Xero vs Quicken: Which is a better fit?

Nigel: My name is Nigel. I'm the Managing Director of my own company, D13 Solutions. We are a consultant company using Xero, which I'm rating five out of five. Xero was recommended to us by our accountants. They had options for products like Sage and some other products as well. They showed us two or three of those products, and we chose Xero from that list. We chose Xero because Xero was the most usable of the products. So the interface was very simple, but it also suited the way we work. So inability to do what we needed to do in the shortest possible time, in the easiest way. Xero gave us the best options out of all of the things we looked at. So we switched to Xero from our previous package. That was really straightforward. But for everything we use it for, which is invoicing, quotes, purchase orders, it's all really good. It's really straightforward and simple to use. We use it in multiple currencies as well, and it supports that very well indeed. But we've integrated things like the company credit cards, so everybody's credit card is integrated into the system, so it really works nice and simple. So things like my month end when I'm doing all my reconciliations, those take a matter of a couple of hours, not a couple of days. Xero has been a game changer for us. It's made my life more simple. It's kept my costs down. This means I haven't got to go and find someone external to my bookkeeping because it's all simple and easy to use within the app. I would recommend anybody to try Xero. It may not be for everyone, but it's certainly worth trying. And with a free trial available, why would you not?

Speaker 1: My name is Michael. I'm a small business owner. I'm giving Quicken a five out of five. For more reviews, click below. I've been using Quicken for probably close to 15 years. It's actually the first software I used to keep track of finances for myself and my business. Definitely has the name brand, so it's probably the first thing a lot of people think of when they think of personal finance or small business software. And it was super easy to use, to start off with. I have, since then, used a couple of other different products, but I still continue to use Quicken as well. I continue to use Quicken because of simply how easy it is to use. I'm not a bookkeeper or a professional finance person at all. I'm just a small business owner. And it allows me to keep track of everything I need for tax time and also just to know all the ins and outs of the finances of the business and being self-employed. Quicken's really strong when it comes to tracking for budgets as well. Whether it's just for personal finances or for small business, it's really effective and easy to use. I've used a couple different versions of Quicken over the years, I think starting in maybe 2007 or so, using that software, which it's only improved since then. But even then, it was very easy to onboard. I use the desktop version, which is just an application. Very easy to install and get it going. Small learning curve, if you're new to personal finance or something like that, just in learning all the different terminology, stuff like that. But once you get the hang of it, it's really easy to use and keep track of everything you might need in the finance world. If you're a small business owner or self-employed or anybody that just needs to keep track of their expenses, deductions, stuff like that, Quicken is definitely the best in its class. It can go really in depth. It goes more in depth than I've really ever needed it for, but for using the basic budgeting and tracking, stuff like that, it's super easy to use. I would really recommend it for anybody who's, especially, just getting started with finances and wanting to be more on top of their finances or needing it for tax purposes or something like that. Quicken is incredibly easy to use, and you'll actually learn a lot using it.