How could Xero improve the homepage?

@Perry Paolantonio You’re 💯 right. Maybe if we all contact support they won’t be able to ignore us the way they’re ignoring this thread. It’s pretty ridiculous to tell people to post product ideas here when they can’t even be bothered to respond to people who’ve taken the time to engage with my original post.

Tried that and got called back and told that it was me not understanding how to tailor the front page. So I asked him to talk me through it (I have been using Xero on 4 entities for 15 years). After going round in circles for a while he admitted it could not be done and said he would escalate it. My feeling is that that is the other way they can stop responding; by escalating. There is only one solution that they will listen to and that is to move platforms but of course they have you by the short and curlies because most platforms you move to will not import and retrospectively reconcile your history. So the upshot is they don't actually have to take any notice.

In this post covid world, it seems the customer is always wrong, has to put up with what they are given and are privileged to be allowed to take the time of a supplier to talk to them. What happened to TQM and BS5750 and ISO 9001?

" Is there a better way to be heard."

Maybe. I have found in the past that constant hectoring via the technical support channels will eventually get some results. I suspect that if everyone here who has commented did that, it might get some attention. The main thing is to not go away. With technical support, the reps are incentivized to close out their tickets and will try to do so. Don't let them. Continue to ask for it to be escalated (use that word) to their supervisor, and keep the line of communication open. It seems like they may *have* to respond to you because every time I've talked to support, they always got the last word (I believe their system probably makes them respond until the customer stops responding or the ticket is closed).

I'll add that I would normally think this is a terrible thing to do to the poor support reps, who are often first-tier support and deal with a lot already. But it may be the only way to get Xero's attention.

This feedback portal is a black hole into which ideas get crushed into oblivion.

This is an idea I have been following called 'Homepage - Simplify Layout'. There are many users all saying the same thing to put it back how it was. Xero doesnt appear to be responding to any. Is there a better way to be heard.

whitespace and fonts - quit trying to be like quickbooks. give us the charts if you want, but don't add whitespace and make it harder to read fonts.

"It’s worth noting that currently you can "Customise" the homepage to remove widgets that you don’t want to see and simplify your view. "

As a user managing multiple bank accounts, I don't actually want to remove those other widgets, I just don't want to be forced to view them all at the same time. And if I am, goodness there must be a layout that isn't so cluttered.

it was lovely before! It's a horrid mess now! The only way I can use it is to hide everything other than banks - what a backward step!

Awful update. It's a discursive mess as soon as you login, overly cluttered and more complicated than it needs to be by far. Is Xero trying put themselves out of business by going from "beautiful" to not listening to users. I'm going to use the old dashboard until the last moment possible. An unnecessary update and very unfortunate. Please reconsider this update!

I absolutely love the new dashboard, saves scrolling down the page to get to check all the bank accounts!

another comment for this being an awful move. If it is going to stick at least allow us to change it to only one column, so i can scroll down and have only the important things at the top in order. This is the most hectic and cluttered disaster.

Isn't it funny that we all flocked to Xero 15+ years ago when it was the disruptor and "beautiful software". Presumably at the time it was run by the founders who instinctively understood that you need to listen to what your customer wants. Roll on 15 years and it has become a corporate machine populated by people who parrot the management training about listening to customers but actually don't. Because how can they when they have so many with no doubt many differing views.

I believe this is a technically driven change. I suspect it is a move to HTML5 which is seen as the silver bullet of cross platform compatibility. One app for web, tablet and phone. Reduced development, maintenance, hosting costs and the price for that is accepting a line by line "flow" type interface.

So, it maybe time to move to the next disruptor. Even with this move to HTML 5 (which is no spring chicken itself), the whole UI is looking very old and careworn and the user experience and conversations are very transactional and sometimes counterintuitive.

In summary, they have got too big and too successful to please all of the customers all of the time. But what should we want from an accounting package? Flash new gimmicks or stable reliable software that doesn't have regular hysterical fits.

Having said that, put the home page back to how it was. This is not a massive step forward for customers. Most of us by our nature are methodical and a bit staid and we use the same tools to do the same tasks day in day out because we are familiar with them and use them without having to think and hunt the widget. We do it from visual and spatial memory rather than by reading the screen.

Making widgets flow left to right and overflow onto the following line is not a step forward in UI it is a convenience for developers.

If Xero truly “heard us,” as stated — “We hear you and are committed to providing more customisation options” — then you would stop destabilising functionality that was working perfectly well.
A genuine response to customer feedback would include allowing users to retain the existing dashboard if it meets their needs. Removing that option while continuing to alter the interface is not listening; it is imposing change for its own sake.
The volume of negative feedback and repeated threats from long‑term customers to change accounting software should, by now, have had a measurable impact on development priorities. Yet instead of addressing those concerns, Xero continues to increase pricing while repeatedly “tuning” dashboards that do not require change.
This approach reinforces the perception that customer feedback is acknowledged rhetorically but ignored in practice. Persisting with unnecessary UI changes — particularly when they degrade usability — undermines trust and confidence in the platform and in the development team’s decision‑making.

Stop making changes based on what software people and investors want you to do. Listen to the people that actually use the platform and improve the functionality and efficiency of the platform. This new layout just makes it hard for people that login each day to find what they need and do quick tasks. The responsive columns is useless from a functionality perspective. Two columns with nice spacing around each widget means my eyes can scan the list for what I need and know that each widget is in the same place no matter what screen I am viewing from. Please get back to adding useful features that people can use.

Agreed. The new layout is awful. And making it mandatory from March is a stupid idea. Give me my old Homepage!

@Kelly Munro -

Any chance of a status update on this issue? There's been no feedback from Xero since November, and it would be good to know (a) what's being worked on to address the issues, and (b) a time frame for the release of improvements.

I feel a little overwhelmed looking at this new page. LESS IS MORE. IT is so busy and feels like all is jammed in.
I feel like I want more space.. its cluttered, on top of each other.
NEED SPACE

Aside from the new widgets no longer displaying the key information we used to be able to see at a quick glance.

The other big issue for me is that I either work from my desktop at the office, or my laptop when working remotely. Because the new layout has been designed to be responsive, but without the ability to pin or group widgets, this means the home layout is now totally different depending whether I'm on my desktop or laptop. On my laptop the bank accounts are nowhere near each other, and everything is in a completely illogical order.

I really don't understand why this was changed when there wasn't much wrong with the old layout. And at least it was uniform across my devices.

Looking back at early feedback (pre-Kelly's post on Nov 12) before this was released, the comments are similar to the flood of unhappy comments now. Either you paid no attention to that early feedback, or you noted it and ignored it.

I hate the new layout. It is not easy to quickly find the area you need - there is NO distinction between headings and information below, not even a line under the heading, or boxes, or something to help easily distinguish. Stop mucking around with things that don't need to be changed and start actually changing the things we NEED changed. We just got used to the changed format and here's another one. Ugh.

Where is the account watchlist?