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13 votes
Really good to get this sort of detail about aspects of the homepage that you feel could be condensed or removed to help with your experience of the homepage. We're continuing to get an understanding of community interest around this and hear any further detail of where within the page you feel space is unnecessary. Thanks
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Andrew G
supported this idea
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2 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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2 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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5 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
·
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2 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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Homepage - Ability to control what messages and adverts appear
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Xero%20homepage.docx 64 KB -
Auto%20Reconcile%202.png 7 KB -
Set%20Up%20Payments%20-%20every.%20single.%20invoice..png 76 KB -
Auto%20Reconcile%201.png 5 KB -
Syft.png 7 KB -
Chasing%20Payment%201.png 4 KB -
Case%20-%20Dashboard%20Banner%20%E2%80%93%20Xero%20Central.pdf 133 KB -
Screenshot%202025-09-02%20at%2011.40.45.jpg 153 KB
55 votesThanks for your feedback about this.
The community can now get behind and support this idea.
Along with votes, other members can now comment to share their thoughts.
Andrew G
supported this idea
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4 votes
Hi team, we appreciate the feedback on the bank account widget here and I have made sure this is shared back with our product team. As soon as I have any updates I will let you know here. Thanks
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
I noted in one of the other topics that the bank account widgets re. reconciliation status is broken. Today I've been able to recreate the issue.
The problem occurs when there's a transfer between two accounts - for example, when you move cash into a savings account, or when you make a payment to the credit card.
In these scenarios, there can be a delay between the bank feeds. Step to reproduce:
1. Make a transfer between two accounts.
2. Reconcile the first account bank feed (before the second account bank feed has arrived) which will create the transfer journal entries between the two accounts in Xero.
3. Wait for the second bank feed to arrive.In this state the first account will correctly show as reconciled, and the second account will show a balance difference. There will be no CTA option to reconcile the second account. This state is correct, and identical to the previous widget behaviour.
4. The second bank feed arrives.
In this state the first account continues to be shown as reconciled. However, the second account also now shows as reconciled - THIS IS INCORRECT and is different to the previous widget behaviour. The CTA option to reconcile is also shown under the account (correct).
I can no longer obtain a comparison image of the old widget behaviour as the ability to switch back has been removed. But the key differences is that the old widget continued to show an unreconciled balance difference - i.e. it did not say the balances are reconciled when the CTA reconciled option was presented.
In summary - the green "reconciled" status on the second account, after creating one side of the transfer inside Xero, is not correct and the account is not reconciled as clearly shown by the CTA to reconcile 1 item.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
I've also spotted this issue on the new homepage widgets - on the old homepage the widget showed a balance difference and there was a clear CTA button to reconcile transactions.
On the new homepage widget, the green tick and reconciled is shown, which meant it was easy to overlook transactions were waiting for reconciliation.
EDIT: This only seemed to happen on certain types of transactions - specifically in my case when I'd made a credit card payment, and one side of that payment had been transferred, but the bank feed hadn't yet updated. For other transactions, I do get the reconciled button showing on the new homepage widget and no green tick/reconciled status. I suspect this needs better testing of edge cases.
Andrew G
supported this idea
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420 votes
Hi everyone, we thoroughly appreciate the feedback we've been receiving about the sizing of widgets and desire for more flexibility with these.
Our product teams are currently working on updates to allow resizing of more of the widgets on the Homepage.
There are considerations that weigh into what's possible' like what information sits within each widget.
The resizing will work in the same way as what has been provided with the Cash in and out, and Chart of accounts watch list widget.
I'll be sure to keep you updated here as new widget sizes are rolled out. Thanks
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Thanks for the update Kelly, but I'd also like to reiterate what others have noted. The proposed solution to follow the existing widget capabilities of smaller/large sizes does not meet the requirement people are requesting.
Specifically, most people are asking to make some widgets smaller, and/or have a "compact" view with less white space, smaller fonts, etc. (that should naturally flow from having a smaller sized widget), and/or (as in my case) having widgets like Chart of Accounts full height (i.e. taller/longer, not wider, spanning multiple rows in the grid) so that all accounts are shown.
