Xero certification

Xero certification

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I first became certified in 2010 with no costs involved. Xero have now informed me that my practice has no certified partners and must fork out £149 plus vat to get certified.

I love Xero and can see merits of getting all
Clients on Xero even through partner versions, streamline the practice accordingly. But with costs for partner versions and certification costs I'm a little disappointed.

Whilst the costs are not significant, they are still a consideration when clients in my region are so price sensitive and my firm is relatively small.

I feel that getting clients to sign up to Xero business plans deserves more recognition over and above website listing, and certainly not paying for certification. What will be the next annual cost introduced by Xero?

Any thoughts folks?

Replies (13)

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Locutus of Borg
By Locutus
10th Jan 2014 19:19

If my understanding is correct ...

You don't, as such, get charged for taking the annual certification exam and have three goes to pass it without taking the webinar.

However, if you don't pass after three goes (and the timed exam has a number of quite obscure questions, so there's a good chance you won't), then you have to pay £79.00 recertification refresher.  I think the £149.00 charge is if you have never been certified.

The pass mark is set quite high, at something like 85%.  From memory, I got around 70%.  I've got two more goes before I have to cough up for the webinar, but to be honest, I just can't be arsed with with the whole thing at the moment.

I know Xero reasonably well and don't really see what additional value I get from being "Xero Certified".  OK, you get listed on their website, but I'm not really that bothered about it.

It just feels like this annual certification nonsense it set up as a bit of a cash cow.  I like Xero, but I'm starting to feel they've lost the plot a bit.  I'll stick with being a bronze member and will start having a look at what Clearbooks have to offer.

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Kieran Phelan
By KPEM online
10th Jan 2014 19:23

£149 charge
Thanks Locutus. Hoping someone can clarify why I am being asked to pay if I was certified in 2010, before the crazy prices appeared and Xero just wanted to get accountants on board for referrals.

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By The Doctor
10th Jan 2014 19:25

Cash cow, I think not
I think that rather than being a cash cow, it would simply cover the admin time for Xero and seperates the accountant partners into those who are serious about using xero to change their practice ethos, and those who are just looking for cloud book-keeping software. Personally I think that you will start to see a huge difference between Xero practices and others over the next few years.

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By EstherG
10th Jan 2014 20:26

Buy one get one free!

There are two of us and we paid £149 for the first to be certified, then a couple of months later I was able to get certification for free - we weren't that bothered but our account manager offered it and I love a certificate ;)

The test was pretty irrelevant to the day to day tasks that we use, especially the question 'how much does Xero charge for XYZ' but it's another thing to make your practice more credible and gets you a shiny logo for your website!

PS If anyone from Xero reads this can we have support center we can telephone, rather than sending an email and waiting for two days please?!

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Replying to David Heaton:
By ShirleyM
11th Jan 2014 11:51

Relevant?

EstherG wrote:

There are two of us and we paid £149 for the first to be certified, then a couple of months later I was able to get certification for free - we weren't that bothered but our account manager offered it and I love a certificate ;)

The test was pretty irrelevant to the day to day tasks that we use, especially the question 'how much does Xero charge for XYZ' but it's another thing to make your practice more credible and gets you a shiny logo for your website!

PS If anyone from Xero reads this can we have support center we can telephone, rather than sending an email and waiting for two days please?!

Are you really expected to memorise their charges to get certification? Aren't they published on the Web for quick easy reference? I thought certification was to assure the client that you could provide all necessary training & support, to save them having to pay extra, eg. pay for the equivalent of Sage training & support.

In addition, I hope the two days wait for a response is because of the January rush, and not the average response time.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
11th Jan 2014 00:56

Similar discussion few months back...

There have been several posts on the merits or waste of this process, here's one from a few months back:

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/group-thread/xero-exam-practices

If any one system is going to be right for the majority of your clients then great, throw all your effort into it.  My own view always has been that the experience of the past 30 years shows us that no one off the shelf product will ever suit all businesses, but what's changed is that there are now over 20 to chose from.

You don't have to be certified to use any software, I use 3 and am looking at a fourth.  The purpose of certification of this or most other systems, is to get some promotion and/or a mention on the website but, at the time, I saw no point in trying to get another 2 clients for my bronze and then be at the end of a list of over 400 other practices. Besides which, I post advice and comments on FreeAgent's & ClearBooks's forums, with no certificate and regardless of client numbers.

I have spent decades discussing accounting software with hundreds of existing and prospective clients and never has any asked me if I was certified to use it, it's bookkeeping not an aircraft.

Things may have changed @ Xero (I hope so) so might be worth a post on the discussion forum to see.

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By User deleted
11th Jan 2014 09:46

The certification game ...

Not sure whether M$ started the ball rolling in this area, but they certainly capitalise on it.

M$ charge for certification for just about every product they have and it does become a hugely costly exercise to do this. From memory M$ also require re-certification periodically - so it is a never ending roundabout of time & costs.

