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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Chris Curlett commented
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reinstate the ability to create a Repeating Invoice from a draft invoice
I SO AGREE WITH THIS
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Ziegfried Kritzinger commented
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reinstate the ability to create a Repeating Invoice from a draft invoice. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏😭😭
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Denise Barnard commented
When copying an Invoice - please keep the customer's name. In the new invoicing when you copy an invoice you need to re-add the customer, which not only cause more clicks but can also lead to mistakes.
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Rob Pennoyer commented
Xero: Check our our new invoicing! It has 25% of the features of the existing version!
Customers: The missing 75% includes dozens of show-stopper problems and missing functionality that aren't merely inconvenient but literally prevent us from working.
Xero: How about 30%? It'll be great! You just don't understand software! -
Mark Larrington commented
Well Xero you are certainly living up to your UK TV advert and running a marathon in quicksand! I for one feel totally insulted by ignoring of the simple message that users are telling you to simply IMPLEMENT ALL THE CLASSIC INVOICING FEATURES to keep you client base happy.
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Claire Parker commented
Great, but these are additional features and not ones that most users are having issues with. This is the proverbial re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic - we need the basic functionality sorted out before you switch off Classic.
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Tara Broderick commented
Hahahahaha - Ignoring every comment here AND updates showing that they are ignoring them. That's bloody hilarious.
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Linda Brown commented
Thank you.
These are all great improvements, but please remained focused on the operational side of data entering an invoice. Like - copy invoicing keeping the client selected, and tabbing between fields in a Z (sequential) order and where the date picks up today's date just on a tab function etc.
If you can restore the data entry time back to where it was for Classic invoicing, then you're well on your way to keeping your clients happy.
Thx
Linda -
Ali J. Karim commented
Unfortunately it's still terrible.
Can there be a lawsuit against Xero for getting to move from traditional systems getting used to fantastic features and then moving it back to the old legacy weird clunky shyte systems? -
Lloyd Preston commented
Agree entirely with last two comments - thanks Fiona for stating it clearly - if it isn't broke then don't mess with it.
What would be good for you to play with is the inventory system - a few years back you brough up another company inventory system and was supposed to incorporate it into Xero - this included the batch and location facility - here we are years later with no update on that which would add a lot more value to the basic Xero package - but instead you mess up invoicing. Listen to the users - or at least talk to them about what is working and what could be improved - unless there is some big picture stuff we are missing?? -
Claire Barning commented
Hi Kelly - in the original invoicing system, we could tab through easily, selecting customers, date, etc = now we need to use our mouse all the time to select options (customer, date etc), and if you do tab from one of these, it starts back at the top of the internet browser. Please fix this also.
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Fiona Dieleman commented
I actually would dare someone from the "design team" to call me and talk about what they did and why it is not a good thing. It won't happen, my phone won't ring....
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Fiona Dieleman commented
Kelly, that is all pumping water to save the ship. You need to put ALL the functionality of old invoicing back in place, and get rid of that stunted 70ies telex page look and go back to the old look, then introduce new features. You have taken away ALL of the features a small business uses daily. Like the new reporting which is diabolical, this is another suck it up people effort from Xero without asking us what works and what we want. Mumble about old platforms how ever long you want but the essence is you took a good working system and dumped it in the bin and ****** off a lot of people by rolling out and hunk of junk.
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Rae Stanton commented
100% ... this is such a big step backwards from a functionality perspective!
My main bug point at the moment is this: I sometimes generate invoices from another app, which syncs with Xero. Those invoices have weird invoice numbers, so the first thing I do is delete the app-generated invoice number and then old-invoicing Xero works out my next sequential invoice number and adds it in.
In the new invoicing system, it doesn't let me delete the weird invoice number. I delete it, Xero puts it back in. EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING.
So when this "new" invoicing is forced upon us, I'm going to have to open a second window to look up my existing invoices, then MANUALLY INSERT THE NEXT INVOICE NUMBER. That is absolutely NUTS.
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Nerissa Cope-Allen commented
I agree with every single comment! The new invoicing has absolutely zero improvements and sooooo much loss of usability, efficiency and flexibility.
It seems like one of those big, poorly thought-out change-management ideas that inexperienced business teams come up with and are usually nipped in the bud by internal stakeholders or experienced staff members who know that the consequences for the company will be far-reaching. -
Bryan Steel commented
100%
Adding a payment to the invoice is a perfect example. How do you change something so easy to something so stupidly difficult?
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Dale Murray commented
Agreed - it now takes 2 clicks to delete a line item. We import transactions on to invoices and then delete what we don't charge. It used to be very simple and is now tedious, due to two click requirements to delete a line.
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Kate McArthur commented
Agreed, any new upgrade which increases the 'Clicks' to complete a task is a bad idea - tell your team if they can't make a task less clicks then it doesn't get implemented. More clicks = irritated users
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Annie Sherratt commented
I have been using the new invoicing (for 18 months) for just one specific customer who prefers e-invoices, but in that time there hasn't been any redeeming features of the new design to encourage me to change over for all other customer invoicing.
Where currently in classic I can move easily and with minimal tabbing between fields for data entry, the new format requires many additional tabs or mouse-clicks, making it overly complicated and time consuming to use. Invariably I end up reverting back to the classic version for data entry for the e-invoice customer, and only switch to the new when approving and sending.
Also, visually the layout is too spread out and is uncomfortable to view.
Surely with the amount of feedback Xero is receiving on this subject a re-think is in order?
If changes need to be made, why can't they be done in the background, and keep the appearance of the user interface the same?
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Karen Mayer commented
I couldn't agree more. Taking so many steps to send a receipt for payment is way longer on the new invoice versus the classic version.