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 team, thank you to those that engaged our team through the research of the new invoicing layout. With help and input from you all we have released improvements to the layout of new invoicing that involves shifting the placement of some fields and buttons which has also helped to reduce white space and condense the view.
Hearing about the differing flows and how many customers enter data when invoicing has helped inform where fields and buttons are now placed, and in many cases helps speed up the entry of your invoicing data.
We’re continuing to explore improvements such as default options, keyboard entry of fields and pathways when adding additional options within the invoicing grid (such as Tracking, or Accounts), and we have individual ideas for these elements that we’d encourage you to join and support, which I’ve listed below.
- New Invoicing - Remember default settings
- New Invoicing - Quick find Address
- New Invoicing - Select default for 'Approve' Button e.g not 'Approve & Email
- New Invoicing - Add new Tracking option
- New Invoicing - Move Save button to bottom of invoice like classic
- New Invoicing - Add Payment details on invoice screen
- New Invoicing | Files - Drag & drop anywhere on the page
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Ivelina Ivanova commented
Having just tried New invoicing briefly, I have the following must-haves (or our admin team is not prepared to continue with Xero):
1) Copying an invoice should create the new invoice with the old account, using their pre-configured payment terms to calculate the due date. As it stands ,the new invoice defaults to the default organisation settings. We have hundreds of customers, all with different payment terms - having to manually change the due date is labour-intensive and prone to errors. WHY change from the perfectly working Classic invoicing? Is not the purpose of having customer-specific settings to avoid us having to set the due date manually?
2) Auto-save is a disaster. After creating a new invoice by copying from an old invoice, the new invoice is automatically saved. But we do regularly change the invoice number as we have differenct invoice sequences for different currencies. Changing the invoice number after auto-save leaves a void invoice number in the regular sequence (it shows as "deleted", which is factually incorrect as it was simply re-numbered). in Classic invoicing, this was never an issue since the invoice number would not get allocated until the invoice is saved, thus avoiding using up numbers for no real invoices. Auto-saving would only make sense after some of the invoice content is updated, and even then I would still prefer not to do it so I am in full control of when a draft is saved.
3) it is corny and annoying to have the "Online payments" field prominently in the way, without being able to disable the invitation to "Set up online payments". We are a serious business, dealing with serious customers who exclusively pay us by BACS. Can we please not have the likes of PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay forced on us at every single invoice we issue? "Get invoices paid up to twice as fast with online payments" is a ridiculous promise" - customers will pay us when they decide to pay us and subscribing to another financial service will not change their mind a single bit.
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Jackie Townsend commented
I just struggled through creating a "new invoice"... what is this ridiculous "Pick Another Date" choice under Issue Date and Due Date???!!!!! More extra clicks!! First you have to click on "Pick Another Date" THEN you have the calendar. Just have the calendar there and let us click on it from the start.
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Lucy Cook commented
Urgh, please do not retire classic invoicing... there are so many extra clicks and mouse travelling, scrolling etc in the new invoicing and it is very inefficient.
When adding a file from the library the view is less compact to find the right file in the list and now i have to scroll more, and it's not as easy to view.
Plus the add files button has switched the "Add from File library" and "Upload Files" why the change? Just to annoy us all more??
Xero - you have been a beautiful product for years and now this! I have anxiety about having to move to new invoicing which is simply dreadful and not beautiful at all :( -
Simon Tarling commented
The new Invoicing has a poor User Interface (UI). The form takes too much space, requires too many clicks and mouse mileage is higher than on the Classic form.
I suggest you extend the period users can continue to use the Classic (and superior) form whilst you correct the mistakes. In a perfect world you would allow users to keep both, but if you cannot do this, at least allow us another year.
More over, Xero needs to improve it's functional QA and these types of mistakes should never go live.
There are other examples in the New Xero approach which display the same failings.
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adrian walker commented
Since the start of September Xero switched to new invoicing, so I switched it back to classic, however it doesn't stay the way I set no no no!
Xero keeps switching it back to new invoicing and I have to switch it back again, and again and again...!
so now xero is creating more work for me by making me have to keep switching back to classic each time!!! NOT HAPPY!!!#### D O N O T C H A N G E F R O M C L A S S I C ####
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Belinda Johnson commented
Unhappy Customer - I wholeheartedly agree and have mentioned this idea on a few threads RE: New Invoicing this year to no avail. Xero continues to spruik their wares and entice new customers to sign up to become stuck in a system which is increasingly becoming less user friendly by the month...
I have commented on their Facebook posts without any response. I believe greater numbers on public forums and social media might help the cause as it would affect their bottom line. Money talks.
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Rachel Osborn commented
Please please please have Tracked Inventory put back into your new Invoicing so that we can Beta Test it before you force us all into the new invoicing which is truly not an improvement in any way and I don't know how you can feel proud of what you are doing quite frankly.
Many thanks
Rachel -
Jill Fechner commented
The attached screenshot was shown in your August Product Update (https://blog.xero.com/product-updates/whats-new-in-xero-august-2024/) This article states that this is how New Invoicing looks now.
That is not what I see. This layout looks like Classic with a few tweaks, a huge improvement. When will this be released so we can see the change to spacing and functionality.
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Nathan Woroniuk commented
The new invoicing is so terrible. It has created so many more clicks. When you try and edit the price of a line item you have to click in such a small area or else it becomes non-editable. I really wish the dev's would have tested this out first before FORCING us to use this janky new UI. The UI is buggy and they removed the "Save and Continue" editing option when working on large quotes.
