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, some time on since my last update I wanted to give you more of an idea of the work we have going on to help reduce the number of steps and actions in new invoicing. Along with the changes mentioned in my last update, we've since released a change to the view of an invoice to shift details back into their own columns (similar to classic), while a small change we know it's improved visibility for some of our customers.
We also have other work in development atm that’ll further help here like a new line item grid when editing your invoice - wrapped up in this we’ll be introducing changes you’ve been asking for like the ability to create a new tracking option or account code without having to navigate away from the invoice, we’re increasing the number of items that you can view from the drop down, and we’ll be bringing back the ability to view the number of stock on hand.
As mentioned in my last post, our team is developing shortcuts for the drop down actions like Approve and Save so you have more ease of selecting the option that's best for you.
We also have some updates coming to;
- The Contact card, so you’ll be able to add more details without having to go to the contact record, like more address lines, ability to look up addresses, and entering an Attention to all items we’ve heard lots of feedback on
- Issue and Due date picking where we’ll make it quicker to simply select a calendar date and we’ll be adding more keyboard shortcuts such as the ability to enter +0 for today’s date
- Ability to drag & drop files that we’re enhancing so you’ll be able to do this anywhere on the invoice rather than a specific area
Again, thank you all for sharing and continuing to let us know the improvements that make a difference for you when working with new invoicing. We'll update you as items I've mentioned above are released.
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Chris Dwyer commented
Some positive steps, but still when will you fix the issue of imported invoices unable to be auto-allcoated the next invoice number.
We import end of month invoices, and do not know what our invoice sequence should be as it's automated. We would import, then delete the placeholder invoice nuber that our external system generated, and then Classic Xero would give us a correct next invoice number. New Xero just re-shows the same placeholder number.
If this is not possible, has the API been updated to allow 'next invoice number' to be checked ?
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Pyroclassic Fires commented
We are getting closer to when Xero says they will be turning off classic Invoicing and still there are way to many bugs to make this a useable system.
Come on Xero, how about you delay the go live until the issues are sorted. we pay you enough to deliver a system that is robust and fir for purpose.
There's way too much to list here and besides everyone else ahs already said it.
There is no point in saying what's coming as you don't seem to get how stressed we are that come November we will be forced to use an inferior product.
You say this is fixed etc but I'm not sure as when I try in my version it isn't. Are you rolling out the fixes to every customer or just a select few? -
Olga O'Keefe commented
Kelly,
How many versions of new invoicing are active at the moment?
I tried to email an old invoice in the locked period to check that this action would appear in the invoice's history. We have two companies. One company did not have any warning, I emailed the invoice and received it. But there is no addition to the history. It even does not say that the invoice was updated.
When I tried to do the same in the other company a pop-up window appeared saying that it was impossible to amend this invoice as it was in the locked period. (this nonsense was discussed before). But the message was sent regardless, and I received it. Of course, nothing was added to the invoice history.
As you can see, my experience is different from @Roshelle Dalziel's.
I am afraid that on 20.11.2024 we will still be comparing apples and oranges and not seeing the proper invoice history.
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Rochelle Dalziel commented
That sounds pretty positive Kelly, thanks for the update. Could you please also confirm whether there will be any changes/updates to the history/notes section, so it is clearer for all users regarding when and to whom an invoice has been emailed?
I realise that there is a work-around for this (which I successfully used this morning), however having to resort to using a work-around for something that worked perfectly previously is a big step backwards, that shouldn't need to happen. I've attached an example of the history/notes work-around.^ Effectively, for the email address to show, the user now has to uncheck the "Sent" checkbox, and enter the address of the recipient (as it may have changed) before clicking send. Doing this means that the recipient's address appears in the history. If this is not done, the history only says that the invoice has been "updated".
I look forward to hearing that this issue has been resolved.
