Technically stronger than the person who bought this for you — comfortable in Excel, you know Xero inside out, maybe CPA or CA qualified. You post the accruals, reconcile the bank, chase the variance, and when this doesn’t work, you’re the one who fixes it or escalates it.
You didn’t buy this — your CFO did. Your opinion of it gets formed in the first two or three times you actually use it. The test is simple: does it save you real time on the things you already do every month. If the close checklist catches a missing accrual you’d have missed and saves you 45 minutes, you’re a convert. If it gets a balance wrong once, you don’t trust it again.
The close takes too long, and the last 20% is always the messiest part. You spend too much time on variance commentary that feels like it should write itself by now. AR chasing is manual and awkward — into Xero, download a report, email people. You already know the answer to most of the questions your CEO or CFO ask you — it just takes you 20 minutes to pull it together properly.
Connect your Xero account and see what it finds on your actual last close, not a demo.