New Invoicing - Make the History & Notes the same as in Classic Invoicing
Please leave the history of an invoice EXACTLY as it was in the classic invoicing.
The new invoicing doesn't show the invoice that it was copied from or copied to and this is very important as a trail.
I really don't understand why so many important features from the classic invoicing has been omitted.
OR
let your customers continue using the classic invoicing as they like
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Hi everyone, as another step toward improving history of new invoicing you'll find you'll now see an entry when an invoice is sent, and the email address it has been sent to.
We appreciate this is something we've heard a fair amount of feedback on and we hope helps in your journey to using new invoicing.
We still have more enhancements on the way for history and I'll be back again when more updates land.
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Jim Morris commented
@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.
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Martin Danger commented
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.
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Vicki Robinson commented
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.
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Jill Fechner commented
@Martin Danger
Wow. Do they not understand the importance of an accurate audit of user actions? Critical to a finance system. -
Martin Danger commented
@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.
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Gail & Simon Gibson commented
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. -
Janelle Jordan commented
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.
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Sherolyn Mesa commented
I agree, please give us users freedom to choose between New and Old.
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Christopher Gething commented
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 !! -
Anastasiia Dorodnaia commented
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!
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Annie Thorne commented
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.
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Kate Singleton commented
@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.
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Laine Ratsep commented
@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.)
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Ayden Aitken commented
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.
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Louisa Tuohy commented
The *NEW* invoicing is absolutely terrible. Really thinking of changing to a different account package as this new invoicing is so so bad. Will continue to use the classic invoicing whist I can
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Haidee Nightingale commented
This has NOT been fixed. From the new invoicing layout, when you resend an invoice to a different email address (which often happens when a business will email or phone and request it to be resent to a different email address or if it needed to be altered and resent) it just shows in the history as Edited and 'invoice updated' and doesn't show a history of having been emailed and where to. Being able to prove something was emailed and a history of where it was emailed is critical!
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Kathy Skinner commented
Seriously the notes and history is total **** - every time they say something is fixed it's got worse or something else has disappeared altogether or is worse than it was originally.
Now I get an email about the change over of our plans and when they will happen and what the new price is effective as of the 12th September yet they haven't fixed the issues with this new invoicing but are expecting us to pay the increase. No choice either since they only allow Direct Debit and no doubt if you blocked that then they'd block your access.Surely there is something under the Fair Trading Act that might cover this as being a service that's not fit for purpose under the circumstances yet they are increasing the price and forcing us to use it. Maybe the Commerce Commission could help?
I saw a post earlier from another user (not sure which forum they posted it on though) who said they would lay a complaint if this went ahead but not sure if it was with the Commerce Commission or another agency.Time Xero admitted their failure on this and pulled it until it actually works, not force it on users saying ***'ll be all sorted by November. Considering all the things that have been requested over the years that is highly unlikely this will be sorted like they say but we'll be stuck using it.
I've had more problems since they started this new so called invoicing with things not loading or just going into a cycle of trying to load or just taking me back to log in etc plus in some cases the back button takes me to a totally different screen than what I was in and just needed to go back to the original page. -
Jim Morris commented
After seeing someone's comment regarding file history, this morning, I went into the notes and history of the invoice I just created, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else.
For context, on each commission run from our Franchisor, my usual routine is just to go to the last invoice I did (for this particular purpose), copy it to a new invoice and then alter what I need, in order to create a new one.
I discovered that from the moment I created the draft, it was auto-saving each and everything I did...so now, I have 35 lines of utterly superfluous file history that don't contribute anything remotely useful to any sort of auditing history.
I knew other folks have been complaining about the history in the new system but I didn't realise it was this poxy and thought it had been fixed...maybe it has but that rollout hasn't yet made it to my business?
My god, what an absolute cesspool this is going to be for larger invoices if it's doing this level of rubbish for a small 12-line invoice...
To that end, IMO Autosave is poo. Either get rid of it or let us turn it off.
Not only does it save things that you don't need, it makes the process slower as it regularly won't register the 1st time you click into a field, or the second, or even the third. Copy and pasting data into a field is also a 50% success rate, depending on if you click correctly and Ctrl+v...
Seriously took me twice as long as it should have to make this invoice.
Setting aside the colour scheme, the spacing and font size, the controls in hidden places or just moved from where they were previously, I seriously hate "new" invoicing in its current form and capability.
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Ira Millett commented
Please stop changing invoicing
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Accounts - South Pacific IT commented
Hi Ashlee,
That's useful to know. Thank you.
Having said that, it seems to be a pretty awful workaround if you have to remember to do that every time you want a record of the date and time a followup is sent.
Xero, please record at least as much information in the new invoicing system as is recorded in the classic invoicing system. Please.