FinEasy is a platform aimed at helping businesses manage their finances, designed to make everything easily especially the invoicing process.
Duration
UX 6 weeks
UI 3 weeks
User Group
Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financial managers and accountants.
User Group
Ideation, User Research,
UI Visuals, Prototype, Wireframes, Interaction
Project Vision
FinEasy provides a one-stop solution. It's not just a tool, but an innovator in business financial management processes. It eliminates tedious and repetitive manual tasks through the power of technology, making invoicing ,budgeting, and data management automated and intelligent.
For small and medium-sized enterprises, efficient and accurate financial data management is crucial for daily operations. Therefore, FinEasy aims to enable business managers and finance-related personnel (such as accountants) to easily integrate and optimize financial data through advanced algorithms and a user-friendly interface.
Challenge
1）Solve the hassle of manually creating invoices.
2）Identify and match customer payment records.
3）Have standards for verifying staff expense receipts.
4）Address the tediousness of manually entering account details.
Process
Interview about our users
To better understand the financial management issues of small and medium-sized enterprises, I interviewed five financial management professionals from different industries. Then, through card sorting exercises, I identified common problems faced by the interviewees and conducted HMW (how might we) exercises to propose possible solutions.
●Insight 1
Automated Invoice Creation
The current accounts receivable process is very time-consuming, and traditional methods, which involve manual operations, often result in errors or omissions. In this end-to-end process, manually filling out invoices by checking contract-related information is hard to do quickly, efficiently, and accurately.
●Insight 3
Setting Budget
It's difficult to establish a reasonable baseline when approving employees' expense claims. It's hard to organize travel expenses reasonably and set a reasonable baseline.
●Insight 2
Matching Relevant Invoices
There are many complex transactions in business accounts, and after a customer makes a payment, it requires manual effort to add or update the transaction progress and manually filter out the relevant invoices for matching.
●Insight 4
Automatic Document Scanning
Updating and adding account transactions manually takes a lot of time and is prone to errors. An automatic document reading feature can reduce errors and cut down on repetitive, complex manual tasks.
Meet the users
Name: Blake Wilton
Age: 27
Occupation: Principal Accountant at Environment Entertainment
"I usually like to do sports and make new friends. At the same time, I am full of enthusiasm for work and enjoy the sense of accomplishment and mission that my work brings to me. With the advancement of technology, I am also pursuing new efficiencies at work in order to better bring benefits to the company. I think some steps can be optimized and improved."
"I usually like to do sports and make new friends. At the same time, I am full of enthusiasm for work and enjoy the sense of accomplishment and mission that my work brings to me. With the advancement of technology, I am also pursuing new efficiencies at work in order to better bring benefits to the company. I think some steps can be optimized and improved."
Name: Sara Shon
Age: 32
Occupation: Finance manager
at Pop Fashion
"I like to separate my life and work. I believe that working time should serve the company well, and living time is completely my own. But many times because of my sense of responsibility for the company's affairs, I can't do a good job. separated. So I wonder if there is some automated processing, it will greatly improve work efficiency and reduce the working hours in my life."
Competitive Analysis
I looked at several popular financial management SaaS products on the market, deeply understanding their functions and market positioning. FinEasy has an absolute advantage on the invoicing process among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The majority of the features between competitors were very similar, however the main differences that I noticed were:
-Customization VS Universality
-Easy to start VS operations requiring professional background
-Complex interface VS minimalist interface
FinEasy's advantage lies in its deep understanding of and focus on the financial management needs of SMEs. By simplifying and optimizing financial processes with automation and intelligent functions, and providing user-friendly data management and analysis tools, it meets the needs of a specific market. In the competitive analysis process, understanding the specific needs and pain points of target users, as well as the shortcomings of existing solutions, helped me to further clarify FinEasy's market positioning and development strategy.
