This article is part of our Scaling with Xero series. Over five weeks, CFO Techstack is revisiting the standout insights from our recent webinar series, where finance leaders and app partners shared how far businesses can push Xero with the right ecosystem.
So far, weâve tackled Xeroâs overall limits, inventory management, and multi-entity month end. This week, the focus shifts to one of the biggest challenges for growing groups: consolidated reporting.
Our panel brought three perspectives to the table:
Why Xero is still the right foundation
For Tyler, the starting point is simple: Xero remains the best foundation for most finance teams. Itâs fast, accurate, and reliable, qualities that are often overlooked when people assume an ERP must be the next step.
âXero is always the baseline product I put businesses on. Itâs just so good at capturing accurate data.â
He explained that the speed of reporting makes a practical difference for finance leaders:
âI can spot mistakes in my teamâs coding or journals two to three times faster in Xero than in other systems. The audit trail is clear, and I can trust the numbers.â
For single-entity reporting, he argued, Xero already does a lot: P&Ls and balance sheets are quick to run, easy to customise, and dependable.
When the cracks begin to show
But as businesses grow, the cracks start to appear. Theresa shared what it looked like for Wizard Professional Services, a group running over 100 entities on Xero.
Manual reporting quickly became unmanageable. Without add-ons, the team found themselves stuck in spreadsheets, constantly exporting, reconciling, and copy-pasting numbers.
âWith 100+ entities, reporting was tricky. We didnât have apps, so we were just pulling information out of Xero manually. It was time-consuming and error-prone. We needed automation and scalability.â
This is the point, Tyler added, where finance leaders often begin asking if ERP is the only way forward. His view: not necessarily. With the right apps, Xero can still hold its ground.
âPeople get nervous moving from two to three entities or expanding overseas. My answer has always been: absolutely not, you donât need ERP. With good apps, you can totally run a multi-entity, multi-currency group on Xero.â
The role of automation
Kevin explained that most finance teams already know what they want, but manual processes stop them from getting there.
âIf youâre exporting CSVs, youâre doing it wrong. If you donât have all your data in one place, youâre doing it wrong. Manual spreadsheets and key-person dependencies stop reporting from scaling.â
The solution for many is to centralise data in dataSights, which pulls transactions directly from Xero and other systems, maps them consistently, and makes them ready for use in Excel, Power Query, or Power BI.
Theresa highlighted the difference it made for her team:
âOur year-end file this year was a quarter of last yearâs size. We cut dozens of tabs down into streamlined mappings within dataSights. Tracking codes, company names, reporting layers, all centralised and consistent. Now we can slice data exactly how we need it.â
For Tyler, the impact was felt at board level:
âAs a CFO, I used to spend hours reconciling errors. Now I can fix an issue in Xero, refresh the data in dataSights, and have consolidated numbers ready in minutes. That process went from three to four hours down to 15 minutes.â
But the benefits of a centralised data platform extend far beyond just automation and consolidation.
Beyond consolidation: forecasting and dimensions
Automation doesnât end with consolidation. For Theresaâs group, forecasting and budgeting required something more.
âWe use dataSights for reporting into Excel and Power Query, but for forecasting and budgeting weâre adopting Modano. Xero and Fathom just donât handle the complexity we need.â
Tyler pointed to automation of eliminations as another key benefit:
âLoan accounts, sales, COGS, theyâre matched and eliminated automatically. If somethingâs out of balance, the system posts an adjustment so the balance sheet always ties.â
Kevin outlined the foundation that makes all this possible:
âThe key is three things: a cloud database, centralised mappings, and a full account transactions view. Once youâve got that, you can push the data anywhere, Excel, Power BI, Modano. The data becomes reusable and ready.â
The tracking category debate
Xeroâs two-category limit remains a pain point, but the panel agreed itâs workable with the right approach.
Theresa explained how her group uses them:
âWe use one for departments and one for companies. That works day-to-day, but for deeper insights we lean on dataSights.â
Tyler argued that two is usually enough if designed well:
âGross profit reporting should sit in your job costing or inventory system, not overloaded in Xero. Two categories, used properly, can cover what you need.â
Kevin reminded the audience that trade-offs are part of the deal:
âItâs ÂŁ75/month software, not a million-pound ERP. There will be limitations, but with planning and the right stack, you can still get the insights you need.â
Building for the future
One of the themes running through the session was scalability. Tyler stressed how todayâs app ecosystem offers flexibility that ERP canât.
âWeâre no longer locked into five-year ERP contracts. Apps like Mayday and dataSights are month-to-month. Adding an entity takes minutes, not months.â
Theresa showed how her team is already layering in payroll and POS data alongside Xero through dataSights, creating a complete reporting view.
Kevin described the compounding effect he sees across clients:
âMost of our customers donât have BI teams. Theyâre the same people who used to wrangle Excel. Now, with automated data, theyâre stepping into Power BI or even AI tools. Itâs the same data, delivered in smarter ways.â
The takeaway
The panelâs message was clear: Xero can deliver consolidated reporting at scale, if you automate, standardise, and build the right stack.
âAt the end of the day, your data is an asset. Treat it that way, automate the flow, and you can scale reporting far beyond what most people think is possible on Xero.â - Kevin Wiegand
If you missed the full conversation, you can watch the recording here.
Next week, in the final article of the Scaling with Xero recap series, weâll explore how finance teams are optimising global payments with Airwallex, turning one of the biggest pain points of international growth into a competitive advantage.
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