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  1. Customer statements - Ability to auto email Statements to customers

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    337 comments  ·  Invoices & quotes » Invoicing  ·  Admin →
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    In discovery  ·  AdminKelly Munro (Community Manager, Xero) responded

    We hear you team! Thank you for continuing to share back with us here, and a big thanks to those that registered interest and provided input to the teams earlier research.

    Right now, there's still some discovery going on around this functionality, but I want to assure you this is a feature our team are keen to develop.

    While the first round of research helped inform our team they want to dive deeper into some of the aspects surrounding this feature that'll help ensure we create a solution that'll best fit majority of businesses.

    We'd like to give provide the opportunity to everyone here to participate in this and if you can spare a few minutes, our team have prepared a few questions in this form 📝 that we'd love your feedback on.

    We want to keep you updated as work progresses on this, and I'll be back to share…

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    Streamline Auto Parts commented  · 

    UPDATE FROM XERO SUPPORT:
    Since writing the above, Xero Support has now confirmed that my feedback has been passed to the relevant Xero Product Team, specifically including the relationship between:
    • Filtering statements to include only invoices that are currently unpaid AND due/overdue; and
    • Automatically scheduling and sending customer statements based on each customer’s settings.
    Xero Support has also confirmed that this existing Product Idea is the appropriate place for BOTH requirements to be considered and that my feedback regarding the filtering limitation is directly relevant to the current “In discovery” process.
    That is encouraging to hear.
    Now is therefore a really important time for everyone affected by this to continue commenting with your real-world examples and requirements.
    Hopefully, after all these years, we can help Xero’s Product Team develop the complete solution rather than simply automating the existing statement functionality.
    Thank you to Seble from Xero Support for taking the time to understand the issue and pass the feedback through to the appropriate team.

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    Streamline Auto Parts commented  · 

    PART 1 OF 3 – IMPORTANT UPDATE: ANOTHER XERO CUSTOMER STATEMENT LIMITATION

    Hi everyone,

    I wanted to share something I discovered today while manually preparing customer statements, because I believe it is directly relevant to the automated statement functionality that all of us here have been requesting.

    After discussing the issue with Xero Support, a Xero Support Specialist has now formally confirmed to me that Xero currently cannot generate a customer-facing Outstanding Statement containing only invoices that are both CURRENTLY UNPAID and CURRENTLY DUE/OVERDUE.

    This has been confirmed by Xero as a product limitation.

    That might sound surprising, so here is a simple real-world example.

    A customer has:

    • An older invoice that is unpaid and overdue
    • A newer invoice that is unpaid but still within its payment terms
    • Some older invoices that have now been paid in full

    Naturally, I wanted to send the customer a statement showing only the invoice that actually requires payment.

    However:

    If I date the Outstanding Statement today, Xero removes the invoices that have been paid, but also includes the newer unpaid invoice that isn’t due yet.

    If I use an earlier statement date to exclude that newer invoice, Xero treats the statement as a historical “as at” snapshot and can bring back older invoices that were outstanding at that date but have since been paid in full.

    Xero Support has formally confirmed to me:

    “Xero does not currently offer a statement filter that combines both of these conditions: The invoice is still unpaid today; and the invoice is due or overdue today.”

    This creates a much bigger issue when we consider what the 1,100+ voters on this Product Idea have actually been asking Xero to develop:

    AUTOMATED CUSTOMER STATEMENTS.

    Simply automating Xero’s existing statement functionality will NOT completely solve the problem.

    We could finally get the automated statements we have been requesting for years, only to have Xero automatically emailing customers statements containing invoices that aren’t even due for payment.

    Please continue to PART 2 – because I believe the statement filtering and automation need to be developed together.

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    Streamline Auto Parts commented  · 

