sTREAMLINING
INVOICE APPROVALS
Designing a custom accounts payable app that streamlines workflows, removes daily pain points, and unifies team collaboration in one powerful tool
PROJECT OVERVIEW
My Role: Lead Designer
Tools:
Figma
Miro
Team:
2 Designers
5 Developers (Web)
2 Product Managers
Timeline: 1-Year
The Challenge: Creating a role-based application for a client's Accounts Payable departments to approve, correct, and monitor budgets across departments. Hyland, creator of OnBase (an automatic document sorting, capturing, and categorizing software used by businesses everywhere including hospitals, financial institutions, small businesses and more), was asked to create a role-based application for AP departments based on OnBase and the existing design system.
The Outcome: Launched a fully integrated AP approvals application connected to Hyland’s OnBase, improving time-to-payment by 44% and reducing high-security invoice approval wait times by an entire day.
STREAMLINING INVOICE APPROVALS
THE PROCESS
RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
Worked with 4 AP teams from 3 companies and subject matter experts to understand the job and how the application could help. Product management and the design team identified the rough workflow of an AP invoice and how it gets approved.
Current pain points include: not being able to access AP tools while away from the office, waiting days to weeks for a higher level approval, with no tracking system, and uncertainty about where and how to edit line items for invoices before approving.
STREAMLINING INVOICE APPROVALS
IDEATION & EXPLORATION
Using the beginnings of a design system, the team started with mid-fidelity mockups based on competitive analysis of existing AP applications in the market and documented outstanding questions.
Competitors include bamboo, our own existing OnBase tool, Stampli and Bill.
We prioritized our features based on what was most requested or discussed in initial interviews and testing, followed by what we felt was a market differentiator for us.
Early Design & User Testing: Performed 2 separate tests for mobile and desktop to ensure both solutions worked well for approvers with a total of 25 AP Clerks. We found almost all users could quickly and easily approve or reject invoices, but we noticed some users struggled to find the approve/reject buttons on the initial mocks.
EXPLORING SOLUTIONS
STREAMLINING INVOICE APPROVALS
DESIGN & REFINEMENT
The solution was built around understanding the complete workflow and providing users with the information they needed at the right time.
Key Design Features:
Visual Guide to Work Priority Users wanted to start the application with a visual guide to the work they needed to get done. On the left, we break down their pending invoices by most urgent. We also provide a list of critical invoices that can be determined per company, for example: vendors who like to be paid ASAP, a high dollar amount, or an invoice that has a large discount available if paid early.
Core Workflow Display When in their core workflow, we wanted to present the user everything they needed to make a decision on an invoice. These items included budget, due date, comments from others, and line items for coding.
General Ledger Line Item Editing In a later update, users will be able to edit general ledger line items to take some strain off the next department if they are able. This increases the speed of approval and minimizes the amount of back and forth communication between parties.
Mobile Workflow Optimization Mobile workflows are key to AP Approvals running smoothly. Many users discussed wanting to be able to review and approve invoices on the go, especially when they've left the office for a long period of time and need to approve something they've forgotten about.
CRAFTING THE SOLUTION
STREAMLINING INVOICE APPROVALS
FINAL PRODUCT
THE DELIVERED EXPERIENCE
The final application provides AP departments with a comprehensive tool to manage invoice approvals efficiently across both desktop and mobile platforms. The solution streamlines the approval workflow by presenting all critical information in context, allowing approvers to make informed decisions quickly.
The application is currently available as part of a suite of financial products at Hyland, and can be used for small and large teams alike.
STREAMLINING INVOICE APPROVALS
IMPACT & RESULTS
MEASURING SUCCESS
Users in beta unanimously reported that the new experience was significantly better than the legacy software, leading to a 50% reduction in errors across the board. For the business, this improvement translated into measurable cost savings, as teams were able to take advantage of vendor discounts through more efficient, on-time payments.
Improvement time to payment by 44%
Eliminated 1 day of wait time per high-security approval