New Invoicing - Select default for 'Approve' Button e.g not 'Approve & Email
Can there be a system setting which controls the default option on Invoices for the Approve button.
It is currently Approve & Email and we would like to have the default as just Approve.
If it was a system setting companies could chose best option for them.
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Hi community, we’ve just released some new keyboard shortcuts to new invoicing, that cut down the number of mouse clicks and help you perform actions on your invoice with some simple keyboard entry options.
There’s a range of different shortcuts that you can explore, and in particular a few that I wanted to call out for ‘Approve’ options that I know will be of most interest to you, here;
- Approve (Ctrl-Alt-A OR Cmd-Opt-A on a Mac)
- Approve & add another (Ctrl-Alt-O OR Cmd-Opt-O on a Mac)
- Approve & print PDF (Ctrl-Alt-R OR Cmd-Opt-R on a Mac)
- Approve & email / send eInvoice (Ctrl-Alt-E OR Cmd-Opt-E on a Mac)
While you get used to the combinations of shortcuts our product team have added small prompts to highlight these in the product, and if you’d like to view the full list of options you can see them all on Xero Central.
Thanks for all contributing, and staying plugged into updates on this idea.
Being upfront, we will continue to field feedback and revise this idea, but we don’t have plans for adding the ability to set your own default any time in the short term.
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Steve Robinson commented
Kelly - this is absured - you assume - wrongly that the majority of clinet want to auto email theor invoices. Yet again - blind arrogmace and poor assessment of clinets operational reality!
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Michelle Richardson commented
XERO don't seem to understand that their software is used by businesses other than sole traders. There are many issues that relate to this on the system. They should be developing a "Professional" version to serve us better.
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Sousana Tzimas commented
You should have the 2 options either just 'Approve' or 'Approve & Email' not every user needs the same thing.
Do better Xero!!
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Tropical Waste commented
I have 4 Ladies working in our office and complicated Invoicing requirements.
It will be so easy for them to accidently "Approve and Send" instead of leaving for the manager to check again (which is BEST PRACTICE) before sending to a large, inflexible customer whose system will not allow amendments after receipt.
This is "Book Keeping 101" Xero for heavens sake.Draft status - rolling Invoices as yet unfinished.
Approved - Completed but requires checking by Supervisor/manager prior to sending.
Sent - checked by Supervisor as correct and sent -
Rachael Webb commented
Really hoping the default button will revert to just 'approve' with the new invoicing. With so many invoices to enter on a daily basis, this will make it a lot more efficient for our business. Frustration arises when extra steps are unneccessarily added to what is a seamless process currently with the classic invoicing.
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Berkeley Vale Physiotherapy commented
That's lazy programming - as if they can't allow users to apply their own default settings - any IT expert worth their salt could add the relevant coding surely?
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Jim Morris commented
What happens if you find a mistake after you have approved, that you need to correct, but now the email has already been sent? Now you get to look like a moron in having to contact the customers, tell them to ignore the invoice and then correct and send another... all because Xero decided, via questionable arbitration, that it was a good idea to do 2 functions with the click of one button.
Sorry, but this is a dumb decision.
Default should be Approve.
Better yet, let us select our own defaults and not be dictated to by a majority of a minority of selected beta tester users.
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Olga O'Keefe commented
We do prefer the ‘Approve’ button as a default.
I experimented with ‘Approve & Email’. When you click it, it gives you an option to cancel it. The invoice is approved, but not emailed. It is not ideal, as it requires two clicks instead of one. But who knows when Xero can fix this issue? Meanwhile, we can use these two clicks to approve invoices without using the dropdown menu.
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Kathy Skinner commented
No doubt the majority is what Xero thinks it is. Maybe suitable for ones who invoice on the go and don't have to worry about other issues and can send straight away.
