Why I’m Staying With SkyClerk Instead Of Switching To Xero

Earlier this week I received a promo email from Xero offering free use of their service until May of this year.  It makes sense for me to switch to Xero.  After all it’s founded in New Zealand so is suited to our accounting standards, it can pull transactions directly from my NZ bank account and I can also use it to send invoices*.  Yet on Xero’s credit card page I decided to forgo the offer and stick with SkyClerk, a fairly new web app built by Spicer Matthews.

Here are my reasons;

I want to support a start up

I’m hoping to build a few apps of my own and even on the outset I can see how much work is involved.  In sticking with SkyClerk I can help support another start up.  Something I hope others in the industry do as well.
“But Xero’s a start up too isn’t it?”  No, not in my books.  A start up doesn’t start with millions of dollars of investors money to play with.  Xero has been a fully fledged business from the start, funding by successful New Zealand businessman.

It’s not bloated

Some people love Xero’s UI but I’m not one of them.  It took me ages to figure out how to do something as simple as add an expense in my trial account.  It shouldn’t be that hard to use!  It’s plethora of features is probably very handy for larger business, but for a one-man band it is absolute overkill.

On the other hand SkyClerk is designed very nicely (I believe Josh Hemsley is behind the original design) and is simple and easy to use.  They are adding features, but so far they have been conscious not to move away from the pure minimalist approach (and I hope it stays that way).

It’s cheaper

I think I’ve got a grandfathered account which is costing me $5/month, but even their current price of $9/month is a lot cheaper than what I’d have to pay if I switched to Xero.The automatic bank feed through Xero is nice though, and in some ways worth the extra money…but my previous 2 reasons still stand.

If you’re a smaller business I’d recommend seriously considering SkyLedger for your accounting/bookkeeping purposes.  It’s what accounting software would look like if 37Signals built it.

*I’m told SkyClerk will offer invoicing by the end of April.

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