Repeating Invoices - Generate invoice before invoice date
Ability to make repeating invoices to be generated to an earlier date without having to change the setup.
Purpose: Users’ can sometimes ask their customer/client to pay the invoices earlier.
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Bee Hesketh commented
Come on Xero...... This is such a necessity. It bugs me that it's even down as a 'product idea' when it should be a standard feature.
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Colin White commented
really? a decade? still not done? all we need is a button to create a draft sooner.... then permit them to be sent interactively like a normal invoice.
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Donovan Hudson commented
I would also like this idea implemented. It's quite common for suppliers to bill us in advance, for the following month. Yet Xero doesn't offer any functions for repeating future invoices.
We use Xero for 5+ entities, and the lack of this function causes lots of wasted time for us.
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Leila S commented
It's work to switch bookkeeping programs but I plan to on Jan 1 2025 if this feature hasn't been added. I've been asking for it since right after I signed up for Xero (I think August 2015) and quickly realized I'd lost this feature I used to have in Quickbooks. It really makes such a big difference to me and saves so much time. After nearly ten years thinking it might be added any time, I'm about done!
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Alex Marsom commented
Another basic function that most other accounting softwares accommodate. Most people cant be bothered googling the exact phrasing to find these forums where they can vote, so the fact there are 160 people who feel compelled enough to do this suggests its a useful feature. That and the fact that this idea was shared over 10 years ago. What they are really telling us is they dont care about actual users anymore, there are literally hundreds of basic functions they continually ignore. It cannot be that hard for a team of professional software engineers to add a button that approves repeating invoices early!
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Bee Hesketh commented
I'm so sick of the lack of the most basic features for repeating invoices. I thought Xero was supposed to make running a business easier?
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Leila S commented
I'd like to add that there used to be multiple threads on which this feature was requested. At some point Xero combined the threads into one single request but I do not believe all the votes were carried over and tallied. I strongly feel that more (many, many more) than 155 Xero users would find this feature extremely useful, and also that more than that number have voted this to be a critical feature.
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Leila S commented
I second Michael Sim's comment! I need our (hundreds) of monthly service invoices to have a certain date, but I need them to be generated on an earlier date so I have time to check them and add incidental costs to some. In nine years of using Xero, the lack of a separate date field for 'generate on' in repeating invoices is my only complaint. I've been requesting this feature for NINE years and manually changing invoice dates every month. Please give the request more than zero Xero love! Please.
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Michael Sim commented
We've been using Xero for 6-7 years now and I have wanted this every single day since. We ship hundreds of orders on a Monday, which are prepared Thursday or Friday the week prior, with the invoices (dated on their dispatch date) attached to the package. Come on guys, this seems like an easy update and Repeating Invoices seems to have been given zero Xero love.
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Bee Hesketh commented
We need this so that we can use GoCardless automated payments. Currently we have to manually take every single direct debit when the repeating invoices are created, but generating the invoices earlier would make it easier to automate that process.
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Leila S commented
Liking Peter Bode's idea to provide a setting for the number of days advance when the repeating invoice will be generated. I'd revise to ask for a setting of e.g. "-5" means the repeating invoice will be generated 5 days earlier than the invoice date. Peter's idea is a smart way to add this feature without introducing an additional date to the input. I'd also revise Xero's stated purpose for this. I want more time to review/edit invoices before the invoice date. I want to generate repeating invoices earlier than the invoice date because we have a standard service that repeats but then there are incidental extra services to add. It is a huge challenge to go through and add those all on the same day the invoice generates and needs to be sent to clients when it's 100+ folks. I like the invoices to appear in the system at the beginning of the month so I have time to review and add any extras even though the invoice date is the end of the month (and the due date then 10 days even later). I currently have an incorrect invoice date in 'repeating invoices' so they'll generate when I want, then I manually change the invoice date EVERY MONTH. FOR YEARS. Someone offered a bandaid app but I started to sign up and realized it's sharing all my info with the creator and that weirded me out. I would really really like this feature to come from Xero. Quickbooks had it years ago already when I switched over and it never occurred to me to check first if it existed in Xero, it seemed so basic. I feel like the request keeps getting re-written and the voting re-started, too. Way more than 151 people want this. Please add it, Xero.
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Sam Gray commented
Good idea, except that already exists (generating the invoice earlier without changing the due date), it's not keeping the due date that's our issue, it's keeping invoice date the same, but having the invoice create itself before that invoice date 🙂
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Claire Geens commented
Liking Peter Bode's idea: "setting of "-5" means the repeating invoice will be generated 5 days earlier without changing the invoice due date."
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Peter Bode commented
Alternatively, or in addition, provide a setting for the number of days advance when the repeating invoice will be generated. e.g. a setting of "-5" means the repeating invoice will be generated 5 days earlier (without changing the invoice due date.
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Tracy van Wyk commented
We have an educational institution so it is of utmost importance to be able to send out invoices post dated... eg, send on 23rd but date reflected 1st of the following month.
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Sue Ewer commented
Our client's pay by Direct Debit and need their repeating invoices supplied prior to the payment being collected. We have these attached to a repeating bill but is becoming a problem not supplying these 14-days in advance!!
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Bee Hesketh commented
Yep, so many problems with repeating invoices. It looks so unprofessional sending out invoices at 2am.
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Casey Jones commented
I need a way to adjust the default time of day that recurring invoices are automatically sent to clients. Currently, they are going out around midnight local time, but I really need them to be sent during business hours. Please advise.
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Rebekah Duance commented
Please fix this Xero, it’s causing lots of problems for my business.
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Carolyn Ironside commented
The xero recurring invoice creation at 12.32am, 12.34am is unprofessional. A client has asked why I am working at midnight as its noisy arrival into the inbox wakes them up. Ive explained its auto generated I cant change it, only xero can do that. I could change the setting from approved for sending to manually send instead, until xero add functionality to send in office hours.