New Invoicing - Reduce number of steps and clicks
New invoicing has introduced more clicks, taps, steps at almost every level.
Please remove the added friction as it increases processing time.
The "new invoicing" messages are full of comments regarding where these pressure points have been added.
We are paid subscribers, and beta testing/seeking feedback is wonderful, but being forced onto an inferior model is.. suboptimal.

Hi everyone, thanks for continuing to share and keep us informed of the differing flows and actions that could be improved in how you invoice with Xero. All feedback through these forums and across Xero Central discussions has been shared with our product team and will be carefully considered as we continue to build on your invoicing experience.
About a month ago we changed the behaviour of how defaults are applied, so now when you copy an invoice for the same Contact their defaults will automatically be applied to the new draft invoice.
Most recently, and as you may have noticed we've released a new line item grid (where you enter the details of your invoice). Many changes that come with the new grid are based on feedback we've received from our customers the most prominent for this idea being that we've optimised padding, font size and column widths to reduce the need to scroll. All fields will now wrap text so you can read your full account code, tracking or tax rate. Other changes that we've wrapped into this release include being able to manually add rows, and shift these where you'd like them placed in your invoice, and seeing more of your inventory items in the dropdown menu. We know some customers were having trouble with the options they'd selected in the hide/show columns reverting, and this has also been resolved with this release.
With many changes delivered to reduce clicks and steps since this idea was originally raised, we are going to move this to delivered. We understand and appreciate there are further points within invoicing our customers would like to see a reduction in steps and clicks, and this will remain a focus for our teams as we continue developments.
Below I've listed some ideas that have been raised through your feedback and we encourage you to create ideas for the specific points you'd like to see these sort of improvements.
- New Invoicing - Add Payment details on invoice screen
- New invoicing - copy to bill
- New Invoicing | Copy to - Purchase order
- New invoicing - Option to use Xero Network
- New Invoicing - Add line number
- New Invoicing - Select default for 'Approve' Button e.g not 'Approve & Email
- New Invoicing - Add Expected Invoice Payment Date within Invoice
- New Invoicing - Allow manual typing of a Date in 'Add Payment' screen
- New Invoicing | Files - Ability to attach files before adding contact
- New Invoicing - History to include if invoice is resent
- New Invoicing - Option to switch Autosave off
- New invoicing - Ability to turn off auto suggestions
- New invoicing - Assign next number in sequence when number removed
- Invoicing - Show attachment option at the top of the page
- New Invoicing - Remove the zeros from the amount field
- New Invoicing - Allow manual typing of a Date in 'Add Payment' screen
- New Invoicing -Option to Add Multiple New Lines at once (5, 10, 15 or 20)
We want to keep working with our community to grow on this experience and make things even better for you. Thank you for your input and please keep sharing with us through ideas on the site here.
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Neil Cooper commented
In the old invoicing, when I tabbed from one field to the next, I was always able to then enter text in whatever field I had tabbed to. This doesn’t seem to happen under new invoicing which is a pain. Is this going to be changed please?
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Claudia Schenz commented
I 100% agree with Damon O'Keefe! Those constant pop-ups are distracting and annoying, I don't need a reminder each time I create an invoice that Stripe needs more information, for the invoice date I need to scroll down too far to pick my own date. But what bothers me most is that it is sooooo slow! We run on very good Wifi connection, but since I allowed the new invoicing system every process takes ages!
I also think it would be good to have a choice of default discount options. In 98% of cases I am using % as my preferred discount option, so instead of each time remember that I have to add the %, one should have a default option.So yes, please, work on those issues and once it is perfect get your paying customers back to the new system, for now I will switch back to the old one.
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Toni Godfrey commented
So pleased to see that classic invoicing is remaining for a while longer though feel that xero is being untrue when they explain why it has been extended - time to face it xero - many people are unimpressed with your 'New' system and want the much more user friendly version to remain. The negative comments online are increasing - wonder why?
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Melanie Self commented
I absolutely hate the "New Invoicing" as far as I am concerned there is nothing in it that actually improves it for us the users! The function for finding the address with the postcode / zip code is unavailable, meaning that the need to write out the full address is down to the user and this may seem trivial but it all takes extra time and it all adds up. Just leave it as it was, at least keep the option open for those who would rather stay with the classic, please!
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Caversham Physio commented
I'd like to be able to tab across to the date, and manually enter in the day / month, then tab across to the next box - like I can now. Rather than having to use the mouse to click through all the options to find the required date. New version is too slow, too many steps & clicks. I much prefer the old version. For ease and speed.
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Fiona Davidson commented
https://www.change.org/p/petition-for-xero-to-stop-making-changes
Please sign and share this petition.
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Michelle Waldren commented
Agree, I prefer the classic invoicing. I don't like the layout of the new invoicing and it isn't as user friendly. We pay for this subscription, we should have the option to stay with classic invoicing.
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Sonia Watson commented
I like the classic invoicing as everything is compact and easy to read. I do not like the layout of the new invoicing at all. Please leave classic invoicing as a permanent option.
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Martin Danger commented
@Claire Barning - sounds like Xero's support staff are using you (and me and other users) to work out what the problem is. Gone are the days when the person that came to fix something, knew how to fix it and didn't need nor want you in the way. Nowadays, us users are de facto Xero employees, unpaid though. Think about that.
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Carston Leishman commented
DISCOUNTS???
I used to be able to click the discount field per line item and the customers discount would populate automatically. Now, I have to remove the client, and re-add client for the discounts to automatically apply.
