A refreshed left-hand navigation, organized around the way you work.
Starting in June 2026, GrowthZone AMS is rolling out a refreshed left-hand navigation. The same pages, settings, and tools you use every day are still here — they're just organized in a clearer, more intuitive way. This article explains why we made the change, what to expect, and how to get around in the new navigation.
What's changing: how you get to things in GrowthZone AMS.
What's not changing: the pages themselves, your data, your settings, your permissions, or how any feature works.
Why we're making this change
GrowthZone AMS has grown a lot over the years, and the left navigation has grown with it — to the point where finding the right place to do a task often means scrolling, hunting, or remembering exactly where something was put. The new navigation is designed to fix that by organizing the platform around the way association staff actually work, instead of around the way the software was built.
The redesign was shaped by direct customer research and industry-standard UX principles, with input from membership directors, event coordinators, billing managers, and association leaders. The result is a navigation that:
- Reduces the time spent hunting for things. Related work lives together, so you spend less time clicking between unrelated areas of the platform.
- Brings settings closer to the work they affect. Configuring memberships now lives inside Memberships. Tax setup lives inside Finance. No more separate Setup detour.
- Makes the platform easier for new staff to learn. The menu now reflects the shape of association work, which means a new hire can find their way around without memorizing where everything was put.
- Gives GrowthZone room to grow. The new structure scales as we add capabilities, so the platform can get more powerful without becoming more cluttered.
What's new at a glance
The 21 top-level modules in today's navigation are being consolidated into nine role-shaped rails. Each rail groups related work — operations and configuration — into a single place. The legacy Setup menu, which contained 133 separate items, is going away; its contents have moved into the modules they belong to.
The nine rails
Each rail is built around a job to be done, not around a feature category. Most users will spend the majority of their day inside one or two rails.
| Rail | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Home | Your dashboard and workspace — your landing page every time you log in. |
| Contacts | All your contact records, lists, and contact-related tools. |
| Memberships | Members, applications, overdue management, benefits, engagement, info hub, and all membership configuration. |
| Events & Learning | Events, GZ Learn, Continuing Education, and configuration for these items — all in one place. |
| Marketing & Communication | Communications, marketing automation, forms and surveys, and web content — consolidated from four separate modules. |
| Revenue | All other non-dues revenue generating tools such as the Store, Sponsors/Ads, and Fundraising. |
| Finance | Billing, invoices, payments, deposits, credit memos, tax setup, and merchant portal. |
| Reports | All reports, in one rail. |
| Settings | Cross-cutting site and business configuration — the settings that affect your whole organization. |
How to get to anything in two clicks
Two steps. That's it.
- Click an icon in the primary nav rail. The primary nav rail is the narrow column of icons on the far left edge of the screen. Each icon opens one of the nine top-level rails — like Home, Contacts, Memberships, or Events & Learning.
- Pick what you need from the secondary nav. As soon as you click an icon in the rail, the secondary nav opens beside it with everything that lives inside that area. Choose the page you want — and you're there.
That's the whole pattern. If you want to switch to a different area, click a different icon in the primary nav rail and the secondary nav updates to match.
What everything is called
Here's the home screen with each part of the navigation labeled. The numbered pins match the table below.
| # | What it's called | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Announcement banner | The thin blue strip at the very top. Important global announcements appear here. |
| 2 | Top nav | The persistent dark bar below the announcement banner — visible on every screen. |
| 3 | Brand + product lockup | The GrowthZone AMS mark identifying the product. |
| 4 | Global search | Search across contacts, events, reports, and more from anywhere. |
| 5 | Quick Add | The + button for quickly creating common items. |
| 6 | Tasks Due | A shortcut to the tasks waiting for your attention. |
| 7 | Knowledgebase | Quick access to help articles and product documentation. |
| 8 | Account menu | Your profile, organization, and sign-out options. |
| 9 | Primary nav rail | The narrow icon column on the far left. Each icon opens a top-level area of the product. |
| 10 | Expand primary nav rail | Expands the primary nav rail so you can see the name of each rail next to its icon. |
| 11 | Settings | Cross-cutting settings that apply to all modules. |
| 12 | Section header | The name of the area you're currently in (e.g., Home, Events & Learning). |
| 13 | Secondary nav (subnav) | The wider panel just to the right of the rail. Shows everything inside the selected area.* |
| 14 | Nav section | A heading inside the secondary nav that groups related items (e.g., My Workspace). |
| 15 | Active nav item | The page you're currently viewing — highlighted in the secondary nav. |
| 16 | Collapse toggle | Hides the secondary nav so you have more room for the work itself. |
| 17 | Page title | The heading at the top of the page you're viewing. |
| 18 | Content area (canvas) | Everything to the right of the navigation — where your work happens. |
* The secondary nav is collapsed by default when you log in, so you'll see just the rail icons. Hover over any icon to see its name, or click it to open the secondary nav. Most people keep the secondary nav collapsed once they're settled into their primary rail for the day.
Settings live where you're working
In the old navigation, configuring something usually meant leaving the area you were in and hunting through a separate Setup menu. The new navigation fixes that. Every area has its own Settings item at the bottom of its secondary nav — and clicking it shows you only the settings that belong to that area.
Here's what that looks like for Event Settings:
| # | What it's called | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| A | Active nav item | Settings inside the Events section — you stay in Events & Learning the whole time. |
| B | Page title | The Event Settings page opens in the content area, with just the settings that matter to Events. |
The same pattern applies everywhere: Membership settings live inside Memberships, Tax setup lives inside Finance, and so on. You don't have to navigate out of the area you're working in just to adjust how it behaves. Only truly cross-cutting settings — like staff access, integrations, and website configuration — live in the dedicated Settings rail.
What's not changing
This release reorganizes how you get to things. It does not change the pages, the data, or the logic behind any feature.
- Your pages look the same. When you click into Contacts, Events, Invoices, or any other page, you'll see the same screen you see today.
- Your data is untouched. Members, events, invoices, communications, settings — all of it remains exactly as it is.
- Your permissions still apply. Staff users will only see the rails and items they have permission to access, just as today.
- Your workflows still work. Every task you do today can still be done — you'll just get there through a more organized path.
- Your integrations are unaffected. Connections to Constant Contact, MailChimp, Zoom, Higher Logic, and other integrations continue to work as configured.
When you'll see it
The new navigation will roll out to GrowthZone AMS accounts in phases mid-late June 2026. You'll receive in-product messages and notifications before the change reaches your account, along with updated Knowledge Base articles. Your Customer Success and Support teams will be fully trained on the new navigation in advance, so help is available the moment you need it.
Questions or feedback? During the beta period, May 27 – June 17, please reach out to Brenda.lundeen@growthzone.com with your questions or feedback. You can also attend one of the daily office hours sessions to give and receive live feedback. Contact Brenda and ask for the invitation.
After release to all customers, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Support — we want to hear how the new navigation is working for you, especially in the first few weeks after it reaches your account.
Last updated: May 2026 • GrowthZone AMS