Improved Invoices
10/25/2022
As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company we seek to listen to customers, meet their needs, and deliver high levels of satisfaction. We actively work to identify our shortcomings, and improve upon them every day.
Recently we received feedback from bookkeepers that Invoices took too long to enter. AP is often a large part of their jobs, and they sit for long periods working through stacks of documents. They are very sensitive to the efficiency of data entry, and our previous version required too many clicks/keystrokes (which could add hours of extra work). This release creates new “Vendor Invoices (beta)” pages which greatly reduce bookkeeper effort.
The first improvement allows users to set defaults and hide infrequently changed fields. This makes the UI smaller, and requires fewer keystrokes to navigate.
A good example would be the “Bill To” field. Since it’s rarely changed (all vendors typically mail invoices to the district office), it’s optimal to create a default address and hide the field. You can select which fields to hide and set defaults from:
Account Payable > Defaults
Users can access hidden fields at the bottom of the page, if they do need to make changes.
We also optimized keyboard-only usage. In the old UI, users needed the mouse to enter data. They’d regularly lift a hand off the keyboard to click the mouse (which slowed them considerably). Now users can enter multiple Invoices with only the keyboard. This should let power users zoom through data entry.
Video: Improved Invoices
For the more technically inclined, we optimized the “tab order” of fields on the page. We plan to do this more broadly across the site, as it will benefit users in many places.
We also added hotkeys to access common functions like “Save and Create Another,” “Add Line Item,” etc. This further reduces user keystrokes.
We got feedback that some vendors are paid by similar Invoices every month. So we optimized the ability to reuse data already in the system. We started by upsizing “Copy Invoice.” It launches “Create Invoice” with data pre-populated from the existing Invoice. So it’s very quick to click “Copy Invoice,” change the date, and click “Save.”
Additionally we improved line item entry. It’s common to repeatedly purchase the same items from a vendor. It may be difficult to remember the correct account codes, forcing bookkeepers to dig through old invoices. So we display previous line items for vendors, and allow users to select them. We pre-populate the description, account code, and amount, which should be a great time saver.
Video: Improved Invoices - Entering Line Items
We’ve also improved access to adjacent information on “Create Invoice.” Users don’t need to navigate away to create account codes or look up previous invoices. We’ll load pages into a popup that slides in from right. We’re adding similar functionality to many new pages. Look for small icons/buttons that appear when you hover or focus a field.
Create and Edit Vendor
View Vendor Invoices
Create Account
Create Payment Terms
Video: Improved Invoices - Access Adjacent Information
Finally, we updated the “Invoices” page as well. You can sort/filter the list, and expand Invoices (use the plus icon) to see line items and details.
We hope that you like our new functionality, and that it saves you time. Feel free to send us feedback if you have suggestions.
The Common Goal Team
