Reimbursement Portal

Product

The Reimbursement Portal, built within a Member Portal, simplifies the expense reimbursement process for employees and managers. Allowing users to submit expenses, while admins can manage and track reimbursements. With features like delegation and secure bank information storage, the platform enhances efficiency, transparency, and accuracy in managing reimbursements.

Example product screencap

My Role

  • 🧠 User Insights Guru: Led stakeholder interviews to identify pain points and usability risks, researching other reimbursement portals to understand best practices. This informed the design of a seamless user interface that simplified the reimbursement process and improved overall user experience.

  • 🧠 Product Design Architect: Created all mockups and designed the product interface, working closely with the development team to bring the vision to life. Collaborated through each stage of development, ensuring the product’s design aligned with user needs and technical requirements.

  • 🧠 Roadmap Lead: Collaborated with leadership to shape the product’s roadmap, ensuring it aligned with company goals and addressed the evolving needs of employees.

  • 🧠 Quality Assurance & Ticket Master: Developed comprehensive feature tickets and led the testing process, ensuring all features were thoroughly tested before release. Managed bug tracking, monitored progress, and collaborated with the development team to ensure the highest standards of quality were met.

Execution

When I joined the project, there was no dedicated reimbursement portal. The users reimbursement process was manually handled through NetSuite, creating inefficiencies and slow approval cycles. Members/employees faced delays in receiving reimbursements, which negatively impacted morale.

I took the initiative to design and build a brand-new reimbursement portal from scratch. With limited resources—a sole developer and no dedicated QA team—I led the effort to create a streamlined, automated system to manage expense submissions, approvals, and tracking. My role encompassed everything from product design to testing, as I personally handled QA to ensure the system functioned smoothly.

Despite the lack of a large team, I collaborated closely with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure the portal was user-friendly, efficient, and integrated seamlessly with existing systems. The result was a fully functional reimbursement portal that significantly reduced processing times, improved transparency, and minimized errors, ultimately enhancing the users experience.

Challenges & Achievements

Challenges

  • 🚧 Seamless NetSuite Integration Since the back-end was powered by NetSuite, I worked to ensure that the portal integrated smoothly with this system to securely house user financial information. This integration had to be efficient and accurate, ensuring a seamless flow of data between the portal and NetSuite.

  • 🚧 Rapid Execution Under Pressure: With only one developer and no dedicated QA resources, I took on the responsibility of testing the feature while balancing objectivity to avoid bias. The timeline was tight, as we had a demo scheduled for a potential prospect. The sales team had promised the feature, but it didn't exist yet, so we needed to deliver a working solution quickly to meet expectations.

  • 🚧 Navigating Stakeholder Opinions: With multiple stakeholders involved, managing differing opinions and aligning everyone on a common vision was crucial. I worked to balance feedback from all sides, ensuring that the solution met both business goals and user needs while maintaining a fast-paced development timeline.

Achievements

  • 🏅 Improved Reimbursement Speed: The new portal reduced the reimbursement process from several weeks to just days, enabling employees to receive their reimbursements much faster. This not only boosted user/employee morale but also streamlined financial operations.

  • 🏅 Driving Sales and Adoption: Post-launch, the feature improved the overall product offering, contributing to a 15% increase in sales as it became a selling point for potential clients. The integration with NetSuite provided valuable financial visibility, driving confidence in both internal teams and customers.

  • 🏅 Increased Transparency and Accountability: With automated tracking and approval workflows, employees could now easily check the status of their reimbursements, and managers could review expenses with greater visibility. This led to a significant reduction in errors and fraud, ultimately improving trust in the system.