Why Xero?

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Patrick Sheegog

Find out why we added Xero to our service

So we're pushing out Xero live today for beta users, and I thought it would be a good idea to explain why we're adding it to our roster with QuickBooks Online. Our Xero integration has been in the pipe (horrible pun) for a long time and it was totally worth it. Consider this a quick Xero review as a partner developer.

1. People needed a solution

We should make something people want right? Coming from PipeThru, a service that connects anything to everything, we had a good idea of what accounting integrations people were searching for. The numbers said consistently month after month that people were looking for Xero integrations, and most of them wanted to connect to Stripe.  

2.  Xero is amazing to work with

A large part of why we choose to integrate a product is how committed the company is to partnering with us and how they treat their partners. Xero, similarly to Stripe, believes these partnerships are important. Their staff gave us everything we needed from our initial test account's sign-up, to the final certification process. They even give developers a test account to make sure everything is stable. This means less test prep, and more testing. We have to give a special mention to Sid Maestre, Developer Relations Manager at Xero, who really went above and beyond. He tested the integration from the beginning to make sure it was up to Xero's high standards. He was super patient with us as we built PennyPipe from the ground up. Thanks Sid, you're the best.

3. The Xero API is brilliant to use

If you can't tell, we love APIs and we can tell a good one from a bad one. Xero is one of the good guys in the API world. Their developer center is well organized, the documentation is on point, and they support what they built. Their security definitely took some time to get right, but we absolutely understand. Take it from us Xero users, your data is safe and then some. 

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4. Xero's accounting is simple 

While QuickBooks Online was  our first integration because of pure demand, we certainly had our heart set on Xero from the beginning because of the simple way things are organized. Xero sorts new activities very neatly into bank transactions with the specific categories sorted from that point. Compare that to QuickBooks Online: we're digging through multiple categories of transactions from the get-go. This system is great for developers, as our programmer finds the pure simplicity of bank transactions a breeze to work with.

If you'd like to give our integration with Xero a spin you can sign up and give the beta a try for free. Go on, start reconciling Stripe with Xero. We guarantee it will make your accounting woes less woeful.