Just take M$ Office for example - certification for Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Oulook, Sharepoint, One-Note etc.; each with its own test. Are there enough hours to complete this lot quite apart from SQL Server, Operating systems ... and so on ... even ignoring the eventual costs

The questions for Xero are:

Is this the thin end of the wedge?Will certification be introduced for each and every future module introduced into your stable?Do you propose to have certification for services (web-services) introduced by 3rd parties (discussion in another area on these) - i.e. eCommerce? After all they are all part and parcel of your system and advertised by Xerio as add-ons. Without being certificed on all these products it will be incredibly misleading for any client relying on Xero certification, if you have to point out all the exceptions!How often is certification required? - Clearly any major enhancement (or periodically) re-certification will need to take place; otherwise it becomes meaningless and out of date

Finally, users need to work out the benefit(s) and weigh them against the downside - are there any over-riding benefits or is it simply a 'money-making' exercise, which effectively becomes a lock-in

Ultimately has this idea really been thought out by the provider in the first place?

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By mikemday
11th Jan 2014 10:43

Xero Cert

As Locutus points out, since you are renewing your Xero Certification from 2010 then you don't need to take the full £149 Certification training and test.

 

Instead you have the option of either taking the free re-Certification test without any training, or the refresher Certification training (2hrs) at £79 followed by the re-Certification test.

In your case the refresher Certification training will include all the new product developments launched since 2010, but you don't need to do it if you're happy just to fly into the free test and re-Certify.

 

If this wasn't clear then we haven't got our communications right and we have some work to do.

Mike Day
Channel Operations Manager, Xero

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By ShirleyM
11th Jan 2014 10:02

It puts me off

As Paul says, you need to put clients first, and the software that is best for one client may not suit another.

I have just started my venture into online accounting, with few clients that would consider online accounting, so the thought of having to get certified with one or more suppliers is a big turn off. I know the cerrification is not mandatory, but it does give the message that Xero software is more complicated, and not as intuitive as other software. 

I also heartily dislike the 'gong' system, where a higher number of clients gives you a higher rating. This will result in some accountants pushing clients onto Xero, when this may not be the best solution for each client. We have already heard that some accountants buy 'dummy Xero accounts' just to boost their ratings!

This may suit some accountants, but it puts me off even trying it ... and that's before it comes to overall cost, when other software is much more reasonable. I guess I will remain ignorant of Xero's virtues.

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By Moonbeam
11th Jan 2014 10:17

Reasons to use Xero

Only reason in my opinion to use Xero is - does it suit client? If client is extremely messy and disorganised there could be real problems for you as accountant later.

As for paying Xero for answering some pathetic and obscure "exam" questions for which you have to pay to be marked I see no benefit to you or anyone else. Apparently certification enables us to put Xero's logo on our website. Wow, big deal.

The only logo I want on my website is mine. My own customer service is frankly far superior to that of any software company, and I ask lots of questions of prospects before tailoring my services to them. Even if I passed the "exam" it wouldn't suddenly make me a better Xero person. All it would prove is my ability to learn lots of potentially useless facts

It will take me a few more VAT returns while I work out how to get round some of the ghastly payment on account bits, if at all possible. So I will certify myself as good at Xero when I think I am and not before.

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Gary Turner
By garyturner
11th Jan 2014 10:57

Answers

@JC - Some quick answers to your questions...

Is this the thin end of the wedge?

No. We introduced Certification training in the UK almost four years ago. If it was a Trojan Horse designed to give us scope to bring in additional training revenue then it's not a very good one.

@PaulScholes Freeagent now has an accountant certification programme as did Clearbooks the last time I looked but apparently no longer, perhaps by your recommendation since you joined them?

Will certification be introduced for each and every future module introduced into your stable?

No. The current training framework is designed to account for the fact that Xero changes throughout the year.

Do you propose to have certification for services (web-services) introduced by 3rd parties (discussion in another area on these) - i.e. eCommerce? After all they are all part and parcel of your system and advertised by Xerio as add-ons. Without being certificed on all these products it will be incredibly misleading for any client relying on Xero certification, if you have to point out all the exceptions!

No. It's up to each Add-on to determine if their users require training. Some will, some won't.

How often is certification required? - Clearly any major enhancement (or periodically) re-certification will need to take place; otherwise it becomes meaningless and out of date

Re-certification is annual.

Why do we offer (notably, not enforce) training?

Our analysis of customer service data points to a clear correlation between both the number of support tickets and the nature of the support tickets raised and the fact of whether the ticket raiser has had any exposure to training. In the case of accountants and bookkeepers who are often attempting to use Xero in a more challenging way than a typical client might, there's a logical justification that some training helps.

In part as a result of feedback we get on here (and from accountants around the world) we are working through a remodelling of the partner programme for 2014 to account for the fact that not every accountant will put all their clients on Xero to work their way up the rankings (which isn't actually the point in the first place), reflect the fact that some accountants may be very adept at using Xero but may only have a few clients, and to also improve the overall quality and value obtained from training and educational resources we have. 

When we have more detail I'll create a thread in the discussion group and it would be good to test out some of our thinking before we make any changes.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

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By taxhound
11th Jan 2014 11:37

Complete turn off

I recommend software because I like it - eg VT and Moneysoft.  I don't want to have to pay extra to be part of a club and I don't need my software provider telling me how to operate.

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Gary Turner
By garyturner
13th Mar 2014 09:36

Launch of Self-Paced Learning in Xero

Today we launched the first of a number of changes and additions to the way accountants & bookkeepers can go about learning how Xero works.

We're moving away from the prevailing dependency to attend a scheduled online or classroom based training session with a test at the end.

Self Paced Learning in Xero

It's a pretty significant overhaul and I'd be keen to get feedback as and when AccountingWeb members happen to get the chance to have a play.

 

Regards,

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero
@garyturner

 

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