Many companies use Xero for its beginner-friendly features and intuitive interface, though it’s not the best solution for everyone.
Specifically, it’s difficult to scale as it offers limited features like:
No real-time accounting
Poorly built for multi-entity accounting
Poorly built for multi-currency accounting
No support for cryptocurrencies
Minimal automation for mid-sized and large companies
Poor customer service
Overall, it’s a great solution for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, though as the business grows, you may need a solution that can handle a more advanced accounting system.
To help you find a better solution, here are a few of the best Xero alternatives.
SoftLedger is a cloud-based accounting system for companies that have grown beyond a simple small business accounting system, but don’t need all the extensive features of a robust enterprise solution.
This means it requires minimal training and only a matter of weeks to get up and running. However, it still offers plenty of automation features that basic accounting software can’t offer.
Below, we’ll dive into some of the key factors that differentiate SoftLedger from other accounting software, including:
Real-time data
Multi-entity consolidation
Easy integrations through our REST API
Multi-currency consolidation
Cryptocurrency accounting
Access to Real-Time Data
With a solution like Xero or any other small business accounting software, you don’t have access to accounting data until it’s consolidated at the end of the month.
This is a problem as you don’t have access to accurate financial data until the next month (usually mid-month because it takes so long to consolidate the financial data manually).
Therefore, if you have an expense that went well over the estimated cost, you won’t be able to react and adjust. For example, if ad spend is typically $40,000 per month, though it was actually $70,000 in January, companies using traditional accounting softwareprobably wouldn’t know that until mid-February.
However, because SoftLedger users have access to real-time data, they would be able to see that ad spend increased the day it goes over the normal amount.
For example, if the price of ads increases on January 6th, they would know that their ad expenses will be higher for the month on January 6th. This gives them an advantage as they would then be able to plan accordingly or course correct.
Key Benefits of Real-Time Data:
Access to accurate financial information at any time during the month to make better business decisions.
Know the instant expenses surpass the budget to avoid overspending and course correct.
Spend less time manually tallying data to improve each accountant’s efficiency.
Multi-Entity Consolidation
Many of SoftLedger’s best clients are multi-entities that are tired of creating multiple company accounts in small business accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero, consequently having to manually consolidate them all at the end of the month.
This makes the end of the month a huge hassle as any small adjustments made to a single entity must be manually corrected across impacted accounts. In addition, manually tallying all of the data) takes valuable time away from the accounting team and delays the reporting process.
However, SoftLedger automatically consolidates all financial data for you. Therefore, you don’t have to wait until the end of the month to see exactly how the company as a whole is performing or drill down to a specific entity’s financial data.
Multi-entity consolidation combined with real-time data is powerful as executives can make better investment decisions throughout the month. For example, if an executive is considering a new investment on March 15th, they don’t have to blindly guess whether the company can afford it. Instead, an accountant can pull up accurate financial data in minutes and tell the executive, with confidence, whether or not they can afford it.
Key Benefits of Multi-Entity Consolidation:
Close the month faster so that executives receive reports on time.
Accountants spend less time manually tallying data and more time focusing on higher-level tasks.
There’s less room for error as any adjustment made to a single entity automatically cascades to all affected entities.
Build Custom Connections Easily (REST API)
Most small business accounting software, like Xero, provides users access to pre-built integrations. However, as you grow, you’ll probably need to connect with more solutions than the integrations offered.
While enterprise-level ERP accounting software enables you to build your own custom connections, it also takes months to build integrations as it requires someone with proprietary programming language of that solution to configure it to work.
Overall, it’s expensive, slow, and often more powerful than a typical mid-size or large company needs. Therefore, we built SoftLedger to solve this problem.
Specifically, SoftLedger enables users to build custom connections to other software via REST API. This means any developer can easily build deep integrations quickly, freeing up your team’s time to work on higher-level activities.
Key Benefits of a REST API:
Easily integrate with virtually any other solution quickly and easily (your developers don’t need to know a proprietary programming language).
You aren’t limited to the integrations available through the small business accounting software.
Multi-Currency Consolidation
With most small business accounting platforms, users have to manually apply the foreign exchange rate at the end of the month, meaning the company has no visibility into its financial status during the month.
