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, we assure you that our leadership and those that can make a difference to the new invoicing experience are aware of your comments and all the feedback of how we can improve this space for all our customers.
Product ideas here have been specifically designed so we can ensure we have a channel and are getting our customers feedback to the teams and people to consider, plan and prioritise change to impact and make a positive difference to our users experience in all our products. For example - every week all the feedback (every one of the comments) goes to the new invoicing team and has been read by leadership including our CPTO.
Individual personal details have been removed from commentary in this thread as it goes against part of our Community Guidelines.
There are really important reasons why we must go forward with sunsetting classic invoicing and investing in the newer version if we want a product that will continue to serve your needs in the future as classic has too many technological limitations. The leadership from our board, through our c-suite and regional leadership teams know this is the only path forward to give you the features you’ve been asking for. We shared more on this in this blog.
Since my last post there are other changes that have been made to enhance new invoicing, including;
- the ability to attach a file from the files library,
- being able to view files in a side by side view so you no longer have to click across to another tab,
- automatically opening a new tab to take you to areas to add a new account, tracking category or tax rate, and
- being given the option to mark an invoice as sent when printing.
All of which help reduce the number of clicks that you’d have to make for these actions.
We are continuing to explore more ways to reduce the clicks and steps required for other actions in new invoicing and will keep updating you on these here. You can keep up to date with ongoing updates and changes to new invoicing on this Xero Central hub.
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Rob Pennoyer commented
Customers in this thread and others have described dozens of missing features and showstopper bugs. You're talking about fixing eight or ten of them.
Let's stipulate that the upgraded version is unavoidable, inevitable. If you were truly listening to your customers you would commit to feature parity before sunsetting the classic version.
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Mark Larrington commented
Is everyone aware of the many other Discussions about how useless, cumbersome and awkward New Invoicing is?
Go vote and comment on those too. -
Rob Pennoyer commented
I support the effort to escalate this to executive management. It's clear the product team is completely off the rails on this.
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Joanne Jefferies commented
Hi
I have also emailed the CEO and company secretary.I'm astounded that this issue was not fixed a week after the update! Did the tech's not test this?? Amazing.
Lets hope we get a result in the near future.
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Lloyd Preston commented
Thanks Chris
Have emailed both CEO and company secretary. Lets keep pushing forward and appreciate any action taken to get Xero's attention.
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Chris Curlett commented
Julie and Damon
I have started to print the comments I see about not just New Invoicing however other issues as well where the ZERO team is failing to perform. KEEP CONTACTING them.
I will deliver the printed copies to the Auckland Directors personally at their homes in the hope if they know what is happening then they may do something about the XERO non-performance.
ALSO
If I get enough support, I may be able to have a item ADDED to the next XERO AGM under general business. I have been successful in the past however it takes a lot of work
Keep sending commnets and you never know they may one day pay attention!
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Julie Sutton commented
I have emailed ceo and company secretary on new invoicing as well as other basic functionality still missing like supplier statements, disputed flag, supplier credit limits, ability to "pay" credit notes, missing bank payments off the cashflow forecast etc etc.
Sadly a standard response so far as below :-
Thanks for reaching out to ceo@xero.com - I love hearing from you and getting your feedback.
Emails to this inbox will be monitored by the Xero team and we’ll do our best to respond where possible.
If you have a support query, please continue to reach out via Xero Central. For all feature requests and product ideas, please go to Xero Product Ideas.
Best wishes,
Sukhinder and the Xero teamAll we can do is keep "spamming" them here and no social media. Their lack of communication is atrocious!
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Neil Jordan commented
Back in Feb 2023 when Sukhinder Singh Cassidy became the new CEO at Xero, she emailed everyone "A personal note to say hello". In that she wrote:
"There is always room for improvement and we’d love to hear from you about how we can make Xero even better, together. Please continue to access support through Xero Central or reach out and be vocal - whether that’s through Xero Product Ideas, Community Discussions on Xero Central or you can drop me a note at CEO@xero.com or connect with our team at Xero events. You can always keep updated about what’s happening with Xero on the Xero Blog."I did email her at the time asking for us all to be actually listened to and pointing out how many basic suggestions were on here which are important to us are never dealt with, in preference to development that isn't really important, including one back from 2015 about automatically sending statements.
I didn't get a response, but I presume that email address may still be active. So I guess, "reach out" and "be vocal" :)
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Chris Curlett commented
Come on everyone let's support Lloyd and email our comments direct to Directors of XERO at the email address below.- we may even get some action!
(Edited by admin) -
Lloyd Preston commented
Thanks - have emailed in the hope that this will get some hearing.
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Chris Curlett commented
Another way to bring it to the attention of the Directors may be to email the Company Secretery direct and ask comments to be passed on to the Chairman/Directors. This may get around the Gate Keepers within ZERO.
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Chris Curlett commented
Lloyd - I have thought of the same approach
Attached is a list of XERO Directors from around the world however I do NOT have email addresses. Maybe someone can search these out or start posting (snail mail) letters to the.
