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.
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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Rosina Karmacharya commented
New Invoicing doesn't have network sharing and its such crucial feature for my company.
In terms of additional clicks, I don't like how it doesn't show calendar view to chose date and you have to choose " pick a date " to go to Calendar view and choose date.
They should leave it at Calendar view , the way it is currently.
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Mark Larrington commented
Kelly
How about you FIX the BUGS before telling us what's coming?
I reported a serious bug to Xero Support in January 24 - ITS STILL NOT FIXED!!!!
Bug - When copying a Purchase Order to a NEW INVOICE it copies the items Purchase price rather than the Sales Price of the item. (Old invoicing works correctly)
The first time I encountered this bug, a customer had to call and tell me I had invoiced them several thousands of ££££ to little!!!
So now I have many more clicks and Invoice anxiety ensuring Im using the correct sales price rather than trusting Xero to put the correct info in.
Come on Xero... FIX THE BUGS!
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Nigel Harper commented
You still have Approve & Next running in REVERSE Chronological Order!
This is so perverse. Why can't the order be taken from the Sort order in the Drafts View - that way if you really do want to process the invoices backwards, you can. But at least the rest of the world can keep working normally !!!PLEASE PLEASE DON'T STOP US FROM USING CLASSIC UNTIL THIS IS FIXED - IT'S CRITICAL .
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adrian walker commented
Your making it sound like your doing us a Favour and were benefitting from all your hard work!! Using phrases like:
"our team is developing"
"further help"
"the work we have going on to help reduce the number of steps"
" it's improved visibility for some of our customers"
"We also have other work in development"
Etc..You and your team might be working hard but your making us work harder and all your doing is trying to fire fight all the issues Xero has created...
It is simple, Turn off the new version and keep with the classic version???
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Chris Dwyer commented
Some positive steps, but still when will you fix the issue of imported invoices unable to be auto-allcoated the next invoice number.
We import end of month invoices, and do not know what our invoice sequence should be as it's automated. We would import, then delete the placeholder invoice nuber that our external system generated, and then Classic Xero would give us a correct next invoice number. New Xero just re-shows the same placeholder number.
If this is not possible, has the API been updated to allow 'next invoice number' to be checked ?
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Pyroclassic Fires commented
We are getting closer to when Xero says they will be turning off classic Invoicing and still there are way to many bugs to make this a useable system.
Come on Xero, how about you delay the go live until the issues are sorted. we pay you enough to deliver a system that is robust and fir for purpose.
There's way too much to list here and besides everyone else ahs already said it.
There is no point in saying what's coming as you don't seem to get how stressed we are that come November we will be forced to use an inferior product.
You say this is fixed etc but I'm not sure as when I try in my version it isn't. Are you rolling out the fixes to every customer or just a select few? -
Olga O'Keefe commented
Kelly,
How many versions of new invoicing are active at the moment?
I tried to email an old invoice in the locked period to check that this action would appear in the invoice's history. We have two companies. One company did not have any warning, I emailed the invoice and received it. But there is no addition to the history. It even does not say that the invoice was updated.
When I tried to do the same in the other company a pop-up window appeared saying that it was impossible to amend this invoice as it was in the locked period. (this nonsense was discussed before). But the message was sent regardless, and I received it. Of course, nothing was added to the invoice history.
As you can see, my experience is different from @Roshelle Dalziel's.
I am afraid that on 20.11.2024 we will still be comparing apples and oranges and not seeing the proper invoice history.
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Rochelle Dalziel commented
That sounds pretty positive Kelly, thanks for the update. Could you please also confirm whether there will be any changes/updates to the history/notes section, so it is clearer for all users regarding when and to whom an invoice has been emailed?
I realise that there is a work-around for this (which I successfully used this morning), however having to resort to using a work-around for something that worked perfectly previously is a big step backwards, that shouldn't need to happen. I've attached an example of the history/notes work-around.^ Effectively, for the email address to show, the user now has to uncheck the "Sent" checkbox, and enter the address of the recipient (as it may have changed) before clicking send. Doing this means that the recipient's address appears in the history. If this is not done, the history only says that the invoice has been "updated".
