Grouping invoice line items in Xero: what does everyone actually do?

[ChrisJ007]

This keeps coming up and I've never found a decent answer. For some jobs you just want to show the customer a price without all of the breakdown that goes into tracking everything in Xero line by line.

Ideally the detail stays in Xero for the books and the customer just sees "Labour" and "Materials" with a figure against each. But Xero prints what the lines say, so as far as I can work out it's all or nothing. I've had a look at custom docx templates and they seem to strip the descriptions out completely, which isn't really what I'm after either.

So what does everyone actually do? Group it by hand, or just send it as is?

 

[CLM Controller]

I think this is one of those areas where Xero is still a bit limited.

As far as I know, there isn't currently a native way to keep all the individual lines for your records but have Xero automatically combine them into something like “Labour” and “Materials” on the customer-facing invoice.

You can customise the invoice template and hide the line details altogether, but that doesn't really solve the situation where you still want to show a couple of grouped categories.

If it's only occasional, I'd probably group the invoice manually and keep the detailed breakdown in Xero/supporting records. If you're doing this regularly, it may be worth looking at a third-party invoicing tool that can sit on top of Xero, as there are a few solutions aimed at exactly this presentation problem.

It's actually a fairly common request from Xero users, so you're definitely not the only one running into it.

 

[ChrisJ007]

I think this is one of those areas where Xero is still a bit limited.

As far as I know, there isn't currently a native way to keep all the individual lines for your records but have Xero automatically combine them into something like “Labour” and “Materials” on the customer-facing invoice.

You can customise the invoice template and hide the line details altogether, but that doesn't really solve the situation where you still want to show a couple of grouped categories.

If it's only occasional, I'd probably group the invoice manually and keep the detailed breakdown in Xero/supporting records. If you're doing this regularly, it may be worth looking at a third-party invoicing tool that can sit on top of Xero, as there are a few solutions aimed at exactly this presentation problem.

It's actually a fairly common request from Xero users, so you're definitely not the only one running into it.

Thanks, that's more or less where I'd got to.

Doing it by hand is what I've ended up with, and on a small job it's fine. It falls apart on anything with a proper materials list, because by the time you've squashed thirty lines down to "Materials" you've either retyped the lot somewhere or lost the detail you needed for the books.

If you're doing this regularly, do you group it before you raise the invoice, so Xero only ever holds the short version, or keep the full detail in there and tidy up the copy that goes to the customer?

 

[Daybooks]

This keeps coming up and I've never found a decent answer. For some jobs you just want to show the customer a price without all of the breakdown that goes into tracking everything in Xero line by line.

Ideally the detail stays in Xero for the books and the customer just sees "Labour" and "Materials" with a figure against each. But Xero prints what the lines say, so as far as I can work out it's all or nothing. I've had a look at custom docx templates and they seem to strip the descriptions out completely, which isn't really what I'm after either.

So what does everyone actually do? Group it by hand, or just send it as is?

Most advocates of online systems are quick to tell you of the perceived benefits but are nowhere to be seen when a genuine criticism is raised. Xero is the Ronseal of online accounting products. You ask what everyone actually does. I cannot answer for everyone but simply put I do not and will not use it. Unlike others you are realising why.

 

[TaxBix]

On the Xero side CLM's right, there's no native way to group the lines and still keep the detail underneath. Hiding descriptions in the template is the blunt version of the same thing.

Compliance wise though, two lines is fine. A VAT invoice needs a description sufficient to identify what was supplied, and "Labour" and "Materials" clears that. The only thing that actually breaks it is if the two groups carry different VAT rates, because then each rate has to be shown and totalled separately.

And if any of this is CIS work, keep the materials line. The contractor can only deduct from the labour part, and where the invoice doesn't show a materials figure they're told to estimate it. Their estimate won't be generous.

 

[xjr13m]

We track everything line by line when creating an invoice in Xero as it helps the analytics later, but we manually raise an invoice for the customer using an excel template so they see only what we want them to see. We only raise around 200 invoices a year so its no big deal, I understand it may be problematic if you're generating 200 a month

 

[TaxBix]

One catch with the Excel one if you're VAT registered. The invoice the customer actually gets is the VAT invoice, so the copy you have to keep is that, not the Xero version.

 

[xjr13m]

One catch with the Excel one if you're VAT registered. The invoice the customer actually gets is the VAT invoice, so the copy you have to keep is that, not the Xero version.

That's correct, we don't use Xero to generate invoices, it's how we prefer to do it. There isn't a 'Xero version' of the invoice and an Excel version, the entry in Xero is only a posted sales ledger transaction.

 

[TaxBix]

Fair enough, nothing to clash if Xero isn't issuing anything.

 

[CLM Controller]

Thanks, that's more or less where I'd got to.

Doing it by hand is what I've ended up with, and on a small job it's fine. It falls apart on anything with a proper materials list, because by the time you've squashed thirty lines down to "Materials" you've either retyped the lot somewhere or lost the detail you needed for the books.

If you're doing this regularly, do you group it before you raise the invoice, so Xero only ever holds the short version, or keep the full detail in there and tidy up the copy that goes to the customer?

That's pretty much the approach I'd take too. I'd keep the full breakdown in the accounting records and simplify what the customer sees, rather than sacrificing the detail just to make the invoice cleaner.

As TaxBix mentioned, “Labour” and “Materials” can be perfectly workable on the customer-facing invoice, provided the VAT treatment is clear where different rates apply.

The CIS point is a good one too. If you're doing CIS work, I'd definitely keep the materials figure separately shown rather than rolling everything into one total. It saves a lot of hassle later.