What people are asking for
Ranked by how many different people asked in the last 90 days. Each example is a public post, paraphrased, with a link.
Fixes for Xero and QuickBooks problems
24 people · last 90 days
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A buyer pays several invoices in one bank transfer: how to match it in Xero
r/xero · 16 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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Months of duplicate transactions from using QuickBooks receipt capture and the bank feed together
r/QuickBooks · 21 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A consultancy on Xero needs different hourly rates by location, with partner hours linked to invoices
r/xero · 19 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Keeping track of money and cash flow
16 people · last 90 days
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Taking over the family construction business as the accountant retires, and asking how to keep tabs on the finances without it becoming an ordeal
r/smallbusiness · 21 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A one-person business typing every receipt into Excel wants one place to stay organised
r/smallbusiness · 15 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A mileage tracker that separates business and personal trips, after a big renewal price rise
r/smallbusiness · 19 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Inventory beyond spreadsheets
16 people · last 90 days
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Keeping inventory at several locations in QuickBooks Online
r/QuickBooks · 21 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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How small flower shops keep track of their stock: spreadsheet or software?
r/smallbusiness · 20 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A Shopify clothing store with 20 products, heading to 50, asks whether a spreadsheet or a cheap paid app handles stock after returns
r/ecommerce · 17 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Invoices, quotes and getting paid
13 people · last 90 days
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An IT services business on Xero wants its monthly repeating invoices collected by bank debit (ACH) through Stripe
r/xero · 22 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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Thinking about offering payment plans: which tools save a card and take the instalments
r/smallbusiness · 21 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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An owner thought an invoice was paid in full in QuickBooks, and it was short-paid
r/QuickBooks · 15 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Switching accounting software, or something simpler
11 people · last 90 days
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Looking for an alternative to QuickBooks Online with bills of lading and fully custom invoices
r/QuickBooks · 17 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A QuickBooks user since 1992 wants four custom invoice fields, finds the next plan costs double, and asks what to move to
r/smallbusiness · 24 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A "lifetime" QuickBooks Desktop licence from a third-party seller ends in seven days, and the owner is open to leaving QuickBooks
r/QuickBooks · 14 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Automating data entry and approvals
11 people · last 90 days
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A small food business asks what AI can actually do inside Square and QuickBooks
r/smallbusiness · 22 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A vendor was paid late because the invoice bounced between partners and the bookkeeper: how to approve bills without email chasing
r/smallbusiness · 18 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A staff scheduling app whose approved hours flow into QuickBooks payroll
r/smallbusiness · 16 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Running several businesses
9 people · last 90 days
Also 278 votes on Xero's ideas board for consolidating several Xero organisations. Xero says it is not currently planned. Read the idea →
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A commercial property owner keeps about 30 company files on one QuickBooks Desktop licence, and wants a second bookkeeper to work in them too
r/QuickBooks · 18 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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Multi-business software recommendations
r/QuickBooks · Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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An owner of 8 entities connected Claude to Xero because Xero does not give a combined trial balance
r/xero · 7 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Overflow help for bookkeepers
8 people · last 90 days
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A small Canadian firm wants an overseas team for catch-up work, reconciliations and year-end in Xero
Upwork job post · about 6 Oct 2026 · Read the job post →
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Australian BAS and tax agents asking how others structure their Xero workflow at tax time
r/xero · 9 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A US fractional accounting firm wants a full-time remote bookkeeping assistant
Upwork job post · about 7 Oct 2026 · Read the job post →
PDF bank statements and data entry for bookkeepers
6 people · last 90 days
Still open: matching lines that share no reference. See the gaps.
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The worst formats clients send bank statements in: phone photos, videos, 200-page scans
r/Bookkeeping · 17 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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Converting PDF bank statements to CSV for Xero
r/xero · Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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How to reconcile transactions when there is no common ID to match on
r/Accounting · 8 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Reports Xero and QuickBooks won't give you
5 people · last 90 days · 1,694 votes on Xero's ideas board
The votes are across five reports Xero has marked "Not in pipeline", as of 10 Oct 2026. Three of them have no app that we could find. See the gaps.
