Sage Intacct vs. Xero

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Sage Intacct
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Sage Intacct is a cloud ERP system targeted at high-growth small and medium-sized businesses. Intacct includes applications for core financials and accounting, purchasing, order management, and financial reporting and business intelligence. It also integrates with 3rd party software like Salesforce.N/A
Xero
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.
$13
per month
Pricing
Sage IntacctXero
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Sage IntacctXero
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.Prices in table are in USD and just apply to the US - other markets & prices are listed below: Canada - Starter $18 CAD/month, Standard $45 CAD/month, Premium 5 $58 CAD/month UK - Starter £14/month, Standard £28/month, Premium £36/month AU - Starter $29 AUD/month, Standard $59 AUD/month, Premium 5 $76 AUD/month NZ - Starter $31 NZD/month, Standard $66 NZD/month, Premium $84 NZD/month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Sage IntacctXero
Considered Both Products
Sage Intacct
Chose Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct was both the most powerful and most flexible system we evaluated. The customization capabilities inherent to the system without paying significantly more for special coding made it an easy choice.
Chose Sage Intacct
We liked their integrations better with the other programs we use.
Chose Sage Intacct
We still use BILL and Expensify to sync into Sage Intacct. The other accounting systems were not as strong on the multi-entity consolidation setup so Sage Intacct had made it easier for us overall, in terms of processes, closing schedule, and management.
Chose Sage Intacct
I think Sage Intacct is perfect for a medium sized business. It is more robust than QuickBooks Online, which is great for small businesses. It is less complicated and more user friendly than both PeopleSoft and NetSuite, which are better suited to large organizations.
Chose Sage Intacct
We migrated from Quickbooks as we became more and more aware that that software was not keeping up with our business needs and that more sophisticated software would allow us to automate and save time in the long run. While we were evaluating Sage Intacct, we also evaluated …
Chose Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct is more user-friendly and has more features than we previously had.
Chose Sage Intacct
Sage is intact online and quite dynamic as compared to ERP version. Also Sage Intact you could do alot as it is user friendly and flexible. You can make lots of custom reports and you can get the information based on the entity level. Also posting journal has also become easy …
Chose Sage Intacct
I have used all these software. as discussed earlier Sage Intacct helps us in Inventory management. which is not good in our previous accounting software so we moved to Sage Intacct from that one. Some of the above mentioned software is not good for large scale businesses. I …
Chose Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct stacks up against quickbooks desktop in functionality. I was more used to quickbooks and their functions were good for accounts payable, but bad for me for accounts receivable when compared to Sage Intacct.
Chose Sage Intacct
We used to operate with SAGE 300 and the updated system of Sage Intacct compared to 300 is extraordinarily better in all aspects. The user friendly dashboard and simplified version is far more advanced than the old 300 system. The ability to see reports and collecting more …
Chose Sage Intacct
We had previously used Xero and it just wasn't fit for purpose anymore. We looked at Netsuite vs Sage Intacct and Sage Intacct definitely felt like more of the correct fit.

