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New Invoicing – invoice copied from locked period mess

Kelly, it is a long message. Please be patient. It demonstrates what mess is created in new invoicing. It demonstrates that new invoicing is not ready to fly solo after 20.11.2024. We must have a functional backup of classic invoicing if new invoicing is so erroneous.

I had to credit invoice INV-1548 for $1,483.35 in the locked period and replace it with two new invoices addressed to two customers (let’s call them customer1 and customer2). I had to show in the new invoices what was the credit part for each customer.

My steps are below:
1. I copied INV-1548 from the lock period to a new one – all is good
2. I recorded a negative line, -$1,000, in this new invoice – to show what service was taken off and approved & emailed to customer1 – all is good.
3. I opened the original invoice, INV-1548. in the locked period and created and applied a credit note to it to make the balance zero. All is good.
4. I clicked the email button and “send” and I got a message saying that it was impossible to email this invoice as it was in the locked period. But surprisingly it was emailed as I got a copy of it.
5. Then, I tried to copy INV-1548 (in the locked period that was credited to zero) to a new invoice again to address it to customer2. I could not do it; the error was “Unable to copy. Invoice has not saved successfully and cannot be copied. Try resolving error to allow to save”. See point 1 in the attached file.
6. I did not have any choice but to switch to classic invoicing and copy this invoice without any problem. I created INV-1989.
7. Then I added a negative line, -$483.35, so the balance was $1,000 and emailed it to customer_2. All was good.

The above was yesterday.

Today I received a tax invoice from customer_2, INV-0011. I recorded it as a bill in our books. Now I need to offset this bill with our INV-1989. The offset value is $1,000.

I applied payments of $1,000 from the suspense account to the bill and invoice. It should have posted two entries in the suspense account DR and CR of $1,000. So, they negate each other.

To my surprise I discovered this in the suspense account: see point 2 in the attached file.

What wires got crossed in Xero’s brain?! Why instead of $1,000 CR Xero recorded $1,483.35 DR and $483.35 CR???

Okay, I thought that I needed to try to record some test invoices to check what is going on. See point 3 in the attached file.

INV-1991 was recorded in classic invoicing and it had a negative line, INV-1993 was recorded in new invoicing and it had a negative line as well. But the payments applied to them from the suspense account were correct, i.e. $5.50 DR and $110.00 DR.

My guess is that the problem stems from the invoice in the locked period that was not saved correctly after it was credited.

The two entries of $1,483.35 DR and $483.35 CR instead of $1,000 Cr are NOT ACCEPTABLE. It is a weird glitch that will stay in our books now.

Please DO NOT SWTICH OFF classic invoicing.

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Olga O'Keefe shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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under review  ·  AdminKelly Munro (Community Manager, Xero) responded  · 

Hi Olga, really appreciate all the detail in your steps and the screenshots you provided.

I tried testing this myself with a Chrome browser and did get the same errors and behaviour you described, so have raised this with our product team. I'll keep you updated of any information I get back from them on this, here.

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  • Olga O'Keefe commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Kelly,

    I received an answer from the expert.

    Two first situations are new invoicing errors. Nothing new about it.

    The answer on the third question has an educational value. Information on how Xero applies payments to the invoices and bills and shows them in the reports can be useful for other users.

    Below is a copy of my case.

    Hi Olga

    Thank you for inviting Xero Support into your organisation and attaching details information about the issues.

    To answer your question regarding not being able to send pre-locked date invoices. We're currently aware of an issue within New invoicing, where sending an email for an invoice that is issued before the organisation's lock date is not being recorded as sent in the History and Notes section of the invoice.

    Our Product Team are investigating this issue and we'll be in touch as soon as we have an update. Please note, the invoice email will still be sent when using New invoicing, however it won't be marked as sent.

    As a workaround, please send this invoice through Classic invoicing for this sent line to appear in the History and notes

    For your second question, as you’ve found right now it's currently not possible to Copy a pre-lock date invoice using New invoicing. You can raise this idea in Xero Product Ideas platform where you can view and support current ideas or create a new one to share your thoughts.

    As for your third question regarding account transactions report, when a payment is recorded on an invoice that has multiple lines, Xero automatically splits the payment across the separate invoice lines when it's included in reports that are run on a cash basis. Part payments will be apportioned in the same way. This ensures the invoice line detail such as account code, tracking category, or sales tax rate can be reported separately.

    Therefore, when you run the Account Transactions report, the payment transaction(s) will show differently depending on whether the report is run on a cash or an accrual basis, as follows:

    Cash basis: there will be separate Receivable Payment (Credit) transactions, one for each invoice line item.
    Accrual basis: there will be a single Receivable Payment (Credit) transaction for the total payment amount. If you group or filter the report, or the invoice lines have different tracking categories, there will be separate transactions for each invoice line.