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A manufacturer on Xero wants the margin on each job by salesperson and by project manager
r/xero · 19 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A Xero user wants a custom dashboard from their Xero data, and cannot get API credentials in Canada
r/xero · 28 Sep 2026 · Read the thread →
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A job post (budget US$30 to US$250) to pull all QuickBooks Online data into a database for Power BI
Freelancer job post · 10 Oct 2026 · Read the job post →
Client reports and dashboards for bookkeepers
5 people · last 90 days
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A client wants monthly management accounts, but the Xero records are too poor to produce them
AccountingWEB · 19 Sep 2026 · Read the thread →
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A firm wants help with e-commerce channel reporting
Upwork job post · about 8 Oct 2026 · Read the job post →
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Practice staff want a monthly view of staff hours allocated against hours available
6 votes.
Xero Product Ideas · 18 Sep 2026 · Read the idea →
Moving a client's books to new software
4 or more people · last 90 days
Under our bar of five people, so we are still watching it.
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A QuickBooks Desktop renewal jumped from 1 Oct, and several practitioners say they are moving all their clients off it
r/QuickBooks · Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A bookkeeper redesigning a client's out-of-control chart of accounts asks whether to keep account numbers on inactive accounts
r/QuickBooks · 22 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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Moving from QuickBooks Desktop for Mac to Xero, FreshBooks or Zoho: how hard is the data move?
r/QuickBooks · 15 Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
Safe bulk imports and edits
3 or more people · last 90 days
Under our bar of five people, so we are still watching it. Also 119 votes on Xero's ideas board to merge duplicate items. Read the idea →
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How to bulk-edit products and services in QuickBooks Online without an import overwriting everything
r/Bookkeeping · Oct 2026 · Read the thread →
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A test import replaced every date with today's date, and a solo bookkeeper said it took longer than typing it in by hand
QuickBooks App Store review · 8 Oct 2026 · Read the review →
How we count: a need is on this list once five or more different people have asked in the last 90 days. The two at the bottom are under that bar, and we are still watching them. We leave out posts that look staged or promotional. We don't publish usernames. One person can ask about more than one thing. Counts come from our own log of public posts, as of 25 Oct 2026, and are approximate because we check each post's date again as we go.
Not on this list yet: payment processors, business bank accounts and chargebacks (31 people), finding an accountant or tax help (12), setting up AI tools with your books (6), and Excel or small-tool asks from bookkeepers (6). We haven't built pages for them.
Questions builders asked
How do I find my first users?
Go where your users already ask for help. Set free keyword alerts for the words they use (see Finding your first customers below), answer their question in full in the thread, and link to your tool only where the forum's rules allow it. List your tool on free startup directories too. Or tell us what you've built, and we'll check whether owners or bookkeepers in the needs above have already asked for it.
Asked by 9 builders on Reddit, Oct 2026.
Is this problem real, before I build the fix?
Count the different people asking. Search Reddit, the Xero and QuickBooks communities and Xero's Product Ideas board for the words someone with the problem would type. If five or more different people asked in the last 90 days, it's real enough for us to list it here. Xero's ideas board also shows vote counts, dates, and whether Xero plans to build it.
Asked by a builder working on a Xero fix, r/xero, 19 Oct 2026.
My biggest competitor is a five-year-old spreadsheet. How do I get the first customer to switch?
Make switching cost them nothing. Offer to import their spreadsheet for them, let them run both side by side for a month, and start with one job the spreadsheet can't do, like a reorder alert or a report they now build by hand.
Asked by a builder of an inventory app, r/SideProject, 16 Oct 2026.
How do I get strangers to trust my finance app with their data?
Show who's behind it: a founder name and country in the footer. Say where the data is stored and who can access it. Let users delete everything themselves, and say so. Owners hesitate to upload receipts or bank data to an app with no named person.
Asked by a builder on Reddit, Oct 2026.
Created with Claude, reviewed by the team.
Finding your first customers
Builders ask us first how to find customers, so here are tools other builders use, each as shown on its own site on 13 Oct 2026. Our own way is matching your tool to owners and bookkeepers who have already asked for it, which is what the needs above do.
Spot people asking for what you've built
US · F5Bot LLC
Free email alerts when your keywords come up on Reddit, Hacker News and Lobsters.
Poland · Kraków
Keyword alerts across many sites, sent by email, Slack or RSS.
Both only send you alerts. Neither posts for you. Reply yourself, and follow each subreddit's rules.
Launch somewhere people browse new tools
Your product gets a day in front of people who go there to find new tools.
A weekly project launch on a professional network.
Get listed where owners and bookkeepers look
To list, you need Xero's Plus API tier, from A$245/mo (ex tax) since 2 Mar 2026. Xero also asks for a set number of active customers before certification.
As shown on each tool's own site on 13 Oct 2026.