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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.

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Damon O'Keefe shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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working on it  ·  AdminKelly Munro (Community Manager, Xero) responded  · 

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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  • Erica Broderick commented  ·   ·  Report

    In classic invoicing, after inputting or selecting the customer name and then tabbing to the date, you could quickly type "7" as an example and the date would auto fill with 7th of the month you were in. Now when you tab across to date, the date is fixed with todays date and you have to manually select the date and overwrite it, or pick a date. This is so clunky and takes so much time that wasn't necessary in classic invoicing.

    Then when you tab to the due date, in classic invoicing this auto filled, now you have to add a date.

    I have timed how long it takes in classic as compared to new invoicing and it is nearly double. Come on Xero, please listen to your customers. Surely classic invoicing can be implemented on your new systems with additional features rather than changing the whole way invoicing works.

  • Erica Broderick commented  ·   ·  Report

    In classic invoicing, after inputting or selecting the customer name and then tabbing to the date, you could quickly type "7" as an example and the date would auto fill with 7th of the month you were in. Now when you tab across to date, the date is fixed with todays date and you have to manually select the date and overwrite it, or pick a date. This is so clunky and takes so much time that wasn't necessary in classic invoicing.

  • Glenda Brown commented  ·   ·  Report

    Add tracking option at time of Invoicing is a must for me. Approval only button not approve & email as first option. Then I agree with all others posting on the community page, please read & implement urgently, beginning to wish I had never left MYOB.

  • Sammy Cullam commented  ·   ·  Report

    I couldn't agree more with all the complaints about new invoicing. A dogs breakfast someone called it. A very good description.
    It could not be worse if you tried.
    Slow, clunky, fragmented, Xero to Xero invoicing not available (What are you thinking??) click click click, too many clicks, too many tabs. I tried it and hated it.
    Classic invoicing works beautifully so why fix something that is not broken and everybody likes. You say clasic invoicing has been available alonside new invoicing for a long time. Plenty of time you to get new invoicing to work. Yet still it is clearly not functioning anywhere near satisfactorily.
    If classic invoicing is old platform, please, please can't you just put the same invoicing on a new platform. But leave it the same.
    Thank goodness you have realised the necessity to defer the classic invoicing retirement.
    I would hope that before new invoicing is forced on users, there is a huge effort to mirror the classic invoicing features and if not, the deadlineis extended again until you get it right.

    Sammy

  • Sarah Jacobs commented  ·   ·  Report

    It's crazy that users should have to ask for this - product development should be made aware of the amount of processing users do and as such need to use Xero as efficiently as possible.

  • Tim Hyndman commented  ·   ·  Report

    I hope the user feedback (backlash) from the New Invoicing debacle will stimulate Xero to get their act together. As a user for over 12 years I have watched this product stagnate in recent years and ignore long requested features while implementing changes of little value. Disappointing really after the revolutionary step-change it was and promise it held for ongoing improvement. I track this directly to Rod Drury's departure as CEO in 2018.

  • Tristan Smith commented  ·   ·  Report

    @Andrew Syme, Back End can change, functionality can change but massively changing the button layout to something that is not intuitive is not necessary.

  • Tristan Smith commented  ·   ·  Report

    The new invoicing has added way too much time to the invoicing and approval process , having to recheck boxes on every invoice and especially the new approve and send buttons on the top corner, I use an ultrawide monitor and the approve button seems like it is a mile away... let us keep the classic invoicing, it just plain works perfectly as it should!

    As they say: Don't fix what's not broken!

  • Chris Curlett commented  ·   ·  Report

    Claire is correct -If it is not broken why break it?

    Classic Invoices work, so leave it alone and gradually introduce changes in a cooperative way - do not be doctorial as this is not the way to treat your customers.

    I would suggest you add under SETTINGS the ability to turn Classic Invoicing on/off by the user rather than the current Starlenistic approach you are adopting>
    XERO, there are so many features' Users want that you have not implemented. Please get on with these and listen to your users, who pay your wages.

