Meridian – Designing Expense Approval for Mobile-First Teams
PLATFORM
iOS · Mobile-first
SCOPE
End-to-end Product Design
FLOWS
TEAM
Individual
DURATION
3 weeks
THE PROBLEM
Two roles, two mental models, same process for both
Employees submit and wait. Approvers chase receipts through email. Finance sees overruns after the fact. The problem isn't missing features - it's one interface trying to serve two completely different jobs.
Informed by interviews with approvers and employees at two SMB finance teams, and a competitive review of Expensify, Concur, and Ramp.
THE PRODUCT
Two distinct flows, one coherent experience
Each flow answers one question: what does this person need right now?
APPROVAL FLOW · AP-01
Push Notification
Approval request shows amount, merchant, and submitter without opening the app
APPROVAL FLOW · AP-02
Pending Approvals
Priority queue with urgency signals, employee context, and receipt status
APPROVAL FLOW · AP-05
Approval Confirmation
Confirmation state with a summary of the decision made. Closes the loop for the approver and triggers the employee notification automatically
APPROVAL FLOW · AP-03
Expense Detail & Receipt
Receipt thumbnail visible by default. Approve, flag for review, or request more info
EMPLOYEE FLOW · EM-01
Budget Dashboard
Category spend, budget remaining, utilization rate, and quick filters at a glance
EMPLOYEE FLOW · EM-04
Expense Tracker
Live status for every submitted expense
KEY DECISIONS
01
Receipt visible by default
V1: 84% of approvers tapped the receipt area, but it wasn’t tappable. They expected the receipt to expand inline -> Moved the thumbnail above the CTAs.
Tested for V1
V2
