01
The challenge
Recovery already ran its whole process in one internal application. Billing was the exception: it ran in two separate external tools, with a work queue rebuilt by hand every morning and receipts created one at a time.
The challenge was to bring billing into that application, so the billing team could do their work in the same place as everyone else in recovery.
That meant more than moving screens over. Billing had its own habits, its own spreadsheets and its own rules, and the new module had to earn the trust of a team that already knew how to get the work done, while removing the manual steps that were slowing them down.
02
Research: listening to the billing team
I interviewed the billing team and documented the issues they ran into with the current process. That list became the foundation for what the new module had to solve. I also shadowed team members to see how the work actually got done.
03
What I learned
Work queues were rebuilt by hand every morning, by one person
Every day at 4 a.m., the director logged into each system and pulled reports client by client. The bigger the report, the longer the download. As she told me, "I just pull the report and don't touch my laptop again, or it'll explode."
Receipts were created by hand, one at a time
Watching the team work, I saw how much manual effort went into every assignment. Users created each receipt by hand, and some assignments needed several, depending on the client and fee type.
Some billing rules had drifted from the client contracts
With so much manual work, some fees and rules had drifted away from what the client contracts actually said. That meant revenue was being missed in some places, and the team was doing unnecessary work in others.
04
Designing a module that fits
Unlike a new application, a new module has to live inside one people already know. I designed it so billing would work, and be supported, in the same system as the rest of the recovery teams, replacing the two external tools and the spreadsheet rebuilt by hand every morning.
Finding
The work queue was rebuilt by hand every morning.
What I designed
A work queue that generates itself, so no one starts the day watching a loading wheel.
Finding
Receipts were created by hand, one at a time.
What I designed
Automated receipts. With billing inside the internal app, receipt creation could be handed to the company's in-house AI.
Finding
Billing rules had drifted from the client contracts.
What I designed
Fee types and billing cycle rules tied directly to each client's contract, so the rules stop drifting.
05
Where it stands
The billing team was used to working in very specific ways, so earning their buy-in was critical. To build that trust, I made a few deliberate compromises on the original design and kept some familiar fields and flows.
Now that the team is working in the module, I'm refining fields and reworking how the work queue feels.
Next, I've suggested letting users customize their own work queue views: rearranging columns, showing and hiding data, and pulling in new data points.
Reflection
Designing inside an existing system seems like it should be easier than building from scratch, but it isn't always. The hardest part was making something new feel like it had always belonged, while still showing the team, and the rest of the application, what could work better.