    PART 2 OF 3 – WHAT I BELIEVE XERO ACTUALLY NEEDS TO DEVELOP
    Following on from Part 1, I believe Xero needs to address TWO related problems together while automated customer statements are currently marked as IN DISCOVERY.
    1. STATEMENT CONTENT
    Give us the ability to generate a customer statement containing only invoices that are:
    CURRENTLY UNPAID + CURRENTLY DUE/OVERDUE
    A statement being used to request overdue payment should not unnecessarily include invoices that have already been paid or invoices that have not yet reached their agreed payment terms.
    2. STATEMENT AUTOMATION
    Give us a simple customer-level setting similar to the functionality Xero already provides for invoice reminders:
    Automatically send statements: YES / NO
    Then allow us to configure options such as:
    • Weekly / fortnightly / monthly
    • A nominated date, such as the 1st of each month
    • Send only when there is an outstanding balance
    • Send only when invoices are due/overdue
    • Always send regardless of balance for customers who require monthly statements for reconciliation
    This would allow each customer’s requirements to be configured once.
    Then it genuinely becomes:
    SET AND FORGET.
    For businesses dealing with hundreds or even thousands of customer accounts, manually reviewing accounts, identifying what is actually due, generating statements and emailing them individually creates an enormous amount of repetitive administration.
    This is exactly the type of process accounting software should be helping businesses eliminate.
    There is also a significant customer-service issue.
    Sending customers statements containing invoices they have already paid can make it appear that their payment hasn’t been received or allocated correctly.
    Sending a statement intended to chase overdue debt that also contains invoices still within the customer’s agreed payment terms can make it appear that we are requesting payment early.
    Neither outcome is professional and neither should be necessary.
    The workflow we actually need is incredibly straightforward:
    Correct invoices → Correct customers → Correct schedule → Automatically sent.
    Please continue to PART 3 – particularly if you’re one of the Xero users who has been waiting years for this functionality.

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    Streamline Auto Parts commented  · 

    PART 3 OF 3 – XERO PRODUCT TEAM: PLEASE CONSIDER THESE ISSUES TOGETHER
    This Product Idea now has over 1,100 votes and hundreds of comments from Xero users describing the same fundamental problem: businesses are spending significant amounts of time every month manually doing something that should be automated.
    There will undoubtedly be many more Xero users experiencing the same problem who have never found, voted on or commented on this Product Idea.
    Many comments here also explain that businesses are paying for third-party applications simply to obtain statement functionality they reasonably expected their accounting software to provide.
    Now we have another important piece of information.
    Xero Support has formally confirmed that the existing Outstanding Statement itself cannot filter for invoices that are BOTH currently unpaid AND currently due/overdue.
    That means I strongly believe this limitation needs to form part of the current discovery work around automated statements.
    Otherwise, there is a real risk of developing automation around an existing statement process that doesn’t completely meet the accounts receivable requirement.
    XERO PRODUCT TEAM – PLEASE CONSIDER STATEMENT FILTERING AND STATEMENT AUTOMATION TOGETHER.
    What businesses need is not complicated:
    1. Determine which customers receive automatic statements.
    2. Determine when those statements are sent.
    3. Determine whether they receive all outstanding invoices or only invoices that have actually become due/overdue.
    4. Exclude invoices that have subsequently been paid.
    5. Automatically generate and send one professional, branded customer statement.
    This is especially important now that this Product Idea is marked IN DISCOVERY.
    I have personally been raising the need for improved statement automation for years, so I genuinely hope the current discovery process results in functionality that solves the complete problem.
    I would also encourage everyone following or voting on this Product Idea to comment if you have experienced the same issue:
    Have you tried to send a customer a statement showing only what they actually need to pay NOW, only to discover that Xero cannot produce it without either including newer invoices that aren’t due or historically showing invoices that have since been paid?
    If this affects your business, please say so.
    The more real-world examples Xero receives while this functionality is in discovery, the harder it becomes to underestimate how important this is to businesses using Xero every day.
    After years of requests, hopefully this is the opportunity to finally get it right

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    Streamline Auto Parts commented  · 

    Hi ADMIN,

    It would seem to be a great idea an easy to put into place However we are still talking about it .. the amount of time this process takes due to it not being able to be automated at this point is a joke.
    When I reviewed the email sent to me letting me know all the improvements XERO team have made not one was anything to rave about.. focus on the user friendly complaints that would save money an time in manually processing so we all can stop talking about it an how much effects us an start to rave how good it is that it’s finally happened.
    Also care in mind the majority of users that don’t complain about it as part of the figure of users it’s effecting. Also picture you if you were in our position and how much time it would take you to manually send statements monthly to 200-300-400-500 customers.
    Hope to hear that you’ve done something with this as enough is enough it’s getting beyond a joke!

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    Streamline Auto Parts commented  · 

    This is a critical tool that at the moment is a labour intensive monthly task that shouldnt be if it had the same functionality as the set invoice reminders on or off.
    This will need to be when you set a new customer up as each individual customer has different requirements including customers that done want to be bothered with reminders.

    this is really an easy fix and will change Xero users lives giving them more time to concentrate on their businesses !!
    Keep me posted please !
    Regards
    Paul Cooke
    Streamline Auto Parts

    Streamline Auto Parts supported this idea  ·