Xero Training - Introduction to Xero Accounting for beginners (2019)

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Xero Accounting is one of the popular choice of Cloud Accounting System. It has over 1 million subscribers in 180 countries as at the date of this post. I love Xero's easy to navigate design and Xero is expandable with more than 800+ third-party apps.

If you just signed up an account with Xero or you are surveying if it is the right Cloud Accounting System for your business, let me walk you through an introductory crash course on Xero Accounting.

 

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Cloud Accounting System

Xero Accounting is a cloud accounting system, which means:

• there's no installation required
• free upgrades for you
• you can access Xero with any device
• you can access Xero any time
• you can access Xero anywhere

 

Dashboard

Dashboard is the first page you'll see after you login to your Xero account.

There's a lot of data that you can see at a glance and plenty of shortcuts in this page.

Let's look at your dashboard in detail.

 

The top part of the page is your Bank Accounts, Balances of Important Accounts and a chart on Unpaid Customer Invoices.

 

First let's look at Bank Accounts.

The Reconciliation Status of bank accounts and Statement Balance is shown here on your dashboard.

Daily bank balances is shown as a line chart.

Hover your mouse over to any of the dots on this chart and a small pop up with the daily balance details will appear (refer to screenshot below).

 

Click the 3 dots overflow icon to open Bank Menu which has shortcuts to pages related to Bank Accounts. 

 

Invoices owed to you provides information on your outstanding customer invoices categorized by invoice status and categorized by date in a bar chart format.

Hover your mouse over to the bar chart and a pop up with more information on it will appear.

New Sales Invoice link is a shortcut to New Sales Invoice page.

 

Next is Total Cash In and Out, which is also Cashflow.

Monthly total cash in and cash out is summarized with a bar chart.

Hover your mouse over to the bar chart and a pop up with more information on it will appear.

 

Next is Bills you need to pay which provides information on your outstanding supplier bills categorized by bill status and categorized by date in a bar chart format.

Hover your mouse over to the bar chart and a pop up with more information on it will appear.

New Bill link is a shortcut to New Bill page.

 

Menu Bar

The blue bar located at the top is Menu Bar. This bar is available no matter which page you are viewing in Xero. Menu bar is very useful as it contains links to all of the pages in Xero. Pay close attention to the next few slides.

 

The first one from the left with your company's name is company settings.

The name & logo of the current company will be displayed here.

Files: Click here to access the page where you can find all the files that you've uploaded into your Xero account.

Settings: Click here if you need to change or edit your company settings.

Other accessible companies: If you have access to more than 1 company database in Xero, all the accessible companies will be listed here. Click on the company name to access it.

Links: You can access third party apps, payroll, Xero HQ or My Xero here.

 

Dashboard: Click here to access Dashboard page.

Business: All business related pages is grouped under the menu of Business.

Customers: The first 3 on this list, Invoices, Quotes & Sales Overview is pages related with customers. 

Suppliers: The next 3 on this list, Bills to pay, Purchase Orders & Purchases Overview is pages related with suppliers. 

Expense Claims: Click this to access Xero Expenses page.

Products and Services: Click this to access and manage your Inventories or services.

Checks: Click this to access the list of bank checks.

 

The next on Menu Bar is Accounting. Most of the items in this menu will be used by accountant.

Bank Accounts: Click this to access Bank Accounts page.

Reports: Click this to access all Reports page

Advanced: Click this to access Advanced menu page.

Favourite Reports: Here is a list of your favourite reports.

Favourite Advanced: Here is a list of your favourite advanced menu.

 

The last on menu bar is Contacts.

All Contacts: Click this to access the page of all contacts.

Customers: Click this to access the page of all customers.

Suppliers: Click this to access the page of all suppliers.

Groups: Here is a list of your contacts by group.

  

Customers (Sales)

The next few slides will be related to customers transactions. The first one that we'll look at is Invoices. Click Business > Invoices to access Invoices listing page.

 

You can find all your invoices in Invoice Listing page and you can sort the listing according to your preference. Click on the tabs to view the invoices in accordance to its status.

New Invoice: Create a new invoice.

New Credit Note: Create a new Credit Note.

Send Statements: Print or email statement.

Import & Export: Import or export multiple invoices.

Invoice reminder: Setting for reminders email.

 

 

Click on a Customer Invoice from the list to access Customer Invoice page.

 

Invoice number & Invoice Status is at the top left of the page.