    Do not force a change that users do not want on the user! Fix what needs fixing first.

  • Claire Parker commented  ·   ·  Report

    Andrew Syme, I get what you're saying, but think we all just want the functionality of Classic. No one cares if we migrate to the new tech as long as it's behind the scenes and not front and center of the changes.

  • Andrew Syme commented  ·   ·  Report

    Ust a quick note to all those that want the Classic version to continue. I'm sure that Xero would be happy to consider this as long as you agree that any errors or bugs will not be fixed.

    The first function to fail, I suspect will be the Xero to Xero Network as it is decommisioned.
    The second failure will be with Contacts as the changes for Multiple Delivery Addresses is rolled out.
    The Third function to fail, will be repeating Invoices being accessible in Classic, as the changes to contacts are rolled thru.
    and on and on it goes.

    So Please, Be careful what you wish for !!

  • Lloyd Preston commented  ·   ·  Report

    Lots of comments and I agree with most of them - Classic works fine so why try to fix it - however, Classic has been built on an old platform and Xero needs to move to a new platform, hence the reason for the new invoicing layout - however again, they should have taken the classic and mirrored on the new platform and then added any enhancements to improve classic rather than developers trying to re-invent the wheel and making a big botch of it. So my suggestion to Xero - listen to your customers/users, deploy classic on the new platform and then add any enhance that would make classic even better - this way you won't annoy the heck out of your customers nor lose customers or get bad publicity - this whole development of new invoicing is a nightmare - and I don't know of any software provider that has or would make this kind of PR and development mistake.

  • Debbie Jeffrey commented  ·   ·  Report

    There is no need to make changes to invoicing, the Classic Version is perfect as it is.
    The new version has too many steps which takes longer to invoice. Time is money, and my time is wasted on all these extra steps.
    Let users make the choice if they want to stay with Classic Version or not.
    I have a lot of the same invoices daily for my clients and the Copy button is
    a fantastic feature, the new version does not bring the client details forward,
    so that is a waste of my time.
    The Classic Version is not broke so why are you trying to fix it.

  • Lana Marshall commented  ·   ·  Report

    Please just let it be our choice if we want to remain on the Classic version or switch to the new version. And the problem will be solved.

  • Jackie Townsend commented  ·   ·  Report

    Please just let it be our choice if we want to remain on the Classic version or switch to the new version. Problem solved. I used to highly recommend Xero because of the "user friendliness" of the accounting software... this new invoicing version is NOT user friendly ~ it does not flow, too may clicks, Approvals are at top versus bottom, it's ridiculous! Another pet peeve - I use "copy" a lot as we have a lot of the same invoices monthly... now it does not bring forward the same vendor name like it used to, so there is one more additional step we have to take! Again, you are adding to our workflow not making it better.

  • Paul Rosser commented  ·   ·  Report

    Have you any interest in returning your product to one that can be used by your paying customers' accounts team over what their customers might want to see?

    Why do we have to go through more clicks to see the functionality of classic invoicing via the edit button, which uses another click more...

    To see the box 'not planned' against the previous Comments requesting this is something that needs to be remedied. If you can provide it on the edit page means you can have the option to give it as a default for showing the initial view, as you make it doubly hard for those of us who take advantage of being able to use the 2 tracking categories, therefore have more information to check.

    Will you get the hint from the 2 attached screenshots?

  • Karen Webster commented  ·   ·  Report

    So many more steps, even adding a file needs extra work. Picking a date is extra work. They have not discussed this with users and it is the most terrible update which does not work. so many changes that were not required. Classic was 100% better. You should be improving not making things worse.

  • Adrian Keeling commented  ·   ·  Report

    It defeats me why you are changing the invoicing screen at all..? The classic invoicing is fast to use and works very well. When I try to use the "New" invoicing it literally takes twice as long to use this clunky system which has at least twice as many mouse clicks and is far less intuitive. I am not against change, but why not simply develop the existing invoicing rather than trashing it and starting again? It smacks of change for changes sake driven by technical people who dont need to use the system to run their business. Why?

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