I'm unsure whether the product team at Xero are being deliberately opaque, or whether efficiency and usability of UI is just something Xero product management doesn't understand - but overall, the handling of the new homepage design, technical implementation, and roll-out is not giving Xero a good look.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Hi Kelly, just to follow-up on a comment I've seen made several times in your responses. Specifically this:
"[...] changes to the 'Cash in and out' and 'Chart of accounts' widgets so when customising your view you'll now have the options to 'Make larger' or 'Make smaller'."
This option doesn't really address the main feedback point - at least from my perspective. These options simply "stretch" the widget from 1 to 2 columns, and back again.
With the chart of accounts widget, they do not change the height, and consequently do not get rid of the scrollbar, and still prevent us from seeing the full list easily.
In respect to those widgets with graphs, they simply stretch the graph. If 6 months data is shown in 1 column view, then 6 months is still shown in 2 column view - it would be much better if the additional real estate was also used to increase the actual data shown (e.g. 6 months when the widget is 1 column width, 12 months when the widget is 2 columns wide).
I do appreciate the feedback and updates, but it really does sound in many cases that the product team are really missing the crux of our feedback points, and do not seem to be addressing the underlying usability problems.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Having played around a little more, I'd also suggest that some of the widgets need a "compact" setting - especially the account watch list - to reduce the amount of spacing between each of the rows.
Using both "compact" and being able to resize the height to enable all watched accounts to be shown in a list without the scrollbar would be far better to detect discrepancies quickly.
Andrew G
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Make the Chart of Accounts widget resizable in height.
It now has a scrollbar within the widget. I preferred the old widget that shows all the accounts in a list without the scrollbar. Alternatively, provide an option for it to be dynamic in height based on the number of accounts being shown.
I now have to scroll the widget view itself to see important accounts, rather than all accounts being visible immediately. There's a good chance I might miss something important.
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2 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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5 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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4 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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3 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
·
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2 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Agree 100%.
I generally wouldn't mind because you can use the browser zoom to increase/decrease the font size. However this no longer works with Xero because:
a) the number of columns on the homepage changes as you zoom in/out, switching between 2, 3 and 4 columns.
b) the rest of Xero is also impacted by this zoom factor - so you make the homepage look good at a reasonable font size (by zooming out), but then the older pages elsewhere in Xero have such a tiny font they're unreadable.
It's fundamentally bad design to have some pages use large fonts, some pages use small fonts, and for there to be no consistency in the product overall. Makes usability so much worse.
Andrew G
supported this idea
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4 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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2 votes
Thanks for he feedback here, team. Atm we don't have any plans for surfacing your outstanding invoices as a list within the widget, however we appreciate feedback we've received around the graph and our team are working on some sizing updates that would enable you to remove the graph on both the Invoices owed to you and Bills to pay widgets. You can stay updated on this work through the idea here.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
+1 this suggestion.
We already have 4 other dashboards (available under the Reporting, Analytics menu) that cover the graphs and charts for bills/outgoings and invoices/incomings. I don't need these replicated on the main homepage also.
Having both of these as a simple list in the same format as the paid invoices would be a far better use of the dashboard real estate.
Better yet - keep the existing widgets as an option, and add new widgets for the alternative format and let us choose which widgets we prefer.
Andrew G
supported this idea
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156 votes
Hi everyone, we appreciate and want to thank everyone for feedback on the responsiveness of the new Homepage. This has been shared back with our product teams as they continue to develop this experience.
At this stage, there are no plans to fix the number of columns when using the Homepage. However, our team will continue to monitor usage on this closely.
One recent change we’ve introduced is that the Homepage layout can be saved at each screen size.
For example, if you set up and save the Homepage layout for your laptop and then move to a larger monitor you’ll see this adapt. However, if you ‘edit’ the Homepage and save the layout separately from your monitor Xero will remember the layout for each screen size. You should only need to do this once for each screen you use.
We’re looking at enhancing the edit layout experience soon to…
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
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).
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Thanks for the update.
I can only reiterate Elliot's remarks below. On the face of it, this sounds to miss the mark, and won't address the concerns we have with the widgets getting scrambled when customising the dashboard, nor when resizing the browser on any given display (e.g. when pinning to the left-side of the screen and reducing browser width by half).
If this update remembers the layout on a per "mode" basis (i.e. 2, 3 and 4 columns, rather than actual browser/screen width) then that's something, but still doesn't help people who only want/need a 2 column layout no matter the browser/screen width.
Overall this feels like the design is being pushed by a technical development team rather than end user scenario and usability analysts.
