Xero Introduces Industry Benchmarking Intelligence for Small Businesses

AI-Generated Insights Based on Peer Comparison Data Help Provide the Clarity & Confidence to Take Action

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Xero (ASX: XRO), the global small business platform, today announced the launch of Industry Benchmarks in Xero Analytics. This new benchmarking intelligence expands the enterprise-grade insights Xero delivers to small businesses and their advisors, helping remove ambiguity and boost clarity that can power more informed, real-time decision-making.

“The ability to have a comprehensive view of your business performance compared to industry peers is a strategic advantage that’s historically been reserved for larger companies,” said Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero. “Our Industry Benchmarking capabilities deliver actionable AI-generated insights that move a business beyond just knowing where they stand to feeling empowered to make clearer decisions backed by industry-specific data.”

Industry Benchmarks turns real-time, anonymized and aggregated data from Xero small business customers around the world into comparable performance metrics, allowing small businesses to measure their financial health against peers in their industry and region to help them identify opportunities and avoid operational blind spots.

Whether you’re a boutique clothing store weighing the decision to hire another staff member or a plumber experiencing rising materials costs, Industry Benchmarks unlocks actionable intelligence to help businesses evaluate where they stand in relation to peers in their industry and pinpoint areas in need of focus or improvement.

Key features include:

• Comparative Performance Scoring: Groups of key financial ratios are analyzed and clearly labeled as leading, lagging, or in line with peers, removing ambiguity and providing instant context. Performance for each business is measured against cohorts at the industry and country level, and highlighted in a personalized scorecard
• Targeted Metric Tracking: Small businesses can now benchmark nine critical drivers of health across revenue, profitability and cash management, including:
  • Debtor Days: Get clarity on whether slow paying customers are unique to your business or the industry norm, and address any potential risks to cash flow
  • Growth in sales revenue: Evaluate sales data to help determine if your scaling efforts are outpacing or falling behind the industry median
  • Operating Efficiency: Detailed analysis of cost-to-income ratio can help measure how effectively expenses are translating into results compared to industry peers and supporting sustainable business operations
• AI-Powered Prioritization Engine: Access to AI-generated insights on actions a business can take serves as a "prioritization engine," helping remove guesswork and identify which part of their operations needs attention
• Strategic Advisory Launchpad: Benchmarking offers a standardized starting point for more proactive, data-driven conversations between small businesses and their accountants or bookkeepers

Industry Benchmarks expands the robust insights capabilities offered by Xero Analytics which brings CFO-level, enterprise-grade intelligence to small businesses around the world. These powerful benchmarking capabilities within the AI-native Xero OS give small businesses the financial control and clarity they need in one unified platform. With JAX automating routine tasks and surfacing actionable insights, Xero helps give them clarity and confidence around decision-making.

About Xero

Xero is a global small business platform that helps customers supercharge their business by bringing together the most important small business tools, including accounting, payroll and payments — on one platform. Xero’s powerful platform helps customers automate routine tasks, get timely insights, and connects them with their data, their apps, and their accountant or bookkeeper so they can focus on what really matters. Trusted by millions of small businesses and accountants and bookkeepers globally, Xero makes life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. For further information, please visit xero.com.