Sammy's Design Portfolio

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résumé

Enhancing the reimbursment process for small busniesses

Project Overview

Small businesses were waiting over two weeks for reimbursements, causing frustration and inefficiency. During my internship, I redesigned the end-to-end experience in QuickBooks Online, cutting that time by 70%.

Responsibility

Designed an AI-powered chat interface for QuickBooks reimbursements that used intelligent receipt parsing and conversational guidance to simplify expense submissions for small business owners.

Role & Team:

Lead Product Designer collaborating closely with 2 Senior PM's, 2 Principal Designers and Engineering Stakeholders

Enhancing the reimbursement process for small businesses

Project Overview

Responsibility

Designed an AI-powered chat interface for QuickBooks reimbursements that used intelligent receipt parsing and conversational guidance to simplify expense submissions for small business owners.

Role & Team:

Lead Product Designer collaborating closely with 2 Senior PM's, 2 Principal Designers and Engineering Stakeholders

Impact

14 → 4 days

reduction in time to reimbursement

95% adoption

intent shown during user testing

70% faster

turnaround for employees

Providing Context

What is Quickbooks Online?

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is Intuit’s cloud-based platform that helps millions of small businesses manage their finances, from payroll and invoicing to expense tracking.

What is Employee Expense management?

Within QBO, expense management lets businesses track and approve employee purchases. It ensures receipts are submitted, policies are followed, and employees are reimbursed.

So what's the problem?

Breakdown in communications slow reimbursments

Manager

Without clear transaction context, admins spend extra time chasing employees for missing details, delaying reimbursement.

Employees

Unclear requests and slow responses mean employees wait weeks to get paid.

Current State

Expense reimbursement was fragmented and slow

Vision State

A streamlined, transparent reimbursement flow

Market Research

Understanding our competitors

A conducted a one-week competitive analysis of four products revealed how existing tools manage reimbursements and employee–admin communication. Key insights highlighted gaps that shaped the initial design concepts.

Competitors

Strengths

Real-time collaboration

Chat-based UI for easy communication

Comments within expense form

AI Driven responses

Weaknesses

Overwhelming notifications

UI is buried and hard to find

Fragmented process across channels

Lack of accuracy and transprency

Market Research

Understanding our competitors

Competitors

Strengths

Real-time collaboration

Chat-based UI for easy communication

Comments within expense form

AI Driven responses

Weaknesses

Overwhelming notifications

UI is buried and hard to find

Fragmented process across channels

Lack of accuracy and transprency

While the comment functionality in Zoho resembled the interaction I intended to design, it suffered from poor discoverability, making the overall experience unintuitive.

To address reimbursement delays, I looked at Bill.com’s reminder system as a potential model for using SMS to drive quicker user action.

User Research

Customer Pain Points

To understand the communication breakdowns causing reimbursement delays, I conducted interviews with small business managers and employees across nonprofits, telecom, and HOA management companies. I found 4 main issues:

Communication Breakdown

Long Turnaround TImes

Long Turnaround Times

Poor Visibility

Process isn't "full circle"

"My coworkers don't really know enough about accounting so often times there's a little bit of a conversation needed to for me to interpret it into accounting. Clarification is needed at least half the time"

"It's way too long. 3 weeks from start to finish to reimburse an expense. She is the delay because there are so many expenses to reimburse."

"Employees would not really go into QuickBooks unless they are submitting an expense so how would they know that the admin has left comments?"

"It's way too long. 3 weeks from start to finish to reimburse an expense. She is the delay because there are so many expenses to reimburse."

"Employees would not really go into QuickBooks unless they are submitting an expense so how would they know that the admin has left comments?"

Concept Exploration

Initial MVP concepts

Combining my research and interview insights, I mapped out 3 concepts to streamline communication and reduce delays

In-form Commenting

Add contextual, threaded comments directly on expenses to avoid long email chains.

In-form Commenting

Add contextual, threaded comments directly on expenses to avoid long email chains.

Chat System

Enable quick, lightweight conversations tied to expense items rather than scattered across channels.

Chat System

Enable quick, lightweight conversations tied to expense items rather than scattered across channels.

Real-time Notifications

Push instant alerts (SMS, email, in-app) for comments, rejections, or approvals to keep the process moving.

Real-time Notifications

Push instant alerts (SMS, email, in-app) for comments, rejections, or approvals to keep the process moving.

Concept #1

Communication via Expense Forms

I explored two approaches to embedding communication directly within the expense form:

Inline Comments

Comments appear directly within the expense form under each field.

Inline Comments

Comments appear directly within the expense form under each field.

Chat Drawer

A side panel opens when the admin requests more info, keeping comments visible but separate from the main form.

Chat Drawer

A side panel opens when the admin requests more info, keeping comments visible but separate from the main form.

Concept #2

Communication via People

I also explored a people-based approach, where managers and employees could chat one-to-one in a pop-up panel, similar to Slack. This made communication feel lightweight and familiar, but risked losing context since conversations weren’t tied to a specific expense.

Pop-up Chat

Concept #3

Real time Notifications

Timely responses are critical for reducing delays. Notifications via push, SMS, or email alert employees and admins instantly, allowing them to respond directly without leaving their workflow.

Push

SMS

Email

Push

SMS

Email

User Testing

Do the Customers like it?

I created interactive prototypes of both the inline comments and side drawer concepts, then conducted A/B testing with 13 users to evaluate which interaction model better fit their workflow and reduced friction in clarifying expenses.

What Resonated ✅

Side drawer kept context visible without cluttering the expense form as threads grew

Email + SMS notifications ensured users saw requests immediately, even when not in the app

Documented conversation history eliminated "he said, she said" disputes and gave managers a reference trail

Friction Points ❌

Missing comment management: Users expected to edit, delete, and reply to specific comments (standard in Slack/Figma)

Hidden entry point: Comment button in the footer got buried—users wanted it elevated or highlighted with a badge

Repetitive typing: Admins asked for AI-suggested responses for common requests ("Can you add a receipt?" / "What vendor?")

Slack loyalists: Some power users preferred their existing tools over adding another communication channel

Final Design

Let's make some improvements…

Comment Drawer

Comment Button

Comment Button

Final Prototype

Reflections

What did I learn?

As this was my first internship and my first time working at such a successful company, I initially felt a bit intimidated. I felt like a small speck in the vast world of Intuit and wondered how I could make an impact. However, as the weeks passed and I grew more comfortable with both my team and myself, I gained confidence. I began to feel like a seasoned employee who had been part of the company for years. With the support of my incredible manager, who believed in me every step of the way, I was able to deliver what I consider my best work and proudly present it to my team and now, to everyone. It was so cool to see how such a large company works behind the scenes and to be part of it was something I will never forget. Here are a few takeaways from my 3 months at Intuit:

Customers are valuable

Testing showed me that usability and functionality matter more than aesthetics. A design I thought looked better was rejected by 90% of users because it was harder to use. This reinforced that customer feedback must drive design decisions.

Communication is Key

Collaboration required me to clearly explain my design rationale, not just share screens or files. I learned that effective communication builds trust, keeps teammates engaged, and makes design outcomes stronger.