As an aside, you say you're going to monitor this - how do you propose to do that? You have no visibility if people are using the CSS hacks I shared earlier to fix the number of columns on the dashboard. Are you monitoring screen size, AND browser window size - both or just one? For example, if I'm using my normal browser size then pin to the left-side of the screen, will you see the change in # of columns behaviour in your monitoring when I'm using the same screen?
Edit - I tried saving a layout, and can confirm it remembers per-mode (i.e. 2, 3 or 4 columns) not by screen or browser window size. The problem that still remains is that there are no "blank" or "filler" widgets for the unwanted 3rd and/or 4th column, meaning that this is still problematic when we're trying to maintain consistency of widget placement for our own performance/efficiency when using multiple monitor/screen/browser widths. In effect we have to remember a different layout for every screen/monitor width we use, rather than having a consistent layout tailored to our needs.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Agree with this - I've posted a comment on a similar issue/topic, but the problem comes from the fact it's ordering horizontally left-to-right.
What needs to happen is that when a widget is placed in a column it stays in that column. That widgets in that column move up/down based on where a new widget is being inserted or removed - but widgets should never move sideways between columns.
The whole horizontal ordering issue is not intuitive, and it also breaks when the number of columns change (e.g. from 3 to 4), widgets in the left-most column can suddenly move into the right-hand column.
Technically, this is because they've implemented the design using a grid layout that wraps/flows as a single unit. What should happen is that each column flows as a single unit in their own right, and the columns then flowed side-by-side so the widgets always remain in the column in which they are placed. The technical solution is just bad implementation design and needs to be fixed so the dashboard and customisation of the dashboard is usable, and for the solution implementation to take appropriate account of human/computer interaction and psychology.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
In case it's helpful - if you're able to use a browser add-on to apply specific CSS to a given site, you can fix the number of columns by having your browser apply the following CSS to the Xero homepage.
Appreciate this is quite technical, and not for everyone, but if you're doing this already for other sites, it may be useful to know. Change "3" to the number of columns you want, and adjust width to your preference also.
@-moz-document domain(go.xero.com) {
.dashboard-template-beta-grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr) !important; }
.dashboard-template-beta-widget { width: auto !important }
}Of course, this is not really the solution - only a temporary fix - we need Xero to provide the functionality we're all asking for (and I've since found out, this issue was highlighted during the beta feedback sessions but ignored).
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
There are so many usability issues with the new homepage, and to hear that these have been highlighted well in advance of it going "live" out of beta is sad to hear.
That said, it does sound like you have "solved" some problems with browser adds-ons and workaround, so if it's helpful to you, and you can use an add-on to apply specific CSS to the Xero site, you may find these tweaks useful. This will fix your columns to 3 - but change that number to whatever you need.
@-moz-document domain(go.xero.com) {
.dashboard-template-beta-grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr) !important; }
.dashboard-template-beta-widget { width: auto !important }
}An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
A little update for those that are technically minded (including Xero developers)... you can fix the columns to your preferred layout/size by injecting the following CSS into the Xero site:
@-moz-document domain(go.xero.com) {
.dashboard-template-beta-grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr) !important; }
.dashboard-template-beta-widget { width: auto !important }
}This won't be for everyone, you need to know how to enable custom/bespoke CSS on a per-site basis ... but it's a useful workaround for people that can get it to work in the short-term.
Maybe also useful for Xero developers.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Totally agree, we need to be able to fix the number of columns AND as somebody else has noted here have the widgets organise themselves within the columns and not rearrange horizontally (scrambling, moving widgets from column 1 to column 4) when switching from a 3 column to 4 column layout.
The new homepage is very problematic for people that use multiple monitor resolutions, different browser sizes (not always maximised for example), and work efficiently with widgets being in the same location (e.g. having all bank accounts always in the left-most column).
Massive oversight by the design team on the new homepage layout behavior.
Andrew G
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
When I resize my browser - or when I switch to a different resolution monitor - the number of columns now resizes. It can switch from 3 to 4 columns.
This screws up the layout. I organise by column - having all bank accounts under the left-most column, and when it resizes from 3 to 4 - the widgets are rearranged horizontally meaning all the bank account widgets get moved around - the second widget in the first column now appears in the fourth column.
I should not need to be a on a fixed-size browser or screen resolution to keep the same layout.