 

These options are located on the top right part of the page:

Preview: View the preview copy of the invoice.

Email: Send this invoice by email directly from your Xero account.

Print PDF: Save a copy of the invoice in PDF format.

File: View or add file(s) to this invoice.

Invoice Options: More options for this invoice.

 

The content of your invoice is beneath the header.

 

 

There's a section to record customer's payment on this invoice beneath the invoice. 

The last section on this page is the History & Notes. This is also your audit trail for this invoice.

 

Click Business > Quotes to access Customer Quotes page.

 

Customer Quotes listing page contains the list of all customer quotes issued by your company.

Click New Quote to create a new customer quote.

Customer quotes are categorized in tabs by its status. Click on its respective Status to view the customer quotes.

 

Click on a Customer Quote from the list to access Customer Quote page.

 

Quote number & Quote Status is at the top left of the page.

 

These options are located on the top right part of the page:

Send: Send this quote directly from your Xero account.

Print PDF: Save a copy of the quote in PDF format.

File: View or add file(s) to this quote.

Quote Options: More options for this quote.

 

The content of your quote is beneath the header.

 

The last section on this page is the History & Notes. This is also your audit trail for this quote.

 

Next is Sales Overview page. Click Business > Sales Overview to access this page.

 

Sales Overview page is a summary page of your company's sales. You can check out the total amount of your Sales Invoice and Sales Quotes from this page.

The buttons at the top are your Sales Menu. You can create a New Document, Send Statements, and Import from this page.

The first section of this page is a summary on your Sales Invoices while the second section is a summary on your Sales Quotes.

The total amount of your Sales Invoices are categorized based on its Status, which is Draft, Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Payment and Overdue. 

The total amount of your Sales Quotes are categorized based on its Status, which is Draft, Sent, Accepted and Expired. 

 

The bar chart in Sales Invoice section is money coming in. This bar chart shows the estimated money that your company will receive based on your invoices' due date.

The list next to the chart is Customers owing the most. You can choose to display this in a list or a pie chart. Customers with the highest outstanding amount will be listed here.

 

  

Suppliers (Purchases)

The second most frequently used transactions is suppliers transactions. The first one that we'll look at is Bills to pay. Click Business > Bills to pay to access bills (Supplier's invoice) listing page. 

 

You can find all your bills in Bills Listing page and you can sort the listing according to your preference. Click on the tabs to view the bills in accordance to its status.

New Bill: Create a new bill.

New Credit Note: Create a new Credit Note.

Import & Export: Import or export multiple bills.

 

Click on a Customer Invoice from the list to access Customer Invoice page.

 

Bill number & Bill Status is at the top left of the page.

 

These options are located on the top right part of the page:

 

Print PDF: Save a copy of the bill in PDF format.

File: View or add file(s) to this bill.

Bill Options: More options for this bill.

 

The content of your bill is beneath the header.

 

There's a section to record payment to supplier on this bill beneath the bill. 

The last section on this page is the History & Notes. This is also your audit trail for this bill.

 

Click Business > Purchase orders to access Purchase Orders page.

 

Purchase Orders listing page contains the list of all purchase orders issued by your company.

Click New Purchase Order to create a new supplier purchase order.

Purchase Orders are categorized in tabs by its status. Click on its respective Status to view the Purchase Orders.

 

Click on a Purchase Order from the list to access Purchase Order page.

 

Purchase Order number & Status is at the top left of the page.

 

These options are located on the top right part of the page:

Send: Send this Purchase Order directly from your Xero account.

Print PDF: Save a copy of the Purchase Order in PDF format.

Mark as Billed: Change the status of this Purchase Order to Billed.

File: View or add file(s) to this Purchase Order.

Purchase Order Options: More options for this Purchase Order.

 

The content of your Purchase Order is beneath the header.

 

The last section on this page is the History & Notes. This is also your audit trail for this purchase order. 

 

Next is Purchases Overview page. Click Business > Purchases Overview to access this page.

 

Purchases Overview page is a summary page of your company's purchases. You can check out the total amount of your Bills and Purchase Orders from this page.

The buttons at the top are your Purchases Menu. You can create a New Document and Import from this page.

The first section of this page is a summary on your Bills while the second section is a summary on your Purchase Orders.

The total amount of your Bills are categorized based on its Status, which is Draft, Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Payment and Overdue. 

The total amount of your Purchase Orders are categorized based on its Status, which is Draft, Awaiting Approval and Approved. 

 

The bar chart in Bills section is Upcoming Bills. This bar chart shows the estimated money that your company will pay based on your bills' due date.

You can customize the bar chart's date range by moving the slider bar beneath it.

 

 

Expense Claims

The next few slides is on Expense Claims. Expense Claims is one of Xero's feature that I love to use to track my business expenses easily.

 

Expense claims are categorized by its status and ownership in tabs. 

Click New expense button on the top right part of this page to create new expense claim.

Let's look at the first tab, Your Own.

All the pages of expense claims look similar with the same layout.

The header before the listing will help to differentiate the page that you are viewing. As I have clicked on Your Own tab at the top, my header will now show "Your Own".

All expense claims submitted by you will be listed in this page and grouped by its status.

 

The next tab is To Review. 

The header before the listing now show "To Review".

All expense claims submitted to you for your review will be listed in this page and grouped by the name of the person who submitted the expense claims.

Approve and expense claims option is on the right of the expense claims.

 

The next tab is To Pay. 

The header before the listing now show "To pay".

All approved expense claims and pending payment will be listed in this page and grouped by the name of the person who submitted the expense claims.

Pay button and expense claims option is on the right of the expense claims.

 

The next tab is All. 

The header before the listing now show "All".

All expense claims will be listed in this page. 

You can filter expense claims based on the name of the person who submitted the expense claims or by the status of the expense claims.

The colour-coded status of the expense claims is right next to the expense claims.

Expense claims option is on the right of the expense claims.

 

The next tab is Explorer. 

The bar chart summarizes the expense claims based on its total amount according to each account and the status the expense claims.

You can filter expense claims based on the name of the person who submitted the expense claims or by account.

Hover your mouse over to the bar chart and a pop up with more information on it will appear. 

 

 

Products & Services

Products & Services is an easy one for you. Click Business > Products & Services to access this page. 

 

You can find all your Products & Services in Products & Services Listing page and you can sort the listing according to your preference.

New Item: Create a new Products or Services.

Import & Export: Import or export multiple Products or Services.

 

Click on a Product or Service from the list to access Individual Product or Service page.

 

Item name is shown at the top left of the page.

 

These options are located on the top right part of the page:

File: View or add file(s) to this item.

Edit Item: Edit this item.

Item Options: More options for this item.

 

The content of your item is beneath the header.

 

The section beneath item details is Recent Transactions which lists out transactions with this item.

The last section on this page is the History & Notes. This is also your audit trail for this item.

 

 

Bank Accounts

The next few slides will be related to Bank Accounts. Click Accounting > Bank Accounts to access Bank Accounts Summary page.

 

Bank Accounts Summary page is a snapshot view of your bank accounts.

Each bank account has a section of its own in this page.

More options for bank accounts at the top of this page.

 

 

Add Bank Account: Add new bank account.

Transfer Money: Transfer money between bank accounts.

Bank Rules: Manage bank rules for your company.

Uncoded Statement Lines: View all unreconciled bank statement lines transactions.  

 

 

In each bank account section, a summary of its statement balance and balance in Xero is shown here. Daily bank balance is presented in a line chart format which is easy to read.

Manage Account button provides more option for your bank account. 

Click on your bank account name to access Bank Transactions page.

 

The statement balance and balance in Xero is shown at the top of the page. 

Manage Account button provides more option for your bank account. 

 

Click on the first tab, Reconcile to reconcile bank statement lines and Xero bank transactions.

 

 

Click on Cash Coding tab to go to Cash Coding page. This page is a quick reconciliation of bank statement lines for cash payments. 

Cash Coding Options are available above the cash coding transactions.

 

Click on the tab Bank Statements to view bank statement lines. You can filter the transactions by clicking on the link "Showing Statement lines".

 

 

The last tab on this page is Account Transaction. Click on this tab to view Xero bank transactions. Click New Transaction button to create a new bank transaction.

 

 

Reports

The next one that we'll look at is reports. Access your reports at Accounting > Reports.

 

 

Reports are categorized by its type at the top of the page, which is Summary, Custom, Drafts, Published and Archived.

The default page is Summary.

All available reports are grouped by its category as below:

• Financial
• Tax
• Sales
• Purchases
• Accounting
• Fixed Assets
• Inventory
• Payrun

 

 

 

Click on the individual report and the report will be generated.

The name of the report is shown at the top of this page.