Sage Intacct is scalable which is what we wanted given our planned exponential growth over the coming …
Chose Sage Intacct
While I have liked all of the Sage products that I have used, Sage Intacct is simply just better for companies with complex accounting needs. The customized reporting blows the other products out of the water.
Chose Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct was easy to use, accounting is simple, exporting reports are very good, consolidated reports and standalone reports are also very good. Vendor management, revenue recognition is too helpful.
Chose Sage Intacct
I have largely worked in multi-national manufacturing firms so SAP was very beneficial from a manufacturing aspect and there was more information and reporting available than is standard from Sage Intacct.
For the type and size of business that I work in now, it is probably …
Chose Sage Intacct
Intacct appeared easier to use & set up.
Chose Sage Intacct
Compared to Sage Intacct, Deltek Vision was an archaic system that required multiple steps on each module to get the desired result.Another reason for choosing Sage over other systems was software integration. The integrations with third-party softwares is awesome, it has made …
Chose Sage Intacct
Ramp and QuickBooks Commerce
Chose Sage Intacct
Sage is head and shoulders above any Quickbooks iteration and comparable to NetSuite. The differences are likely personal preference between Sage Intacct and NetSuite, my leaning is toward NetSuite but largely due to how comfortable I was with their system. Our business used …
Xero
Chose Xero
Expensify was more than we needed. The free version is fine, but we were getting close to needing the fee paying version, which isn't inexpensive
Chose Xero
I prefer to just say I'm a Xero only practice. U cannot sign up if u do not want to use Xero.
Chose Xero
Pricing was better and quickbook was not recommended by some people we know with business.
Chose Xero
MYOB has always seemed well behind in the functionality. We recently discontinued our DEAR subscription due to astronomical increase in subscription fees. While Xero doesn't do as much in terms of inventory management we can manage without that function for the lower price.
Chose Xero
We selected Xero specifically for accessibility.
Chose Xero
Xero is far ahead in terms of innovations and cost looking at what you get out of Xero.
Chose Xero
Much prefer Xero for user-friendliness and easy to navigate.
Chose Xero
Each of the products I listed had their own list of drawbacks, but the one thing they all had in common, which was right on top of that list of drawbacks, was ease of use. I struggled to get myself accustomed to each system and struggled, but when it came to getting a client to …
Chose Xero
Xero is just as infuriating as Quickbooks. We only use it because the last CFO set it up and it's taking us a while to establish a new accounting platform that will allow us to migrate away from this dumpster fire.
Chose Xero
In my opinion, the main competitor to Xero is QuickBooks but I migrated from QuickBooks to Xero because I was looking for an accounting software with an interface easier to use.
Chose Xero
Xero lacks the AR invoice payment processing capability of all the titles listed above. I view Xero as an application for Mom and Pop grocery stores where sophisticated, business critical software isn't a requirement. As a small manufacturing business, in my opinion, the lack …
Chose Xero
Xero is much more user friendly and easier to use.
Chose Xero
SAP Concur is very heavyweight, and is appropriate for a large enterprise Expensify scales to whatever size the business is. In my opinion, Xero is only appropriate for a very small company
Chose Xero
Xero is easily to use than other accounting software.
Chose Xero
Just much easier to use than any other
Chose Xero
Wow, I have used so many accounting systems over the last 30 years! Your above options don't even list them. I've used systems like AccPac, TurboCash, WaveApps, and more. The answer to the first question explains why I prefer Xero.
Chose Xero
MYOB was tricky to navigate and got out of control really quickly compared to Xero. Xero has much cleaner interface and just works much better in my opinion
Features
Sage IntacctXero
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
7.0
Ratings
10% below category average
Xero
7.5
Ratings
3% below category average
Pay calculation7.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.40 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Direct deposit files7.10 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management6.90 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.80 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
7.9
Ratings
3% above category average
Xero
8.4
Ratings
10% above category average
API for custom integration8.10 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Plug-ins7.80 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
8.8
Ratings
6% above category average
Xero
7.1
Ratings
16% below category average
Single sign-on capability8.80 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.70 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
7.9
Ratings
0% above category average
Xero
8.7
Ratings
10% above category average
Dashboards7.70 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Standard reports8.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Custom reports8.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
8.1
Ratings
4% above category average
Xero
7.3
Ratings
6% below category average
Accounts payable8.50 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.30 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Cash management8.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Bank reconciliation7.90 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Expense management8.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Time tracking7.80 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Fixed asset management8.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Multi-currency support8.30 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Multi-division support8.80 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Regulations compliance7.80 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Electronic tax filing7.30 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Self-service portal7.50 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Global Financial Support8.10 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting8.70 Ratings4.40 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.70 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting8.30 Ratings2.40 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.00 Ratings2.80 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework8.00 Ratings3.30 Ratings
Standardized Processes8.30 Ratings3.60 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
6.6
Ratings
11% below category average
Xero
6.7
Ratings
9% below category average
Inventory tracking7.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Automatic reordering5.50 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Location management8.30 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Manufacturing module5.20 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Sage Intacct
7.7
Ratings
0% below category average
Xero
6.2
Ratings
22% below category average
Pricing8.10 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Order entry8.20 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Credit card processing7.70 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Cost of goods sold6.30 Ratings6.30 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility8.10 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Sage IntacctXero
Small Businesses
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 10.0 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Sage IntacctXero
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
7.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.2
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Online Training
2.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.2
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.3
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.3
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Sage IntacctXero
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well-suited for nonprofit accounting with its ability to track expenses and revenues by both department and funding source. It is easy to set up vendors and customers for invoices and bill payments. It is less appropriate for proper budget management and purchasing with multiple approvers, particularly when edits are required.
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I am a massage and physical therapist. We are not a fancy business but business admin can take a lot of time and effort. Xero came recommended to me by colleagues in the sector. You raise invoices, you get paid. and you pay your bills. These are all daily scenarios for most businesses and Xero does this particularly well. Since my accountant can query my records directly, this greatly saves on bookkeeping time when it is time to do the company returns.
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Pros
  • Custom, real-time financial reporting. I am able to streamline my reporting to pull in various account groups and calculations which save me time from having to do it in Excel.
  • Out of the box standard reports for clients who don't require as custom of reporting or even as a great starting point to build out reports.