In addition, consolidating data at the end of the month is time-consuming and allows for errors to arise.
Even if the platform claims to consolidate foreign currencies, these systems typically only apply the foreign currency rate at the end of the month. Therefore, while it is faster than manually consolidating the data, it still leaves you guessing how the company is doing financially throughout the month.
Instead, SoftLedger automatically applies the foreign exchange rate the moment an entry is added to the ledger. This means you have accurate financial data throughout the month and never have to worry about correcting mistakes.
Key Benefits of Multi-Currency Consolidation:
Know exactly how well you’re doing financially at any moment during the month (rather than waiting until the end of the month to apply the exchange rate).
Improve the efficiency of accountants as they’ll never have to apply the exchange rate manually again.
Never worry about mistakes from exchange rates being entered incorrectly or failing to adjust accounts indirectly impacted by exchange rates.
Cryptocurrency Accounting
SoftLedger also offers a full-featured accounting system that supports cryptocurrency, making it easy to track Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions automatically.
It integrates with some of the largest exchanges and blockchains, for example, Coinbase, Bitfinex, Kraken, and Binance, and automatically calculates unrealized and realized gains and losses.
As a result, this makes tax and reporting a breeze as SoftLedger automatically calculates and stores all the data you need.
Similarly, you can transfer between multiple wallets and exchanges, and it will automatically track cost basis. You’ll also be able to drill down into reports for specific transactions and also eliminate batch processing.
Key Benefits of Cryptocurrency Accounting:
Save time by automating all cryptocurrency transactions rather than tracking them manually in Excel.
Spend less time doing taxes and reporting as SoftLedger calculates and stores all the data you need.
Peace of mind that the information for taxes and reporting is accurate, therefore you’ll no longer be manually entering and calculating all of your data.
Freshbooks is designed for small-scale users like freelancers or solopreneurs. These users want a more robust tool than Excel spreadsheets but don’t have complex accounting processes that require a robust system.
While it’s excellent for small-scale users, it isn’t built for sophisticated reporting processes like multi-entity consolidation.
Core Freshbooks features include:
Invoicing services
Business expense tracking
Time tracking software
Mobile app
For a more detailed overview of the Freshbooks platform, check out this video:
Another great option for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs that want a simple accounting software is QuickBooks. While it doesn’t offer advanced features like multi-entity consolidation or real-time data, it’s a great tool for those that need a step up from tracking everything manually across a collection of Excel spreadsheets.
It is also slightly more advanced than Xero, offering more advanced reporting capabilities and more scalable plans. However, this also means that the user experience is slightly more complicated.
Here are a few of the features that it offers:
Invoicing
Reporting
Accounts payable
Inventory management
Time and mileage tracking
For a more detailed overview of the QuickBooks platform, check out this video:
If you need accounting software designed specifically for budgeting, forecasting, planning, and reporting, Prophix is an excellent solution. It is a CPM software that offers both cloud and on-premise solutions for businesses that want to automate repetitive tasks.
Here are a few of its core functionalities:
Budgeting and planning
Reporting and analytics
Financial consolidation and close
Workflow and automation
Virtual financial analyst
For a more in-depth view of the platform, watch this video:
If you’re looking for a solution that isn’t as robust and complicated as traditional ERP software though more advanced than small business accounting software, consider using SoftLedger. Founder Ben Taylor built this platform after being frustrated with the complexities of enterprise ERP software and the limitations of small business accounting software.
In conclusion, here are just a few reasons why users enjoy SoftLedger:
Know where you stand financially at any moment during the month.
Close the month faster with automatic financial consolidation for multiple entities and foreign currency consolidation.
Make fewer errors as any adjustments automatically cascade throughout impacted ledgers.
Accountants can spend more time working on higher-level activities (enabling you to operate with a leaner team).
Travis is the VP of Customer Success at SoftLedger. Refining over ten years of product management and customer success experience in software, Travis balances short-term execution with long-term vision. He has worked in several roles to plan, develop, and execute projects for both large and small enterprises in crypto, accounting, publishing, automotive, events, government, and lifestyle industries.
Yes, users have the option to use their own chart of accounts or SoftLedger’s standard chart of accounts when getting started with SoftLedger. SoftLedger’s flexibility allows users to make changes to their charts by easily adding new accounts.
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