This should never have been set as the default, once again Xero decide how we use things. If they can change it to this then they should be able to easily set up how it was originally or allow the user to set their own default. I don't even approve and send invoices straight away and I imagine this is going to cause a lot of issues for one of my clients when its forced on them, as they are in the Travel Industry so need to double check invoices before they are even sent out as sometimes there are changes needed to the invoice after it's generated.XERO AREN'T LISTENEING TO THEIR USERS - MAYBE IT WORKS FOR THEM BUT NOT EVERYONE OPERATES THE SAME WAY SO STOP FORCING THINGS ON YOUR USERS THAT AREN'T PRACTICAL.
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Julia Berry commented
I would like to query what sort of test group the "majority" of your customers actually came from ?
Whilst this feature might be slightly more convenient for those who invoice directly in Xero there would no doubt be a significant proportion of users who integrate third party platforms and stock control systems to generate invoices and use Xero for accounting only.We cannot have customers re-sent an invoice every time we approve it !! Having to choose from a drop down to prevent this is adding yet more needless time to process through invoices.
If a default cannot be chosen by the user why not simply provide two separate buttons to be clicked, one to Approve, one to Email ? I don't think the UX would be considerably impacted by this. Please re-consider this decision.
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Claire Cotten commented
Absolutely businesses should be given the option to set their default preference for such a thing— it affects workflow so much! At the bare minimum, it should be a standard approve button with options to change action as it has been. If Xero wanted ultimately happy users, though, they’d let them be able to pick what works best for themselves with an option in the organization settings. I personally have always wanted “Approve and Add Another” as default, but I’ve never assumed every other user would want it that way. Let us pick our defaults, please
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Kym James commented
Just how many is 'majority'?
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Abby Stewart commented
I was just told by support that they will not be changing the button to "Approve". Why not make it an option for users to save their own default setting? I have not read one comment on any Xero forum where the user prefers the "Approve & Email" button.
This is going to create a lot of headaches for me and my staff.
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Paul Howlett commented
Xero has basically said "no" in one of the other threads.
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Dana Zincir commented
When working with invoices and/or draft invoices, it would be super helpful if we can customize which "enter" option we'd prefer on top. So instead of "save and close" we can choose "save and add another" or "Approve and Email" we can choose "approve and View next" for draft invoices, etc. Preferably, it would be an option we can choose and apply based on invoice template (so different clients can have different defaults based on their needs/invoicing frequency). It would improve our speed with processing multiple invoices or bulk uploaded ones.
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Abby Stewart commented
Approve and email should NOT be the default. This is going to create so many errors for my small business. Patients will get invoices that says they need to pay even though they have paid at the time. Users are consistently complaining about this and it needs to be fixed.
I submitted a support ticket and was told "Approve" would be the default due to so much backlash. There are only 2 weeks until the new invoicing is defaulted, and this has not been fixed.
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Kathy Skinner commented
I also never approve and email straight away as sometimes these get sent to another person first for review so SHOULD NOT BE THE DEFAULT. Stupid that they set that option as the default when it wasn't the option in classic.
They don't care what their users are saying judging by Kelly's comment above. They should have migrated everything from classic across then looked at adding options to that not change everything when moving over.
It is horrible to use and I dread having to use it when classic is no longer available.
So many requests have been put forward over the years and they ignore those and just do what they want because maybe there haven't been enough votes for a suggestion, or they turn off the ability to vote. Gone down hill and continuing to go downhill from what I see yet put their prices up but offer big discounts to new users and never mind long term users. Seems we're paying to cover the difference. -
Paul Wilson commented
I agree with many of the comments below - I never email invoices and having a default of just "approve" used to be possible and having to go to the drop down list every time is really irritating! Surely a value could be added to the invoice settings panel to allow users to select what is the default action of this button?
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Elise Edwards commented
Yes Yes Yes, I need this option. Most invoices I add to xero do not need to be emailed. So I would normally just approve or approve and print. Please bring this back or add a feature that will allow us to change the setting.
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Laine Ratsep commented
Please reconsider making this an option a user can set for a default that suits their workflow. While I'm sure Xero's own accounts staff wanted this for their monthly invoicing process, many many other businesses have a workflow for which 'Approve and Email' is potentially harmful to their brand. Digging in your heels on this one is harmful to *your* brand.