I'm in general agreement with others here about the issues with the Donation UI update. The major issues affecting my workflow:

--Please do not release major donation UI updates in December. Our annual giving day was on December 2, likely along with many other community foundations. Even if the new UI were perfect, I would not want to be forced to learn it while under one of my heaviest workloads of the year.

--The breakout of References, Tasks, Files, and Notes as tabs at the bottom of the page once the donation is processed, with References as the default tab being displayed, hides information our finance manager and I need when reviewing donations for completeness and accuracy before posting. In the old UI, I could just scroll down and see the names of the files I had attached to the donation (a key part of our documentation process). Now the files are hidden under another tab, increasing the number of clicks needed to review each donation and increasing the rate of errors where files do not get attached.

--As others have said, it does not make sense to me that the Process button is in the middle of the page, or that key fields have been relegated to "Additional Information." I strongly preferred the linear layout of the old UI, as many of those fields are required in our workflow and it doesn't make sense to backtrack to the Process button.

--The general grouping of fields could be improved. Why is Check Number in a completely different section than Payment Method? Why would the Anonymous button and Recognition Name be in a separate section from Donor and other closely related fields?

I do like that the new UIs across the board have made better use of larger windows by bumping sections up to the right side of the screen when there's space to do so, but unfortunately that tends to make it a little chaotic in terms of making things less linear.

I submitted as a separate idea, but I'll re-paste my comments here:

Thank you for the updates to the Add Donation page. I wanted to share a few observations that might help improve the user experience:

The Process button currently appears in the middle of the page, which can feel awkward unless you’re on a larger monitor.

Since most of our gifts come via check, the workflow for entering check donations could be more intuitive. After selecting “Check,” the next section is Tributes, and the Check Number field appears much further down. On smaller screens, this makes the page feel cramped, while on larger screens, it feels overly spread out and difficult to tab through.

The Receipt Template field appears first, but the checkbox for “Tax Receipt Needed” is several fields later. It might be helpful to group these closer together for clarity.

Overall, the layout feels a bit challenging for quick data entry. A more streamlined arrangement could make the process smoother.

Also, thoughtful timing for a release such as this would be helpful. Many of us are in the middle of annual appeals during this time of year, and data entry has slowed as a result.

Thank you for considering these suggestions! We appreciate the work that goes into improving the platform.

I agree with what many people have already mentioned:
1. Please don't make changes in December
2. The check number shouldn't be additional information, it should be next to the payment method.
3. The process button is in the middle of the enter process, which is weird.
4. The "Needs Tax Receipt" and "Receipt Template" fields should be next to each other.

This is such a critical topic and the change is definitely slowing up our process. Most baffling is the Additional Information Block which sometimes shows up next to the Donation Block and sometimes at the very bottom of the page. Once you find that block and then click on Tax Receipt Template the entire block moves to the bottom of the page. Making it a crazy game of "Find the Tax Receipt" section as it's not consistent. It literally moves while you are working in it.

Adding my voice in with all the others - I agree with everyone who's commented so far. (Esp Bianca, Jenny, Nikki, and Crystal)
Very frustrating new update.

The process button being in the middle of the donation page is baffling. The data entered under "Additional Information" is important and not optional for us to enter. Why has it been sent to the bottom of the page far from the process button? It only goes to the side if the window is opened to be very large but I'm often looking at other documents while entering gifts so I need the page to function in a smaller window, not just when it's taking up my entire screen. Also, now buttons like "Add donation" "Add file" "Add note" and "Edit" are scattered all around the profile pages instead of being in one place on the left side menu. This does not make it easier to navigate.

Strongly agree that updates to donation should not be made at busiest time of year (this happened about two years ago too in December, so something is not tracking with the understanding the workflow of foundations).

On the create donation page, would love to see:
1. Check Number proximate to the Payment Method selection
2. Tax Receipt Template to be next to the Needs Tax Receipt checkbox

On donation page (once created) would like Files to be on the main view (more important for us, than the references that it is currently defaulting to). We attach backup to each grant, and having that extra click creates an issue for us.

Agreed on the previous comments that making this change in December is challenging and painful for staff who enter gifts at the busiest time of the year. Layout suggestions:
-Move Check Number to be under Payment Method, which is the intuitive location as you're entering the gift.
-Move the Tribute Information section to the bottom, after the Additional Information section. As others have said, some of the Additional Information fields are mandatory for us gift entry folks.
-Add an additional Post button to the bottom so we don't have to scroll back up to post every single gift.
-Move the Reviewed button back to the left navigation panel. Having to scroll back up after reviewing each grant seems like a small delay but when I'm entering up to 150 gifts daily at the end of the year, it becomes very time-consuming.

After further review of the batch workflow, that is not going to work for us either unless all the donations are postmarked on the same date since the date and fund name are the boundaries for establishing the batch and we use the postmark date for items mailed to us. It would work if the items were hand delivered together, but that is infrequent.

The flow of entry of the donation is so off. You have the process button under the Add Donation, WHY? The Tribute information before the Additional Information, WHY? Apply to spendable is part of the amount you put in, why would you not have it with the Add Donation part???? This does not make sense at all. The way this was implemented, does anybody there enter donations to know how it works and flows?

I couldn't agree more with Crystal on changing the donation page at the busiest time of the year!

I would like to share my feedback of the new donation screen. Changing this area during the busiest time of year for CF’s is going to frustrate alot of clients. Folks that normally are responsible for donation entry do not handle change well.

I understand you may have needed to change the entry screen for batch processing, but it looks like the donation screen was just split into a few extra boxes. I think there are several fields in the Additional information box that should be included in the “add donation box”. For example, Anonymous Flag and Need Tax Receipt box. I think for many organizations the Additional Information box does not seems like optional information.

I was initially excited to learn about the batch processing option and maybe it will help our gift entry staff at some point, but to change the entire donation UI in December is so problematic! We had a newer staff member start training on gift entry today and the person training her was struggling at best. Also, the layout is clunky and not very intuitive as to where things are, specifically the check number, etc. There are many unhappy people in our office today.

New releases for Money In → Donations → Review shouldn’t launch in December—it’s simply too busy in December to learn a new system. Next time I suggest you wait until January so we can actually celebrate the upgrades instead of trying to learn the new way of doing things during our busiest month.