Settings and activity
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78 votes
Hi team, thanks for sharing detail of the value in this idea in the ways you invoice.
We've just released a new line item grid in invoicing which includes the ability to manually add blank rows and shift these to where you're like them placed in your invoice.
That said, I want to be transparent in how this works - When you save your invoice any blank lines will be removed. So, if you'd like blank lines to help break your invoice into sections, you'll need to enter a character in the Description field of the blank line. Even a full stop '.' or dash '-' would suffice.
An error occurred while saving the comment An error occurred while saving the comment 
Gary Young
commented
Just to add to this idea - the problem also exists when you copy a quote (which allows leading/trailing carriage returns/line feed/spaces in the description field of a quote - as per the classic invoice entry) and create a new invoice.
When the invoice line items are written back to the master table containing the invoice details, these characters are removed.
Where is the consistency? I still believe this is an error introduced by some young person who thought he/she knew better than the customers.
Currently we need re-edit an invoice that has been copied from a quote to introduce dummy characters to avoid the character deletions being performed in the new invoice entry.An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
Just reading the Xero response on this item and notice that the proposed solution is to allow for a blank detail line. We don't need a blank details line - just fix the error in the new entry.
The problem is that the new invoicing entry truncates the leading / trailing returns/spaces when writing the details back to the main table in the database. Obviously the entry program extracts the invoice details into a work table (this can be seen by the fact that any leading returns/spaces that may have been in an invoice created by Classic) are still present. As soon as the details are updated and written back to the main table, they are removed.
The new entry has purposely included a TRIM command on the description field hence changing what the user has entered. That is an ERROR, not an enhancement. When will it be fixed?Gary Young
supported this idea
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162 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
An example of our invoice is attached to explain the situation as described previously.
An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
We cater for paying deposits by generating code within the Invoice template to show the deposit the customer needs to pay to initiate the production of the items being paid. ie Our invoices (and quotes) show that the customer must pay 40% deposit for the order to start. That is great BUT we cannot accept a payment of that invoice through Stripe because it will not allow a payment for anything other than the total price of the invoice.
The only way we can accept payment is through direct bank transfers - or force the customer to pay the total amount of the invoice in advance. (NOT GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE).
So with the simple introduction of allowing stripe to accept any amount up to the value of the invoice - we have our deposit invoices handled.
Stripe will handle partial payments, but Xero has put a restriction on what it will allow Stripe to pass back.Gary Young
supported this idea
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New Invoicing - Allow Item and Description-only lines, with no Qty or Unit Price
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241111 New Invoicing 2025-031 Draft Invoice Copy.jpg 124 KB -
241111 New Invoicing 2025-031 Data Entry Draft Invoice.jpg 137 KB -
241111 Classic Invoicing 2024-136 Invoice Copy.jpg 99 KB -
241111 Classic Invoicing 2024-136 Data Entry Invoice.jpg 129 KB -
Screenshot 2024-06-18 142006.jpg 97 KB -
Screenshot 2024-01-31 144249.png 23 KB -
Invoice INV-DJM2756.pdf 90 KB -
Invoice INV-DJM2754.pdf 92 KB -
Invoice INV-DJM2737.pdf 94 KB
485 votesThanks for all your feedback here, everyone. The way you add description only lines in new invoicing is a little different to classic and we wanted to explain in hopes it'll help with how you're using new invoicing.
When entering a description only line, you can enter text in the description field of the line. If you add detail to any other field the line will be treated as a 'financial' line and you will need to include Qty, Unit price, Account and Tax rate.
When an inventory item is added this uses the item code field and the line is treated as 'financial', so it's not possible to use inventory items as description only lines in new invoicing atm.
We appreciate this is how many of you here have been making use of inventory and our product team are closely monitoring the feedback we're getting on this. Though we don't…An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
If Xero DOES correct this issue before the 20th Nov, can you also ensure that you do NOT change what has been entered.
I have mentioned this in several places, but the new version removes any leading/trailing spaces/carriage returns.
This means that you cannot lay out the description as you wish on the invoice.
Why does the software make an assumption that these details are not required.
That is just basic good software design - do NOT change what has been entered because the programmer thinks it may not be what was intended.An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
I have mentioned this several times in various complaints about the new invoicing, BUT has anyone noticed that the new invoicing actually changes what you enter in the description field???