It is time we started to stand up and by-pass the "gate Keepers" within XERO.
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Lloyd Preston commented
Agree - would be good to for someone to post on Facebook or some other media or even better go to someone higher up at Xero - as this really is a step backwards and I suspect if they proceed (please no) that they will bring in same format for Bills also - which will be just as bad.
Does anyone have connection higher up at Xero and connection with media to get some real outside discussion going.
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Jean Evans commented
I've just quickly scrolled through the 3 pages of comments from Xero users and from what I could see, no one seems to be enamoured of the new invoicing format. Surely that should tell Xero admin that they have a ton of dissatisfied customers. And dissatisfied customers have a tendency to take their business elsewhere and tell everyone they can think of about their bad experiences. That is where social media really comes into its own. You do a good job, we will tell the world; you do a bad job, we will tell the world.
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Jean Evans commented
Kelly, you state you have made some changes which will be beneficial for us, (the user of your programme, us, the people that pay to keep you employed) Adding a bin icon is not new, it was on the old format.
What would be helpful us to reduce the number of steps in processing in the new format. For instance to add a new client, I now have to enter the name, tab, enter and tab another 13 times to get where I can save. OR I can type the name, tab, enter and then go to the mouse to 'save' All of this is double if not triple handling. The old format saved the new client automatically. It would be interesting to know how many clients complained about the old invoicing format. If I was really cynical I would say that you were changing the format simply to justify your wages. After all if it is all running smoothly, the Tech Support department could probably be halved. -
Heather Palmer commented
These things are so irrelevant to what is actually missing in the new invoicing system, leave the classic invoicing as it works the way users prefer, there is so many options that are used in the classic invoicing that work well and are not in the new invoicing. I moved back to the classic invoicing as soon as the new invoicing became available and will NOT use the new invoicing again until things are rectified. You CANNOT discontinue something that works well for your user. XERO PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR USERS THEY PAY YOUR SALARY. There are other programs out there that we can all move to, but using Xero for the past 6 years has made me so frustrated time and time again that you dont listen to what users WANT.
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Kathy Skinner commented
I just checked the new invoicing to see if it allows me to do bulk invoicing like the old system and it doesn't. Under the old version I have multiple groups that get invoiced a membership depending on their tiers. I have been able to generate one draft invoice which then allows me to create the same invoice for everyone in that group and then approve them all at the same time. Some have up to 30 in a group and it saves so much time when you have over 100 invoices to do.
The new version doesn't appear to allow it that I can see as when I switched while trying to do it for a group instead I get a message it doesn't have a contact name and the next invoice number would be allocated.If it's to do with the old platform that this change has to happen then everything on the classic should have been moved over not be done piece meal like you are doing then adding things on the way as people complain.
Plus this should have been sorted before making your customers use it and retiring Classic - you have gone backwards on this badly. It's what I would expect when you first started out years ago and actually listened to people about what was missing or their suggestions on what was needed or wanted.The screen view is still horrible and despite multiple complaints on the view it's had nothing done about it and I haven't seen anything to say this is going to be looked at.
Has anyone else worked out how to do a bulk invoicing in the new version or do we have to do individual ones all the time and using "copy to" for the next client who has exactly the same invoice details.
I should bill Xero as doing over 100 invoices like this is going to take up so much time. I feel for everyone who has way more invoices than this to issue and send out each month.
Also does anyone have a suggestion on another NZ based accounting option, I have another client who doesn't issue invoices at all as they are a POS mainly and any invoices that are issued are done outside of Xero via a Hospitality program but does need bill entry etc, the Starter version isn't suitable as it only allows 5 bills a month and we need to enter more than that so she has to be on the Standard which is a higher fee and basically a waste of money for her. Not interested in using MYOB as I don't like that one either. I looked at Hnry but that also doesn't work for her.
The only one I have been able to find that is pretty competitive as far as what I need is "Reckon" that is giving 50% off for 6 months but I think it is AUS based but still cheaper after conversion to NZ$ and has more options for their Accounting Plus plan which would probably be suitable and much better than Xero's Starter plan is. Has anyone used this one or knows a bit more about it?Time Xero realised their customers maybe starting to look elsewhere for cheaper options that have basically the same if not more functions. Pity they have such a hold on customers that it can be difficult to change over to someone else, especially when you have multiple clients and then it can also depend on other factors outside of your control in regards to moving to a new program e.g Accountants, Auditors etc who all use Xero and won't use anything else.
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Chris Curlett commented
I do so agree with Damon - Keep the old system
Do not break that which is working.
I still have not been told WHY these changes have to happen
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Freya Pieroz commented
@Claire Barning that's just one of the many reasons the New Invoicing doesn't meet the Accessibility requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Anything that requires mouse usage is unusable for people who can't use a mouse (like when I had hand surgery)
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Helen Mutch commented
The more i read the comments the more i feel like Xero should scrap the new invoicing and just leave the classic version as your new version is not as user friendly.. why do you not listen to your actual users???