LetCompliance vs Xero
Xero is general small-business accounting software: bank feeds, invoices, receipt capture, VAT and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, with a landlord page that suggests tracking categories for each property and add-on apps for tenancy records. LetCompliance is built for letting: every property and tenancy is its own record, with the rent, deposit, certificates and notices beside the money, SA105 figures and Section 24 kept apart, and Making Tax Digital for UK property income sent from the same records. Many landlords use both: LetCompliance for the let, with a Xero-ready CSV for an accountant who works in Xero.
Recognised by HMRC for Making Tax DigitalThe bottom line
from the advert to the tax return
LetCompliance runs the whole let in one login: lettings, rent and arrears, e-sign, compliance, Section 8 / 13 notices and landlord tax, including Making Tax Digital.
Xero still leads on its specialism, and the breakdown below says where.
Side by side
The Xero column says only what Xero’s own website shows, read on 8 October 2026. Plans change, so check theirs before you decide.
Rent is collected by Bacs Direct Debit through Stripe Connect, paid into your own account. There is no Open Banking bank-feed reconciliation.
Also in LetCompliance
37 more parts of the let, in the same login. They are not compared with Xero here, so for their side, look at their own website.
- Advertise + take applications + book viewings
- Waiting list / register-interest capture
- Holding deposits (Tenant Fees Act 2019)
- Tenant referencing (regulated UK credit check)
- E-signed tenancy agreements
- Move-in pack: statutory documents assembled
- Tenant portal
- Landlord / owner portal
- Maintenance work orders + AI repair triage
- Professional photography, inventory & inspections
- Accompanied viewings & contractor sourcing
- Tenant Risk Report + arrears-recovery service
- Gas Safety / EICR / EPC tracking + reminders
- AI expiry-date detection on uploaded certificates
- 0-100 compliance score per property
- SMS reminders
- Right to Rent checks
- Deposit protection deadline tracking
- HMO room-level management
- Pet request 28-day tracker (RRA 2025)
- Section 8 notice builder (Schedule 2 grounds)
- Section 13 rent-increase notice builder
- Awaab’s Law damp-and-mould SLA engine
- Renters Rights Act 2025 toolkit
- PRS Database readiness trackerLive today: per-property register-readiness checklist, regional deadline, and status, ref and date. HMO-aware.
- SA105-shaped Tax Pack
- Section 24 personal-vs-Ltd calculator
- Capital gains tax calculator
- Mileage log
- Xero: CSV export
- Client accounting: statements + CMP reconciliation
- Property valuation tracker (HM Land Registry HPI)
- Insurance renewal tracker
- Planned maintenance scheduler
- Property key facts + key-date tracking
- Multi-branch agency workspaces
- Time to go live: Same-day self-serve
Choose LetCompliance when
- You want software built for letting rather than general bookkeeping: each property and tenancy its own record, with the certificates, deposit and notices beside the money.
- You want the SA105 figures, Section 24 finance costs and Making Tax Digital for UK property income from the same records that run the let.
- You want rent collected by Direct Debit into your own account and late rent chased, without an add-on app.
Choose Xero when
- You also run a business that needs invoicing, VAT returns and double-entry accounts, and want one ledger for everything.
- You have foreign property income to send through Making Tax Digital.
- Your accountant works in Xero and wants live bank feeds in it.
Switching: the questions that matter
What moving across involves, answered for LetCompliance. What Xero can hand over is theirs to answer, so ask them.
- Can I get my data out of Xero?
- Ask Xero before you cancel, and export while the account is still open: properties, tenants, rent history and the documents. Check what the export actually includes, because a list of properties is not the same as the certificates and agreements behind them.
- How do my properties and tenants get in?
- One CSV file, the format any spreadsheet saves as. It carries properties, rooms, tenants, rent, tenancy start dates, deposits and the gas, electrical and EPC expiry dates. Every row is checked and shown to you before anything is imported.
- Do I have to move everything at once?
- No. Move one property first, on Single at £7.99 a month with Making Tax Digital included, and keep Xero for the rest until you have seen enough.
- What about Making Tax Digital part-way through a tax year?