The details are being truncated by removing leading/trailing returns/spaces which means that you cannot format the description to read as you want.
No software should ever change what you have entered - that is just arrogant.Gary Young
supported this idea
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14 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
With the new invoicing option, the line item descriptions (when not using a stock item) are changed from what is actually entered. With all the other complaints about the new invoicing, this is being ignored.
I have raised this ERROR in all the other issues regarding the new invoice entry, so decided to raise it as a separate issue.
How can a software company change what is entered?
Basically the software is doing an automatic 'Trim' of all details entered on each line which eliminates the ability of the customer to format an invoice how they want.
That is beyond arrogant....An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
With the removal of the classic invoice option and only being able to use the new invoicing option in September, how can you format the item description of an invoice with the way this new function works.
To format it so that it is readable means that it looks very UNPROFESSIONAL with full stops or some other character to ensure that the formatting remains as required.
Can the truncation of the description of spurious characters just be made optional rather than it being forced on everyone?Gary Young
shared this idea
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374 votes
Thanks for your continued engagement with us on this idea, everyone. We understand there are many different ways business work and conduct business with customers, and that you need more flexibility in the way you manage and receive payments for invoices with Xero. While pockets of research have been done in the past we’re getting a fresh lens and conducting a broader piece of discovery to deeply analyse and understand where our efforts could be focused in this space to alleviate existing hurdles in receiving payments for majority of Xero users. We’d like to open the invite to be a part of our teams research pool, where you’d get the chance to share more on the importance of managing payments for your business. This may involve being interviewed, or helping answer questions through short surveys or questionnaires.
✍️ If this is something you’d like to be a part of, please …
An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
I could not find anything in Stripe that allowed anything but the full amount of the invoice to be accepted.
How can you allow Stripe to enter the amount to be paid that is less than the invoice amount?An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
Stripe settings are controlled by Xero when you link the payment services through, hence you cannot change the payment settings in Stripe to allow for a partial payment. We have set up our invoices so that the deposit amount is shown on the invoice through use of macros in the word setup for the invoices.
This works fine if the customer pays via bank transfer as they pay the amount that is shown. However, if they wish to pay by credit card (through Stripe) Xero does not allow Stripe to accept anything other than the full amount. Just change the settings on the link to Stripe to allow for this to happen and it may solve a lot of issues for many of the users.Gary Young
supported this idea
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92 votes
Hi everyone, understand the difference between a description only line and what's being asked for in the idea here.
This isn't something we have planned at present.
We do want to highlight the existing option for anyone interested that could benefit from the option mentioned earlier in the conversation (thanks, Paco)
Currently, it is possible to 'description' only lines to an invoice (with no Qty or Price) where you can enter up to 4000 characters worth of detail that could help you signal a note within an invoice to your customer.
We will continue to assess ideas in the forum here and let you know if there are any changes surrounding this to share.
An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
Not only is it necessary for a comment line, but it is essential that the 'New Invoice' option is altered so that it does NOT automatically remove leading/trailing carriage returns, spaces etc. This is what happens currently with the line item description.
Our invoice must clearly define the custom made details of the item being sold.
The 'New Invoice' means we cannot clearly show the item being delivered.
Also please refer to another request that when invoice details are extracted, either to Excel or in the Receivable Invoice Detail Report that these details are extracted in the same sequence as the invoice and include all of the formatting of the line item.Gary Young
supported this idea
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54 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Gary Young
commented
I agree completely. You need the ability to customise the packing slip in the same manner as the invoice/credit note etc without the need to change the branding theme back and forth. Nor is it appropriate to have the invoice and packing slip in a combined document to be viewed by the customer.
Gary Young
supported this idea
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As I have advised multiple times, you just have to remove the trim/truncate command that has been added to the new invoicing entry that removes any leading/trailing spaces and carriage returns/line feed characters from the description field.
If we could add an extra return before/after a specific description, that basically gives you an extra line.
There is then no change to any logic you may have in the rest of the system - just don't do tests on a single character of the description field.
This truncation occurs when the details are written from the work table used for the invoice entry and the actual master table of the transactions.
It was only introduced in the new entry - why is it so difficult to correct - it was an introduced error!!!