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NOVOPAK Athena commented
Dear XERO
your new version of invoicing is "TOTAL" rubbish design; please give us the choice to remain in classical version
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Fiona Davidson commented
I cant right click on the contact to open in a new tab, I have to click on the contact then right click in the pop up. The pop us is great but I should still be able right click on the contact without opening the pop up.
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Fiona Davidson commented
I have now created and Off Site petition..... Petition for Xero to stop making changes...
https://chng.it/wYWMHwp9td -
Phil Pritchard commented
I DONT LIKE THE NEW INVOICING...
FIRST THING WHEN YOU ADD A NEW ITEM GO THROUGH THE STEPS OF ADDING THE ITEM THEN CLICK SAVE FOR THE NEW ITEM AND BUGGER ME DEAD YOU HAVE TO PUT THE ITEM IN THE INVOICE AGAIN..
THE OLD INV IT ADDED IT FOR YOU.. MUCH QUICKER
YOU HAE TO RE ENTER HOW IS THAT QUICKER???
AND WHEN YOU SEND SAID INVOICE YOU CLICK SEND IN THE TOP RIGHT...
YOU HAVE TO MOVE THE MOUSE ALL THE WAY TO THE BOOTOM OF THE SCREEN TO HIT SEND..
SORRY NOT QUICKER..
THATS JUST THE STARTNOT HAPPY WITH THE NEW SYSTEM
CLEARLY THE DESIGNERS DONT USE IT ON A DAILY BASES. -
Zak Labanca commented
CREDIT NOTES
If an invoice or bill has already been paid there is currently no ability to create a credit note.
You need to copy the invoice, create a credit note based on that one, un-allocate the credit note (as Xero annoyingly allocates it), then find and delete the copy invoice you had to create.
Allow us to create credit notes from bills/invoices that have already been paid. This feature has been asked for years. Its not even a feature, is fixing your poor design choices. Surely your "super amazing new invoicing" can cope with something as BASIC as this.
Start involving people who do accounting/bookkeeping for a living in your design process and do it properly the first time round.
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Nick Unwin commented
New Invoicing > Copy to Bill
Quotes > Copy Share Link
Add them to the list
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Randall Doser commented
New invoicing is a HUGE downgrade for those of us using it to enter multiple invoices from a previous period (day/week/etc.). Any change that results in more key presses or mouse clicks is a functional downgrade. Mouse clicks require you to move your hand, find the cursor and the button which takes way more time than a few key presses. That is UI design 101 people. You've made tabbing between fields harder. If I want to enter a new customer I now have to execute a mouse click instead of just a tab press. If I want to save/approve and add another, also now a mouse click. What if I want to add a payment after approval? Now a couple of mouse-clicks and dialog that is not keyboard friendly. And the new date widgets are not nearly as navigable with the keyboard as the old ones. I would challenge your designers to a race: let's both enter 5 invoices using either classic or new invoicing. Classic will beat new hands down.
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CK Ong commented
The fact that I'd have to go into my inventory balance in reports to make sure that I have enough stock to sell, instead of the old system where I can view it seamlessly when I select the quantity to key in, is such a downer.
In FMCG, the ability to see how much inventory is left on hand while keying in an invoice is a life, and time saver.
Instead of optimizing our workflow, this new invoicing system has made it much more complicated and time consuming.
Please do not change something that has been working fine just for the sake of changing.
If the devs feel that these are vital and necessary QOL upgrade, please give us the option to decide that the said "upgrades" and changes are not for us.
Also the new UI for after approval seems so much bigger and clunkier.
At the very least, have the classic invoicing available and the new one as an option if people really did want it; instead of discontinuing the classic completely.
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Caiwen Fowler commented
Agreed!
There are too many clicks to do the simplest things.
1. I want to change a due date on an invoice, now I need to click twice instead of once to "choose date"
2. I can't simply drop a file on the window to attach it, now I need to click on files first, thus also needing two steps instead of one
3. can we upload files BEFORE selecting a client, why does it have to be afterwards? this also leads to more clicking between programs
4. the billable expenses tab - in order to "add as separate items", this also needs two clicks now instead of one. There's plenty of room on the pop-up window to have them as two separate buttons. I use this function a lot and that is going to get really annoying!
5. approve and save are now needing me to scroll up the top after completing my invoice, thus not flowing nicely. I used to be able to finish my invoicing then just select approve without having to move the screen, making the overall flow of work smoother and therefore quickerI really hope these features don't transfer across to the billing section if that ever gets changed too. This will make everything I enter take twice as long and be increasingly frustrating!
I'm not one to complain, I usually go with the flow; but the fact that I've spent the time writing this means that I'm extremely annoyed by the above changes and the flow of work has well and truly been interrupted for me and I'm not happy about that.
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TJ Biddle commented
Please allow us to set the default one-click method. I *never* use the Xero email feature. I just want to click approve on the invoice; not "approve and email".
I don't even have emails in any of my xero contacts.
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Clarke Hotton commented
PLEAE DO NOT DELETE Classic Invoicing. Listen to the users below the flow of the invoice may be ok for the people who are stuck to a Mouse. But some of us use the Tab key to jump from field to field so we can work faster through multiple entry of Invoices. Avg time for 1 invoice for me in Classic is under 10 seconds. Average time per invoice in so called New and Improved is 40 seconds. That is no improvement in anyones book.