How could Xero improve the homepage?

Number of columns and position of widgets should NOT change depending on the screen size - this is bad design. What should happen is the size of the widgets change and information either shows or hides (to a maximum or minimum size). This is basic web design. The current way is not user friendly and is counter intuitive.

I agree with the comments to give us the ability to sort the home page by column rather than row. We need to be able to choose the number of columns and the order of the widgets in those columns. Even with several of the widgets deleted the home page is hectic and chaotic on my wide screen monitor. Then when I go across to my laptop all the widgets are mixed up. I do not want the widgets going across my entire page. I want two columns. If we can sort by columns this will make the transition between devices (wide screen, laptop and iPad) far simpler. I do not like that changes have been forced upon us that make the program more difficult to use, but the fact that we can not even order the widgets in the way that works best is utterly ridiculous. I cannot understand what goes through the minds of the people who make these changes - they have obviously never ever used the program in the real world.

This is what I came to say. I find have 4 columns chaotic and find it hard to locate information. Its far too busy. I'd like large bank account widgets in a single scrollable column, or double at most. It would be fine with one bank account but with several, 4 columns is awful!

Should be able to choose the number of columns. I prefer two - which stops items from re-sorting depending on browser windows size.

I am reposting Eric Dunn's comment as I agree with it:
'Please allow the widgets to be organised in columns - currently it automatically arranges them in rows. OR allow the auto arrangement to be turned off so I can put them where I want.'

I am copying Steven Mallender's comment as I totally agree:
'Allow Widgets to be ordered into Columns.
My preference as below; but at least then everyone knows where to find a specific Widget - not in some random pool like it is now.
Column1 = Bank accounts;
Column2 = Tasks, invoices to chase, bills to pay;
Column3 = Business Performance.
(I have 30+ (multi-currency) bank accounts and currently there's no point trying to find them on the new Homepage).

Agreed. I want to fix the position of the widgets, possibly with 'sections' so the banks accounts only ever take up the first 2 columns and the rest of the widgets can take up whatever is left. This i because I have a wide screen, but sometimes use a narrower screen and when I swap between the 2, the position of each of the widgets cahnges, which is confusing!

Based on this, I would like the widgets locked so they don't move when you resize the page.
One of the businesses I use has a lot of accounts and as I change the size of the page, they move, making it trickier to spot the one I want quickly.

The new homepage layout feels very cluttered.

For clients who have transitioned to the new homepage, the first thing I do is remove unnecessary widgets — typically leaving only bank accounts and invoices & bills visible.

However, the current layout forces widgets to fill the top row first. For example, if there are three bank account widgets and both invoices and bills widgets enabled, the system will display four widgets across the top row and push the remaining widget to a second row.

There is no option to leave space in the top row or manually group similar widgets together. This makes the homepage feel visually unbalanced and contributes to a cluttered appearance.

Allowing users to customise widget positioning (e.g., manually arranging or grouping widgets) would significantly improve clarity and usability.

Please make it so I can choose how many columns and rows I have, or just allow me to keep the original homepage.

I logged on today using my laptop and discovered the home page displays differently on different devices - rather confusing to say the least. Could you fix this so it stays the same on all devices used please?

Huge thanks to Andrew G for this improved custom CSS (which is well worth updating for anyone else using it). It now functions exactly the way I'd like to see it implemented in the product (aside from the left-right sorting issue that they mentioned).

If anyone needs help enabling it in Firefox, I followed these instructions through Step 4 and it worked perfectly (noting that the file to update is userContent.css, not userChrome.css). https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS/wiki/index/tutorials

Regarding the new Homepage in general - all I can say is that I've fully made my peace with the new look (and actually quite prefer the "quantized" widget sizes), but this sorting and especially scaling behavior remains 100% inexcusable.

The fact that people are talking about CSS hacks to fix this surely should tell you something, you've made something worse in the need for endless "improvement".

Please please give us the option for 2 columns or to use the old home page permanently. Why get rid of it? Then you can be A/Bing pages.

Hi Kelly.

Thanks for the notification that you have no plans to fix the issue that we all have.

As has already been discussed below, the screen size "FIX" is no fix at all.

It is also immensely annoying that every time you log in you have to change the view back to the original. The "NEW" layout is absolutley awful, and nobody who has ever used Xero likes it.

Why do you (Xero) insist on changing things that work into things that don't? (Not expecting a reply, as usual.)

I just posted this in another thread, if you're comfortable installing a CSS addon/plugin to apply your own custom CSS to the Xero site, you can use this hack to fix the number of columns.

Choose either 2 or 3 columns based on your need (delete the lines you do not require):

@-moz-document domain(go.xero.com) {

/* EITHER: Fix columns to 3 columns regardless of screen size */
.dashboard-template-beta-grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr) !important; max-width: 1360px !important; }

/* OR Fix columns to 2 columns regardless of screen size */
.dashboard-template-beta-grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr) !important; max-width: 900px !important; }
}

This will ensure that your fix-column dashboard remains centred in the screen, with the fixed column count.

NB: For anyone using my previous hack to fix the number of columns, I've updated/improved the coding here to work better. Keep in mind you'll need to ensure that every screen resolution (2, 3, and 4 columns) has the correct layout saved as Xero now remembers the saved layout based on screen size.

This does not unfortunately change the ordering left-to-right, which means it does not fix/allow us to have some columns longer in length than other columns (meaning you still cannot have all 50 bank accounts in the first column only).

100% agree. I am faced with TWELVE different widgets when viewing on my monitor, from border to border of the screen. Absolute information overload. I need the ability to reduce the number of columns. I don't understand how after all this time you guys don't seem to properly test what you release...

I wanted to share some thoughts on the latest Xero homepage redesign after seeing a comment that really resonated with me about how much space the widgets are now taking up and how much more cluttered it is now. From a web design point of view, it’s just not intuitive, it’s cluttered and feels way too full, especially compared to the previous version where the widgets sat nicely in the centre and only took up maybe 50% of the page.

I genuinely believe the homepage experience could be dramatically improved with just a few changes:

Please limit it to a max of 2 or 3 widgets per row (see example attached), and ideally give us the option to manually resize each widget (Zoho does this really well and makes dashboards so much more flexible).

Thanks for considering this feedback. I am a Xero fan and have been using it for years and would never think of switching to other platforms so if this could help create a better experience for everyone that would be great.

Allow Widgets to be ordered into Columns.
My preference as below; but at least then everyone knows where to find a specific Widget - not in some random pool like it is now.
Column1 = Bank accounts;
Column2 = Tasks, invoices to chase, bills to pay;
Column3 = Business Performance.
(I have 30+ (multi-currency) bank accounts and currently there's no point trying to find them on the new Homepage).

Please allow the widgets to be organised in columns - currently it automatically arranges them in rows. OR allow the auto arrangement to be turned off so I can put them where I want.

The new home page wraps columns and assumes (incorrectly) that I want four columns.

The classic screen was superior.

Please allow the user to arrange the dashboard in two columns, central on the screen. The columns can then be configured with my selected widgets.

Widgets should remain static once placed and should not wrap or snap to alternate locations. I.e. A simple grid.