FinTech

FP&A platform for finance teams

A B2B platform for budgeting, forecasting and reporting. I came in as its first designer, ran three rounds of research to find where finance teams lose time, and turned the findings into a design system, rebuilt navigation and a self-serve report builder.

Client's country
Canada
Platform
Web · B2B
Team
33 people · first designer on the product
Duration
10 months · 2022–2023
The income dashboard: linked widgets, filters and presentation mode

Overview

A B2B platform for financial management: budgeting, forecasting, reporting and cross-department collaboration.

Starting point

No designer before me. I was brought in to find the key problems and build a structured plan to fix them.

What I did

Three research stages set the agenda; a design system, rebuilt navigation and Excel-native tables followed.

Result

Ad Hoc Reports let users build their own report templates, which cuts custom development.

Context

01

Product

Budgeting, forecasting and reporting tools with cross-department collaboration, role-based access down to individual cells, and configurable security.

02

Users

Finance teams, accountants and department heads. Departments edit only their assigned cells; managers see everything. Excel is their native language.

Approach

Analyze

Product analysis with an effort-impact matrix for quick wins.

Go inside

Interviews across departments and onboarding-call observation.

Validate

Surveys and moderated testing: prototype against the current version.

Three research stages turned a wall of visible issues into a prioritized, feasible plan.

Process

Effort-impact matrixHeuristic evaluationCompetitor analysisInternal interviewsOnboarding-call observationSurveysModerated usability testingService blueprintPersonasDesign system

01

Heuristic evaluation

The audit map: missing state feedback, inconsistent loaders, blank pages without guidance, generic errors, no validation, and misalignment with the Office-suite patterns users know.

02

Loader audit

Every loading state in the product, collected, then one pattern per case.

03

UX writing & icons

The same action named the same way everywhere: Back, Cancel, Save.

04 · React Bootstrap base

Design system

Standardized patterns, UX writing, breadcrumbs, sidebars and loaders, customized to the brand on a React Bootstrap foundation.

05

Component library

Inputs, search, statuses and permissions with every state drawn.

06 · behavior analytics

Navigation rework

Usage data reorganized the endless sidebar into two focused ones.

07

Excel-native toolbar

Table interactions rebuilt around the habits of Excel-native users.

Core functionality

01

Tables

Problem

Financial software is complex by nature: inputs, formulas, permissions. The interface had to get out of the way without oversimplifying the tools finance people rely on, because the same tables are used daily by power users and by someone opening the product for the first time.

Hypothesis

If tables open the product and behave the way the tool finance people already use behaves, the product's complexity stops being the barrier.

Solution

The product lives on data: tables as the initial view, with filtering and sorting shaped around how finance users actually scan numbers.

Tables: where the product opens

Finance people start from numbers, not charts, so tables open the product.

Result

Workflows refined with the finance teams themselves, so both groups could work without a translator.

02

Analytical dashboards

New creation flowTheme settingsModular grid templateExample templates

Problem

People used dashboards in completely different ways: as a start page, for KPIs, for presentations. A sizeable group avoided them altogether because there was no clear place to begin.

Hypothesis

If there is a modular grid and ready examples, a dashboard stops starting from a blank sheet, and all three groups of users build one.

Solution

Widgets users add and customize: charts with filtering and scaling, tables, images, text, all linked to source files and updating automatically. A modular grid and example templates give every team a clear starting point.

A dashboard built from linked widgets

Widgets link to source files, so dashboards update themselves.

Setting up a widget

Setting up a widget

Result

A dashboard no longer starts from a blank sheet.

03

Reports & templates

Problem

Departments had to see different things inside the same file: a department head enters their own figures and sees nobody else's, while only management sees the whole picture. A permission model that is flexible and still safe took several rounds with the developers and testing on real data.

Hypothesis

If permissions are set per file and per cell, departments can work inside one report without seeing each other's figures.

Solution

Advanced tables with complex calculations and per-role access: department heads input their figures without seeing other departments; only management sees the whole picture.

A report open in the editor

Excel's actions where accountants expect them, so there is nothing to relearn.

The toolbar: Excel's actions where finance people expect them

The toolbar: Excel's actions where finance people expect them

Every menu behind that toolbar

Every menu behind that toolbar

Role-based access inside one file

Role-based access inside one file

04

Ad Hoc reports

Problem

Every client wanted their own report template, and each one was a separate development task.

Hypothesis

If users can assemble a template themselves by picking variables, reporting stops waiting on the development queue.

Solution

Users assemble their own report templates by picking variables, which gives tailored reporting without waiting for custom development.

