3 Xero limitations (and how you can overcome them)
Xero is the leading small business accounting software in the UK. Its automated bank feed and easy-to-use accounting interface allow millions of businesses to manage their books.
and how to overcome them
With most large software products, there are some limitations that business owners should be wary of. These limitations aren’t grounds for changing to another accounting system, but if they’re not addressed, your business loses time and money.
1Same payment options for all Contacts
Xero has a “one size fits all” approach to Invoice payment options. You’re unable to vary payment options for individual Contacts, which restricts your ability to optimise cost.
You might have a buyer who, by habit, pays immediately when an invoice is issued. They transfer funds from their bank account and never have more than one invoice owing. You’re reluctant to extend digital payment options to them, as this becomes an additional and unnecessary cost of doing business.
There could be a buyer who insists on paying by card. You’re fine with allowing this one buyer to pay by card, but don’t want to offer cards to all other buyers (due to higher payment costs).
Maybe a buyer is frustratingly late on every payment, and you only want to give them Direct Debit as a payment choice. Rolling this out to all other buyers (and removing other payment options) is not feasible.
Find a payment portal solution that lets you customise payment options on a per-Contact basis. With Orderlinks, you can alter payment options for your Xero Contacts. Funds are settled into your account gross of fees, allowing for automatic bank reconciliation.
2Manual reconciliation for bulk sales invoice payments
When a buyer manually transfers funds for just one sales invoice, Xero will automatically reconcile this payment.
However, if buyers pay multiple invoices at the same time via one bank transfer, Xero is unable to automatically reconcile it against the correct sales invoices. This happens frequently if your buyers have multiple invoices within the same payment period (e.g. payment due on the last day of each month).
Consequently, these bank transfers need to be manually reconciled, creating admin for the accounts receivable lead or team.
With Orderlinks, buyers can Pay by Bank (Open Banking) for multiple invoices at the same time. These payments are then sent to your bank account in the full amount, on a per-invoice basis, allowing for automated bank reconciliation.
3Automated emails - one template for all
Communication should be custom and specific to individual business buyers. Whilst Xero allows you to automate the sending of Invoices and Account Statements, it doesn’t allow you to customise email communication for a specific Contact or for different Contact categories.
A long-standing customer who’s slipped past a due date needs a different approach from a customer who pays late every time.
Your automated communication schedule should reflect this, and Xero falls short in giving you the ability to implement it.
Xero should go beyond automated notifications (e.g. an Account Statement 3 days before the payment date) and allow for multi-email sequences, especially if payment is not made by the due date. Not having this capability restricts your ability to chase late payments automatically.
A growing number of platforms now automate invoice emails and payment reminders. They all connect to Xero, and let you tailor emails and chasing sequences to specific Contacts or groups of buyers.
Orderlinks does this too, and goes a step further: you can also change the payment options a buyer is offered, depending on who they are and how far through the sequence they’ve reached. For example, you could offer card payment to a buyer who is significantly overdue, giving them an easy way to pay immediately.
Fill the gaps in Xero
Orderlinks connects to Xero to add per-Contact payment options, automatic reconciliation of bulk sales invoice payments and tailored chasing sequences.
See how OrderHub works