The fact that widgets align horizontally is also in issue when configuring the layout - moving widgets is not intuitive when widgets keep moving to maintain a horizontal layout when information is presented in columns. When presenting information in columns, moving the widgets and customization actions should be by column also.
Two things need to change:
1. Allow us to specify the number of columns we need. For those that prefer the old dashboard, being able to fix to 2 columns would be a win, and for those of us that use our browser windows "restored" (i.e. not maximized constantly) and do resize browser windows depending what we're doing, not having the number of shown columns change is essential.
2. When supporting the configuration of the layout, having placed widgets remain in their columns and do not re-align all widgets horizontally. When supporting a column layout, have widgets rearrange within their existing columns.
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691 votes
Hi community, thank you for all the engagement and we can see the growing interest in improvements to help simplify your view of information on the new Homepage and navigate important information and insights with more ease.
Right now, our team have a few pieces of work underway intended to help with some of the pain points that have been raised here these include:
- More options for the sizing of widgets so you can reduce these frames and better position this information on your screen
- More customisation of information within a widget like being able to remove visuals
- Improving the experience of moving widgets when editing the homepage to make it more obvious when dragging and dropping them to different positions on the page
We’ve also roadmapped further changes for later this year, once everyone is on the new experience. I’ll share more updates as we progress.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
For people following my CSS hacks, I've made some tweaks/updates and general improvements... usual disclaimers apply, but feel free to use what you want - if you're using these already, you know what to do.
@-moz-document domain(go.xero.com) {
/* Widget border */
.dashboard-template-beta-widget--contents article { border: 1px solid #c0c0c0; }/* Account watchlist compact mode */
.accounts-watchlist-widget-readonlytablerow td { font-size: 12px !important; padding: 4px 16px 4px 0 !important; }/* Restore VAT submissions separator */
.mtd-vat-dashboard-widget-wt-widget-template--body hr { visibility: visible !important; }/* To fix the number of columns, choose one of the following (not both): */
/* 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; }/* Stretching the Account Watchlist to full height to remove the scrollbar. YOU'LL NEED TO MODIFY THIS! Right-click on your widget and "inspect" source, then count the position of your Account Watchlist widget (widgets are a list of <div> inside a <tr>). The number of rows you need will depend on how many accounts you are watching. */
/* Full height account watchlist - change "8" to actual widget position/index, and "6" to required row count */
.dashboard-template-beta-grid > .dashboard-template-beta-widget:nth-child(8) { grid-area: span 6 / span 1 !important; height: auto !important }
.dashboard-template-beta-widget--contents { height: auto !important }
.accounts-watchlist-widget-AccountsWatchlistWidgetContent { height: auto !important; }}
Important: If you're fixing the number of columns, and/or stretching the account watchlist your widgets need to be in the same position on all dashboard resolutions/sizes (2, 3 and 4 columns). You can still edit dashboard with these hacks in place, ensuring you can get the right set-up.
Hope that's helpful for people. I know some people are using these hacks to make the new dashboard more usable.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
For those interested in a investor's point of view, given some of the sentiment in this thread, Morningstar has published a somewhat interesting analysis.
https://www.morningstar.com.au/stocks/asx-listed-software-provider-joins-global-sell-off
The bit the resonates (for me) with the sentiment expressed in this thread is this...
"Xero’s nearly tripled its total expenditure on product design and development. However, we see little evidence of returns on these investments. Xero today operates mostly in the same markets as it did a decade ago. Therefore, we believe investments in country-specific adaptations of its products do little to explain the 10-fold increase in total expenditure on product design and development over the period. We also don’t see compelling evidence of returns on investment into new features and functionalities. New Zealand, Xero’s most mature market, should reflect increased average revenue per user, or ARPU, if new features and functionalities were valued by customers. Instead, the New Zealand market has only seen low-single-digit growth in ARPU over the past decade, leading us to believe Xero’s small and midsize enterprise, or SME, customers value simplicity, not features and functionalities."
Of course you could read this several ways, but combined with their radio silence in this forum, from my point-of-view I've lost all confidence in their ability in regards to (a) product management, (b) technical/IT implementation, and (c) community management.
The new dashboard should be their biggest hot potato, but instead we see it left to fester and go cold having being dropped on the floor.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
@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.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
It depends what browser you're using. You need to be able to apply custom CSS to specific sites.
