10 Great Free Online Courses for Xero Advisor Certification

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So, you want to become a Xero advisor but you have lots of questions. How much schooling is required? Is it difficult to learn? Luckily, all your questions and more will be answered in this article. A Xero advisor is a bookkeeper who manages your business financials and helps you to understand where your money is going. Hiring a Xero advisor can give you much more time to manage the other parts of your business, including growth and general management. If you want to become a Xero advisor, your job would be managing and overseeing the daily financials of a business and helping the business owner to understand their finances.

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Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.

The Xero accounting software offers a certification course that must be taken yearly and should be renewed if you want to continue being Xero certified. However, learning Xero is an entirely different task that will require much of your attention. If you are curious about becoming Xero certified or learning how to use the Xero platform, we’ve found 10 free Xero advisor certification courses to help you out. They were chosen based on a methodology we use to help us find only the top free courses.

Ranking 10 Free Online Courses for Xero Advisor Certification

1. Xero Advisor Certification

Hosted by Xero

Xero itself hosts a certification course for users to learn and become certified with the software. While it typically costs quite a bit of money to complete this, Xero offers a 30-day free trial for new learners. This gives you the perfect amount of time to see if you enjoy learning Xero and if you want to continue on to become a certified Xero advisor. This is perhaps the best website you can learn from, considering it comes straight from the people who create and manage the software.

During your Xero training, you will become well-acquainted with the key areas of Xero through various educational lectures and training sessions. These best Xero training courses give you a solid foundation for becoming an expert advisor, giving you the knowledge and skills to serve clients to the best of your ability.

Eventually, you will be completely equipped to use Xero, make smart financial decisions, and advise clients and businesses on using Xero. During your learning, you can also develop specializations and explore all of the features Xero has to offer. There are flexible education options, meaning there will always be time to continue your training.

Cost: Free (With Xero 30-day free trial)

Certificate: Yes

Time to Complete: As long as needed

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Learn from the people who engineer the Xero software
Flexible learning and training deadlines

Cons:

Training is locked behind a paywall after 30-day free trial

2. Managing Security in Xero

Hosted by Xero Central

Xero Central is an educational site hosted by Xero that offers a variety of free courses on different aspects of the Xero software, including things like security and working with clients. Xero Central essentially acts as a support website for Xero advisors, but anyone can take the courses on the site and learn from the various training videos.

The site is completely free to use with a Xero account and courses range anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the topic and depth of the instruction.

This top online course on security teaches users how to manage their business or their client’s business with a strong defense. There are several video modules that cover important security topics like staff security, two-step authentication, how to set up and remove staff, how to keep data secure, how to avoid phishing scams, and how to resolve common security issues. By the end of the short course, you will feel confident about keeping the business you manage safe and making sure no employee is put at risk. This course takes only 47 minutes to complete, so it is perfect for a quick refresher on managing security.

Cost: Free (With Xero account)

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 47 minutes

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Learn from the people who engineer the Xero software
Teaches you how to keep business information secure

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

3. Xero Accounting Software Overview – Free Xero Training Video Review

Hosted by YouTube and Accounts4U

YouTube is an amazing platform to find free courses since it is perhaps the most popular video-sharing platform on the internet and hosts instructors of all kinds. Any video you find on YouTube is free to view with a Google account, and exciting courses like this one are available for you to review at any time.

This video lesson from Accounts4U, which is an Australian website focusing on helping users understand Xero and bookkeeping in general. The course takes an hour and 20 minutes to complete and includes important topics on Xero, accounting, and bookkeeping.

During the free online course, Accounts4U teaches you about Xero using a recording of their own screen on the site, so you aren’t just hearing the information: you actually get to see it in action. The course will take you through an overview of the Xero platform as well as showing you an overview of billing and purchases, expense claims, products and services, bank accounts, reporting, advanced accounting, payroll, and more. You will truly get a taste of everything Xero has to offer with this course, and you will feel well-equipped to work with clients.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 1.5 hours

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Course can be re-watched or reviewed at any time
Learn an overview of important Xero topics like billing and advanced accounting

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

4. Xero Accounting Software Bank Feeds

Hosted by SkillShare

SkillShare is an online learning community that gives users and instructors a lot of freedom when it comes to their courses. Instructors are permitted to upload any kind of course they want to the site, including professional and creative classes. Students, with a membership, have access to any of the thousands of courses they wish to take.

SkillShare offers both a free and premium membership depending on your needs, but this course falls under the premium membership category. While this membership would typically cost a monthly subscription fee, SkillShare is currently offering a 14-day free trial for new premium users, which gives you a good amount of time to complete this 4.5-hour course.

