Designing Invoice Management & Invoice Financing at Backbase

This project improved how business banking clients create invoices and access invoice financing on the Backbase web platform.

Many of Backbase's clients relied on manual invoicing workflows. Creating invoices took too long, mistakes were common, and payments were often delayed. Invoice financing—which could help businesses manage cash flow felt complex and disconnected from the invoicing process.

The result was a system that technically worked but didn't truly support how businesses operate day to day.

The problem

Early research and customer conversations revealed several clear issues.

Manual invoice entry slowed teams down and introduced errors. Invoice financing seemed intimidating and time-consuming rather than helpful. Invoicing and financing lived too far apart in the experience, forcing users to switch contexts when clarity mattered most.

What users wanted was simple: one place to manage invoices, understand cash flow risks, and act on them without friction.

My role

I worked as the Product Designer on this project, owning the UX and UI for both Invoice Management and Invoice Financing on web.

I partnered closely with a product manager, a frontend developer, and an illustrator. My responsibilities covered the full design process: user interviews, client workshops, journey mapping, interaction design, visual design, and prototyping. I also helped establish foundations using Backbase's design system to ensure the solution could evolve over time.

Understanding users

We conducted regular interviews with Backbase business banking customers to understand how invoicing fit into their workflows.

What stood out wasn't a demand for advanced features, but a desire for fewer obstacles. Users wanted to create invoices quickly, reduce errors, and see clearly what was paid, overdue, or at risk. When cash flow issues appeared, they wanted guidance—not another complicated process.

These insights shifted our focus from "adding financing" to designing moments where financing becomes a natural next step.

Defining the focus

Through workshops and user story mapping, we explored the needs of different roles business owners, CFOs, finance managers, and analysts.

Despite different responsibilities, their goals overlapped. Everyone needed clarity, speed, and confidence in the numbers. This led to a single guiding question:

How might we integrate invoicing and financing in a way that supports better financial decisions, not just transactions?

Designing the experience

A key part of the solution was bringing everything together at the dashboard level.

Instead of treating invoice financing as a separate feature, we designed it as a contextual option that appears when relevant. When overdue invoices impact cash flow, the system highlights potential risk and surfaces financing options directly within the invoicing experience.

This approach turned a stressful moment into one where users felt supported and informed.

Visual and interaction design

The visual design focused on clarity and restraint.

Status indicators showed which invoices were open, overdue, or financed. Information was grouped to make scanning easy, and actions stayed close to the data they related to. Error states and confirmations used clear language so users understood what went wrong and how to fix it.

The Backbase design system ensured consistency while allowing flexibility to introduce new components where needed.

The outcome

The final solution significantly improved how businesses interact with invoicing and financing on the platform.

Creating invoices became faster and less error-prone. Businesses gained earlier visibility into cash flow risks, and invoice financing felt more approachable and integrated into everyday workflows. Feedback from EMEA clients and customer success teams confirmed improvements in efficiency, cash flow management, and satisfaction.

What I learned

This project reinforced a few important lessons.

In business banking, clarity almost always matters more than complexity. Proactive design can transform anxiety into trust. And continuous feedback, paired with good documentation and onboarding, is just as important as the interface itself.