Time Entries & Approvals
2023 · 4 MONTHS · QUICKBOOKS TIME, INTUIT
Design Process
BRIEF
While migrating the legacy QuickBooks Time product (TSheets) into QuickBooks Online, customers stated that too much was changing without guidance. To address this, the Change Management project kicked off, building confidence with our customers. A team of designers, project managers, and dev leads reviewed UserVoice feedback from our customers and created a list of the top items in QuickBooks Time that needed addressing. Improving Time Entries and Approvals was among the top items.
My role was to create a seamless first-time-use experience for customers who haven’t yet interacted with the new Time Entries or Approvals space and to ensure the zero states for these areas could help the customer start on the right foot, helping them on their journey to approving time for payroll and invoicing, so they can run their business.
CUSTOMER PROBLEM
I am a business admin with 65 employees using QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Time. I am trying to review timesheets to ensure they are ready for Payroll, invoicing, and job costing. But I find reviewing the volume of timesheets to be inefficient and cumbersome. Because the time tracking area in QuickBooks is constantly changing and updating, making it hard to learn the new experience. Which makes me feel confused as to why there are two time-tracking products and that I don’t have time to learn the new space.
IDEAL STATE
In a perfect world, I could run payroll and create invoices with the time my workers track effortlessly. The biggest benefit to me is the time I’ll save by not bouncing back and forth between timesheets, payroll, and invoices. Which makes me feel relieved and confident that I’m working efficiently while billing time and paying workers.
PRINCIPLES
Help me get started. Show me what’s important. Help me when I need it.
Research
We conducted 12 customer interviews with employers who use QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Payroll to pay their employees and keep track of their team members’ time.
AREAS OF FOCUS
We dove into their workflows, from reviewing time, editing, and approving the time, through running payroll, to see what areas needed enhancement, what were delighters, and what was missing.
INFORMATION GATHERED
Throughout these interviews, a few product designers and I teamed up to test and iterate on quick sketches, updated layouts, and explorations we had.
We gathered feedback and insights on the approvals flow, the time entries space, and the new QuickBooks Time experience.
KEY LEARNINGS
We quickly learned our customers crave insights into what’s updated and when.
Customers favor the legacy time-tracking solution over the new space because we are changing too much too fast.
design explorations
We explored many options while curating a consistent first-time-use and zero-state experience across the Time tab in QuickBooks. We made the strategic decision to display tooltips. One to call out the largest change to Time Entries, the new filter option, merging four tables into one. The second tooltip only shows in the zero state, drawing attention to their next logical move—adding time, which allows them to view all of the goodness the Time Entries report offers. Through our research, customer interviews, and UserVoice feedback, we compiled main workflows and common questions customers may have while working in Time Entries. After consolidating the list, I worked with a content designer to create a help article that pulls out as a panel triggered by the “Learn more about time entries” link. In the zero state, we followed the pattern from legacy QuickBooks Time by adding a link that surfaces the date range with the last tracked timesheet. Adding the date range helps the employer easily find the timesheet they’re searching for. Customers look at past dates while correcting timesheets for accurate reporting, which informed our decision on which date range to show and when.
Tooltip
FTU- calls out Add Time CTA if there isn’t any time to show for the date range selected, only displays once.
Learn more link
Custom knowledge-based article with information on how to use Time Entries and addresses frequently asked questions.
Illustration
Worked with the visual design team to select an illustration from the Intuit design system.
Go to date link
In Time Entries, we call out the last date with tracked time on it if there isn’t any data to show.
Change management
Through customer interviews and feedback collected, we decided as a team it was time to address some sort of change management in Time Entries, to inform the employers using QuickBooks Time that we have made improvements and to give updates on what changed with context around how it affects their workflow.
After many explorations, testing with customers, and peer reviews, we decided a modal/dialog showing what’s new and linking to additional context would be the best route. It was time to address the feedback from customers that we are changing too much too fast, to share the additional context they craved.
I collaborated with our content partner on the key benefits our updates brought to their workflow and collaborated with our visual design partner on the illustration of the report, building trust with our customers by showing them exactly what was updated and where to find it.
Illustration
Collaborated with visual design team on a custom illustration to call out what’s changed.
What’s new bullets
Collaborated with our content designer to briefly describe each major update made.
Learn more link
Custom knowledge-based article with information on how to use Time Entries and addresses frequently asked questions.
CTA
Ability to close and continue on their way, not to disrupt their workflow.
Outcome and Final Design
Rolled out to 100% of customers.
3,875 clicks on “Learn more“ links from December 1-25, 2024. 15K from December to June.
Increase adoption rate by 32%; customers switching to QuickBooks Time within QuickBooks Online rather than using the old QuickBooks Time experience.
