Release Notes - Sumac Interface Improvements Summer 2023
Sumac User Interface Improvements - Summer 2023
What's new
Throughout the summer, we've been hard at work sprucing up Sumac's user interface to make it even better and more user-friendly for our customers.
We're excited to share the progress we've made!
New Dashboard
We updated the dashboard design to give you a better user experience, a more beautiful interface, and the ability to personalize the dashboard with what matters most to you.
Some great benefits of the dashboard in your Sumac database are:
- Data Visualization: Understand your Donation and Membership information at a glance, making it easier to interpret and understand how your programs are working.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Track performance and trends with real time data.
- Customization: See only the information relevant to you.
- Increased Productivity: Spend less time searching for the information you need and more time on your mission.
- Better Decision-Making: Identify trends and patterns to discover new insights and make more informed decisions.
Here are more details about the new dashboard:
Improved Design
We gave the Dashboard interface a sleek new look and fresh colors!
Choose Your Dashlets
Choose the Dashlets that are important to you, rearrange the order, and set up your own Dashlet groups.
Collapse and expand Dashboard Groups by clicking the arrow beside the Dashlet group names.
New Dashlets
We’ve added new Dashlets to help you track your contact capacity, and offer more effective donation, and membership oversight. You can gain insights into your donations through a monthly graph and a year-over-year comparison, as well as a chart that shows your membership retention rate.
With this progress bar, you can easily track your license capacity and take timely action. When approaching capacity, reach out to our team to increase your capacity, or review your database to identify contacts for archiving and removal.
Monthly Donations Chart
Understand your giving trends with the monthly donations chart. It provides you with a visual comparison of contributions this year and last year.
Current Year Donations And YOY Comparisons
Quickly assess fundraising progress, identify trends, and view vital donation statistics with the new Current Year Donations Dashlet!
Membership Retention Chart
The new Membership Retention chart enables you to make data-driven decisions to improve your membership retention rates. By visualizing retention performance over time, you can identify trends, spot potential issues, and assess the effectiveness of your retention strategies.
Current Year Membership And YOY Comparisons
Develop data-driven growth and retention strategies by reviewing the Current Year Membership and YoY Comparison Dashlets. These provide a comprehensive overview of current year membership program performance and YOY retention comparisons.
Quickly add contact records right from the dashboard! No need to navigate to a separate interface.
Get quick access to essential contact information, streamline productivity, and facilitate better customer relationship management with our new Quick Search feature. Now you can search for contacts right from your dashboard!
Interactive Meetings And Reminders
We want to help you manage your daily tasks better, so we added a Dashlet that shows you what’s due and overdue at a glance. You can easily see the due date, priority level, and description of each item, and quickly mark them as done!
Revert To The Last Configuration Option
As we continue to enhance Sumac’s dashboard - our team is committed to providing our customers with the latest features and Dashlets. New Dashlets may be added to your dashboard as soon as they’re available, but we’ve also added the “Revert to last configuration” option so you can quickly switch back to your previous preferences too.
Other Enhancements
We’ve also implemented a variety of improvements to Sumac’s interface and usability.
Here are some notable improvements we’ve introduced:
Notification Icon Change
We swapped out the chat icon with a bell icon for notifications, aligning it with the more commonly recognized symbol for notifying events.
Green Highlights and Font Updates
We've improved the navigation of Sumac's Console by updating highlights and module selections to green for better visibility. We’ve also modernized the Sumac Fonts for a contemporary look.
We've repositioned the organization name, username, and permission level to prioritize immediate accessibility of this useful information.
Default Large Font Size
We've configured the default font size to "Large" for new Sumac Desktop installations to accommodate modern screen resolutions and enhance readability.
Icon And Font Size Consistency
We've made sure that icons now match the font size to give you a consistent and visually pleasing experience while using Sumac.
Full-Screen Dashboard
To improve usability, you can now expand your Sumac Dashboard to full screen, offering an immersive experience that fully utilizes your screen space.
Improved List Column Defaults And Layout
To enhance your overall experience in Sumac, we've cleaned up column names to make sure they fit neatly on your screen. We have also ensured that any new users on your team will start with a sensible set of default columns.
Improved Volunteer Tasks Interface
We've enhanced the visibility of the volunteer matching grid by adjusting column widths.
We've also made volunteer task records more user-friendly by streamlining the layout., You no longer need to deal with unnecessary scrolling while setting up a new volunteer task.
We’ve organized the Sumac Console menus to make the things you need easier to find.
- Default Case Management Modules are now available under the Case Management heading.
- Modules that we develop specifically for your nonprofit are now listed under the Custom heading.
- Extensions that we have available for specialized needs will remain under the Specialized heading.
Updated Help Links
We updated the help links you see throughout the Sumac database to provide you with immediate access to help resources, and improve your overall experience - especially for new users!
Last but certainly not least! We’ve made a subtle but very useful change to how the Contact Name search works. Instead of limiting the search by either first or last name, you can search by first name, last name, or first and last name!
You’ll find this change in the Contacts area.
And the new Dashlet for Quick Search.
Societ Academy
Learn what you need to know, any time. Free!
- High quality training on demand - sessions are available every day, so you can access training that fits into your schedule.
- Training sessions that are easy to follow - helpful tips throughout each session, and access to training moderators ensure your questions get answered.
- A certificate of completion - you can request a certificate of completion for every session you attend.