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Jim Morris commented
Gaslighting at its finest again Xero. Seriously, we are 37 days from Classic being switched off and you are still at a stage of "we're working on it" when it comes to standard features that were in Classic and are yet to be implemented in New. This is not your finest work, to put it mildly, and it is going to cost you a lot of customers on November 20th. I just hope that the share price reflects how badly you folks have fluffed this play and your investors come asking WTAF happened....
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Rae Stanton commented
When will you fix the bug when an invoice number is deleted ... in the classic invoicing the next sequential number would be automatically added. Now the deleted invoice is just stubbornly added back in. Beyond frustrating and a step backwards. PLEASE FIX IT!!!
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Craig Byron commented
Thanks for the update Xero, allthough I'm simply staggered this is where you're at in such a late stage of a major software "upgrade". I can see why Xero has never been profitable, and it's got nothing to do with being a software start up. I wouldn't be a shareholder if you paid me.
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Olga O'Keefe commented
Hi Kelly,
has anyone mentioned needing to change the font size in new invoicing? You can put side by side two browser tabs with new and classic of the same invoice and be shocked at how huge the new invoicing font is!
The smaller font might improve the view dramatically. I guess the smaller font will make the entire invoice table smaller.
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Martin Danger commented
Seeing Xero say things like "hearing about the differing flows and how many customers enter data when invoicing" makes me wonder how much effort Xero made when deciding to create new invoicing.
And the "ideas" listed there, at least 4 of them are not ideas, they are deleted features that used to exist. When did Xero make it clear that their new invoicing thing would be removing these features and when did they give reasons why they were doing this?
If they had done this and listened to users, 1) users would have saved time by not having to lobby Xero to reinstate features and 2) Xero would have saved quite a bit of money by not writing new code to remove the features and then writing more code to reinstate them.
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Emergency Management Products commented
Also when adding a customer on the fly in the new template, the drop down doesn't have any fields to enter the customer contact name, only the company name. Why ?
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Emergency Management Products commented
And another vote for classic
Just the simple task of entering an invoice that a customer has already paid requires so many backward steps.
The popup to enter payment covers the fields so you need to go to a second screen to enter the details where as the classic was a cut and paste.
The people developing these new templates obviously have no real world experience. -
Simrat Kaur commented
Voting for classic invoicing as well, the new one just makes me wonder if we should make a switch to another system - a thought that never came in my mind before for the last 5 years or so.
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Tony Prior commented
Completely agree. Why this obsession with 'if it ain't broke, break it'? First invoicing, and now fixed asset management. We get into a rhythm doing this stuff day in, day out - and fast! When it changes, for no good reason, it requires an investment of time. And when it changes in a way that requires more processes, like new invoicing, then our whole time management gets affected. Please listen to us.
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Lucilia Powell commented
I'm sorry but this is another vote for the classic invoicing.
So far only the auto save is an improvement from the previous system.
The inability to properly change the email template to remove "due date" is a disaster. I have different due dates for my ivoices, some of them are payable in advance, so I don't need the system saying the due date, the invoice template shows that. It may be useful for some people, but I need to have the choice to remove this.
Secondly, and VERY important: It does not tell you how many of the tracked stock items are in stock, whereas the old one did. When I'm invoicing something, I need to know how many of those items are left, why would you remove this very useful feature?
Overall, it is a very poor design and a real downgrade from the previous system. Why would you change something that worked very well before?
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Brian McCarter commented
The steamrolling rolling users into using the inferior new invoicing hurts xero's brand image.
It's buggy, slow, hard to use and key features have been removed.
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Kate Abbott commented
PLEASE BRING BACK THE SEND BUTTON ON THE APPROVED INVOICE PAGE!
Or how about you just don't change the classic invoicing? There are so many more clicks and mouse movements to get to where I need on the new invoicing - it's terrible!
I keep trying to use the new invoicing so I can get used to it but the frustration of it kicks in and I give up. Considering giving up on Xero totally in November - PLEASE listen to your subscribers and don't ditch the classic (and better) invoicing
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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.