Horrible new invoice creation page - how to change back to previous?

Agreed - it's terrible in terms of layout and also the way the quote options are now hidden behind a dropdown means there are extra clicks needed for now apparent reason.

Big fail from the UX team here I'm afraid - bring back the previous layout and have another go at making it better!

Also agree with the above - nasty layout and hard to understand. Why has it changed? Also find navigation between inputting a payment and getting back to the unpaid invoices more difficult than it used to be

Sorry about this guys - all feedback is currently being logged with our development and management team to review - a number of tweaks have been planned to be implemented tomorrow to reduce the size, expand the summary and change the position of the stock item drop down list, however, I'm sure there will be further tweaks to improve this further.

Thanks for the comment John - but please - can you give me the option to put the layout back to the previous design? I don't want any improvements, I just want it how it was. There's two invoices I'm supposed to have sent today, but they haven't been written as I don't trust the new layout. In the name of supporting cash-flow of small businesses, please give me an 'view in old layout' button! thanks

Well I dont know where to start with this update. Clearbooks has been greast over the last 3 years we as an organisation have been using the system and it has worked great for us until today's update. It's simply awful. Please please revert back to the previous and sort out being able to create a PO from invoice. I am having to triple my workload because of this update. Please please sort this and just revert to the previous!

John Fouracre - Please speak to Richard on our issues, we cannot rolling scroll our stock and when we get to R 9seven items at a time) in the alphabet thats as far as we go! we have been able to do No invoices on the road today and therefore is now costing us time and money and will affect cashflow this side of the festive break!!! This isn't what clear books is about and I guess our case is only one of many! Please get this reverted in the short term until it can be improved so we can all run our business's ! Thank you

I agree I don't like the invoice layout either. What was wrong with the previous one?

I agree. I have clients chasing me for invoices. The new layout its awful. Please revert back asap

The new layout is very difficult to use and you can no longer create customers from the new invoice screen.

I wholly agree that the new layout is dreadful - style over substance has obviously won. As others have said, please provide the option for the user to switch to old style.

agree with the above comments and we have provided feedback directly to the team at clear books too

the consensus among our clients is that they want the old style and system to be put back into play and not for the new look to be improved or tweaked

please don't be stubborn and insist on keeping this new look, it doesn't work

Thank you all for your feedback, as John said, it is being logged and considered. Please read this blog post on the matter, written by our CEO:

https://www.clearbooks.co.uk/2016/12/13/create-invoice-design-update/

What about the actual faults? also nobody is responding to my ticket.

Before the end of today I will cancelling this service and moning over to Xero

Aran your comment and the blog quite frankly doesn not take into consideration the views of your customers. This release clearly has not worked and you need to listen to your customers. REVERT to the previous release before you lose a lot of clients. Simples

Apologies for the inconveniences that you are all experiencing.

Mike, we are extremely busy this week and we are trying our best to work our way through the high volume of tickets we are receiving. I'm sorry we haven't managed to get to yours yet, however, I can assure you we will do as soon as possible.

@Aran - don't make the mistake of the big accounts software houses and try to palm off new changes as if you know best and your customers need to be told what they need. Compared to all the other improvements that need to be made to CB that you've been asked for just in the last year, I'm not aware that changing the invoice layout page was a big on anyone's list. There are so many other things that a priority - not this.

Apologies simply won't do here. Yes you have resolved the purchase order issue but for the life of me I cannot understand why a company whom supposedly relies on the subscriptions of its user base, is not listening to its customers. The release is a joke and the more objection handling quotes that are thrown at us, the more irate people will become. Just listen to your clients! Mistakes happen but I cannot understand why you arte taking so long to admit you've made a mistake and just give what your clients want!

My issue is now resolved, the template change is not urgent given all the other problems everybody is experiencing however it should be addressed, the last 2 updates made my job much more complicated. Up until 1st week of November (maybe a bit later) everything was perfect.

Agree with Jonathan. Clearbooks looked lovely before. The layout did not need changing and certainly not in priority to functional things. People do not like change for change sake. I too am fearing shades of larger software houses here. Customer support at Clearbooks has always been excellent but something seems to have gone wrong lately

@all please have a read of this blog post https://www.clearbooks.co.uk/2016/12/13/create-invoice-design-update/

Tim, your blog doesnt give any indication of time frames or empathy to your user base. As the CEO of a company you of all people should understand the need of setting you clients expectations. I would welcome a phone call from you to discuss this because digressing from the fact your clients simply despise this release is really not helping. You need to listen to your clients and revert to the release before November!

