Enter your idea

I wrote this to my Account Manager recently and her reply is below......

Hi Amy
I wanted to bring your attention to the growing concern from long standing Xero advisors of the deterioration in service we are finding from Xero.

It was enough of a fiasco when new reports were brought out that, quite frankly, weren't fit for purpose!
The Aged Debtors report being the one that springs to mind first - The new report showed the last day of the month in the current column and then in the next column was the remainder of the month - absolute nonsense!
Xero's answer to that......raise a product request!
The next suggestion by support was to run it as at 1st of the month so you get all the month in one column.
Shows a total utter lack of understanding of accounting practice and bookkeeping.

Now we are seeing the fiasco of the 'new invoicing' - I have not swapped over to it yet and have no intention of doing so as, from what I can see from other advisors, it is also not fit for purpose!
Please see below an extract from a 'product request' regarding the so called 'improvements'!
Xero have now stopped us voting on this so we have, once again, no voice!

I am past retirement age now and am winding down and I had hoped to keep a few clients ticking over but if these changes are forced on us and they are not fit for purpose then I will consider swapping my remaining client base over to QBO.

I used to love Xero and would sing its praises from the rooftops but in the last 3/4 years it has deteriorated beyond recognition!
The concentration seems to be on pretty bows and whistles and making things look pretty for the occasional user who uses a mobile device and those of us that use it day in day out are being overlooked.
Every change being made now adds more clicks and time to use - it is no longer beautiful in fact it's down right ugly!

I wish Xero would go back to the way it was otherwise you will find us leaving in droves!

Account Manager's Reply....
I took your concerns to our product team yesterday who have come back to me overnight, as always they're grateful for your feedback and they find it really helpful to understand what they can improve on and what areas are frustrating in Xero, as well as what you like. Brigitte in particular mentioned how helpful you were a few months ago.

I'm told that we will be putting out an update on new invoicing early next week, with all the updates so far since announcement and ones planned going forward so you can see what's coming up. It will also have a video and a landing page to track updates so you can see where we're at with things, and you should see our FAQs updated soon to reflect responses to the questions that you've brought up. They're planning to go back to the petition once this work is done so they can show those concerned what we're doing about those worries and where we plan to go next to help improve your experience.

As a side note - the ability to copy the contact when copying an invoice is currently have under review and we will be keeping everyone updated when the team begin building and deliver for this change.

I hope this helps - as ever do let me know if you'd like to discuss and I'll be more than happy to talk things through.

Amy Goodwill
Account Manager

I agree

Hi all

If you want your voice heard, you might want to leave a review on Trustpilot.

https://au.trustpilot.com/search?query=xero

There are many overseas users (Xero's new target area) leaving a review.

We switched to Xero because I was so frustrated with QB Online. The more I use Xero, the less frustrated I am about QB Online. There are so many NORMAL accounting features that are missing in Xero that it's driving me crazy. The lack of response from Xero on the ideas posted is also frustrating. I understand that they are trying at add new functionality with the new invoicing BUT removing functionality in the process is NOT the way to go. It does not show care for the customers.

Hi Accountants & Bookkeepers, I am done with Xero's rude ignorance & am moving to Quickbooks. There is a Roadshow THIS MONTH (Register link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/au/quickbooksroadshowevents/)

Would love to catch up with everyone else moving over !! (I'll be at Mascot & will wear the attached badge for ease of Identification)

X

Hi Accountants & Bookkeepers, I am done with Xero's rude ignorance & am moving to Quickbooks. There is a Roadshow THIS MONTH (Register link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/au/quickbooksroadshowevents/)

Would love to catch up with everyone else moving over !! (I'll be at Mascot & will wear the attached badge for ease of Identification)

"NOT PLANNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SERIOUSLY XERO - HOW DISGUSTING.

@Koren Sewell: Another Kiwi here :) We shifted from QuickBooks to Xero about 5 years ago because Xero was more proactive. However, it appears that it's not the case anymore. I intend to look into what QuickBooks is currently offering and also contemplate exploring MYOB, as one of my friends speaks highly of it.

I'm horrified by the prospect of the old invoicing retiring. At this stage, I don't hold any hope that Xero will update the new invoice version :(

@Platypus Billing: not Canadian, but Kiwi here, also looking for good alternative, anyone got any suggestions?

I agree.

@Simone Browne: So, we could use this space to discuss alternatives?
Voting may be switched off, but commenting still works.

Any Canadians here ... back to Quickbooks?

Forget it people. Don't bother. Voting has been turned off and Status is now Not Planned. That says it all. Time to move on.

I agree. I'm a non-accountant, small business user. Have just received notification that the completely functional expense claim via Xero app is being retired.

