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I'm here again, this shouldn't be a product idea, I should be able to report a problem with the software. Search isn't working. If I type in Chesterfield, it tells me there is only one contact containing Chesterfield. This is rubbish, we have at least 3... Come on Xero, Quickbooks has its limitations but its search facility actually works.

This drives me mad on a daily basis. Has anyone ever worked out how the results are sorted? Things from years ago. 99% of the time I know the date, I just need to find the transaction. Let us filter or sort by date

when I search for 'Telstra', transactions dating back to 2013 are deemed more relevant than transactions in 2024 because the contact name and the reference were both entered as 'Telstra'. This needs to be addressed please. Records from 2013 with 'Telstra' in both the contact name and the reference field are not more relevant than records with Telstra in only one field but from 2024.

When I use the Xero search function magnifying glass, it is not returning the most relevant records. For example, when I type 'water', the search function only returns bills from Sydney Water, but
1. fails to return any contacts with 'water' in their name,
2. doesn't sort the bills from Sydney water in any logical order, where it should be returning the results in descending date order.

See screenshots showing Sydney water bills in an illogical order and showing a contact name which begins with 'Water'

I've been told by Xero support that the global search function errors are in fact product ideas and I should put my results here.

'Hi Sarah

Thanks for sending over your examples, we've noted this as well.

We’re currently unable to provide a timeframe as to when any changes may be made, however it will be taken into consideration for future developments.

We would also recommend adding your thoughts to the Product Ideas link below, as this is another way to get requests in front of our product team.

Xero Product Ideas: Global Search - Sort results by Date, Total, or Status

Kind regards

Delia'

Ridiculous that this isn't already sorted by SOMETHING! Relevance is helpful but for everything that contains the search term it's frustrating that the most recent result isn't on top (sometimes even hidden?!)

I was linked here by a Xero agent after I raised an issue with Global Search not finding a contact. In my example, searching 'parkside' does not find the contact, while typing 'parksid' does!

Not sure this is relevant to this thread, but this is where I'm putting it!

Likewise, absolutely absurd not to default to sorting by date, it's such a basic feature!

The current sorting order is literally like someone has taken all my search results, put them in a box, thrown the box down some stairs and then shaken the contents out over the floor! It's not sorted by anything as far as I can tell – name, date, project value!

After reaching the point of frustration, I lodged a Support Request with Xero and they have recommend I share my experience on this page.

The Search functionality used to work so well, but then it was updated to be "smarter" with a new interface and AI which in fact has made it so much less intelligent for the the needs of users than it used to be!

When I search a Contact Name, half the time all I get is very old invoices but no contact.
I can search a specific word (in this case, "River") and every single contact & transaction containing this word shows up.
But then if I search another word (in this case "wood"), I only get a contact with the suburb containing "wood" but none of the literal dozens of contacts with Wood in their name.
Or I search the suburb Crestmead where we have multiple contacts, yet the search only gives me 1 in its results.

I rely on the search bar regularly throughout my day so it is very frustrating that it is so hit and miss (mostly miss!) with its results... Particularly when it used to work so well!

I've been told the way it gives search results now is part of the bigger picture to make everything better and easier for users. I can't understand why we have to put up with search results not in chronological order from latest first until this new, better way of doing things comes into play. It's very frustrating when it worked so well anyway.

Has to be by date. Most recent transaction at top of search.
Why change something that previously worked so well !!

Today, I'm searching for the most recent Xero bill so I can attach a copy of the paperwork to it. The most recent one the global search results could find was from 7 months ago, and it didn't find the contact at all.

Same thing when I want to attach paperwork to tax office transactions, I search for "ATO" and get other contacts with that string, but less than half of my clients get the contact called "ATO - Australian Tax Office" in the search results dropdown. In the client whose accounts I'm in right now, the most recent tax office transaction/bill in the dropdown of results is from 2019!

This is ridiculous, date is far more important than some random search score!!

Did you ever get this sorted out with Xero so that the search results are in chronological order from latest to oldest? I'm going around in circles with them and they have referred me to this page. I can't see an answer. Am I missing something?

When I'm searching for a particular bill or transaction, I'm usually looking for a recent one. Using the global search seems to give a random selection, including having a bill from four years ago as the first result. This basically makes search functionally useless to me.

It's great that we can filter the search by type of result, but when I'm looking through search results, I like them ordered so I can scan through to find what I want QUICKLY instead of having to waste time looking carefully at every single one.

I don't understand why a simple search has now become so difficult.

Previous to a few days ago I was able to complete a basic search in the top tool bar and receive the information required.

However, I have just been advised by the Xero Support Team that the search sorting has recently changed from sorting based on date to sorting based on score ie term used in the search not date order.

This has created much difficulty and now takes numerous attempts to get the same information and resulting in having to go into Bills and/or invoices and searching in this section to try to find the relevant information.

The only assistance I was provided was a link to this page to complain.

I don't know why the software developers who designed this search function didn't make it with this functionality in the first place. Very Xero though. Often the most obviously useful things are left out.

Date Sort on Contacts Page. If I have sorted by date, newest to oldest, enter into a invoice to look/check, then go back to contacts page, the sort order has defaulted back to whatever the default is. I would then have to sort again to find the next transaction to look at. Very frustrating, not really an improvement but should have been there from the beginning.