@Tim You quoted...

"We are immediately looking to:

1. Not remember the last customer invoiced

2. Improve the contact dropdowns to combine scrolling through a list and search depending on number of contacts

3. Add email status to Purchase order and sales order lists

We are also listening to the rest of your feedback but the above is the priority"

I believe I speak for all when I say your missing the point. We do not like the new look on invoice creation, and the fact each item is staggered between 2 lines is so hard to work with. The font is too big and the white background hurts the eyes, to the point you confuse what line item is for wahat. Once again Tim, As a director to a fellow director, listen to your clients! I would like you to tell us that you have made a mistake and are reevrting back to the old layout that we all loved!

@Tim - you obviously are either neither hearing the message or wanting to accept the message - the layout sucks. Period. Fix it or else I (and possibly many others) will bale out of CB.

Ignore your style consultant - we pay your bills.

Hi Kamran,

I appreciate your feedback and I am sorry you don't like the new layout. I am also sorry for how Preview has been handled.

This style layout project is much bigger than the create invoice page and therefore we are not in a position to roll it back and won't be doing this.

What we are doing is working through the feedback to make improvements as quickly as we can. I have set out some of these which were quick wins and I completely take on board your additional points. I ask you for your patience as we work through the feedback.

As I mentioned in my blog post the key failing for us is lack of awareness of Preview. We introduced Preview as a way to get feedback from our customers to ensure this sort of fall out would be minimized and that has failed. Going forward, we need to improve by making sure Preview is more accessible so we get your feedback sooner.

Thanks

Tim

Well if you won't change it can you at least make it less white. Put some blue back in .

Tim, I appreciate this may have been a big release which cannot be reverted but again you need to listen to you clients. There is no point in continuing protracted dialogue and patience is one thing but this has affected many users. I really do hope that you take the comments on board and revert as this will be a game changer to many. I eagerly await your immediate attention. as John says, we pay the bills. Please reconsider.

Hi @all - Although not ideal - some people might find that the "create batch" sales/bills method might be a quicker way to get basic invoices & bills set up?

clearly the preview feature is flawed, used by few but the justification for so many changes

whats not flawed is the feedback of the many users on this forum and those users not on the forum who are using their accountants to speak for them. this change is neither wanted or needed and the only sensible course of action can be to revert to the previous template as that's what your users want.

A lot of respect can be regained by Clear Books, if they select the correct course of action and response to what their customers are saying.....happy customers are paying customers

"This style layout project is much bigger than the create invoice page and therefore we are not in a position to roll it back and won't be doing this."

Well, there we have it - just like Sage et al. Implement a change so significant and without proper consultation with your customer base, when you have backed yourself into a corner - with no rollback feature.

Well, you will reap your rewards as you congratulate yourself on your new "style" and pat yourself on your back ... and slowly watch customers drift away as they get to their 'year end' which will be the most convenient time for them to switch packages.

Such arrogance ...

Numerous threads across the Forum complaining about the new layout - yet I've yet to find a single one PRAISING the change - funny that ... must say something about this step, no?

@Tim

Your quote "This style layout project is much bigger than the create invoice page and therefore we are not in a position to roll it back and won't be doing this."

That is the biggest mistake you could have made. I'm shocked by this statement and will be looking into an alternative supplier who cares about the customer experience.

Just remember, your paying customers are what makes your business. Your statement is pure arrogance.

its clear from the numerous posts on the forum that this has proved to be an extremely unpopular change - this many people cant be wrong?

Is it possible to get a further update from clear books as to whats happening with this now? there is no communication from you on this and I'd like to be able to update my clients who are concerned to say the least

The silence says it all ... they've decided what we need, so if you don't like it, tough s**t.

Thanks for listening, that is much better.

Easier on the eye.

I am extremely pleasantly surprised; thank you for realising this was not a good move. The only thing I agree with in your justification for the change is the desire to put line details all on one line – the existing layout can sometimes be a little confusing, but alternate line item shading would achieve the same objective. Otherwise don’t fix what’s not broken.

As I said in my second post in this thread, I think there are much more important functional issues to address which had already been identified in the Ideas list (though sadly no longer visible).

Thank you Kevin and Tim for sorting this, and for heeding the torrent of opinion.