Description
SCAD (Simple Custom Admin Dashboard) transforms your WordPress admin into a beautiful, efficient workspace. Perfect for content creators, agencies, and store owners who want a better admin experience.
🎯 Free Features:
- Custom Dashboard – Replace the default WP dashboard with shortcuts to your most-used admin pages
- Modern Design – Clean, professional interface with light/dark/auto color schemes
- Quick Access Cards – One-click shortcuts to Posts, Media, Pages, Comments, WooCommerce, and more
- Fully Responsive – Works perfectly on desktop, tablet, and mobile
- White Label – Customize menu titles and welcome text
- Easy Setup – Works out of the box with sensible defaults
💎 Pro Features (separate plugin):
- Notifications – See plugin updates, pending comments and form submissions at a glance
- Admin Menu Styling – Custom background, text, hover and active colors for the sidebar
- Widgets – WooCommerce stats and Quick Actions on your dashboard
- Custom Shortcuts – Add your own cards linking to any URL
- Drag & Drop – Reorder cards with drag and drop
- Export / Import – Save your setup and deploy it to any site in seconds
- Custom Color Theme – Create a fully custom color scheme
Pro is available as a separate add-on at hannesklingvall.se/scad-plugin/
🔌 Works Great With:
- WooCommerce
- Gravity Forms
- WP Super Cache / W3 Total Cache / WP Rocket
- Elementor
🛡️ Security First:
- Follows WordPress coding standards
- All inputs sanitized and escaped
- Nonce verification on all AJAX requests
- Capability checks throughout
- No data collection or tracking
Privacy
This plugin does not:
* Track users
* Send data to external servers
* Use cookies
* Collect any personal information
All settings and data stay on your WordPress installation.
Screenshots

The custom dashboard in light mode — clean cards for quick access to your most-used admin pages. 
The custom dashboard in dark mode. 
Pro version of the dashboard with the Quick Actions widget (clear cache, update plugins, run WP-Cron and more). 
Pro settings — Admin Menu tab for customizing the WordPress sidebar colors. 
Free settings — Colors tab with light, dark and auto color scheme options. 
Pro settings — Notifications tab showing available Pro features with the upgrade prompt at the bottom.
Installation
Automatic Installation:
- Log in to your WordPress admin panel
- Go to Plugins Add New
- Search for “SCAD Custom Admin Dashboard”
- Click “Install Now” and then “Activate”
Manual Installation:
- Download the plugin zip file
- Go to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin
- Choose the zip file and click “Install Now”
- Activate the plugin
After Activation:
- Go to “My Dashboard” in your admin menu
- Visit Settings to customize colors and which shortcuts appear
- Enjoy your new dashboard!
FAQ
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Is this plugin free?
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Yes! The free version includes the custom dashboard with shortcuts, color schemes (light/dark/auto), and white label customization. Pro features are available as a separate add-on.
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Will this replace my existing dashboard?
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By default, no. You can access your custom dashboard from the new menu item. Pro users can enable auto-redirect in settings to skip the default WP dashboard.
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Can I customize which shortcuts appear?
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Yes! Go to Settings Buttons tab and check/uncheck which shortcuts you want to see.
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Does it work with WooCommerce?
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Yes! The plugin automatically detects WooCommerce and adds relevant shortcuts.
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Can I change the colors?
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Yes! The plugin includes Light, Dark, and Auto color schemes in the free version.
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Does it work on multiple sites?
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Yes! The free version can be used on unlimited sites.
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Will this slow down my site?
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No! The plugin only loads on admin pages. It will not affect your site’s front-end performance at all.
Reviews
Contributors & Developers
“SCAD – Custom Admin Dashboard” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
ContributorsTranslate “SCAD – Custom Admin Dashboard” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.5 – 2026-03-24
- Fixed: Third-party admin notices (e.g. Elementor, plugin update banners) no longer overlay the custom dashboard or settings page
1.0.4 – 2026-02-19
- Fixed: Text domain updated to match plugin slug (klingvall-custom-admin-dashboard)
- Fixed: Removed inline script/style tags — assets now use wp_enqueue/wp_add_inline_style properly
- Fixed: Replaced pro-gating (disabled inputs, lock wrappers) with informational Pro upsell pages
- Fixed: Admin menu styling now correctly only applies when Pro add-on is active
- Fixed: Sanitization file cleaned up — no Swedish strings, debug comments removed
- Improved: Code quality and full WordPress.org guideline compliance
1.0.3 – 2026-02-12
- Fixed: Custom dashboard color scheme now applies correctly
- Fixed: Improved color sanitization for theme settings
1.0.2 – 2026-02-12
- Fixed: Color settings now save correctly
1.0.1 – 2026-02-12
- Fixed: Settings page rendering improvements
1.0.0 – 2026-02-12
- Initial release
