Accounting

Xero

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: 1 of 4 dimensions proven

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Xero Limited · www.xero.com

An AI-assisted analysis of public evidence — not a hands-on test.

Every score, rationale and verdict on this page is AI-generated. Every claim cites the source it was read from. Nothing here is a human star review — and no score can be bought. How scores are made →

Method and versions

The Bookkeeper v1.0 · The Tax Adviser v1.0 · The Auditor v1.0 · The Founder v1.0 · The Integrator v1.0 · The Skeptic v1.0 · rubric v1 · evaluated 16 Sep 2026

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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Founder

Weighted verdict

Runs a twelve-person company and does the books on a Sunday. Wants bank feeds that match themselves, invoices out in a minute, and the VAT return submitted without learning ELSTER. Will pay for the hour saved, and notices when the headline price was not the invoice.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Founder

Bookkeeping core

How this is scored

Double-entry, the chart of accounts (SKR03/SKR04), postings, journals, opening balances and period closing — the ledger underneath the pretty screens.

0 — Income-and-expense lists only; no double-entry, no chart of accounts, no journal.

3 — Simplified bookkeeping suitable for EÜR with a fixed account list; no free posting, no period close.

5 — Double-entry with SKR03/SKR04, manual postings, journals, opening balances and a month-end close.

8 — Full ledger with cost centres, recurring and reversing entries, accruals, multi-year comparatives, and a documented close checklist with locking.

10 — An accountant's ledger: configurable charts including customised accounts, period locking with audit, foreign currency with documented valuation, group or multi-entity handling, and reporting that reconciles to the trial balance.

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The Founder

The evidence evidences invoicing, bill entry and reconciliation, but not one word about a double-entry ledger, SKR03/SKR04, journals, opening balances or a period close — for German books that's the entire engine missing. I'd be buying an invoicing app with an invisible ledger underneath. 1 2

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GoBD, immutability & audit

How this is scored

Whether the record survives a tax audit: unalterable postings, complete change history, retention across the statutory period, and a Verfahrensdokumentation the vendor actually supplies.

0 — Postings can be edited or deleted without trace; no retention statement, no GoBD claim, no documentation.

3 — GoBD asserted on the marketing page with nothing behind it — no described audit trail, no documentation offered, no statement on retention.

5 — Postings become unalterable after close with corrections booked as reversals, a change log exists, and the statutory retention period is stated.

8 — Documented GoBD conformity with a supplied Verfahrensdokumentation template, complete and exportable audit trail, receipts linked to postings, and a GoBD-compliant data export (GDPdU/Z3) for the auditor.

10 — Audit-ready as a product feature: an independent GoBD certification or attestation published, Verfahrensdokumentation maintained per release, tamper-evident journals, retention executed across the full statutory period, and an export the Betriebsprüfer accepts without argument.

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The Founder

Across the homepage, pricing and privacy pages there is no GoBD claim, no statement that postings become unalterable, no retention period, no Verfahrensdokumentation. If the Betriebsprüfer knocks, I have nothing to hand over — that is the definition of the zero anchor. 1 2 3

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Tax handling & filings

How this is scored

VAT logic and the filings that follow: UStVA, ELSTER submission, EÜR or Bilanz, OSS for cross-border sales, and reverse-charge handling.

0 — No VAT logic beyond a rate field; no filings, no ELSTER.

3 — VAT rates and a UStVA figure to copy out by hand; no electronic submission, no special cases.

5 — UStVA prepared and submitted electronically via ELSTER, EÜR or a simple balance sheet produced, and reverse-charge and intra-community supply handled.

8 — The above plus OSS handling for cross-border B2C, Zusammenfassende Meldung, small-business (§19) and Ist/Soll taxation, permanent extension (Dauerfristverlängerung), and E-Bilanz where relevant.

10 — The filing year is handled end to end: every routine German filing generated and submitted electronically with validation before sending, cross-border VAT determined from the transaction rather than by hand, and correction filings supported.

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The Founder

Nothing on VAT rates, UStVA, ELSTER, EÜR or reverse-charge anywhere in the evidence — the Sunday afternoon I want back would still end at the tax office by hand. For a German filing year this is a zero, not a weak spot. 1 2

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Receipts, banking & matching

How this is scored

How evidence and money get into the ledger: bank feeds, receipt capture, OCR, matching rules, and whether the digital receipt is legally sufficient on its own.

0 — Manual entry only; no bank connection, no receipt storage.

3 — Bank statement import by file and receipt upload as plain attachments; matching is entirely manual.

5 — Automatic bank feeds for the major German banks, receipt upload with OCR, suggested matches, and receipts linked to their postings.

8 — PSD2 feeds across many institutions, rule-based automatic matching with learning, e-invoice handling (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung) both directions, and replacement scanning (ersetzendes Scannen) documented so paper can be destroyed.

10 — The evidence chain is closed: every posting reaches its receipt in one click, e-invoicing inbound and outbound as standard, documented compliant archiving of the digital original, and matching accurate enough that exceptions rather than transactions are the work.

