Expense Management

Redesigning financial clarity to make faster, more informed decisions

I transformed a legacy expense management platform into an intuitive, data-rich dashboard that empowers finance professionals to make faster, more informed decisions. By introducing visual tools like radar charts, performance heatmaps, and real-time trend indicators, the redesign helps users cut through noise, detect issues early, and track performance with confidence

ROLE

Product Designer

DURATION

4 months

Product Manager
Front End Engineer
Back End Engineer

TEAM

Data Visualization
Data Analytics
User Interface Design

RESPONSIBILITIES

Problem Space

Slow navigation and unclear trends delay decision-making and strategic planning

Users of the expense management platform face time-consuming navigation and disconnected workflows that slow down access to essential financial data. Additionally, limited visualizations and the absence of trend indicators make it difficult to interpret spending patterns or track progress over time.

Pushing users to create manual workarounds

Users must click through multiple screens and tabs to find related financial data, leading to a disjointed and mentally taxing experience.

Decision-makers lack the clarity needed

The platform’s static data presentation fails to help users understand patterns, spikes, or long-term trends in company spending.

“It’s hard to see the bigger picture or track progress over time.”

“I need to explain these numbers to my team, but the platform doesn’t help.”

~ Analytics team members

Design Goals

How can we solve this?

  1. Reduce the number of steps needed to access essential metrics and reports. Prioritize task flows based on user needs to minimize friction and support quicker decision-making.

  2. Incorporate interactive and comparative data visualizations to help users understand spending patterns and changes at a glance.

  3. Create customizable dashboards that adapt to different user roles (e.g., finance lead vs. department manager)

Design Iteration

There’s a need to easily compare current performance against benchmarks (like YTD averages) to detect anomalies or opportunities.

I got inspired by how radar charts are used in performance dashboards for athletes and business intelligence tools to show balance and comparison in a single glance.

I wanted to create something that feels analytical yet approachable to make users feel more in control of complex data

https://content-management-files.canva.com/180640fa-7139-4d3e-9240-1b0af35a910c/graph_radar-chart_promo-showcase_01.png

https://images.ctfassets.net/pdf29us7flmy/5mprhdphU1vRp21UBgYcMZ/22e792079efd98559961327af1b437ab/radar-charts.png

There is a need to reduce time spent on manual data interpretation, especially for non-technical users

I realized with the heatmap table that while it was effective for scanning performance row by row, it became overwhelming when trying to understand overall balance across metrics. The table was great for detailed tracking, but it lacked a clear visual summary that could highlight imbalances or strengths at a glance.

https://www.tableau.com/sites/default/files/2021-09/Highlight%20Table%20-%20Bad%20-%20900x650.png

Final features

Performance snapshot dashboard

provides users with a consolidated view of key financial performance indicators using a radar chart, live KPI updates, and compliance status indicators. It combines current data (“Today”) with a baseline comparison (e.g., “YTD Average”) to help users track growth and detect performance gaps across metrics like Return on Assets, Utilization, Profit Margin, and Equity

Scenario

A finance lead logs in to prepare for the weekly executive review. They need a high-level yet detailed overview of company financial health to present in their slide deck.

Final features

Operational performance breakdown

This dashboard provides a layered view of financial performance across different business units and timeframes. The heatmap is designed for at-a-glance identification of high- and low-performing feeds, using green, yellow, and red to indicate performance tiers.