Before you dive into contacts, donations or cases, it helps to know where things are. This tour takes about ten minutes. You’ll look at the sidebar, the header along the top of every page, the account menu and your home page. Nothing you do here changes your data.

You need a ThirdSectorBee login. If you haven’t signed in yet, start with Set up your organisation.

1. Read the sidebar

The sidebar on the left lists the areas of ThirdSectorBee your beehive uses. Home sits at the top. Below it, each module is a group you can open and close; choose a group name to see its pages, then choose a page to open it.

The groups are arranged under headings:

Heading Groups you may see
(no heading) Relationships: Contacts, Organisations, Resources, Restricted Funds, Tribute funds, Segments, Exports, Stewardship, Reconciliation and Configuration
Fundraising Fundraising Activities, Fundraising Pipeline, Beneficiary Sponsorship, Events, Memberships
Programmes Programmes (including Impact) and Case Management
Misc Worker Bees, Engage, Data In and Out (uploads and integrations), Finance and Taxes

What you see depends on three things:

  • Which modules your beehive has. A module your organisation doesn’t use isn’t listed.
  • Your permissions. Some pages only appear when you can use them. For example, Finance needs finance:read:ledger, and Exports only appears if you can export data.
  • Your own choices. You can hide modules you don’t use. See Choose which modules you see.

A few items behave differently:

  • Under Data In and Out → Integrations, the sidebar lists only the integrations your beehive has turned on, plus More Integrations…, which opens the full catalogue.
  • Under Taxes, you see the scheme for your organisation’s home country: Gift Aid for the United Kingdom, tax-deductible gifts for Denmark, or donation tax relief for Italy. See Configure organisation settings.
  • Reconciliation shows a red number when settlements are waiting for someone to match them. See Resolve reconciliation exceptions.

On a phone or narrow window, the sidebar is hidden. Use the menu button at the top left to open it.

2. Use the header

The header runs along the top of every page.

Search. The search box in the middle (Search people, organisations, and resources) looks across contacts, organisations, resources and tribute funds. Type at least two characters and results appear in groups. Choosing a contact or tribute fund opens its record; choosing an organisation or resource opens the Relationships beehive.

Tasks. The Tasks button opens your task list. It isn’t shown if you’ve hidden the Tasks module. See Manage tasks.

Your organisation’s name appears beside the account menu on wider screens, so you can always see which beehive you’re in.

The account menu is the round badge with your initials at the far right. You’ll explore it in the next step.

3. Open the account menu

Choose your initials. The menu shows your email address at the top, then:

Item What it does
Switch to another beehive Appears only if you belong to more than one beehive. Each beehive is listed by name, with a tick beside the one you’re in.
Settings Your profile, permissions, team, organisation, security and, if you have access, billing and developer settings
View Modules Show or hide modules in your own sidebar and home page
What’s new Recent changes to ThirdSectorBee. See See what’s new
Share feedback Tell the ThirdSectorBee team about an improvement or a problem
My Feedback Feedback you’ve sent and any replies. A red number shows replies waiting for you. See Share feedback
Language Choose English, Dansk, Cymraeg or Italiano
Sign out End your session

If you’re a billing administrator and your beehive is in a trial with billing set up, the menu also shows Trial active — billing set up and the date you’ll first be charged.

Switch beehive

ThirdSectorBee calls each beehive a beehive in the menu. To move to another:

  1. Open the account menu.
  2. Under Switch to another beehive, choose the beehive.

You return to the home page of the beehive you chose. Anything open in the previous beehive, including the feedback panel, closes. Each beehive has its own records, permissions and settings.

Change your language

  1. Open the account menu and choose Language.
  2. Choose English, Dansk, Cymraeg or Italiano.

The interface changes straight away and a tick marks your choice. ThirdSectorBee remembers it in this browser, so you’ll need to choose again on a different computer. The language changes the app’s labels and messages; it doesn’t translate the records your team has entered.

4. Get to know your home page

Choose Home in the sidebar. Your home page greets you by name and shows:

  • Quick Actions: shortcuts to everyday jobs in your beehive’s modules, such as Find a contact, Add a contact, Create an event, Open a case, Create a worker bee, Create a form, Upload a CSV and your country’s tax area. You only see tiles for modules you use.
  • My Tasks: up to five open or in-progress tasks assigned to you, with their due date and status. Overdue tasks carry a red Overdue badge. Choose a row to open the task, View all → to see your full list, or Add Task to create one. If you have more than five, a line tells you how many more there are.
  • Tasks I’m following: open tasks you follow that are assigned to someone else. This panel only appears when there’s something to show.

The task panels need the tasks:read:tasks permission and are hidden if you’ve hidden the Tasks module.

The home page also has space for module summary tiles and a Needs your attention panel listing follow-ups, cases, Worker Bee activity, Engage submissions and Gift Aid items. These aren’t filled with your data yet in the current release, so you won’t see them on your page.

5. Notice banners

Occasionally a coloured banner appears above the page:

What you’ve learned

You can now find any module in the sidebar, search for a record, reach your tasks and settings, switch beehive and language, and read your home page.

Next steps