Defnenur İpek Botsalı

Work

About

Contact

Defnenur İpek Botsalı

Work

About

Contact

Defnenur İpek Botsalı

Work

About

Contact

Pennylane

How can we simplify expense reports, from spend to reimbursement?

Role

Product Designer

Team

3 Product Designers - Pablo Ponchin, Alfiya Sailaubayeva and myself

Timeline

2 Weeks

Scope

Product research

Prototyping

Localization

Prototyping

User Testing

Localization

User Testing

Tools

CONTEXT

Pennylane is an all-in-one accounting and financial management platform that connects SME leaders with their accountants, offering a single product that scales from freelancers to large SMEs.

Is the average reimbursement delay

Expense reports needing accountant back-and-forth

Of physical expenses happen on the go

This is a fictional case study exploring what an expense report submission feature could look like for Pennylane. This project was done during a product design bootcamp at The Design Crew in Paris, where Pennylane designers provided feedback on the project. It was originally conducted in French, and I localized it into English myself for this portfolio.

I was careful to translate this project using words closer to the original French, in order to stay accurate to the test results, for example, using "regulations" or "charter" rather than the more natural English equivalent, "policy," as you'll see later in this case study.

THE QUESTION

The main question was….

How can we simplify expense reports, from spend to reimbursement?

THE QUESTION

The main question was….

How can we simplify expense reports, from spend to reimbursement?

TARGET

The targeted users were….

Employees who front professional expenses on their personal card.

TARGET

The targeted users were….

Employees who front professional expenses on their personal card.

SUCCESS CRITERIA

The main success criteria were….

Reduce the average reimbursement delay of 21 days.

Reduce expense reports needing accountant back-and-forth.

Give employees real-time visibility into their reimbursement status.

SUCCESS CRITERIA

The main success criteria were….

Reduce the average reimbursement delay of 21 days.

Reduce expense reports needing accountant back-and-forth.

Give employees real-time visibility into their reimbursement status.

Some studies gave us useful statistics…

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), each expense report takes an average of 20 minutes to process, a duration that nearly doubles with each error. In 2025, manual management is estimated to cost finance teams an average of 20 hours per month.

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

A survey of ~500 employees at mid-sized companies found that the three biggest pain points when filling out an expense report are: the time it takes, lost receipts, and the manual nature of the process.

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Continuous carousel with 8 testimonials. Playing

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Continuous carousel with 8 testimonials. Playing

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Sage

According to URSSAF, 20% of expense reports contain an error (missing receipts, duplicates, non-compliant expenses), leading to reimbursement delays or outright rejections.

Apogea

On average, it takes 1 month for an employee to get reimbursed, not counting the time spent filling out the request forms.

Spendesk

When the rules around spending caps, meals, or mileage aren't written down, everyone interprets them their own way, and disputes multiply.

French Associate

Employees often find that expense report control and management policies lack clarity, due to their complexity or a lack of available information.

Finance Actu

A reimbursement delay can affect an employee's motivation, productivity, and trust in the company.

Swile

Rho, 2024 State of Expense Management Report

Many companies end up manually transferring data into Excel for the monthly close, around twenty hours of tedious admin work, where a single cell error can throw everything off.

Payhawk

Continuous carousel with 8 testimonials. Playing

The user research goals were…

Policy awareness

To understand what employees know about their company's expense process and policy.

Submission experience

To understand how employees experience submitting their expense report.

Reimbursement journey

To understand how employees experience the process through to reimbursement.

Five users were interviewed…

Stephane

Regularly submits expense reports

Yerlan

Regularly submits expense reports

Laurie

Occasionally submits expense reports

Klérvie

Occasionally submits expense reports

Axel

Regularly submits expense reports

The main insights of the research were…

Policy knowledge gap

Not all employees fully understand the expense policy and process.

Slow, manual capture

Submitting expense reports is a long, complex process; photographing the receipt is a common habit.

Visibility drives satisfaction

Employees are more satisfied when they have visibility into the steps and tracking of their reimbursement.

Craving full automation

All employees want the process full automation.

The revisited question was…

How can we make the expense report process transparent and centralize all actions related to it, while adapting to any company's reimbursement workflow?

