Nobody shortlists these two on the same day, and that is precisely why this comparison matters: it is really the question of when a growing business should leave Xero, asked out loud. Xero carried you from startup through your first few million of revenue. The question is whether it can carry the next stage.
The signals that you are outgrowing Xero are consistent across the businesses we track. Consolidation across two or more entities happens in spreadsheets after month end. Deferred revenue schedules live in a workbook only one person understands. The board asks for departmental or project reporting that requires exports and pivot tables. Approval controls are policy documents rather than system rules. Each of these is exactly what Sage Intacct was built for: a dimensional general ledger that slices reporting any way the board asks, native multi entity consolidation with intercompany eliminations, revenue recognition that satisfies IFRS 15 without spreadsheets, and audit grade permissions and workflows. The cost of that capability is real, quote based pricing that lands in five figures annually, a partner led implementation measured in months, and a system that expects a finance team rather than a founder with a spare hour.
Stay on Xero while it still fits, nothing at Intacct's price will reconcile a single entity's bank feed better than Xero already does. Move when the spreadsheet layer around Xero starts consuming analyst days every month, because at that point you are already paying mid market money in salaries, just not getting mid market software for it. Time the move for a financial year end, budget implementation properly, and the businesses that do this rarely look back.