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The Founder

Auto-reconcile, bulk reconcile and Smart Document Capture suggest the money side is partly automated, which is exactly what I want on a Sunday. But there is no evidence of German bank feeds, actual OCR, matching rules, ZUGFeRD/XRechnung, or ersetzendes Scannen — promising screens, unproven evidence chain. 1 2

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Tax adviser handoff

How this is scored

How the books reach the Steuerberater — DATEV above all — and whether the adviser can work in the system rather than around it.

0 — No adviser access and no accounting export; the year-end is a pile of PDFs.

3 — Generic CSV or Excel export described as "suitable for your tax adviser", with no named format.

5 — A documented DATEV export (postings and, ideally, receipts) plus a read-only login for the adviser.

8 — DATEV export including receipt images with correct linking, or a maintained DATEV interface; the adviser gets their own scoped access with an audit of what they changed.

10 — The adviser is a first-class user: bidirectional DATEV exchange including corrections coming back, or a certified interface; period handover with locking, and a workflow where adviser queries are resolved inside the system.

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The Founder

A quarter-million accountants and bookkeepers use Xero, so my Steuerberater might get a login — but the evidence shows no DATEV export, no postings export, no German year-end handoff at all. The handover would be PDFs and screenshots, which is exactly what I refuse to pay for. 1 2

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Where the books live and who could be compelled to produce them — plus, uniquely here, whether statutory retention survives leaving the vendor. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated or non-EU, subprocessors unnamed — with a ten-year retention obligation attached to data held abroad.

3 — EU hosting offered while the contracting entity is non-EU, or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard and an EU contracting entity, but parts of the chain — OCR, AI categorisation, support tooling — are non-EU without an explained safeguard.

8 — EU or German hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, full subprocessor list published, and a stated export that satisfies retention if the contract ends.

10 — Sovereign and durable: German or EU hosting throughout, every subprocessor European, certification published, and a documented archive export that keeps the customer compliant for the full retention period after they leave.

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The Founder

New Zealand group entity, hosting stated only as 'Global (USD)', subprocessors unnamed, with my ten-year German retention obligation hanging over all of it; a SOC 2 report on request is an American control audit, not European hosting. The books would live where I cannot compel them to be produced. 1 3

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a business can compute the real annual invoice — including the bookings, users, bank accounts and adviser access they actually need — from public pages alone.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A headline monthly price exists, but booking or document limits, extra users or the tier where DATEV export begins are unstated.

5 — Tier prices public with billing period stated and the main limits given, but at least one commonly needed piece (DATEV export, extra bank accounts, adviser seat) sits in an unpriced tier.

8 — Every tier and add-on priced publicly with limits, overage, minimum term and VAT treatment stated; adviser access priced or explicitly free.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given transaction volume, user count and feature set, including overage and the year-end extras.

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The Founder

Tier prices with promo periods, invoice and bill limits, two priced add-ons, one-month cancellation and a free trial are all public — more honest than most. But VAT treatment, extra users and any adviser seat are unstated, and 'Global (USD)' means my euro invoice still wobbles with the exchange rate. 1 2

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European sovereignty — proven facts

1 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Legal entity	Incorporated in NZ ⚠ unverified	0/3 pts	3 Report an error
Ownership	Not determined	—	uncited Report an error
Data residency	Not determined ⚠ unverified	—	uncited Report an error
Subprocessors	Not determined	—	uncited Report an error

Where this could be wrong

Evidence ages. The oldest capture behind this page is from 15 Sep 2026. Vendors change pricing and policies without notice; every fact reflects its source as of the capture date shown in the registry.
Weak sourcing — Legal entity. Xero (NZ) Limited is named as the EEA controller with a New Zealand address and headquarters are stated to be in New Zealand, but no commercial register is cited and the terms defer the actual contracting Xero entity by product edition to section 77, which is not in the excerpt.
Weak sourcing — Data residency. Not confirmed on the vendor’s own pages as captured.
AI can misread a source. Extraction and judgement are automated; a citation guarantees traceability, not infallibility. If something here is wrong, say so — no account needed, every report is decided within 5 business days, and accepted corrections are published.

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

19 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
18 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
9 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
4 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
2 hosting facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
2 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
1 subprocessors fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown. Know more? Tell us
6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement. Know more? Tell us
The panel’s written verdict is withheld: our own re-read found claims in it that the evidence does not carry, and a second synthesis did not fix them. The scores and the material below are unaffected. Know more? Tell us

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Sources (13)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

1 Vendor homepage www.xero.com Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
2 Pricing www.xero.com Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
3 Privacy policy www.xero.com Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
4 Terms of service www.xero.com Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
5 Legal notice — found from the homepage www.xero.com Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
6 Bookkeeping core — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
7 Bookkeeping core — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
8 Tax handling & filings — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
9 Tax handling & filings — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
10 Receipts, banking & matching — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
11 Receipts, banking & matching — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
12 Tax adviser handoff — found from sitemap www.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
13 Tax adviser handoff — found from sitemap developer.xero.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →