Syft Analytics review

Low-cost reporting and analytics, now owned by Xero.

By the ConsoHQ editorial team. Updated 4 November 2026.

What Syft is

Syft Analytics is a cloud reporting and analytics platform for accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses. It started in South Africa and is used in more than 80 countries. It reads data from your accounting and commerce systems and presents it as financial statements, dashboards, KPIs and forecasts.

The Xero acquisition

In September 2024 Xero announced it would acquire Syft for up to US$70 million, made up of US$40 million upfront, about US$10 million in Xero shares, and earn-outs and staff incentives over three years. More than 70 Syft staff, mostly in South Africa, joined Xero. Xero said it would bring Syft's features into its own platform over time and keep Syft available as a standalone offering (CFOtech report).

What that means for you:

• If you're all-in on Xero, it's reassuring. Syft is unlikely to disappear, and its features may show up inside Xero itself.
• If you also use QuickBooks or Sage, think about whether you want your reporting tool owned by one ledger vendor. Support for rivals' ledgers could become less of a priority over time, though nothing announced so far suggests that.
• If you're choosing a long-term platform, watch what Xero builds natively. Some of what you'd buy Syft for may arrive in Xero's own plans.

Features

Reporting and dashboards

Syft's reports and dashboards are visually strong and easy for business owners to read. Templates can be reused across clients, and reports can be shared as interactive links.

Consolidation

Consolidation is included on the Standard, Plus and Advanced plans. Multi-currency consolidation needs Plus or Advanced. If your group relies on detailed intercompany eliminations, test them in the trial against a month you've already closed by hand.

Forecasting and analysis

Syft offers forecasting and analytics such as customer and product analysis, which pair well with its commerce integrations for online retailers.

Integrations

Listings name Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Accounting, FreeAgent, Shopify, Stripe, Excel and Google Sheets, with MYOB Acumatica also mentioned.

Pricing

There's a free trial and a free version. Listings also mention unlimited-entity plans for firms; check Syft's site for current terms in your currency.

Who Syft suits best

• Xero-first businesses and practices wanting attractive reports cheaply.
• Online retailers who want accounting and commerce data together.
• Firms comfortable with their reporting tool being part of Xero.

Who might be better served elsewhere

• Groups with companies on several ledgers: Joiin.
• Advisors focused on KPI benchmarking: Fathom.
• Firms wanting a complete advisory platform: Spotlight.

Questions to answer in your Syft trial

• Do eliminations behave the way your group needs?
• Do you need Plus for currencies?
• Are your non-Xero companies fully supported?
• How do reports look to the people who'll actually read them?

Compare Syft directly in Joiin vs Syft, or see Syft alternatives.

A typical month with Syft

For a Xero-based practice, Syft's monthly rhythm is simple. The books close, Syft refreshes, and the advisor reviews a dashboard of revenue, margins, cash and customer trends before sending the client an interactive report link. For an e-commerce client, Syft can sit Shopify or Stripe data next to the accounts, so the conversation can move from "revenue fell" to "repeat customers fell" without a separate spreadsheet.

For a small group, a consolidated view is added on top: the companies are grouped, accounts are mapped where they differ, and intercompany items are dealt with before the group report goes out.

Setting up Syft: what to expect

• Quick connection. Connecting Xero or QuickBooks is straightforward, and reports appear quickly.
• Choose the plan by currency. If any company in the group keeps its books in another currency, you'll need Plus or Advanced.
• Test eliminations. Reproduce a closed month and check the group totals match before relying on Syft for board reporting.
• Agree templates. Decide which dashboards and report pages each client will see, so reports stay consistent.

Mistakes to avoid

• Assuming Standard handles currencies. It doesn't; budget for Plus if you have overseas subsidiaries.
• Letting dashboards replace commentary. Visuals are great, but a board still needs three sentences on what changed and why.
• Ignoring the roadmap. Since the Xero acquisition, watch Xero's own announcements. Features may move into Xero, which could change what you need to pay for.

How Syft stacks up

Syft and Joiin share the same low entry price but optimise for different things: Syft for visual reporting and analytics in the Xero world, Joiin for consolidation across whatever ledgers your group uses. Fathom and Spotlight cost more and go deeper into advisory.

Should Xero ownership change your decision?

For most Xero users, it's neutral to positive: the product has a well-funded owner and a clear reason to exist. It matters more if you're building a practice across several ledgers or you want your reporting vendor to stay neutral. In that case, keep an independent option in view. Joiin, for example, connects to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, MYOB and others with no ledger vendor behind it.

Syft for accounting practices

Practices are Syft's core market, and its appeal is easy to see: a low per-client cost, reports that look good on a phone, and a quick setup that lets juniors produce client reports without much training. For a practice that wants to offer every client a simple monthly report as part of a fixed fee, that combination works well.

Where practices tend to need more is the minority of clients with complicated structures: several companies, part-owned subsidiaries, intercompany loans and foreign currencies. For those, check Syft's consolidation carefully in the trial. Some practices use a low-cost tool for the majority of clients and a consolidation-first tool such as Joiin for the group clients. Joiin's unlimited users and clients make that split affordable.

Moving from spreadsheets to Syft

If you're replacing a monthly Excel pack, map what the pack contains today before you start: which statements, which KPIs, which charts, and which commentary. Rebuild that in Syft first, so readers see continuity, then add new views gradually. Keep the old spreadsheet running for one month and check the totals agree. After that, retire it, or it will quietly come back.

The same approach works for any reporting tool. Change the engine first and the report format second, so you're never debugging both at once.

Syft and Xero's own reporting

Xero's higher plans already include more analytics than they used to, such as cash flow projections and, on the UK Ultimate plan, KPIs and industry benchmarking. With Syft now owned by Xero, the line between "Xero reporting" and "Syft" may blur over time. Before paying for Syft, check what your Xero plan already gives you on cash flow and management accounts. If Xero covers your single-company needs, you may only need a separate tool for the group view, which is where a consolidation tool earns its place.

The bottom line on Syft

Syft offers a lot for a low price, and since the Xero deal it has a secure future in the Xero ecosystem. For Xero-first businesses and practices that want attractive reports with consolidation included, it's easy to recommend a trial. For groups spread across several ledgers, or where getting consolidation exactly right matters more than visuals, compare it side by side with a consolidation-first tool before deciding. Both offer 14-day trials, so the fairest test is to rebuild last month's group pack in each and see which one you'd rather use every month.

Frequently asked questions