If you're using Firefox, it has inbuilt capabilities if you enable the option through the "dangerous" advanced settings. (Go to "about:config", and enable "toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets".) However there's also a "Custom CSS" plugin in the Firefox extensions store. Other browsers also have add-ons and approaches, so just Google search for "<browser> Custom CSS" - for example, the Edge add-on seems to be called "Custom Style Script".
Then you can apply our CSS fixes to Xero, the snippet below adds a border around each widget to make them more readable, and fixes the blue title bar to the top of the window.
@-moz-document domain(go.xero.com) {
/* Fix navigation bar */
#shell-nav { position: fixed !important; width: 100% !important; z-index: 1000 !important; }
#shell-app-root { margin-top: 64px !important; }/* Widget border */
.dashboard-template-beta-widget--contents article { border: 1px solid #c0c0c0; }
}We've also been playing around with some other options, I'll add these here for reference, but note that they're not ideal and slightly problematic, so use these at your peril. Realistically, these solutions need be fixed on Xero's side.
/* Fix columns to 3 columns regardless of screen size */
.dashboard-template-beta-grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr) !important; }
.dashboard-template-beta-widget { width: auto !important; height: auto !important; }/* Full height account watchlist */
.dashboard-template-beta-widget--contents { }
.accounts-watchlist-widget-AccountsWatchlistWidgetContent { height: auto !important; }/* Account watchlist compact mode */
.accounts-watchlist-widget-readonlytablecell { font-size: 12px !important; padding: 4px 16px 4px 0 !important; }
.accounts-watchlist-widget-readonlytable > colgroup > col:nth-child(1) { width: 1% !important; }
.accounts-watchlist-widget-readonlytable > colgroup > col:nth-child(2) { width: auto !important; }
.accounts-watchlist-widget-readonlytable > colgroup > col:nth-child(3) { width: 1% !important; }
.accounts-watchlist-widget-readonlytable > colgroup > col:nth-child(4) { width: 1% !important; }If I have time, I'll look to improve these other workarounds - the fix to 3 columns is somewhat redundant given it remembers saved layouts on each of the 2, 3 and 4 column views.
NB: Keep in mind these workarounds could stop working at any point if Xero changes the way the dashboard works/behaves, and modifies the identifiers of their layout.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
So I've played around with the new homepage quite a bit - firstly, it's not a "quick" transition - it records the widget positions for each screen size, so you need to set that up for every screen, every user, etc. This wasn't obvious (or it didn't work) at the beginning.
So a general feedback point here - the dashboard customisation is counter-intuitive compared to other SaaS products out there - this is compounded when there's so little help/information and/or user guide on how to migrate/adapt to the new homepage. Shame that our existing layouts on the old homepage didn't transfer over automatically without a lot of effort on our part.
Secondly there are a number of capabilities missing, which means we end up having different widget placement for each screen and we need to learn/remember which screen has which widgets where. This is not efficient, and potentially error prone (considering the invoices/bills widgets look identical on first glance, title aside).
The following outstanding issues still need to be resolved to aid usability:
1a. Being able to have columns of different lengths - i.e. place widgets in columns, and not in rows. When on wide 3- or 4-column layouts, I am restricted from placing more widgets in the first column and consequently end up with a layout with widgets in column 4 that make no sense.
and/or
1b. provide the ability for filler/spacing widgets to be added, if row-based position must be kept, allowing us to add filler widgets into the 3rd and 4th columns, ensuring that we have a consistent layout in column 1 even when that column naturally has more widgets than any other column combined.
General feedback point here - Xero seems to completely miss the point that as accountants we work in columns - assets, creditors, debtors, etc. - and that's how we'd like to view things on the dashboard. It's impossible to maintain this if you have a lot of bank account widgets.
There are also some usability/efficiency issues that exist, all of which need to be resolved:
2a. Being able to make the Chart of Accounts watchlist widget full height, so it displays ALL accounts being watched without the need to scroll the list within widget itself. This would need some "intelligence" so that it works alongside other widget sizes, and doesn't mess up our column-based positions. As it stands it's easy to miss accounts with balances (which should be zero) and are not immediately visible.
2b. Draft and Needing Approval Bills/Invoices are now indicated "below the fold" on all our screens due to the size of the widget; this is caused by these bits of critical information being moved below the graph, rather than staying above the graph as-in the previous version.
