Payroll Dashboard
Cast & Crew wanted to develop a unified dashboard to streamline payroll and production accounting workflows. This centralized platform would provide a single log-in experience with persona-centric design, allowing payroll accountants and controllers to efficiently manage their tasks, access critical data, and improve collaboration across projects.
Check out the final solution
View prototype
The Problem
The dashboard will address these needs by providing persona-centric views with task-driven widgets, customizable shortcuts, and integrated communication tools.
Centralized Access
Single platform for all payroll and accounting data so they can track paperwork, reconcile discrepancies, and navigate between systems.
Streamlined Workflows
Reduce time spent navigating between systems and real-time visibility into their tasks.
Enhanced Communication
Improved task management and notifications and the ability to quickly resolve issues through streamlined communication.
How might we create a centralized platform allowing payroll accountants and controllers to efficiently manage their tasks, access critical data so that they can improve collaboration across projects.
Meet Our Primary User
Maria Torres
Senior Payroll Accountant with 22 years of experience in film & TV production based in Los Angeles.
Uses multiple tools including Start+, Hours+, and ShowBiz.
Goals
  • Ensure timely, accurate payments
  • Set up stable workflows early
  • Maintain union and studio compliance
  • Avoid document routing delays
Pain Points
  • Cannot create approval workflows quickly or replace crew.
  • Confusing terminology (signer vs. approver)
  • Limited support for conditional logic
  • Manual workarounds for paper-based processes
"Just let me build the workflow once, see it clearly, and know it works." - Maria Torres
Research Plan
Generative User Interviews
Conducted interviews with payroll accountants, controllers, and internal product experts to understand their day-to-day workflows, common challenges, and expectations for a centralized platform. These sessions focused on uncovering unmet needs, collaboration pain points, and opportunities for improving task visibility and data access across productions.
Competitive Analysis
Reviewed dashboards and workflow tools from leading industry platforms and enterprise SaaS products. The goal was to identify persona-focused design strategies, best practices for financial and task management tools, and features that effectively support collaboration and role-specific needs.
Prototype Testing
Tested interactive prototypes to observe how users navigate building an approval workflow. We assessed both the ideal "happy path" experience and edge cases where system constraints might create user frustration ("unhappy path").
Competitive Landscape Analysis
Entertainment Partners
Offers a dashboard that displays important insights and allows navigation to applications and tools. Their interface provides a comprehensive overview but lacks some of the task-driven features our solution will offer.
Wrapbook
Provides an enhanced UX/UI with project widgets showing pending items like timecards, invoices, and expenses. Users can add team members from a centralized place, but the system lacks the depth of financial tools our Controller dashboard will provide.
Greenslate
Offers a centralized dashboard with pending actions, notes, and document uploads. While it provides good document management, our solution will offer more comprehensive financial oversight and task management capabilities.
Hypothesis
If we provide clients with direct access to a self-service workflow builder in Start+ and Hours+, they will be able to manage and configure approval workflows more efficiently—reducing onboarding delays, minimizing repetitive setup, and increasing transparency and autonomy for experienced payroll accountants and project admins.
Solutions
Startwork Widget
Track pending startwork tasks, verify I9s, and view uploaded documents with clear status indicators for each crew member
Timecards Widget
Manage timecards and invoice statuses with options to view invoices, preview PDFs, and send reminders to approvers
My Tasks Widget
Consolidated view of pending offers, rejected offers, rejected timecards, and items awaiting approval
Crew Timecards Reminder
Send reminders to crew for outstanding timecards in Draft or Unsubmitted status
Design Plan & Iteration
The design evolution prioritized balancing powerful functionality with approachable interfaces. Each iteration simplified complex concepts without sacrificing the flexibility demanded by experienced users.
1
Conceptual Wireframes
Initial low-fidelity design focused on dashboard structure and terminology clarity, testing basic concepts with users to validate mental models.
2
High-Fidelity Design & Prototype
Final designs featured document subscription functionality, real-time preview tools, and simplified language for complex operations.
3
Usability Testing
Moderated sessions with real payroll professionals validated key features while identifying critical refinements needed before launch.
4
Deliver to Engineers
Deliver designs to developers in a clear and consistent package
1. Conceptual Design
We focused on addressing users goals in a visually delightful and meaningful way.
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
2. High-Fidelity Design & Prototype
Streamlined and refined patterns and widgets.
3. User Testing
Feedback was consolidated by participant. Affinity map was created to identify themes and priorities for adjustments to the design based on testing.
User Feedback:
Affinity Map and Themes:
The Final Solution
Testing showed high usability and positive user experience - minimal changes
Benefits and Outcomes
Time Efficiency
Payroll accountants saved 30% time on administrative tasks by accessing centralized data without navigating multiple systems. Controllers reduced time spent on financial management activities by 20%.
Enhanced Accuracy
Improved visibility into compliance risks will reduce errors by 10%. Automatic reminders will increase payroll compliance and accuracy by 20%, reducing errors due to missed deadlines.
Improved Communication
Achieved a 20% reduction in email threads for project-related discussions and improve communication turnaround by 15%, leading to faster resolution of issues.
Increased Satisfaction
Increased user satisfaction by at least 15 NPS points by October 2025, regarding ease of finding information and navigating applications.
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