The benchmark that structured the project was…

Rydoo
Expense report entry presented as a form
N2F
Expense report entry presented as a form
Expensya
The smart scan tool which detects automatically the details of your expense
Shine
The smart scan tool which detects automatically the details of your expense
Spendesk
Reimbursement progress tracking
Tiime
Reimbursement progress tracking
Payhawk
Viewing of monthly caps
Mooncard
Viewing of monthly caps

Rydoo
Expense report entry presented as a form
N2F
Expense report entry presented as a form
Expensya
The smart scan tool which detects automatically the details of your expense
Expensya
The smart scan tool which detects automatically the details of your expense
Expensya
The smart scan tool which detects automatically the details of your expense
Shine
The smart scan tool which detects automatically the details of your expense
Spendesk
Reimbursement progress tracking
Tiime
Reimbursement progress tracking
Payhawk
Viewing of monthly caps
Mooncard
Viewing of monthly caps

The steps for submitting an expense report on a platform usually are…

Home / Dashboard

Creating the expense report

Adding a receipt / document

Entering expense details

Accounting allocation

Adding additional lines

Preview of the report

Submission for approval

Manager approval

Accounting validation

Payment / reimbursement

The ideas we kept after a Crazy 8 session were…

The user test goals were…

Centralized visibility

Assess whether centralizing expense-related actions and making each step transparent simplifies the process.

Submission frictions

Identify friction points on the Expense Reports, Expense Report Folders, and Expense Policy screens, do users submit reports quickly and easily, and understand the interface?

Five users tested the product…

Axel

Regularly submits expense reports

Léna

Occasionally submits expense reports

Xiao Fei

Occasionally submits expense reports

Pierrane

Regularly submits expense reports

Hadrien

Occasionally submits expense reports

To prioritize what to build first, we had mapped the ideas on an effort/impact matrix…

More effort

Less effort

Red input state if amount exceeds the limit

Red input state if a mandatory field isn't filled in

Info icon with pop-up to see the limits at the start of the form

Change the term "Regulations" to "Charter" to refer to internal policy

Add asterisks to mandatory fields on the form

Make the "Edit" CTA orange to match the "To be corrected" status

Have the choice of who to contact

Add the "Contact" CTA on the tracking status card

Button to correct the expense report directly on the homepage

More impact

Less impact

Make "Add to folder" visible with a card at the start of the form

The solutions we tested brought us useful observations…

SOLUTION

Submitting an expense report

Smart recognition feature

Form entry

5/5 described the flow as smooth and natural

2/5 didn't understand which fields were mandatory

Reimbursement status tracking

Tracking the progress of a reimbursement

Notifications about corrections to make

4/5 understood the information shown on the progress screen

1/5 didn't notice the "to correct" tag

2/5 hesitated before finding progress status

Viewing their company's expense policy

Viewing the "Regulations" section

4/5 tried entering a new expense just to check whether the amount was valid

4/5 said the word "Regulations" wasn't clear

4/5 eventually found the section and checked the spending caps

Grouping multiple expense reports

Grouping expense reports into a folder

5/5 understood the folder concept

3/5 missed the "place in a folder" toggle

2/5 would have preferred a reversed workflow

Messaging

"Contact / follow up with manager" button

5/5 quickly noticed the "contact" button

2/5 questioned where the "contact" button was placed

ITERATION 1

Submitting an expense report

2/5 didn't understand which fields were mandatory

EFFORT / IMPACT:

Quick win

SOLUTION:

Added an asterisk on required fields

Added a feature to highlight empty required fields in red, when the user tries to move to the next step

ITERATION 2

Reimbursement status tracking / Error to correct

1/5 didn't notice the "to correct" tag

EFFORT / IMPACT:

Quick Win

SOLUTION:

Used the same color for the error message and the action button

ITERATION 3

Viewing the expense policy

4/5 tried entering a new expense just to check whether the amount was valid

EFFORT / IMPACT:

Big Impact

SOLUTION:

Turned the input field red when the spending limit is exceeded

4/5 said the word "Regulations" wasn't clear

EFFORT / IMPACT:

Quick Win

SOLUTION:

Replaced "Regulations" with the term "Charter"

ITERATION 4

Grouping multiple expense reports

3/5 missed the "place in a folder" toggle

EFFORT / IMPACT:

Big Impact

SOLUTION:

Added a step with cards showing the available options before reaching the form

ROLES OF MANAGERS & ACCOUNTANTS

Managers and accountants can configure directly within the app:

Expense report charter

Limits, deadlines, or authorized expense types.

Mandatory fields to fill in

Merchant name, project, client, category, etc.

HOW DO WE WIN?

Some statistics that validated our success criteria were…

compliance rate achievable with automated policy checks, per industry research.

average reimbursement time achievable with automation, per industry research.

Reduce the reimbursement delay from 21 days.

Reduce expense reports needing accountant back-and-forth.

Give employees real-time visibility into their reimbursement status.

WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY

If I redid this project…

I would have focused on the individual expense submission and reimbursement status tracking flows first, and left the folder-grouping feature and manager/accountant contact for a later phase, to give the two core flows a more refined, polished UI.

NEXT STEPS