2c. Bank account balance graphs are missing and still need to be restored - we used this to better/easily/efficiently identity bank accounts needing attention, and that has now gone from the dashboard. It means it's yet another click (and less efficiency) compared to what we had before.
2d. A small usability improvement would be for us to set an outline or background shading for each widget according to our needs- specifically, given the stupid nature of the dashboard widget positioning, being able to have creditors in one colour, debtors in another, etc. would improve usability no end.
There's also some other niggles we've fixed ourselves by applying our own CSS: adding a border to the widgets to improve readability, and fixing the top (blue) menu bar so it's always visible on screen. But I'm less worried about these, now we have our own workaround using client-side browser add-ons.
Finally, we're getting increasingly concerned over the radio silence from Xero. No real migration strategy is communicated, a lot of spin/pr/marketing/sales guff on how wonderful this new homepage actually is (which generally shows a lack of understanding of their customer base), a migration window of a few months, and no published roadmap with real detail (yes there's the spin/pr/marketing/sales roadmap, but that doesn't give us dates and migration windows, etc.). Compared to other SaaS providers, it does give us reason to question whether Xero is a platform we want to remain using for the long term. (This is further compounded by comments, backed up by others I've spoken to, where I now know a lot of these issues have been highlighted in feedback sessions with Xero prior to general rollout.)
I do hope ALL of these remaining issues are addressed soon.
An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
There's quite a lot of feedback on this point now, to the point it's worth delaying any mandatory switch to the new homepage.
What needs to happen:
1. Delay any mandatory switch over to the new homepage while fixes and improvements are made.
2. Allow users to specify the number of columns: 2, 3 or 4 to their preference. Optionally have a "dynamic" option for people that do want to use this feature.
3. Fix the widget scrambling when moving between 2, 3 or 4 columns, and when customising/arranging widgets. For example, if we put all bank accounts in the left-most column, they should stay in the left-most column when arranging other widgets or switching from 3 to 4 column layout.
For the technical minded (or Xero developers): most of the layout fixes are fairly simple CSS adjustments. For those people that use browser-level add-ons and customisations, you can override the Xero site CSS to give you some better control (e.g. to fix the number of columns). Unfortunately, this isn't a solution we can give to our clients/users of Xero, and isn't really useful for people who don't know the technical implementation of this stuff. (If you are interested, you can check my other comments on a related post for the detail.)
Andrew G
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3 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
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2 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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4 votes
Thanks for submitting your idea on Xero Product Ideas. We appreciate you taking time to let us know how we could improve Xero for you.
Your feedback will soon be reviewed by our Community team, and in the meantime this can begin to build support with votes from other community members.
If you're interested to see recent releases or get a pulse on what's coming soon see The Long and Short of it. 🙂
Andrew G
supported this idea
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An error occurred while saving the comment Andrew G
commented
Ironically this was one of the things the balance history chart (which was removed from the account widgets) helped to identify.
Previously, all credit cards had a red/negative chart identifying negative balances; current accounts without overdrafts were always showing a blue/positive chart. When they were fixed/placed in separate columns it was very easy to know what was where (even if a bank account went negative, bank accounts always in column 1, and credit cards always in column 2 - can't do that now, they move around, especially if you have more than 10 bank accounts or so, they need to flow left-to-right at the bottom and you can have 3 or 4 columns to fill on large/wide screens).
With the removal of the charts on the account widgets, they all now look the same.
It's made even worse with the removal of the brackets around negative numbers, at a quick glance the negative symbol in front of a number is so easily overlooked. There's a reason accountants have used brackets for negative numbers for years. Why some product designer decided that years of accounting standards should be ignored (within an accounting product) is really beyond me.
Agree 100%.
I've recommended in other posts that they need to provide an option for the accounts watchlist to show ALL accounts and to remove the scrollbar. (Ideally, this would be through a combination of a "compact" mode to remove excessive spacing, together with additional vertical* resize capabilities.) Unfortunately, current feedback for both of these options is not being progressed - indeed they don't seem to appreciate the inefficiency the new UI has introduced to people's internal processes and workflows.
I only hope this is fixed for everyone quickly.
* The technical issue they've created for themselves is that they've adopted a grid layout, which means that vertically resizing widgets is now more problematic/difficult than it was before (although not impossible) - especially when the content of that widget can be dynamic as with the account watchlist.