    I've included a link to a support article for more information about the Account Transactions report and a link to our Xero Product Ideas.

    Xero Central article: Account Transactions report

    Xero Product Ideas: Copy pre lock date invoice in new invoicing

    Thanks

    Yash

    Agent profile pic

    Olga O'Keefe
    Today 3:09 PM

    Hi Yash,

    Thank you for your prompt reply.

    I experimented with the tracking categories and confirmed that Xero does split the applied payment pro-rata per category. Okay, I understand the numbers now.

    But I've got curious how Xero keeps track when the invoice/bill is paid from the bank account? I've never seen the split-per-tracking-category line in the bank account report. Xero is cleaver to show "Multiple Categories" phrase instead the category name. Unfortunately, it happens only in the bank account report.

    If payment was made from "non-bank" account, it shows the split.

    Now I understand the "weird" split of the payroll in the wages & salary account. It tracks the category.

  • AdminKelly Munro (Community Manager, Xero) commented  ·   ·  Report

    Thanks for rounding back on the payment side of things and how this is reflecting in your accounts, Olga. I believe what ever is going on with this is separate to the other errors that you have noted in the steps you've numbered, and I was unable to replicate the same behaviour when testing.
    I would really recommend raising a case with our specialists with both these examples on the difference in payment to what's showing in the account, as well as giving the team access to your organisation so they can get in for a closer analysis.
    Welcome to share any findings that you get with them through the idea here, if you feel helpful to others as well.

  • Olga O'Keefe commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Kelly,

    Something sinister is happening in our books. I paid the outstanding balance of the bill from the suspense account. This is a bill from a car dealer. This outstanding balance is financed. So, I need to record a loan etc. That was why it was paid from the suspense account.

    This balance was $29,275. I expected to see one-line entry in the suspense account, i.e. $29,275 CR. Instead of this I saw TWO LINES. Please see the attached file. I have no clue how it was split this way.

    You can see the bill in the attached file as well. It had a negative line, deposit of $1,000. Was it the reason? It is not connected to new invoicing but shows the same glitch in the suspense account.

  • Dawn Middleton commented  ·   ·  Report

    I agree please do not switch off classic invoicing the new invoicing is painful when trying to do invoicing on the phone in fact it is just painful.

  • Jim Morris commented  ·   ·  Report

    Ah, I see. My apologies, I misread your explanation.

    In any case, I still agree, this is yet another example of why New invoicing is not ready for prime time release as it is simply not capable of replicating the system it replaces.

  • Olga O'Keefe commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Jim,

    Xero did not lock anything in our books. I lock every month when finish the EOM procedure.

    Sorry, my explanation was very long and complex. The locking was not a problem.

    The problem was and is that when we lock the period, we must be allowed to do certain actions with the records in the locked period (email, copy, credit). Classis invoicing allows us to do so, but new invoicing prohibits it. There are many posts about it in the product idea space.

  • Jim Morris commented  ·   ·  Report

    Yep, I know that Olga.

    My point was who gave Xero the right to dictate to us the how and when things get locked?

    It is us, the business owner, that should be making the decision to lock the period when we are ready for it to be locked...and, by extension, if we need to unlock something to make a correction then that also needs to be our decision, not Xero's.

  • Olga O'Keefe commented  ·   ·  Report

    Jim,

    The ability to lock a period is a standard option in any accounting software. It is useful and needed. But there are some functions that we must be able to do with the bills and invoices recorded in the locked period: copy, email, apply a credit. These functions do not alter any records in the locked period.

    In the beginning of this year new invoicing did not allow to do anything from above with an invoice in the locked period. Now, we can do some but it is erroneous.

    This problem goes away if we open the locked period. But it is not a solution. There is the only solution to this problem - Xero MUST fix their errors!

  • Olga O'Keefe commented  ·   ·  Report

    Jeff Fowler,

    thank you for your comment.

    While I was posting my idea I found this:

    https://productideas.xero.com/forums/939198-for-small-
    businesses/suggestions/44960803-lock-dates-allocate-credit-notes-to-invoices-bil

    They do not plan to do it. But read Kelly's reply and users' comments. It is very sad.

    Xero must have consultants who are not just bookkeepers and accounts but active Xero users as well.

  • Jim Morris commented  ·   ·  Report

    Why are invoices being locked, by Xero, in the first place? Who gave them the right to dictate to us how and when invoices in our businesses get locked out?

    Who the AF do they think they are?

  • Jeff Fowler commented  ·   ·  Report

    The locked period restrictions are so ridiculous Olga, I'm sorry that you are having what appear to be obvious and embarrassing bugs. The inability to email locked invoices is such a stupid regression, I have no idea why they thought that was a good idea. I think they need a few users on their development team who actually work in a small business with multiple Xero users.