These discounts are at client level and do not show up anywhere on screen.
This is *** backward and a downgrade. -
Margaret Deneau commented
I agree with all these points
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George Pogostin commented
Adding a payment to an invoice inside that invoice is crucial, please bring that back... this is a downgrade on the new invoicing.
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Adam Suhan commented
The new invoice page is a step in the wrong direction for what Xero should be:
1) You cannot quickly enter a date, before you could type 2 9 and it would auto fill as 2 September of the current year, now you have to click the box to select it, click the left arrow to go back as many months as you need to and then select the date
2) You cannot quickly set a due date, before you could type +30 and it would auto fill as 30 days from the invoice date. Now you have a limited selection of prefilled dates or have to open up a calendar to select a date, if you have payment terms such as +20, you have to manually count 20 days from the calendar.
3) You cannot quickly mark something as paid, before you would go to the bottom and type in the date and bank account. Now you have to click a button to have a pop-up appear for the same options.
4) You cannot quickly add attachments, before you would just drag and drop anywhere on the invoice and it would attach itself. Now you have to click a button to open up the attachment box and then drag and drop it into the tiny area it opens with.
5) You cannot quickly change the address, before there was a "Edit address" option right on the invoice you could select to edit the address. Now you have to click on the contact and then select edit.
6) You cannot quickly open the contact so you can find their history, before you could middle click on a contact to open up their history in a new tab so you can see when you last billed them. Now you have to click the contact and then click it again to open it in the contact page
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Matt Brown commented
Uploading an attached file now needs a click before the upload, whereas before, we could simply drag and drop the file. Also, the new invoicing does not show the product quantity left in stock, when the quantity is edited. This was an important feature of the classic invoicing.
The look and layout of the new invoicing looks clunky, compared with the old and the rest of the Xero interface.
It says a lot about the new invoicing that I continually switch back to the old version. The new version is not better.
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Giles Ashbee commented
I see that Xero are letting us use 'classic' invoicing until February now. That's nice. Having just read a multiple of posts does anyone actually like the new layout/features? Please listen to your customers and just leave classic as a permanent option going forward.
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Jane Godfrey commented
Our invoice approval policy means that someone posts the invoice then moves it to awaiting approval. Then they are approved by the Head of Finance. To do this I used to go to the bottom button and go through the Approve drop down to click "Approve & View Next" at the bottom of the screen . On the new version I have to go back up to the top to approve the invoice and then back to the "awaiting Approval" to see the next invoice as there is no option to see the next invoice, please add this facility back in and move it to the bottom of the invoice so we don't have to scroll all the way back to the top of a long invoice.
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Genine North commented
The classic invoicing has the option for the default due date to be selected, can this feature be added to the new invoicing system.
The is really helpful when a client changes payment terms from our invoice terms, we need to change in the client financial then open every invoice to update the new terms. By selecting default it does it so much faster.
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Mirela Ovelar commented
Hi Team, I can only hope that you are listening to the users feedback, as this new invoicing release is the worst version so far. I haven't seen one user happy with the "improvements" you made. It has created nothing but a lot of frustration in the workplace. I used to be a software developer, and I can tell you there are ways to do a friendly user interface that can be configured, or at least allow the previous interface to coexist with the new one using a setting, and monitor how many users are actually using the new version. That will give you an idea of how useful your "improvements" are. I won't even mention the troubles the new invoicing has, as hundreds of posts are already mentioning them all. Get your act together, Xero developers and project managers, it is the 21st century and you can do a lot better. If you can't, allow people to use the existing version for as long as they desire.
Thank you. -
Jennifer Broadbent commented
Your New Invoicing is not user friendly for our business. It is our working system for all of our work - not just used for creating Invoices. We work with Drafts a lot while the work is in progress until it is completed - that can take several weeks to achieve so the old Font size was so much easier and we (approx 5 different employees) could look at and work on all our Drafts easily - 200+ per month. Only when job is completed is the Draft Approved and sent to Invoice so having to re-open it all the time instead of just saving makes it so much harder. Font size is way too large meaning I waste time naviagting around the invoice page. We never create an invoice then approve and send it immediately. Why is that the default? What happened to the blue Save button and Green Approve button. The mono-colour is not easy to work with.
The Chart of Accounts items do not come up correctly especially if they do not have $ values attached to them. We often need to put in lines that do not have $ values or quantities and do not want to see "1" in Quantity or 0.00 in the Amount column. We just want those blank unless we choose to put something in there. Classic Invoicing is so good and tidy. The time wasted on the New Invoicing means $$ wasted across 5+ employees. New Invoicing assumes we just want to make a simple invoice and send it immediately. This is useful for maybe a retail business selling online or something. Not for most businesses from what I can tell from the people commenting. Why can't you keep both going and customers can choose? -
Anna Conaghan commented
The new invoicing is causing so much extra work and so many extra clicks its frustrating!
Points of note: Why do we have to save the new contact details before proceeding, before we could just tab to the new field enter and save at the end.
Why is there not a "copy to delivery" field so we don't have to enter these details twice?!?!? Better yet, use the auto address system like you have in the contacts area so pick up the addresses.
There is no ATTN to in the invoicing area of creating a contact.
WHY have the save buttons been moved to the top? - they used to be at the top and the bottom - for the most part I have to keep scrolling up to the top to save things - it's the little things Xero!
Overall it's causing a lot of extra work and unnecessary steps.