucessful.