Software-as-a-Service accounting firm Xero is introducing some big changes for New Zealand customers in September, with new plans that'll cost more, while removing existing ones.
In an email to customers Xero said it's launching a new line-up of business plans and increasing the monthly cost of the current ones. The new plans and their target customers are Ignite for businesses starting out, Grow for self-employed and growing businesses, and Comprehensive with payroll for organisations with employees.
Xero also said it is enhancing the current Ultimate plan that will provide accounting, payroll and forecasting tools. Meanwhile, the existing Starter, Standard and Premium plans won't be sold after September but existing customers already on them will face price increases:
| Plan | Current monthly cost | New monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $33 | $35 |
| Standard | $71 | $75 |
| Premium | $94 | $99 |
| Ultimate | $105 | $133 |
The current monthly cost for the plans was last increased in September 2023, with Starter going up by $2, Standard by $5 and Premium and Ultimate plans becoming $10/month more expensive.
Come September, Xero GST Cashbook will no longer be sold, and the number of accountant and bookkeeper partner plans will be pared down to two, Xero Ledger and Xero Cashbook.
Xero said from 12 September, it intends to move existing plans to new plans in a phased approach with at least 60 days notice before the shift takes place. The migration will be completed by March 2025, Xero said. Customers can also move to the new plans themselves after September 12.
Add-ons such as payroll, projects and analytics will no longer be sold separately from September, Xero said.
Here are the new Xero plans that come into effect from September 12 this year, and their GST exclusive cost:
Xero called the new plans simplified and streamlined, with the new line-up having more key features.
The lowest-cost Ignite plan loses the ability to run payroll, Analytics Plus and Xero Projects add-ons, but is otherwise the same as the current Starter version; this also applies to the Grow plan, vis-a-vis the existing Starter one.
Xero Comprehensive will allow expenses and mileage for up to 5 people, up from just one in Premium currently, with additional users costing $5 per month. Comprehensive can also run payroll for up to five people, whereas for Premium this costs $10/month for one person and $1 per additional user.
Analytics Plus is included with Comprehensive, but Xero Projects can't be added on as is possible for Premium, at $10/month for one user, and $7/month for additional people. The enhanced version of Ultimate provides expenses and mileage for up to 10 people as part of the monthly subscription (up from 5 in the older version), with additional users costing $5/month.
Likewise, Ultimate enhanced runs payroll for up to 10 people to a maximum of 200, with each costing $1 over and above 10. Tracking projects for up to 10 people is also included, again up from 5 in the older version.
For the first half of its 2024 full financial year, Xero reported an operating revenue increase of 21% to $799.5 million, and earnings before tax rose 90% to $206.1 million. Net profit was up $70.2 million year on year, to $54.1 million. The SaaS accounting company claims 3.95 million subscribers, up 13%.
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