Before signing up with Xero, it is important that you understand the various User Roles within Xero.
As a new user, you will be granted the Standard User role. As a Standard User, you are able to invite other users, and grant various levels of authority.You will be able to invite a Financial Advisor, but will NOT have the Financial Advisor role. The Financial Advisor has special priviledges and can perform certain functions that cannot be done by a Standard User.
For this reason we recommend that you sign up through a Xero Certified Partner who can act as your Financial Advisor, and assist in setting you up to get you going. You can then choose whether you go it alone or fall back on your Financial Advisor for assistance when needed.
Details of the different levels of authority are as follows:
Users with this role have full system access to Xero (i.e. the same as the Standard role) as well as the ability to publish standard reports, access management reports and lock periods.
You will probably have this role, or invite someone to have this role where full access and control over the accounts as a whole including preparation of financial statements and tax information is required. If you are using Xero Partner Edition you'll have this role if you are the accountant or part of the accounting practice that manages your clients' accounts using Xero Cashbook, and you will likely invite those clients into Xero with limited access via the Cashbook Client or Managed Client role. If you're managing your own accounts yourself using Xero, unless you are an accountant yourself or confident with doing this you'll most like invite your organisation's accountant to have this role, even if you only invite them once or twice a year to help them close out your accounts for the year.
The full Xero Dashboard will display allowing access to all bank accounts, invoices and expense claims; summary graphs for running bank balances and invoice payments and a list of accounts on a Chart of Accounts Watchlist (optional). In addition an extra menu 'Adviser' will display that provides access to manual journals and management reports.
Accounts - same as for standard role, but can also export General Ledger transactions. Reports - can view, run, publish and copy & edit all reports including the Management and Annual reports and Reconciliation Report, create customised report layouts and add manual journals; can save reports as draft, published or archived (which means other users can view them) and can archive or delete reports.
Contacts - full access as with Standard role.
Fixed Assets - full access to the Fixed Asset register, including setting and changing the Start Date, adding, importing, editing, deleting, registering and disposal of asset items. Can run and rollback depreciation and can view, run and publish Depreciation Schedule and Fixed Asset Reconciliation reports.
Settings - can access and change all settings for Xero, as with Standard role. Can also access lock dates for the organisation (either period or year end lock). If a year end lock date is in place, this will need to be removed before changes can be made to transactions or dates occurring before the lock date.
Currencies - full access to currencies once the multi-currency option is enabled, as with the Standard role. If the user is the Subscriber for the organisation, they can enable the multi-currency option in the first place - Financial Advisers don't get this ability by default. However, if another user with the 'Financial Adviser' role is invited by the Subscriber during the set up process, only they will be able to enable the multi-currency option during the set up process. The multi-currency option is not available to Xero Partner Edition organisations, only to Business Edition organisations, so Financial Advisers will only have access to currency options as allowed by these types of organisations.
Users - as long as the Financial Adviser user has the Manage Users option they can view, add, edit and delete users for the organisation and determine what role those users have. If Manage Users option is not set, they can only view the list of users for the organisation. If you are the Financial Adviser using Xero Accountant's Edition you can add other Financial Adviser users, Managed Client users or Cashbook Client users. A Financial Adviser using Xero Accountant's Edition can also elect themselves or other Financial Advisers for the organisation to provide support directly to their clients via an 'Ask my Accountant' link on the Xero Help menu.
Can add or edit data with a date prior to a period lock and make changes to information used to set up the organisation (i.e. conversion date or balances and comparative balances) at any time even if there is a period lock date set. During the set up process the Subscriber user can do this even though they have Standard permissions but once that process is complete, Financial Adviser permissions will be required.
A user with this role can be invited during the set up process and an email invitation will be sent to them straight away so that they have access to view or help complete your set up information.
Xero Partner Edition currently offers a cashbook product and as such Financial Advisers will likely have no requirement to use any of the invoicing features even though they are provided. However, if required, invoices and credit notes can only be entered for the organisation by someone with this role. Those with the Cashbook Client role will be provided with view-only access to invoices and credit notes if they appear in reports, the Chart of Accounts and any notes on a Contact that reference an invoice or credit note.
This role is available with all editions of Xero.