Lexware Office vs Xero

Lexware Office

SKR03 and SKR04 are both supported, switching migrates all existing bookings automatically, and the fiscal year is the calendar year with calendar-month booking periods. Immobilization can be triggered manually to any chosen date or runs automatically each month with a protocol of every execution — a genuine period lock, and the DATEV batch-booking export shows a real ledger underneath. We found no public information on cost centres, recurring and reversing entries, accruals, opening balances, or multi-year comparatives.

Xero

The evidence evidences invoicing, bill entry, bank reconciliation and reports — the pretty screens — but not one word about double-entry, a chart of accounts, a journal, opening balances or a period close. No SKR03/SKR04 anywhere, so as evidenced there is no German ledger underneath at all.

Lexware Office

The GoBD claim has an actual feature behind it: bookings are fixed automatically each month in a nightly window with a defined cutoff, a manual option and an initial run on activation, a protocol records every execution with timestamp, and submitting the VAT return locks the period. We found no public information on a supplied Verfahrensdokumentation, an auditor data export, a stated statutory retention period, or corrections booked as reversals. At least an export of vouchers and booking data still works after cancellation, which protects the exit.

Xero

Not even the marketing-page 'GoBD-konform' claim that would earn a 3 — the word GoBD, any retention statement, any audit-trail or immutability description is simply absent from all three captured pages. I've seen GoBD printed with nothing behind it; here they didn't even print it.

Lexware Office

The VAT return runs as a closed loop: positions fill automatically from each business transaction, one click transmits to the tax office with ELSTER confirmation, payment runs by SEPA debit or transfer, the matching voucher is created automatically, and the period locks on submission — with Dauerfristverlängerung handled as a prerequisite setting. Timing logic is detailed: cash and accrual taxation including the minimum-cash-tax rule, §13b services and intra-community supplies by document or service date, and guidance that destination-country VAT goes through OSS or separate registration rather than the return. We found no public information on EÜR or balance-sheet production, the Zusammenfassende Meldung, §19 small-business handling, or E-Bilanz; retroactive returns stop at the second-to-last year.

Xero

No VAT logic beyond nothing: no UStVA, no ELSTER, no EÜR or balance sheet, no reverse charge, no OSS — the pricing pages don't even mention a VAT rate field. The closest fact is 'multiple currencies' in Premium, which is a currency feature, not a filing.

Lexware Office

Bank transactions fetched on refresh automatically receive matching suggestions — a matching document or an accounting category, checked in both directions against stated criteria — and a booking only exists after the user accepts, with at most 1000 assignments per run. Receipts are linked to their postings and each return position expands to its vouchers. We found no public information on OCR capture, e-invoice handling in both directions, or replacement scanning, and the matching is suggestion-based rather than rule-driven with learning.

Xero

'Smart Document Capture' and 'Auto-reconcile / bulk reconcile transactions' are stated, which is a step past purely manual matching. But there is no evidence of automatic feeds for German banks, no OCR named, no ZUGFeRD/XRechnung, and nothing on whether a scan can legally replace paper.

Lexware Office

The DATEV handoff is thorough: four documented scenarios split by task division, exports of receipts and batch bookings as coordinated ZIP files that link automatically in DATEV Kanzlei Rechnungswesen, a DATEVconnect online background transfer, and an ADDISON OneClick interface. The adviser seat is explicitly free, though the automatic interfaces stop at cancellation while a manual export remains. The captured pages state plainly that the adviser access cannot be scoped — the office sees everything including connected bank accounts, only the last login is visible — and we found no public information on corrections flowing back from the adviser.

Xero

'Over 250,000 accountants and bookkeepers using Xero' implies advisers can get in somehow, but the evidence names no export format at all — no DATEV, not even the generic 'CSV for your tax adviser' line. Nothing shows how a German year-end would actually reach a Steuerberater.

Lexware Office

On sovereignty the captured pages give nothing checkable: the contracting entity's jurisdiction is not confirmed on the vendor's own pages, and we found no public information on hosting location or any subprocessor list. Two privacy statements are linked — one general, one for the cloud product — but their content on processors and hosting is not shown. A manual export of vouchers and booking data survives cancellation, which at least protects retention after leaving.

Xero

The contracting entity is the New Zealand 'Xero group of companies', data residency is unknown, subprocessors unnamed — the 0 of 10 matches the bottom anchor exactly. With no documented exit export, a ten-year German retention obligation would sit on books held by a non-EU vendor with no stated safeguard.

Lexware Office

We found no public information on tier prices, billing period, booking or document limits, the cost of an extra bank account, or the tier where DATEV export begins; the captured pages show no prices at all. The one priced fact is the tax adviser access, stated as completely free. A business cannot compute its annual invoice from these pages.

Xero

Tier prices, promo terms, one-month cancellation, invoice/bill limits and two priced add-ons are public — better than most. But user pricing, bank-account counts, overage and VAT treatment are all unstated, and the sources even disagree on tier names (Lite at $7 in E2 vs Starter at $29 in E1), so the real annual invoice isn't computable from these pages.