Xero Certified Advisor accountants, inside your subscription.
Accountaire is a team of Xero Certified Advisor accountants and Xero Partners. We run bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and management accounts inside your own Xero subscription across the UK, US, UAE, Canada and Australia. You keep ownership of the subscription, we hold Adviser-level access, and the books close by the fifth business day each month.
What do Xero Certified Advisor accountants actually do?
Xero Certified Advisor accountants run the ledger, the VAT returns and the payroll inside Xero, our default platform for new clients. It carries bank feeds across major banks worldwide, native multi-currency and multi-jurisdiction handling, and a place on HMRC's list of MTD-compatible software.
The interface is fast, the app ecosystem is deep (Dext, Fathom, A2X, Hubdoc, Karbon, Spotlight), and HMRC Making Tax Digital filing is native rather than bolted on. As Xero Certified Advisors, we hold the formal qualification and maintain CPD annually. As Xero Partners, we have direct partner-tier access to support, advanced features and partner pricing on subscriptions. Our entire UK and international practice runs on Xero, and we have specific playbooks for sector-specific configuration: e-commerce brand accounting, accountants for creative agencies, dental practice accountants, landlord and property SPV accountants and accountants for lawyers.
For clients new to Xero, we handle migration from QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, Wave or spreadsheets. For clients already on Xero, we clean up the existing setup (most pre-existing Xero accounts have chart-of-accounts issues, bank-rule misconfigurations or VAT-coding problems that need fixing). Where the backlog runs to months rather than weeks, that work is quoted as catch-up bookkeeping before the monthly Xero bookkeeping service starts.
Everything we run in Xero.
A complete finance function delivered through your existing Xero subscription.
- Initial setup & migration Chart of accounts built for your sector. Migration from any prior software. Bank feeds connected. Apps integrated.
- Daily bookkeeping Bank reconciliation, receipt capture via Dext, transaction coding via custom Xero rules. Books closed monthly by the 5th business day.
- VAT / GST / sales tax UK MTD via HMRC Agent. UAE FTA. AU BAS. CA GST/HST. US sales tax via Avalara or TaxJar integration.
- Xero PayrollUK Xero Payroll for PAYE/NI/auto-enrolment. Australian Xero Payroll for STP. NZ Xero Payroll where applicable.
- Management reporting Custom Xero reports + Fathom or Spotlight integration. Live dashboards. Monthly board-ready pack delivered by the 5th.
- Multi-currency & multi-entity Native multi-currency. Xero Group reporting for multi-entity. Inter-company transactions handled cleanly.
- Custom Xero app integrationsDext (receipt capture), A2X (Shopify/Amazon), Karbon (practice management), Float (cash flow forecasting), Spotlight Reporting (board packs).
- Xero training for your team Where your internal team needs to use Xero for invoicing, expense submission or approvals, we provide training and configure permissions correctly.
Why we default to Xero.
For most SMEs outside the US, Xero is the right choice.
Modern UI
Fast, clean, doesn't fight you. Bank feeds reconcile in seconds rather than minutes.
App ecosystem
Best-in-class integrations: Dext, A2X, Fathom, Karbon, Hubdoc, Spotlight. Everything we need plugs in.
MTD-native
Xero is fully MTD-compliant for VAT and ready for MTD for Income Tax in 2026.
Multi-jurisdiction
Same platform whether your entity is UK, AU, NZ, CA or international. Multi-currency is native.
Xero vs QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent.
The four platforms we are asked to compare most often, judged on the criteria that actually decide the answer.
| Criterion | Xero | QuickBooks Online | Sage Business Cloud | FreeAgent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best fit | SMEs outside the US, multi-entity and multi-currency businesses | US SMEs and anyone filing US federal and state returns | Established UK SMEs, stock-heavy trades on Sage 200 | UK sole traders and single-director limited companies |
| UK MTD for VAT | Native, filed through our HMRC Agent gateway | Native in QuickBooks UK | Native in Business Cloud, bridging tool on Sage 50 | Native |
| Multi-currency | Native on Established and Premium plans | Higher plans only | Limited on entry plans | Invoicing only |
| Payroll | Xero Payroll in the UK, Australia and New Zealand | QuickBooks Payroll, Gusto, Rippling or ADP | Sage Payroll | FreeAgent Payroll, around five employees in practice |
| App ecosystem | Widest: Dext, A2X, Fathom, Hubdoc, Karbon, Float, Spotlight | Deep in the US, thinner elsewhere | Narrow, mostly Sage-specific modules | Small, by design |
| Where it breaks down | US sales tax automation is weaker than QuickBooks | UK-specific reporting and MTD tooling lag Xero | Sage 50 Desktop workflows and app integration | Growth: multiple employees, inventory, multi-currency |
| Our position | Default for new clients outside the US | Default for US small business accounting | Supported, and we run Sage to Xero migrations | Supported for UK sole trader accounting |
When is Xero the wrong choice?
Three cases, and we will say so before you sign anything. A US company with sales-tax obligations in more than four states is better served on QuickBooks ProAdvisor accountants and QuickBooks Online, because Avalara and TaxJar integrate more deeply there and the state registration workflow is built around it. Read the full head-to-head in our Xero vs QuickBooks 2026 comparison.
Second, a manufacturer running works orders, bills of materials and multi-location stock. Xero's inventory is a simple average-cost tracker. Sage 200 and the platforms behind our Sage 50 and Sage Business Cloud accountants page handle that properly, and moving a working Sage file for the sake of a nicer interface is a bad trade.
Third, a UK sole trader below the £90,000 VAT registration threshold with a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Mettle account. FreeAgent is free with those accounts, and our FreeAgent accountants page covers that scope. Paying for Xero to file one Self-Assessment tax return a year is money spent on nothing.
Everywhere else, Xero wins on the thing that matters most in practice: how quickly a qualified person can find the transaction that is wrong. Related work runs through Xero MTD VAT filing, multi-jurisdiction payroll and monthly management accounts. UK businesses weighing Xero against the two other platforms we support here should read our Xero vs FreeAgent vs Sage comparison, which covers filing, stock, CIS and multi-currency side by side. The work we do inside a Xero file month by month is listed in our full range of accounting services, and the platform comparisons we publish are collected on the Accountaire blog.
"Migrated from QuickBooks to Xero with Accountaire. Three years on: bank reconciliation, A2X for Shopify, Dext for receipts, Fathom for reporting. It all works invisibly. I never think about my books."
Xero-specific questions.
Do you need access to my Xero subscription?
Can you migrate me from QuickBooks / Sage / FreeAgent to Xero?
Which Xero plan should I be on?
How do you handle Xero MTD for VAT?
Do you train our internal staff to use Xero?
How much does a Xero accountant cost?
How long does it take to move from spreadsheets to Xero?
Which Xero add-on apps do you recommend?
Other platforms.
QuickBooks Online
Default for US clients. ProAdvisor certified.
FreeAgent
UK micro-business specialist.
Sage
For complex inventory and manufacturing.