I look forward to hearing that this issue has been resolved.
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Jim Morris commented
Gaslighting at its finest again Xero. Seriously, we are 37 days from Classic being switched off and you are still at a stage of "we're working on it" when it comes to standard features that were in Classic and are yet to be implemented in New. This is not your finest work, to put it mildly, and it is going to cost you a lot of customers on November 20th. I just hope that the share price reflects how badly you folks have fluffed this play and your investors come asking WTAF happened....
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Rae Stanton commented
When will you fix the bug when an invoice number is deleted ... in the classic invoicing the next sequential number would be automatically added. Now the deleted invoice is just stubbornly added back in. Beyond frustrating and a step backwards. PLEASE FIX IT!!!
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Craig Byron commented
Thanks for the update Xero, allthough I'm simply staggered this is where you're at in such a late stage of a major software "upgrade". I can see why Xero has never been profitable, and it's got nothing to do with being a software start up. I wouldn't be a shareholder if you paid me.
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Olga O'Keefe commented
Hi Kelly,
has anyone mentioned needing to change the font size in new invoicing? You can put side by side two browser tabs with new and classic of the same invoice and be shocked at how huge the new invoicing font is!
The smaller font might improve the view dramatically. I guess the smaller font will make the entire invoice table smaller.
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Martin Danger commented
Seeing Xero say things like "hearing about the differing flows and how many customers enter data when invoicing" makes me wonder how much effort Xero made when deciding to create new invoicing.
And the "ideas" listed there, at least 4 of them are not ideas, they are deleted features that used to exist. When did Xero make it clear that their new invoicing thing would be removing these features and when did they give reasons why they were doing this?
If they had done this and listened to users, 1) users would have saved time by not having to lobby Xero to reinstate features and 2) Xero would have saved quite a bit of money by not writing new code to remove the features and then writing more code to reinstate them.
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Emergency Management Products commented
Also when adding a customer on the fly in the new template, the drop down doesn't have any fields to enter the customer contact name, only the company name. Why ?
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Emergency Management Products commented
And another vote for classic
Just the simple task of entering an invoice that a customer has already paid requires so many backward steps.
The popup to enter payment covers the fields so you need to go to a second screen to enter the details where as the classic was a cut and paste.
The people developing these new templates obviously have no real world experience. -
Simrat Kaur commented
Voting for classic invoicing as well, the new one just makes me wonder if we should make a switch to another system - a thought that never came in my mind before for the last 5 years or so.
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Tony Prior commented
Completely agree. Why this obsession with 'if it ain't broke, break it'? First invoicing, and now fixed asset management. We get into a rhythm doing this stuff day in, day out - and fast! When it changes, for no good reason, it requires an investment of time. And when it changes in a way that requires more processes, like new invoicing, then our whole time management gets affected. Please listen to us.
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Lucilia Powell commented
I'm sorry but this is another vote for the classic invoicing.
So far only the auto save is an improvement from the previous system.
The inability to properly change the email template to remove "due date" is a disaster. I have different due dates for my ivoices, some of them are payable in advance, so I don't need the system saying the due date, the invoice template shows that. It may be useful for some people, but I need to have the choice to remove this.
Secondly, and VERY important: It does not tell you how many of the tracked stock items are in stock, whereas the old one did. When I'm invoicing something, I need to know how many of those items are left, why would you remove this very useful feature?
Overall, it is a very poor design and a real downgrade from the previous system. Why would you change something that worked very well before?
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Brian McCarter commented
The steamrolling rolling users into using the inferior new invoicing hurts xero's brand image.
It's buggy, slow, hard to use and key features have been removed.
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Kate Abbott commented
PLEASE BRING BACK THE SEND BUTTON ON THE APPROVED INVOICE PAGE!
Or how about you just don't change the classic invoicing? There are so many more clicks and mouse movements to get to where I need on the new invoicing - it's terrible!
I keep trying to use the new invoicing so I can get used to it but the frustration of it kicks in and I give up. Considering giving up on Xero totally in November - PLEASE listen to your subscribers and don't ditch the classic (and better) invoicing