- Each quarterly update covers the tax year from its start, not just the last three months, so the year’s income and expenses so far need to be in LetCompliance before it sends your next one. A bank statement imports as a CSV. You can use more than one product in a year, but only one for each submission (GOV.UK).
- Do my tenants need to do anything?
- Not to start. Each tenant gets their own portal link, with no account or password to set up. If you collect rent by Direct Debit through LetCompliance, each tenant sets the Direct Debit up from that portal, because only the account holder can authorise one.
- What happens to the deposit?
- Changing software does not touch it. A protected deposit stays with the same scheme, whether the scheme holds the money or insures it. Record the scheme and its reference here.
The verdict
LetCompliance or Xero?
Pick LetCompliance if
You want software built for letting rather than general bookkeeping: each property and tenancy its own record, with the certificates, deposit and notices beside the money.
Pick Xero if
You also run a business that needs invoicing, VAT returns and double-entry accounts, and want one ledger for everything.
Still not sure? Put one property on LetCompliance, from £7.99 a month, and keep Xero for the rest. A month of your own rent, certificates and tenants will settle it faster than any table.
LetCompliance wrote this page, so this is its view. Both sides above say where the other one is better.
FAQs
Is Xero good for landlords?
Xero is strong general accounting, and its landlord page shows how: tracking categories to report by property, invoices to track rent, GoCardless for collection and third-party apps for tenancy records. LetCompliance is built for letting itself, so the property, the tenancy, the certificates and the notices are part of the same record as the rent and the tax figures.
Can I use LetCompliance and Xero together?
Yes. LetCompliance exports a CSV laid out for Xero, alongside a ledger CSV and a receipts pack, and an accountant can be given a read-only link to the SA105 figures and the ledger. There is no live connection between the two.
Do both do Making Tax Digital for landlords?
Both are on HMRC’s list of recognised software with quarterly updates and the tax return “Ready now” (checked 6 October 2026). Xero’s own page notes that its Making Tax Digital for Income Tax filing is in beta. LetCompliance covers UK property income; Xero also lists foreign property.
Which costs less?
Xero Simple is £7 a month plus VAT for businesses that are not VAT registered, with 90% off for the first six months for new customers. LetCompliance is £7.99 a month for one property with no VAT charged, and £14.99 for up to three. Xero prices read on xero.com/uk on 8 October 2026.
Is LetCompliance really an all-in-one platform, or mainly a compliance tool?
It runs the whole let, not just compliance. In one login you advertise, take applications and viewings, reference tenants, e-sign the tenancy, collect rent by Direct Debit and chase arrears, track a 0-100 compliance score, draft Section 8 and Section 13 notices, manage HMO rooms, book done-for-you property services and prepare your SA105 tax. The compliance score is one feature among many, not the whole product.
Which should a UK landlord choose: LetCompliance or Xero?
The page above sets what Xero's own website says it does beside LetCompliance, and lists everything else LetCompliance does. For most UK landlords and small-to-mid agencies who want the whole tenancy in one place, LetCompliance covers more of the let; Xero is the better pick for the specific areas it leads on, which are called out above. LetCompliance starts at £7.99 a month, and one property can also stay on the free plan.
Does LetCompliance handle Making Tax Digital and SA105 tax as well as Xero?
LetCompliance ships an SA105-shaped Tax Pack, a Section 24 personal-vs-limited-company calculator, a capital-gains calculator and a mileage log, and it sends Making Tax Digital quarterly updates for UK property income to HMRC on every plan from £7.99 a month. It is recognised by HMRC for UK property income, and if your return needs self-employment, savings or dividend income you finalise the year with software that can add it, or with your accountant.
Are these Xero comparisons independent and kept up to date?
They are written by LetCompliance, which says so plainly. The Xero column shows only what Xero's own website says, with the date it was read, and every page names where Xero is the better choice and the one thing LetCompliance does not do (Open Banking bank-feed reconciliation). Providers change their plans and prices without notice, so check theirs before you buy.
The whole let in one login, from £7.99 a month.
Start with one property, Making Tax Digital included, and see how it runs your let before you move the rest. One property can also stay on the free plan.
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