No matter what type of business you operate, accounting is a critical part of it. You turn to accounting whenever you need to hire employees, make capital investments, or give stakeholders an update on their investments.
As the backbone of your company, your accounting team needs to have quick and easy access to the information and monitor your financial accounts, which they can get with the right accounting software.
Odoo and Xero both offer accounting software features that can keep your accounting team organized and efficient.
Odoo is an open-source, self-hosted business suite. It has all the features of an ERP, CRM, and accounting software combined. There are two primary versions available – Odoo Community and Odoo Enterprise.
Xero is cloud-based accounting software that provides features like invoicing and inventory management. It has three tiers available, depending on your business size – Early, Growing, and Established.
Here’s more about each software so you can decide which one makes the most sense for your business.
Understanding Xero
Xero is online accounting software that offers financial management tools for businesses in all industries with connections to over 30 banks and thousands of accountancy firms.
Xero offers a free trial period and customizations such as invoicing tools and integration with third-party applications such as Google Drive and Slack.
Who uses Xero?
Xero can be used by any company that relies on accounting as a critical part of its business operations. More specifically, Xero is designed to be used by small businesses, accounting firms, and bookkeepers.
What’s Xero pricing?
There are three plans for Xero based on company size—Early, Growing, and Established. In addition, you can add Payroll from Gusto starting at $39 per month with each of these plans. Start with a free 30-day trial before deciding which plan makes the most sense for your business.
The Early plan costs $12 per month. It is meant for new businesses, sole traders, and self-employed individuals who want to organize their accounting. With the Early plan, you can send quotes and 20 invoices per month, reconcile bank transactions, enter five bills, capture bills and receipts, and get a snapshot of short-term cash flow.
The Growing plan costs $34 per month. It is designed for small businesses that are in a growth stage. It includes everything from the Early plan but without restrictions. So, you can enter as many bills as you want and send as many invoices as you need. It also lets you bulk reconcile transactions.
The Established plan costs $65 per month. It is designed for established businesses that need additional accounting features. In addition to everything that comes with the Growing plan, the Established plan offers the option to use multiple currencies, track projects, claim expenses, and view more in-depth analytics.
What are Xero’s key features?
Xero’s accounting features can help your business stay on track with its financials, so you never miss a bill or forget to submit an invoice. Here are the features available from Xero.
- Pay bills
- Send quotes
- Send invoices
- 1099 reporting
- Claim expenses
- Calculate sales tax
- Data and analytics
- Bank reconciliation
- Online filing system
- Contact management
- Connect to your bank account
- Accept payments from vendors
- Option to use multiple currencies
- Create and send purchase orders
- Inventory tracking and management
- Track projects, including costs and project profitability
- Option to add on payroll with Gusto to any monthly package
How do I access Xero?
You can access Xero from your desktop, Android, or iPhone mobile device.
About Odoo
Odoo is a cloud-based software that can be used for several business functions, including business management, sales, manufacturing, and finance. It has more than 1 million customers in 160 countries. It’s an integrated business suite comprised of modules that are designed to offer functionality for every aspect of the business lifecycle, including accounting.
Who uses Odoo?
In general, Odoo Enterprise is used by larger organizations. Smaller businesses and self-employed individuals are more likely to use Odoo Community.
You can use Odoo Community for free without ever signing a contract. However, Odoo Community has some limitations. To start with, it only offers on-premise hosting. Additionally, Odoo Community has limited features for accounting.
Odoo Enterprise has more features than Odoo Community, including availability on Android and iOS. It also has more accounting features, such as AI invoicing, general ledger, bank statement reconciliation, and more. With Odoo Enterprise, you only pay for the modules you need. For example, the accounting module is $24 per month, and the invoicing module is $12 per month. You can see their pricing options on the Odoo website.
Some of Odoo’s best features are its offline capabilities (in case you ever lose connectivity), document templates for most tasks, and flexibility in choosing which modules to use and pay for.
Here are some key accounting features Odoo offers through Odoo Enterprise.
- Payroll
- AI invoicing
- Check writing
- General ledger
- Vendor bill OCR
- Expense reports
- Bank statement reconciliation
- Ability to sign accounting documents
How do I access Odoo?
As we mentioned, Odoo Community is only available on a desktop through on-premise hosting. Odoo Enterprise can be accessed on any Android or iOS mobile device as well as on a desktop.
Bottom Line
If you need accounting software, both Odoo and Xero can be good options to consider. Xero can benefit small businesses and accountants who need accounting software to manage their clients.
If you’re going to need additional software, such as customer relationship management (CRM), productivity software, a website builder, and more, then Odoo may be a better choice for you. That way, you can use one software platform without worrying about integrations. In addition, because you only pay for the modules you need, Odoo can quickly scale with you as your company grows and evolves.
Implementing Odoo can be a challenge on your own. Fortunately, you have us! Confianz Global is a Certified Odoo Partner. We know everything there is to know about Odoo and can use our expertise to make sure your company has the right modules in place for accounting and beyond. Contact us to get started.
Hire dedicated Odoo app developers from USA and India at affordable cost really fast and securely from Confianz Global®
Other ERP Comparison:
