Enter your idea

It should be the same as it was and show all email addresses it's been sent to. They don't seem to grasp the fact that this history is used when chasing overdue invoices and shows where it has been sent in the past. I use this a lot especially when they claim they never got it but history shows that it has been sent and when and to who.
I'm starting to copy and paste email addresses into Notes/history for now so Xero better get their act together and sort this out as it's time consuming when you have to this just to make sure you can prove it's been sent.

The new invoicing is a nightmare and agree with Danny they need to admit they have stuffed it up completely and wouldn't be the first company to do that.
Their improvements are all backwards and the screen is still too big, it should be as compact as Classic is to look at.

The history doesn't show the email address when an invoice is re-sent later.

Xero - given your latest, additional "extension" to the classic format; AND the HUGE number of comments on here about how terrible the new system is.....surely it is time to admit defeat?

Its obvious that whoever was in charge, failed miserably to undertake proper consumer research and user testing.

Google "Classic Coke failure" and console yourselves that way bigger brands than Xero have royally messed up in the past. Then do yourselves a favour and give us back the classic system.

Thanks

New invoicing is terrible. After typing in customer, the tab function doesn't initially work. Can't over ride the invoice number. Creating job numbers is a long winded affair unlike in billing where it takes only a couple of steps. The whole process doesn't flow well. Approving to email is at top of window, then send email is at bottom of window. Wish I never moved to Xero, but was forced to by my account. Also, when paying bills, why can't I see how much is left in my bank account, rather than having to go back and check. MYOB was much more user friendly.

@Fiona - petition signed and shared.
@ Jim Morris & Martin Danger - I agree the history needs to be the same as in classic. I have used this to prove that an invoice/s have been sent when not only filing with a Debt Collection agency but also for clients to prove that an invoice has been sent and to who, when and the email address it was sent to when they have claimed they never received it.
It is an audit trail and especially important in the case of a dispute about something.
I find the reply about it to Martin absurd as it seems they can't be bothered to bring that over or else they the developers are too dumb to actually do it. According to Kelly's answer above we'll see all that. I also want to know who made changes to an invoice and when not just "edited" or whatever.
I don't want to have to copy and paste the email address/es I have sent the invoice to into history as a note just incase there is issues in the future.

So tired of these so called improvements that don't work. The new invoicing has supposedly been in the pipeline for 7 years yet it's just rubbish at the moment. If it's been this long coming then it should be as good as classic with improvements needed not going backwards. It also shouldn't be getting forced on us till it actually works properly.

https://www.change.org/p/petition-for-xero-to-stop-making-changes

Please sign and share this petition.

@Kelly Munro - Kelly, please see Martin Danger's post below.

Now, please go to your executives and tell them that, as a result of the response from their support staff, we the Xero customers, take it to mean Xero is happy to be held liable for fraudulently altering financial records (because it is "the intended behaviour of the system") and thus misrepresenting our intentions when the inevitable legal case comes up where a company's financial records will need to be submitted as evidence.

Furthermore, as a result, Xero will happily cover the legal costs incurred by said company, as it is acknowledged that it is well within Xero's power to ensure that the system works so that the records can indeed reflect an accurate history of those particular books—they just choose not to.

FYI I have already taken screenshots of this and it will be being made a point of when speaking to Consumer Affairs.

An update to my xero support case about this issue.
1. it's not a bug.
2. the system automatically unmarks the invoice as sent when a user approves them.
3. the invoice history creates an entry saying that the user manually unmarked the invoice as sent.
4. the invoice history entries are accurate.

Seriously, that's what I have been told, in the same conversation and in the same paragraph. The invoice history entries are accurate. The invoice history entry shows a manual action taken by a user. That entry was created because the system did something automatically, not the user.

Do the support staff comprehend the words that they say? All of those sentences can't be true at the same time. I feel like I am talking to a con-artist (or a politician). I feel like the truth is far less important to xero than our subscription fees.

I often deal with changes of email due to transient nature of recipients staff. I used to be able to check history to see what email addresses I had tried. Now history shows that I edited, when I didn't, just by checking history. Which does not show any subsequent emails after the initial one is sent on approval. Makes my work so time consuming on top of all the extra steps.

@Martin Danger
Wow. Do they not understand the importance of an accurate audit of user actions? Critical to a finance system.

@Annie Thorne
I asked xero support about this, that is, if you approve an invoice without sending it, xero history shows that you unmarked the invoice as sent. Even though you didn't do that. It isn't a "system generated" history entry, it's attributed to the user that approved the invoice.

Xero support has confirmed that this behaviour, of creating an entry in histroy showing a user performed an action that they did not perform, xero have confirmed that this is the intended behaviour of the system. It is not a bug.

They seem to care very little about ensuring the accuracy of the history entries - no apology is made, no plans to fix (because it isn't a bug), no acknowledgement that allowing false entries devalues the reliability of all history entries, not just these ones.

The new invoicing feels like a step back. Would rather stay with the old version. The default should be just 'approve' not 'approve and email' as most invoices aren't emailed immediately in my experience.
Don't like how you have to open the Files box before you can drap a file in, this is so time consuming and unnecessary.

New version is sooo time consuming now. It is certainly not an enhancement. Timestamp history (edits/email send etc) is critical yet it is missing. Email address prompt from history was invaluable yet it too is missing.

I agree, please give us users freedom to choose between New and Old.

You can't see the initial email where the invoice has been sent. This is critical information for communication with a difficult client, the audit process when the customer is asking to which email has it been sent?
Xero I don't know, as it's not listed anymore in either view classic or new !!

This is concerning! What is Xero doing? Now even in "Classic Invoicing" you can't see the initial email where the invoice has been sent. This is critical information for communication with a difficult client, the audit process, and credit control!

What is the issue with Xero removing existing features for no apparent reason? What is wrong with the Xero development team? I can’t help but wonder if Xero has paid someone to remove existing functionality. How does Xero justify such outrageous spending?

PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK! WE NEED TO HAVE EMAIL INFORMATION! IT IS CRITICAL!

The history and notes field in 'new' invoicing is hopeless - a long list of meaningless "edited" (thanks, autosave). And then, because 99% of my invoices aren't sent from Xero I get "Invoice has been unmarked as sent." which is an absolute lie as it was never marked as sent in the first place.

Thankfully it's just me in my business, so it's not particularly relevant, although I suspect the one time I actually need accurate date to resolve some kind of issue I'll be cursing madly. Heaven help the bigger teams who need this to be accurate to be able to comply with their business regs.

@LaineRatsep - thanks for that clarification! I don't usually resend from Xero as I copy myself in and resend from Outlook if a client asks so hadn't tested this. You are correct, it just says updated when I send a second time so that is a bit useless!! Ignore my previous comment then! When chasing payment I can see that the reminders have been sent, but hadn't noticed it just says updated for any subsequent emails from Xero.

@Kate Singleton - I'm told that the email address is recorded on the *initial email only*, not on subsequent re-sends. Are you saying that you can see the detail even when you send an invoice a second time (say, when chasing payment)? (That's quite beyond the fact that you can't even send out an aged invoice, as it's a 'locked' period, sorry, tough luck.)

Echoing what so many others seem to be saying:

The fact that re-sending emails (to the same or to new addresses) doesn't include a proper note line to say it has been sent and who it has been sent to, but instead just has that it was Edited/Updated is unacceptable.

This is a vital piece of information to have access to, as a check and something that can be proved later down the line.

This absolutely HAS to be in before we are all forced to stop using Classic Invoicing and are made to use only the new invoicing, many of us against our will.