  • Integrations with other platforms, such as Airbase, various banks, Rippling, etc.
  • The dashboard module is extremely helpful in my monthly review of various entities.
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  • Repeating invoices (most of my business is monthly recurring invoices) - it does these very well.
  • Reporting - particularly being able to dig into the different lines of the P&L statement.
  • Tracking categories - I assign a category to every line of every invoice so it's easy to see how much has been sold of each type of service every month and year, and compare them to previous periods.
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Cons
  • Downloading bill register reports for all the entities at the top level would be helpful.
  • An increase in the Time frame of the Auto-Log out feature for security will be helpful.
  • I think there is some room in the automation part that can be improved.
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  • Multiple addresses for singular contacts.
  • Limit unit price decimals to 2 digits, currently shows 3 or more after the decimal on invoices.
  • Discounted rates for multiple entities within the same group e.g. if you have a group of 3 or more companies looking to move to Xero, incentivize those clients with discounted monthly rates.
  • Easier way to reconcile loan accounts across multiple entities.
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Likelihood to Renew
Sage Intacct continues to well-satisfy our needs and is an easy-to-use product. Service reliability has been excellent. The ability to integrate Sage Intacct with best-in-class companion products that handle expense reporting, budgeting, etc... makes Sage Intacct an excellent value. We continue to be extremely well-satisfied with the results and performance of our experience using Sage Intacct.
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In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.
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Usability
The ease of use as a seasoned user is wonderful; however, new users struggle to adapt to the program efficiently. Better training videos--all in one location--would be beneficial. The use of a "sandbox" environment is a great tool for new employees or for the fiscal department to test certain journal entries or other transactions to verify accuracy of data.
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As a standalone software, it allows users to fulfill most of the basic functions (e.g. transaction input and report generation) simply and conveniently. It also allows for multiple APIs to help augment various tasks that accounting-adjacent (e.g. claims processing). The cloud based model and portability to mobile devices allows tasks to be carried out in a more convenient way.
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Reliability and Availability
There has only been one occurrence where Sage Intacct was not available to me, however I had already been working a number of hours trying to get a project completed. It honestly allowed me to step back and take a much needed break.
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We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.
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Performance
As fas as integration is concerned I don't feel this slows Sage Intacct down at all. However, sometimes I do feel it takes some larger reports more time to load due to all the detail. As well as, I "move very fast" in my motions so sometimes I double click on fuctions too quickly and the system seems to think that I have a duplicate request.
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The product is pretty stable in performance. However, sometimes the links to bank feeds are not available which can be frustrating if you need to update the application for important transactions. I currently have to manually upload credit card transactions so that is not ideal and makes for manual errors or duplication.
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Support Rating
Only a few times have we had to reach out to support, and every time we did, we received a relatively quick response and a solution was found fairly quickly. Only once was there an issue that took longer than a week to resolve, but it still did eventually get solved.
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Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.
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In-Person Training
I have taken in person training classes at several of the annual Sage Intacct user conferences. It is very interactive and the trainers are very easy to follow and understand. They are great at getting everyone in the class involved. They also make sure everyone has learned to task before moving to a new one.
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The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
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Online Training
The free training is very minimal. For what we pay for the service, I would like more training. We end up training new users in-house because the provided free training is not nearly comprehensive enough. That being said, the training provided, for the material covered, was adequate and relevant for the given topics.
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All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.
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Implementation Rating
I would not use a thrid party administrator to implement your system, especially if you are going to be modifying the system at all. Use Intacct implementors as they will be able to better support you on any issues that come up after you go live.
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If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.
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Alternatives Considered
As a CPA in public accounting, I was exposed to many systems. I was in on the ground floor with the implementation of NetSuite for a client; it was clunky, the reporting was ugly, and it wasn’t user friendly. Sage Intacct is a great option for mid-size organizations who have outgrown Quickbooks.
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MYOB has always seemed well behind in the functionality. We recently discontinued our DEAR subscription due to astronomical increase in subscription fees. While Xero doesn't do as much in terms of inventory management we can manage without that function for the lower price.
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Scalability
There is so much that we have yet to learn with and about Sage Intacct, I am excited for the future.
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I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing
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Return on Investment
  • Sage Intacct has made a very positive impact to our business objectives; it has provided strong ROI through automation features that reduce manual data input and associated risk of error, enhancing accuracy and operational efficiency.
  • It empowers us to make data-driven decisions that further refine our strategic plan by bettering the process of financial close with real-time and detailed reporting.
  • This also extends to multi-entity management, which eased consolidation and thus supported growth and scaling. This feature-rich software finally serves to drive productivity further and facilitate resource usage.
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  • Xero is a basic accounting system that performs basic accounting tasks easily and accurately. For that, it provides a positive impact on our day to day accounting operations.
  • Because of Xero's basic structure, I feel it lacks some of the sophistication that some users want and need. The ability to create unique custom reports would enhance the impact Xero would have on meeting business objectives by providing current and useful accounting information.
  • In my opinion, Xero's lack of focus on their customers - their users - is a real issue with me. In my opinion, those of us that are in the trenches that work with the system on a daily basis have to deal with the shortcomings of the system with the knowledge that Xero support refuses to address the operational issues that make their user's lives difficult. I feel if Xero would focus on truly making their software better from a users point of view, it has the potential to be a great system.
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ScreenShots

Sage Intacct Screenshots

Screenshot of Accounts Receivable: Automate accounts receivable processes.Screenshot of Revenue Recognition: Automated and compliant revenue recognition with complete support for ASC 606 and IFRS 15.Screenshot of Real-Time Reporting: Real-time reporting with up-to-minute financials across multiple business dimensions. Show only the metrics that matter based on the user viewing the dashboard.Screenshot of the times and expense management dashboard, which is customized to reflect the user's role, displaying relevant information that aligns with their position, thereby presenting each individual with the data most pertinent to their responsibilities.Screenshot of the detailed company metrics used to forecast business growth.Screenshot of the order management workflows, which are automated to accelerate quote-to-cash sales

Xero Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of