Xero CEO Rod Drury has revealed the company is discontinuing Xero Personal, the personal finance software, at the end of November 2014.

Announcing the news via the firm's official blog, Drury's decision will see the business write off $700,000, affecting 12,000 users who use the service.

Claiming the software had not "taken off", Drury says the company will send an email and messaging in-app to all Xero Personal customers.

"We know that is 14 months away but we wanted to give everyone plenty of warning," he says.

"We’ve seen huge growth in the number of customers using Xero’s core small business accounting and accountant’s tools.

"Unfortunately, by comparison only a small number of people are prepared to pay for an independent personal financial management tool."

Considering this, the company reviewed the resources involved in developing and supporting Xero Personal compared with putting this resource into their business offerings.

"We then made the difficult decision to wind down the ongoing development of Xero Personal and shut it down on 30th November 2014," Drury adds.

On 30th September 2013 all annual subscriptions to Xero Personal at that point will be automatically extended from their expiry date until the service close down date at the end of November 2014, for no additional charge.

Unless you receive a notification that you need to renew your current annual subscription prior to the 30th of September there is no other action you need to take to continue using the product through until the end of November next year.

If you are in trial and do want to continue using the product while it is available then sign up for an annual subscription before the 30th of September. This subscription will then be extended out until the end of November next year for no additional charge.

"We appreciate this news will be a big disappointment for many of Xero Personal’s loyal customers, as it is for those Xero staff who have worked so hard on the product since it was first launched in March 2010," Drury adds.

"Over the coming weeks we will send to our customers more updates on the wind down plan, information on how to get your data off Xero Personal before it is shut down and any alternative personal financial management services that you may want to consider transferring to.

"We know that many of you will be disappointed and we apologise for any inconvenience."

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