New features coming to Xero invoicing

LAST UPDATED: Nov 10, 2024

UPDATE 11 November 2024: We want to make the transition to new invoicing as smooth as possible. That’s why we are extending the availability of classic invoicing until Thursday, 27 February 2025 NZDT. Learn more about the change.

We’re committed to continuously improving your invoicing experience in Xero. And as we transition to the new version of invoicing, we’re rolling out more features and enhancements designed to streamline your workflow and boost productivity. 

As a reminder, there are some important changes happening in Xero invoicing:

• Beginning the week of 2 September 2024 at 9am NZT, we will be defaulting users to the new version of invoicing experience on a rolling basis. From the time you are defaulted, you will see the new invoicing experience each time you log in to Xero.
• We’ve extended the availability of classic invoicing, so users can choose to temporarily switch back to it until 20 November at 9am NZT, when classic invoicing will be retired.

What’s coming before classic invoicing retirement

We have been making many improvements to new invoicing based on your feedback to better accommodate a wider range of invoicing needs and complexities. For example, many of the ideas shared with us related to ways we could improve the experience when creating a regular high number of invoices.  By making improvements for these complex scenarios, customers with more basic needs also benefit. If you haven’t tried new invoicing recently, we encourage you to jump in and have a look at the latest enhancements. 

And there are still many more product updates coming before retiring classic invoicing. If you are worried about a feature that is missing, be sure you first check out the list below to see if it’s still on the way. 

• View tax rates and breakdowns in the invoice creation screen.
• Set currency exchange rates for your invoice.
• Record overpayments against invoices so that credit can be applied to future invoices.
• Efficient date entry, including easy access to calendar picker and new keyboard entry options.
• More compact line item display, reducing the need to scroll horizontally and vertically.
• Easier inventory management, including the ability to edit items, view more items in the dropdown faster, and view stock on hand in quantity cell for tracked inventory.
• Add new tracking options while editing an invoice to see how different areas of your business such as departments or locations are performing.

We also have implemented some performance enhancements to speed up the new invoicing experience and will continue to do this over the coming months. These enhancements build on the features already available in the new version of invoicing, you can see the full list here on Xero Central.

More innovation coming for new invoicing

The switch to new invoicing will unlock the ability for us to deliver many really important feature requests that you’ve been asking for. So what are some of the exciting updates planned? 

• New customisation tools: The launch of our new invoice template editor, designed to help you create invoices that leave a lasting impression. This new experience will give small businesses the ability to easily customise invoices that truly represent their brand – including customised colours, renaming columns, new font options, and more flexible payment settings. We’ll be launching a beta for our US customers later this year before releasing it globally.
• Send invoices via SMS:  Available in beta for our Australian customers now, with plans to roll out to US customers soon (and other regions to follow). This exclusive functionality allows you to initiate an SMS send for your Xero invoice, making it simple and efficient for your customers to pay you wherever they are.
• Streamlined payments experience: We are working to better enable the way payments are collected globally. We recently announced a range of ways we are improving the experience and offering more ways to pay. 
• Credit notes updates: We’ll be updating the user experience to make it more aligned to the invoicing experience, with improved file preview and more detailed history.

There are also a range of other requests this functionality will unlock that we are building into our roadmaps after the retirement of classic invoicing. For example:

• Providing options to set up flexible payments for a project, including the ability to take deposits or split total balances into multiple payments over time. 
• Improving how outstanding invoices are managed, including automated follow ups and better visibility over payment status.
• Making the setup of recurring invoices more flexible with improved scheduling options and payment methods to collect recurring payments.
• Enabling multiple invoices to be paid at once via a statement. 

This really is just the beginning of our journey to bolster our invoicing product and we want you to know how committed we are to continuing to improve it. 

Keeping you informed, every step of the way

Your feedback has been important to us and as we approach the retirement of classic invoicing, it remains important. 

As a reminder, to see which features have already been released in new invoicing, which features are coming before classic invoicing is retired, and how new invoicing compares to the older version, visit the new invoicing releases page on Xero Central.

We encourage you to share your ideas in Xero Product Ideas, and the support team is also here to help and give you a hand with any questions about these updates.