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I created a new thread about the character limit and it was merged with this thread: "We wanted to let you know that an idea you follow has been combined with a similar idea so we can consider them together." However it's not the same thing as my issue revolved around generating invoices via the Projects add-on and the character limit is MUCH less than 4000 characters!

Please increase the character limit for line descriptions when generating invoices from Projects.

Right now, if a bill line has a description that exceeds the small character limit, it gets cut off on the invoice. I have to then manually open each bill, copy the full description, and paste it into the corresponding invoice line. Obviously this is extremely time-consuming and inefficient for something that seems like a relatively small backend fix that would make a big difference to everyday usability.

Is anyone else dealing with this?

Experiencing trouble with this, Xero is constantly 'fixing' things that aren't broke.

I would like to echo this negative feedback. I have no idea why on earth Xero would remove functionality. There is absolutely no reason beyond being difficult.

In addition, the new invoicing is far slower, and so i have no idea why it was changed. Such a basic functionality removed.

Hi Kelly, with respect, myself and many others have noted that 4,000 characters is simply not enough. Our company imports our data in from WorkflowMax2, and the detail regularly exceeds the 4,000 character limit. The only work around is to manually split this import across several line items, which is not only very time consuming, but also prone to error - very unnecessarily so.
Another area the new invoicing is worse, is the (large) size of the font, which means you see far less of the invoice at any given time. When you have an invoice that may be 6-10 pages long, this makes any editing, or any drag and drop very cumbersome - why not have an option for viewing invoice size on the screen (S, M, L font)?
Yet another area the new invoicing is poor is the deletion of the add 5, 10, 20 lines option - why delete this? Now to add lines you have to enter new information on a line-by-line basis at the bottom (I enter an 'x' in each line), rather than adding many blank lines at once that you can move and use for section headings and the like, how is that an improvement?
It is very disappointing that after using the 'old' invoicing template very happily for some 9 years, that you impart a new template on us that is simply inferior in so many ways. Please remedy the above to improve the use of the template.
Thanks.

How have you made invoicing so much worse? Theres so many quality of life things that youve inexplicably taken away - all of which add more clicks per invoice and add time. Due date for example, why cant we default this to be X days from invoice generation? Needing to click accounts instead of tabbing through - all of these minor oversights combine to an overall worse user experience.

Can you resolve the issue where you click into the amount of value fields in the new invoicing and you cannot type/edit until clicking out and then back in again!

Can you also increase the character limit in the description field. I am unable to add all the detail from my jobs to the new invoicing so I have to flip to the original invoicing to complete my monthly accounts.

Also the the performance is terrible, I am running on an I9 Processor Computer, 32 GB RAM, SSD hard drive and a 1TB internet connection and it is very slow.

Having the approve button at the top is great if it's a small one line invoice, if you have a large invoice with multiple lines it slows you down having to scroll back up to the top to approve and send.

PLEASE DO NOT GET RID OF THE OLD INVOICING IT IS ONE OF XERO'S BEST FEATURES!

We're still waiting on some further feedback or updates since the 12/09/24 post Kelly. The 4,000 character limit is a real issue!

Please implement this, 4000 characters isn't enough, and I'll have to move my invoicing elsewhere...

How is this progressing Kelly Munro? Appreciate that there's been an extension on the use of the 'Classic' invoicing, but I can see that this issue will still exist when that is turned off unless the amendment is made (i.e. removing the character limit).

An update would be great thanks.

Can we have an update on this Kelly.

I've just run the invoices for the month (last week), and it took a day longer than usual because I had to manually split Descriptions across numerous line items to get under the imposed 4,000 character limit.

We really need this limit removed in the new invoicing (same as the old invoicing).

This is going to become extremely inconvenient when old invoicing is turned off, as I often duplicate previous invoices. Any new invoices created in old invoicing won't be able to be saved and I will have to get someone in the office to split content onto multiple lines as I can't drag and drop lines from an ipad. Not sure why there needs to be a character limit?

I completely agree with Jett - this is a massive step backwards for our companies' ability to invoice and is extremely frustrating and time consuming.

I've just been through the transition from Workflow Max to Workflow Max 2 (by Bluerock) and that was difficult, but non-action on this issue will be far more problematic for our business, in what seems an easy fix, to a rather large step backwards in functionality in the invoicing within Xero.

Please make this a high priority to resolve.

Also - what happened to the ability to add 5, 10 or 15 rows??? Where has that option gone?

When we import form Workflow Max we very often have entries with more than 4000 characters pulling through onto a line item (timesheet entries). I've just had to split one of these entries in Xero across numerous line items to make it save, and instead of the invoice taking me 2-3 minutes, it took me 20mins!!! This is incredibly inefficient, and I would really like this reversed back to how we've had for the last 8 years I've been using WFM and Xero. Invoicing is a time consuming activity, and my company simply cannot afford the increased inefficeny that this invoicing change has resulted in.

This is urgent please!!!

In response to Jett Benson, what other functionality will users lose? The reference field for an invoice has been reduced to 255 characters. This is going to cause me a lot of grief when forced to move to New Invoicing as I have been forced to put id information in the reference field because it's not practical to search and find an invoice by text in the description.

@Kelly M, in addition to the 4,000 character description limit per line, what other restrictions are you forcing on us when you remove the functional 'classic invoicing'?

Do you have a list of what functionality us users will lose or are we expected to find out for ourselves when things don't work as well as they used to?

This is essential for our business also. This is where we record works carried out, sometimes over multiple weeks or months and therefore can't afford to be limited on characters.

How a 'new' invoicing system can be developed that includes a reduction in features is beyond me.

Often we required 10,000 characters but on occasion have needed up to 30,000.

We also need a much larger character limit due to our invoicing needs. This means larger invoices will need to be split across multiple invoices which is a huge step backwards in functionality. Why was it limited to 4000 characters anyway?

Hi,

We import from an excel monthly spreadsheet some requiring 15,000 characters or more.