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I'm moving back to Sage at the end of the current financial year. For less than half what Xero costs me annually, I get accounting plus payroll. The functions that convinced me to move to Xero, Sage has implemented. There's just no value for me anymore that justifies staying on this ridiculously expensive platform.

I would like to say that I’m genuinely surprised that Xero isn’t reading this thread, but at the same time I’m not.

Great to hear on a few competitive alternatives. I am a veteran QB user from years ago - good to hear the product has improved, will check that out.

There is so much irony that Xero’s own forum is the place to get advice on how to leave Xero, and Xero likely isn’t even reading any of these threads…

Im investigating Zoho for small (equivalent of starter) clients. Looked at Quickbooks but they bill in USD which makes it equally as expensive as Xero in NZ

I moved my Sole Trader to Reckon's small plan which is pretty much like Xero's standard one - unlimited bills as she didn't send invoices as that was done from another system. She got 6 months at half price so it was $10.00 incl GST in NZ and even though it's gone up now it's still only $22.00 incl GST a month
It does take a bit to get used to as it looks so different to Xero but I'm happy enough with it and hoping to move some of my other small groups to it as they year ends come up. They also need more than 5 bills per month but don't need 20 invoices a month as they wouldn't even send that many in a year in some cases so Xero's price is overpriced for the Starte/Ignite as I see it.

@Steve-Jansen. 100% the Quickbooks Suite. Their software and Practice Management is brilliant. they have improved 1000 fold over the years and they are extremely good. I'm in the process of transferring my business over ready for all clients at EOFY to move

What alternatives/competitors to Xero are you considering?

I don't think Xero is at all interested in small users, despite the reality that most small users will grow their businesses. I doubt very much that Xero even looks at the ideas they proudly post. The limits on invoices and bills are just a rip-off. Website orders are included in the 20 maximum invoices per month, reducing the number of invoices that we can raise for non-website sales.
Then consider the unilateral to changes to Stripe payments, which has stuffed up our reconciliations completely and cost us a small fortune with our accountant to resolve, let alone the costs for the website guy to trouble shoot credit card payment problems.
Xero is a disaster and we wouldn't use it except our accountant requires it.

Back in September 2022, I suggested increasing the bill limit on Xero’s Starter Plan because the 5-bill cap is simply not practical for small businesses. Since then, many users have backed this request, yet nothing has changed, even after Xero’s pricing updates.

@Xero, it’s been over two years, can we finally get an increase to a more reasonable limit? Small businesses need flexibility, not restrictions.

This has been an issue for years especially when they increased the invoices to 20 a month and unlimited bank lines. When it originally came out you were limited to 5 invoices & bills a month and 20 bank lines. They never increased the bill limit though.
It's a pain as I've sometimes had suppliers send invoices through late and due to having already entered 5 bills it can't be recorded correctly without doing a journal which then doesn't show on a payables list.

It was this reason I moved one of my sole Traders to Reckon - their package is along the same lines as Xero's Standard one but considerably cheaper and I can do everything needed that Xero's standard allows but Start/Ignite doesn't.

Their Ignite package is overpriced for what is offered.

I totally agree, 15-20 should be where its at for the price you pay for the ignite package. I don't see the point temporarily upgrading to double the cost for a few extra bills especially as I wont use the extra features as a small business owner and only employee of the business.

Another idea I saw and support was to purchase additional bills as you go, however, I think increasing from 5 to 15/20 is far more reasonable and fair.

Xero should track rollover credits for unused bills from prior months, and allow pay-as-you go to approve bills above your limit/rollover credits.

The promise of cloud software was pay for what you consume, not arbitrary quotas!

I am another business that finds this 5 bill monthly limit makes working with Xero impractical. Given that most businesses will have more than 5 expenses a month it makes user the Ignite subscription only workable with an excel spreadsheet. It should be increased to 10-20 to actually make it useful

The limit of 5 bills a month in the Starter/Ignite Subscription is too low, this has to be increased to at least 10-20 bills per month which seams fair for a small business.
The price increase from Ignite (Starter) to Grow (Standard) is excessive just to use the function of a couple more bills for a small business.

Dear Xero

I'm a user of your Starter business plan, but also a 2nd user of your Starter Plan for another business it has some limitations. I am a small business trade service which has supplier bills for each invoice, 5 bills is useless. I wish I could use the 5 bills of the 2nd program as i only use it for invoicing only as we have the accounting on a separate program in our office but i cant. the jump to the next level is too much expense and there are other programs which offer for less money. This really need attention for small business owners who don't do much accounting.

The limit of 5 bills a month has to be increased to at least 10 or 20 which seams fair for a small business. I don't see the value of your price increase for basic features we need. The price has bee increase since subscription but no useable feature for me.
I don't use payroll so you could take that out.

The other issue with 5 bills its allocated to each month, so should you have no bills the following month you can't even use the 5 bill options for previous months.

They have never increased the bill limit. They increased the invoice limit and the bank reconciliation lines (used to be only 20 lines a month if I remember when this one started) Invoices were only 5 like bills, they increased that and the bank lines but have never addressed the bill limit.
Due to this one of my clients has to use the next one up just to process her bills and she doesn't issue invoices from Xero these are done from outside Xero.
For this reason I am moving her to a cheaper option that allows everything and more in their package that would be equal to what she is currently on and is going to save her over $600.00 a year in fees. While you do have to go with some of what is set up I can work with that for what she needs without having to upgrade to their next one which is still cheaper than Xero.
Xero no longer seem to be what they started out to be - competitive against other packages and for the small business, yet justify these constant price increases due to the so called improvements they push on their customers yet continue to ignore what is asked and in some cases been asked for over a number of years.

Interesting that Xero doesn't even comment on this obvious problem

What Xero are charging for effectively a trial accounting package once you consider the 5 bills per month is just an assault on small business customers.

I spoke to my salesman about this and the response I got was "I'll pass it on, but the higher ups are arranging the pricing to move away from small businesses and they are sure they know what they are doing"

It seems a crazy strategy to me, bigger businesses would never see Xero as a good fit, then the marketing is all about getting your small business out of a shoe box.

Well, if your shoe box only has 5 bills a month in it, you'll be fine, if not you'll be paying 2-3 times the cost of other products in the market which for all purposes will be more suitable.

I mean $90AUD / per month to enter bills and pay wages for a second employee after yourself is plainly prohibitively expensive for a step up from shoe box bookkeeping and I'd blame no one for sticking with that system and pocketing the $1,100 a year.

As an experience bookkeeper, certified accountant, Xero Expert and university lecturer in accounting, I am disappointed that Xero wants to price per Bill entered. It is very important for a business to have clear visibility of their costs, due dates, supplier rates etc rather than just reconciling bank transactions to Spend Money.

Please don't encourage short cuts that will damage cash-flow visibility and historical cost tracking.

Please re-think this Xero. There is a cost of living crisis on, more small businesses are folding than ever and Xero makes a tidy profit, so don't penalise your customers who are loyal and operating best practice.

I could potentially accept this if the limits actually worked. However both my "billing month" and "calendar month" have rolled over and I am still unable to approve any new bills.