> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/news/2026/2026-11-03-the-new-admin-look.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

The admin app has a new look. Every page, list, filter and action you use today is still there,
with the same permissions; what changes is how you find them and what greets you.

## A sidebar grouped by grant stage

- **Sections that follow a grant.** The sidebar is now grouped by the stage of the work: `Plan`,
  `Applications`, `Assess`, `Decide`, `Award and pay`, `Report`, `Communicate`, `People` and
  `Settings`. `Dashboard` and `Tasks` stay pinned at the top. What used to sit under the `Settings`
  and `Users` menus now sits in the section where you use it: form templates under `Plan`,
  applicants under `Applications`, email templates under `Communicate`, and so on. Each page
  appears once.
- **Open only what you need.** Each section opens and closes. The section you are working in
  opens by itself, and Backed remembers them on this device. A closed section shows a count when
  something in it needs you: join requests, unfiled email and conflicts of interest.
- **Search or jump.** `Search or jump to` at the top of the sidebar opens the same search as the
  top bar, or press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows).
- **Your account menu.** `My access` now sits in your account menu, and so does `Switch portal`
  if you hold more than one role.
- **Light in light mode.** In the light theme the sidebar is white with a green row for the page
  you are on; in the dark theme it keeps its dark look.
- **Labels in sentence case.** Every sidebar row now reads in sentence case, such as
  `All applications` and `Funding decisions`, including rows that use your organisation's own terms
  (`Funding Rounds` reads `Funding rounds`; acronyms such as `RFP` are kept).

The Help Centre articles name the new places. See
[Getting started as an administrator](/administrator/getting-started/getting-started-as-an-administrator).

## Light, Dark or System

- **One switch.** Choose `Light`, `Dark` or `System` from the switch at the foot of the sidebar.
  It is the same setting as `Appearance` in your account, so changing one changes the other.
  Backed's own sign-in pages have the switch too. See
  [Your account](/administrator/users/your-account).

## A dashboard for your role

- **Viewing as.** The Dashboard now opens on a view for the work you do: `Program manager`,
  `Finance` or `Board`. Backed picks one from your permissions, and you can switch with
  `Viewing as` at any time. Your own section order is kept, and every section you had is still in
  every view.
- **Program manager.** The round in flight: its applications so far, when it closes and a link to
  review them; how far assessment has got and which assessment round is slowest; applications by
  week; and the assessors to nudge.
- **Finance.** What has been paid to grantees this financial year, what is committed and not yet
  paid, the average days to pay, how much of your largest fund is committed and left, the next
  payment run, what is waiting on you, committed and paid by month, and the milestones due in the
  next 30 days.
- **Board.** Live grants, what is committed to them and paid this financial year, how each
  outcomes framework is tracking, where the money went by funding category, the latest grantee
  story and a link to build a board pack.

Each panel shows only what your permissions let you open.

## People and profiles

- **One place for people.** `People` brings your team, invitations, join requests,
  administrators and admin groups together, with a count on each tab and a filter for the ones
  that need you. See [Your team](/administrator/users/your-team).
- **A profile for each person.** Every person row, whether an applicant contact, an assessor, an
  administrator, a verifier contact or a team member, now has a `Profile` action beside its record
  page. The profile shows their role, status, how they sign in and when they were last active,
  with tabs for their assignments, conflicts, activity, and access and roles. The record pages you
  use today still work.

## Set up a new organisation in six steps

- **A setup wizard.** When a new organisation is approved, its first administrator lands on a
  six-step setup: your role, your organisation's details (with its ABN or NZBN looked up for
  you), your logo and colours, inviting your team, your first funding round as a draft, and a
  final check. You can save and finish later: a `Finish setting up` banner on the Dashboard and
  `Settings › Onboarding` take you back to the next step. Invitations go out only when you finish,
  and the round stays a draft until you open it.
- Organisations set up before this release never see the wizard.

## Also new

- **A board view of applications.** The list of all applications has a `Board` view beside the
  `Table`, with application cards in a column per status and a rail of your rounds. The table
  stays the default and keeps every filter and bulk action.
- **Illustrations.** Some empty lists, such as applications, payment runs, the audit log and the
  assessments queue, now show an illustration beside their message, and the dashboards carry one
  for your role.
- **Two new tours.** The Dashboard tour now shows the `Viewing as` switch and the sidebar's
  sections, and `People` has a tour of its own.