The new expense claim process lacks the basic functionality of classic expense claims. For example, in classic expenses, you could have a receipt total, but could amend the quantity to reflect a percentage of that receipt to claim. Quite important to a small business/home office user, where you might claim 10% of something...

Just calling something new, removing functionality, and making the product worse is not a fantastic business model.

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for the response and explanation of Xero's rationale.

Whilst I follow that the technology underpinning Classic Invoicing is out of date and a burden for Xero to support, I cannot understand why the new technology cannot have user interfaces that look the same as those many of your clients are used to with Classic Invoicing.

Perhaps a logical way forward is to leverage the flexibility of the new technology to provide two alternative interfaces to it, one that works like Classic Invoicing, and one that looks like New Invoicing. Over time you would be able to gauge which is more popular with users and then phase out the less popular one.

In short, it doesn't really wash that the new technology unpinning New Invoicing is capable of "more flexibility, customisation and new features and workflows", but in reality is so inflexible you've had to compromise the user interface so dramatically it bears little resemblance to what customers are used to, need, and are happy with.

And a final question - on a typical day how many invoices do you, or Diya Jolly, create and send?

I agree

@Kelly Munro, burying your head in the sand and insulting your customers is not generally seen as good business practice.

Given that this has now spawned multiple threads and even migrated to Twitter/X maybe you should re-think your response here?

An apology would also not be unwelcome, just saying.

@Kelly M
Condescending and patronising to say the least in your answer - go ahead with something that doesn't work properly and ignore your clients comments - any other business would loose their customers if they were treated the way you are treating yours. No doubt a lot will look elsewhere and move away since you seem to ignore most suggestions as well. Classic should have been upgraded instead of some whole new way that's tiring and horrible to use. Seems that what you do with most of these. Like it's back at the beginning when Xero first came out.

TURNING OFF THE VOTING HOW CHILDISH - JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THE RESPONSES YOU'RE GETTING - LIKE A CHILD THROWING IT'S TOYS OUT OF THE COT BECAUSE IT CAN'T GET IT'S OWN WAY.

Oh I see - now you have stopped us voting!
Is that your best Xero - gagging us!!!

We are Xero advisors and we use your product day in and day out!
We are the ones who (used to) recommend Xero to our clients
to say
'We know that learning new product features can be a challenge when you have established ways of working'
Is downright insulting!
We are NOT change resistant - we are 'loss of functionality' resistant!
You continually increase your charges whilst continually decreasing the functionality of the product!
You say that all these issues will be resolved before we are forced to swap to the inadequate new invoicing yet now you mark the post as 'not planned' !

I have had enough of being told to raise a product request to get back to where we were before Xero 'improved' it.
The new Aged Debtors when it was released was not fit for purpose yet we were told that that was deliberate!
I don't know who is designing your reports but you are obviously not having (or listening) to any input from Xero advisors who use it every day!
Shameful service!!
Xero used to be so good!

After reading Kelly's comments it is clear that XERO isn't listening. Its not just about the invoicing its that our ideas are completely ignored. It's pointless even gibing us the option to submit ideas.

- the user permissions are very limited. I can't give my admin staff a lot of admin tasks because by doing so I need to give them full access to very sensitive information
-Marking bills in dispute - honestly why isn't this done yet it has been raised multiple times
-Bank rec's are only 10 lines
- Reporting is very limited I'm having to buy addons to do basic reports

There are many more suggestions that are ignored for years but these are the ones the affect me the most. We are only a small business therefore I don't know how medium businesses cope with xero. Do they just go elsewhere? As soon as you need more admin staff the system is useless due to the user permissions being very limited

I would be happy to pay a higher fee for more functionality in xero.

Also can everyone please vote at the top of the page

Thank you, Xero for getting back to us. We understand that you are busy and appreciate your time.

I understand that a new layout is difficult to get used to when we are accustomed to the old layout. I have been using the new layout and am getting used to where everything is located.

It is good that you are upgrading your system to accommodate the changing environment in which people need to keep records around the globe. However, I can not see how this will benefit us when requests that have been active for many years and marked as crucial by your users have been marked by you as Not planned.

I feel that your team has missed the point we are making. We can if needed get used to a new layout if this will end up benefiting us with the added features we need.

It appears the only change you plan on making to your platform, is to increase your overseas presence, thus increasing your company's appeal to your shareholders. Not your users.

I hope your overseas users do not look up your reviews. e.g.
https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/xero

Love the new look of invoices sent from Xero ..... NOT!!
Come on Xero, why fix something that is not broken!!????
What's the use of having a link and an attachment, when the invoice information is in the email. I was fine with just the attachment and link!