This class, taught by Robert Steele, teaches you all about bank feeds in Xero, which is one of the primary skills you will need to learn in order to succeed. Robert is a master of Xero, Quickbooks, and other accounting tools, meaning he is more than qualified to teach this course. During this top free Xero accounting course, you will learn how bank feeds work and how the data from bank feeds can be used to create financial statements.

Cost: Free (With SkillShare Premium free trial)

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 4.5 hours

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Learn specifically about bank feeds
Instructor is incredibly skilled in accounting software

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course
Content is locked behind a paywall after free trial

5. Bookkeeping and Accounting in 1 Hour

Hosted by Udemy

Udemy, similar to SkillShare, is an online educational platform that allows users and instructors to upload their own courses to the catalog, both professional and creative in nature. Virtually anything you want to learn about can be seen on Udemy, and this quick course from TMR Tutorials is a testament to just how quickly you can pick up some subjects.

Udemy is free to join and many of the courses on the site are paid, though you can filter them by free classes only to work for no cost.

This free online course is not specifically designed to prepare users for a Xero advisor certification, but it does teach you how to bookkeep if you have never done it before, which is something you will certainly need to know if you want to start working in Xero. This short course will teach you everything you need to know to get started with bookkeeping, including things like taking down journal entries, preparing profit and loss numbers, and creating balance sheets. TMR Tutorials is an Indian accountant with more than 5 years of experience working with a Big 4 business in India.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 1 hour

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Learn from an accountant experienced with working with big businesses
Takes you from square one of bookkeeping

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

6. Free Xero Training

Hosted by Free Bookkeeping Accounting

Free Bookkeeping Accounting is the leading site for free courses for those who want to become masters of bookkeeping and accounting. The website has an entire page for those who want to become proficient in Xero, and they don’t hold back on any of the information they give. The site’s Xero page offers 13 different video tutorials for you to follow as well as other downloadable materials and free things.

If you aren’t sure where to start with Xero or you just need a refresher on a few important topics, this website is the perfect place to start. If you want to eventually pursue a paid route, the site also offers an ultimate bookkeeping course that is behind a paywall.

During this free Xero training, you will explore important topics like adding customers and company details, recording supplier invoices, editing supplier contacts, the chart of accounts, how to edit accounts, and more. Each one of the tutorial links will redirect you to a YouTube video tutorial recorded by BookkeepingMaster, each ranging in length depending on the content. By the end of the tutorials, you will feel confident in working with many of the important parts of Xero.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: As long as needed

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Work with a bookkeeping master
Video lectures can be revisited and reviewed at any time

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

7. Xero HQ Course

Hosted by Xero Central

As previously mentioned, Xero Central is a support website for Xero users that offers a wide variety of free classes and refreshers on Xero-related subjects. Since Xero Central is created and operated by the team behind the Xero software, there really isn’t a place to get better information about Xero. Really any course you take on this site is valuable to your career as a bookkeeper, but this one about Xero HQ is especially helpful since it goes over the main functions of Xero as a whole.

This free online course only takes 30 minutes to complete and takes you through important Xero HQ topics like managing activities, viewing and editing client details, and creating and managing queries. The class allows you to practice managing your day-to-day activities like you would if you were actually working in the software, which is great to prepare you for the workforce.

If you are just getting started working with Xero or with bookkeeping in general, this course is absolutely essential for your learning queue. Additionally, you can take any of the other courses on the Xero Central site for supplementary learning.

Cost: Free (With Xero account)

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 30 minutes

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Takes you through the most basic day-to-day Xero functions
Learn from the people who engineer the Xero software

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

8. Accounting Foundations: Bookkeeping

Hosted by LinkedIn Learning

Most people in a professional field are familiar with LinkedIn, as it is perhaps the most well-known networking site for business professionals. What many people don’t know is that LinkedIn also has a sister website designed for courses to move your career and mentality forward called LinkedIn Learning.

The site typically requires you to pay a monthly subscription fee to access all of the educational content, but luckily, they currently offer a one-month free trial for new users to access all course materials. This is the perfect amount of time to complete this foundational course, which is only an hour and a half long.

The free online course is taught by Jim and Kay Stice, two professors of accounting at the BYU Marriott School of Management. During the class, they will take you through important topics like the language of business, reviewing financial statements, the balance sheet, the importance of routine bookkeeping, and more. Although this class does not specifically focus on Xero, it is designed to be a foundational bookkeeping course, which is absolutely vital for those looking to pursue a career as a Xero advisor.

Cost: Free Try a free trial for Linkedin Learning.

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 1.5 hours

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Learn from two distinguished, qualified professors
Offered by the internet’s most popular professional networking site

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course
Does not focus specifically on Xero software

9. Free Xero Video Training: Introduction to Xero Accounting solution

Hosted by YouTube and Heather Smith

Heather Smith is a small business owner who decided to take to YouTube to share her Xero accounting skills with others. She has created a 37-minute tutorial for those who are completely new to Xero to introduce them to the basics. As mentioned above, YouTube is a free video-sharing platform where users can view and revisit any videos they like as long as they have access to a Google account.