You may change the Report Settings to customize the report according to your requirements. 

The report generated will be shown below the report settings.

 

There's a bar at the bottom of the page which allows you to:

• Edit the layout of your report by clicking on the link on the bar at the bottom of the page.
• Save and Export this report.

 

 

Advanced

Click Accounting > Advanced to access Advanced Accounting page.

 

 

Advanced accounting page are broken down into 2 main groups, which is Advanced Features and Advanced Settings. 

Advanced Features are a list of advanced menu used by your Accountant such as: 

• Find and recode
• Manual journals
• Fixed assets
• Assurance dashboard
• Export accounting data
• History and notes

Advanced Settings are a list of settings used by your Accountant such as: 

• Financial settings
• Chart of Accounts
• Tax rates
• Fixed assets settings
• Tracking categories
• Conversion balances

 

 

Let's look at one of the advanced menu, Manual Journals. Transactions which are not related to Bank, Customers or Suppliers will be created here.

The buttons to create a new journal, a new repeating journal or to import journals are located at the top of the page.

Journal transactions are categorized in tabs based on its Status of Draft, Posted, Voided, Repeating or Archive.

The list of journal transactions are located beneath the Status tabs.

 

 

Chart of Accounts is the most frequently used Advanced Settings. This page lets you manage all of the accounts in your company. 

You can Add a new Account, Add a new Bank Account, Print to PDF, import or export your Chart of Accounts here.

All accounts are categorized based on its Account Types tab, which is All Accounts, Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Expenses, Revenue and Archive.

The list of accounts for the respective tabs will be listed in this page beneath the tabs.

 

  

Projects

Xero Projects is a project software to track and manage project accounting. Click Projects from the menu bar to access it.

 

 

All the projects of your company is listed in the main page of Projects. 

Your projects is grouped in tab by its Status, which is In progress and Closed.

Click New Project button to create a new project for your company.

 

 

Click on one of the project to view the details of the project.

Project menu & settings are located at the top of this page.

Click on Task & expenses tab to view all the tasks and expenses for this project.

A summary of Invoiced amount and Time and expenses will be displayed here.

 

The second tab of Projects page is Time.

All the time entries for this project will be listed here.

 

 

Contacts

All your customers, suppliers and employees are listed in Contacts.

 

 

Contacts are categorized by its type which is:

• Customers
• Suppliers
• Employees
• Archived

You can create groups for specific list of contacts or use any of the smart lists created by Xero.

You can Import & Export your contacts, Send statements and Add new contact.

 

  

Mobile App

Xero has created 3 free mobile apps for Android and iOS:

• Xero Expenses
• Xero Accounting
• Xero Projects

 

  

Xero Accounting (Mobile App)

Xero Accounting Mobile App lets you access your Xero account directly from your mobile phone. 

No matter where you are, you can see your cashflow in real time, send invoices and quotes on the go and call customers directly from your Xero Accounting Mobile App.

 

 

Xero Expenses (Mobile App)

You can view manage your expense claims from your mobile phone with Xero Expenses Mobile App.

From your Xero Expenses Mobile App, you can:

• add new expense claims
• view your expenses
• view your team expenses
• approve expenses

 

 

Xero Projects (Mobile App)

You can manage your projects on the go with Xero Projects Mobile App.

This app allows you to:

• Track job progress
• Simple invoicing
• Painless time entry

 

 

App Integration  

Xero Accounting can be customized to suit your business needs with third party app. Xero App Marketplace consists of 800+ third party apps grouped in various functions, like Invoicing & jobs app, Payments app, Payroll HR, Reporting and etc. 

 

Click on any of the app to view the details of the app.

If you would like to get the app, click Get this app button.

 

 

Do you want to use Xero Accounting like a pro? 

Click here to get your free copy of my 3 Secrets to mastering Xero Accounting for non-accountants.

 

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What is the next Xero Accounting tutorial that you would like to learn?

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Let me know in any of the social platforms or by email!

As always, Nuts Accounting is here to help Entrepreneurs to master Cloud Accounting System in simple English. 

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I’ll see you in the next blog post! 

 

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Disclaimer: This blog post is not sponsored by Xero Accounting in anyways at all. I'm a Xero certified advisor and I receive a small commission when you sign up or renew your Xero subscription through me. I created this blog post only based on my personal experience in using Xero Accounting and I hope that by sharing my knowledge with you, you can use yours better.