The Admin Panel groups everything into collapsible sections in the left-hand navigation, so related tools sit together instead of being spread across one long list. This article gives you a quick map of where things live and why they're grouped the way they are.
Where you land
When you log in, you arrive on your Dashboard. It's built to get you oriented rather than to report numbers, and it holds three things:
Configure your App - a checklist of the seven setup steps worth doing early: set your app title, add your logo, select your brand colour, review your causes, review your stakeholder types, review your internal structure, and invite team members. Each one takes you straight to the right place. Once all seven are done the card disappears, so a fully set-up app has a cleaner dashboard.
Useful Tips - quick links to the getting started guide, the help centre and contact support, each opening in a new tab.
Notifications - a preview of your five most recent in-app notifications, so you can see what's happened without going looking for it.
The groups
Dashboard - where you land when you log in, as described above. No sub-items.
Reports - the Engagement report and, when it's on, the Delivery report. This is where you go for the numbers, not the day-to-day management.
Structure - Members, Groups and Directorates: how your organisation is set up and who belongs where. The Directorates item shows whatever your app calls that level, so on some apps you'll see Teams here instead.
Delivery - Programmes, Activities, and (when on) Contracts and Commitments. This is the "what's actually happening on the ground" group.
Engagement - Opportunities, Applications, Participants, Feedback Forms and Organisations: everything to do with people signing up and taking part.
Measurement - Measures, Measure Logs, Donation Logs and Volunteer Hour Logs: the underlying records that feed your reports.
Settings - where you configure your app, including which features and modules are switched on. It's also where most of the Dashboard checklist links take you.
Each section can be expanded or collapsed, so if you mainly work in one or two areas (say, Engagement and Reports), you can collapse the rest to keep your navigation short. The section you're currently working in stays open.
At the top of the screen
A few things sit outside the groups, in the top bar: your Messages icon, which carries a badge when you have unread messages, your notifications, and your profile. Messages is your own inbox across every conversation you're part of, whether it started in the Admin Panel or on the platform side.
đ Note: Some items only appear when their feature is switched on - for example Donations, Measures, and Contracts & Commitments. If you don't see an item mentioned here, check whether the underlying feature is enabled for your app first, rather than assuming it's missing.
đ Note: If you used the Admin Panel before September 2026, Initiatives are now called Programmes. Everything else about them works the same way.
What's next
đ See How to turn on donations and How to turn on Measures.
đŹ Need more help? Contact us anytime at support@goodsted.com.