Smith also offers a free accounting apps newsletter, which you can subscribe to on her website, which is linked in the description of the YouTube tutorial.

During the training video, Heather attempts to orient new Xero users to everything going on on the software, including things like the dashboard, payroll, accounts, contacts, settings, and more. Heather’s instructions throughout the video are clear and concise, allowing users to easily follow her advice on how to effectively and efficiently use Xero. On YouTube, you can share this video with employees or coworkers or save it to a personal folder to review later for easy learning.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Approximately 37 minutes

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Learn from a qualified business owner
Work from square one of the Xero dashboard

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

10. Free Xero Advisor Training Certification Course

Hosted by KBM Training and Recruitment

KBM Training and Recruitment is a well-recognized independent training provider in the UK, and has been working with clients on Xero training for many years. Their company is partnered with Xero as well as other software and sites like Indeed and MITSkills, so they are certainly a reputable organization to learn from. Their training is high-quality and practical, providing users with hands-on experience that will be incredibly valuable once they enter the workforce.

Currently, KBM Training is offering a free Xero advisor training course that will help you prepare for your eventual certification. This free Xero course is designed to equip you with all the tools you need to succeed in Xero, from logging in to managing accounts. There are 17 units in the course, including important topics like setting up the system, customers and suppliers, purchases ledger, petty cash, credit cards, payroll and wages, and more.

By the time you finish the course, you will feel comfortable working with the Xero software, and perhaps even comfortable enough to register for your Xero advisor certification.

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: As long as needed

Curriculum: Beginner

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

Start anytime and go at your own pace
Offered by a trusted training company in the UK
Work from square one of the Xero dashboard

Cons:

Certificate of achievement does not come with course

Frequently Asked Questions About Free Courses for Xero Advisor Certification

Becoming a Xero advisor can be hard work, especially when you have to become certified and renew that certification every year. It might seem very stressful to move into a new piece of software that you know nothing about, especially if you haven’t done any bookkeeping before. While it is certainly challenging for those new to the entire process, Xero is not impossible to learn, and taking an online course to prepare yourself is one of the best things you can do to supplement your knowledge.

Online courses are widely considered to be pretty achievable, but you might still have some questions going into one. This is why we’ve created the following section, where we outline some of the most frequently asked questions about free courses for Xero advisor certification. Ideally, getting some answers will settle your nerves and make you feel better about starting a new course for Xero.

Who Should Take A Free Online Xero Course?

If you want to become a bookkeeper, learning Xero is in your best interest. While there is other bookkeeping software, such as Quickbooks, Xero is one of the most widely used by professionals and is invaluable to know your way around. Even if you haven’t done any bookkeeping before, you can start with a course in Xero that takes you from the very basics of the platform.

If you work as a bookkeeper or accountant already, learning Xero could be a great way to expand your clientele and make more money at your job. Especially if you work independently, expanding your client base could be the difference between a small paycheck and a big one!

What Can I Gain From A Free Online Xero Advisor Course?

If you want to become a Xero advisor, you will eventually need to become certified in the software. While, typically, this education can be labor-intensive and costly, you can put yourself ahead of the game by taking a free online course or a series of courses.

Much of the education for Xero can be done on your own, both through looking at online courses and practicing with the software yourself. It’s even possible that after you complete an online course or a few online courses, you could feel ready to register for your Xero advisor certification and move onto becoming an accounting and bookkeeping professional.

How Long Do Xero Advisor Certification Courses Take?

The amount of time it will take you to complete a course varies depending on the content of the course, your comfort with the material, and the skill level required to complete it. Many of the courses on the list above go over only brief topics within Xero or are meant to review specific questions that many people have. For that reason, many of them are very short and are meant to be taken when you have a question about a specific topic.

There are some longer courses, however, that go over Xero as a whole and are meant to bring you back to square one in terms of bookkeeping. These courses can often take hours to complete.

Are Free Xero Advisor Certification Courses Difficult?

The difficulty of Xero online courses will depend on how much you know about the platform and whether or not you have worked with bookkeeping before. If you have some experience with accounting and bookkeeping, it will likely not be difficult for you to pick up the Xero software. If you are starting from square one of bookkeeping, however, it may take you a bit longer to understand bookkeeping in general before you can move onto understanding how to use Xero.

Are Free Xero Advisor Certification Courses Worth It?

A free online Xero advisor certification course is perhaps the best thing to take if you are interested in becoming an accountant or bookkeeper with Xero. A good online course can prepare you for your certification and make you more comfortable using the software, so they are certainly worth pursuing. Since all of the courses on the list above are free, you cannot lose anything except a bit of time should you decide to pursue one or more of them.

Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.