Ad Hoc: building a report from dimensions

Each custom template used to be a dev ticket. Now it's a few picks.

05

Data servers

Problem

Budgeting and forecasting run on datasets nobody can read raw. The job was to make trends and anomalies legible without flattening the numbers behind them.

Hypothesis

If the data is structured by dimensions, slicing it becomes a few clicks instead of a request to engineering.

Solution

The infrastructure view: large volumes of financial data with fast access and secure storage.

Data sources and their connections

Sources and connections in one view, for the people who run them.

06

Dimensions

Problem

Financial data has to be sliced by time, region and product, and in raw tables that turned into manual work.

Hypothesis

If dimensions are modelled explicitly, slicing becomes a choice rather than a rebuild of the table.

Solution

The attributes that slice financial data, such as time, region and product type, modeled visually for analysis and reporting.

The dimension model: hierarchies and members

Time, region, product: the axes every report is sliced by.

Editing a dimension

Editing a dimension

07

Upload manager

Problem

Source data arrived as files from everywhere, such as spreadsheets, documents and images, and lived outside the system.

Hypothesis

If everything uploads and lives in one place, the sources behind the numbers stop going missing.

Solution

Excel files, documents and images uploaded and organized in one place.

The file manager for uploads

Excel files, docs and images in one place, ready for reports.

08

Users & user groups

Problem

Access was configured person by person and file by file, and every new department made that less manageable.

Hypothesis

If permissions go to role-based groups, access scales with the company instead of against it.

Solution

Per-file permissions for viewing and editing; users belong to multiple groups, so access is configured by role instead of person by person.

Users, groups and their roles

Access by group, not person by person, so it scales with the company.

09

Workflows & tasks

Problem

Budgeting season ran on email: who had submitted what, and what was blocking, lived in threads.

Hypothesis

If the process is modelled as ordered tasks with owners, the state of the season is visible without a single email.

Solution

Structured processes with ordered tasks assigned to people: budgeting season as a managed pipeline instead of email threads.

A workflow and the tasks inside it

Budgeting season as a pipeline, not an email thread.

10

Sign in

Problem

Signing in gave no feedback: it was unclear whether an action registered, or what exactly was wrong.

Hypothesis

If states and validation are explicit, a person understands what went wrong on the first try.

Solution

Authentication reworked with clear states and validation feedback.

Sign in

Every state designed, and errors say what to fix.

States and validation

States and validation

11

Onboarding for non-financial users

Problem

People who are not finance professionals still have to enter figures and read reports, and they arrive for an outcome, not for a course in the product.

Hypothesis

If the product guides by scenario and explains in context, non-financial roles will manage without a separate training session.

Solution

Finance professionals are the primary users, but executives and department heads work in the system too. The onboarding was rebuilt around guided flows, in-context tooltips and scenario-based tutorials.

Note

The people who use it least often need the most guidance.

Result

They get into the product without a separate training session.

Key decisions

01

Two sidebars instead of one endless one

Problem

Navigation relied on a long scrolling sidebar with no grouping, and some items were duplicated in the header.

Hypothesis

If navigation is regrouped around what analytics shows people actually use, the endless sidebar splits naturally into core work and account settings.

Solution

Reorganized navigation into two sidebars, with core features in one and account settings behind the profile icon, driven by behavior analytics.

Proof

The rebuilt navigation shipped; duplicated entry points disappeared along with the scroll.

02

Meeting users in Excel, not against it

Problem

Accountants and managers live in Excel, so our different table interactions created usability friction instead of advantage.

Hypothesis

If table interactions mirror Excel habits, adoption follows, and the product's unique advantages become visible instead of hidden behind relearning.

Solution

Restructured table interactions to feel Excel-native and surfaced the product's advantages, such as linked data, roles and automation, on top of familiar mechanics.

Proof

Moderated sessions against the current version produced the prioritized feature list that went straight into development.

03

Ad Hoc reports over custom development

Problem

Every customer needed tailored report templates, and each one was built by the development team, which was slow and resource-intensive.

Hypothesis

If users can assemble templates themselves from variables, most custom-report requests disappear.

Solution

Designed the Ad Hoc Report builder: pick variables, get a tailored template, reuse it.

Proof

Tailored reporting without development in the loop: the feature cut custom-template work.

Outcome

  • A design system from scratch: patterns, UX writing, icons, loaders, color hierarchy
  • Navigation rebuilt into two sidebars from behavior analytics
  • Excel-native tables and dashboards people build themselves
  • Ad Hoc Reports cut custom development

A product with a foundation: consistent patterns, clear roles, and reporting that no longer waits for developers.

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