Preparing the Journey
I constructed a site map of what a basic start to finish journey looks like while using the product. The priority of this journey stays with task managing and drawings sorting, but other functions are also included. This helps me in understanding the ways users can interact with the product, as well as allowing us to see navigation through user goals.
Wireflow
After sketching out some pen&pencil wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow, I reflected on what was priority and supplement, and what areas needed improvement. I took this step carefully to make sure the finishing touches are added on the underlying UX before moving on to the visuals.
Usability Test
From a financial professionals’ perspective, I conducted 5 user testing with 5 volunteers to help test, ensuring the product's information architecture made sense.
Participants were asked to perform 4 tasks:
1）automatically create invoices;
2）match the corresponding invoice information;
3）set a baseline;
4）automatically scan documents.
After receiving feedback, I continually optimized and iterated on my design.
●Change 1
From the usability test,
I optimized a more rational modal window design:
1）I changed the information cards content from the original contract to important information filtered and read automatically.
2）I added a "View Details" secondary button.
3）I standardized the size and use of buttons.
●Change 2
From the usability test,
I optimized a more reasonable module design:
1）I iterated the tabs to be more intuitive and easier to read.
2）I evolved the charts into cards for easier browsing and operation.
3）I standardized the use of action buttons.
FinEasy
The prototypes below showcase the design features to address the challenges which were discovered during the user research. FinEasy provides a platform for small and medium-sized enterprises to significantly improve the financial management efficiency and decision-making quality through its automated and intelligent functions and user-friendly design.
●Solution 1
Automated Invoice Creation
FinEasy uses advanced technology to automatically parse contract content, seamlessly generating invoices. This process not only improves the efficiency of invoice creation but also significantly reduces the errors and omissions that manual operations might introduce, ensuring the accuracy and consistency of financial records.
●Solution 2
Invoice Matching
With its intelligent matching system, FinEasy can automatically link customers' payment records to the corresponding invoices, achieving automatic filtering and confirmation of transaction records. This feature simplifies the financial reconciliation process, improves processing speed and accuracy, thereby optimizing cash management.
●Solution 3
Setting a Baseline
FinEasy can suggest a reasonable expense baseline automatically by analyzing employee expense data. This process not only enhances the efficiency of expense management but also ensures the reasonableness and fairness of expense policies, helping businesses more effectively control costs and budget.
●Solution 4
Automatic Contract Reading
Leveraging automation technology, FinEasy can accurately read and parse contract documents, automatically categorizing and organizing the company's expenses. This not only reduces the consumption of human resources but also improves the accuracy and efficiency of data processing, providing businesses with a clear, reliable financial management foundation.
Components
After defining the wireframe, I created a design system to ensure the consistency of visual elements. The design system also meets accessibility requirements, making my product usable by as many users as possible.
Reflection
In developing FinEasy, I delved into financial knowledge for the first time, which was both a challenge and an opportunity for growth. I learned the basics and processes of finance, demonstrating cross-disciplinary learning abilities. At the same time, I realized the importance of designing systems and user research, adjusting the design based on actual feedback to better meet user needs.
In terms of teamwork, as a designer in a multi-role team, I played the role of a coordinator, learning effective communication and conflict resolution, driving the project forward. This process not only improved my professional skills but also strengthened my teamwork and communication abilities, having a significant impact on my career.
During the design process of FinEasy, I deeply recognized the importance and challenges of solving financial management problems for small and medium-sized enterprises. My goal is to allow businesses to focus more on their core operations by simplifying and automating these processes. During this time, not only did we make technological breakthroughs, from data integration to designing intuitive interfaces, but I also learned how to think about problems from a user's perspective.
For the future of FinEasy, I am filled with anticipation. I believe that as the product continues to improve, it will become a powerful tool in business financial management, helping them increase efficiency and meet market challenges. I look forward to FinEasy becoming a highlight in the industry, continuously evolving to meet the current and future needs of businesses. In short, FinEasy represents not only my effort and commitment but also my hopes for creating better business solutions.
