A setup so complex that even our experts needed a manual

quick preview below ⇣

"We finally got back around 10–15 hours every week that used to go towards helping clients with simple edits"

Paycom Employee

PSD

43%

Support ticket reduction

21%

Fewer configuration errors

Redesigning accruals setup from an internal tool to a client facing solution

XL Project

2 Designers, 1 PM, 1 Principle PM

3 Months

Why redesign Accruals?

Accruals is the system where companies configure policies and rules that control how employees earn time-off

Our internal specialists went through weeks of training and kept a physical binder at their desks just to figure out how to use our own accrual setup system.

But clients? Every edit to their setup required a support ticket. Support volume climbed past 100 tickets each week and specialists began to fall behind.

The company's solution? Give clients full editing access.

Which created an even bigger problem…

We were preparing to hand a tool that required manuals and weeks of training to clients who had neither.

Why redesign Accruals?

Accruals is the system where companies configure policies and rules that control how employees earn time-off

Our internal specialists went through weeks of training and kept a physical binder at their desks just to figure out how to use our own accrual setup system.

But clients? Every edit to their setup required a support ticket. Support volume climbed past 100 tickets each week and specialists began to fall behind.

The company's solution? Give clients full editing access.

Which created an even bigger problem…

We were preparing to hand a tool that required manuals and weeks of training to clients who had neither.

This lead us to the question…

How might we make accrual setup simple and intuitive for clients without disrupting internal workflows?

We Conducted…

User Interviews with specialists and clients

Collaborative Workshops and Feedback Sessions

Participants Across Multiple Roles

and learned that…

Clarity was lacking across the board

Both internal teams and clients found the setup confusing, which highlighted the need for simpler language and clearer guidance

Clients wanted to preview impact

A major request was the ability to see how their configuration would affect employees before finalizing it to avoid confusion and guesswork

One-size-fits-all wouldn't work

Internal workflows varied significantly, so the redesign needed to be flexible enough to support multiple approaches

challenge 1

Turning a form into a guided conversation

Problem

Even after multiple iterations of UI cleanup, the setup page still felt overwhelming

Solution

That’s when we realized that we needed to shift the mental model. We had to stop treating it like a form and start treating it like conversation

We turned it into a question-based design with progressive disclosures

Before

After

Slide between images

Results

Setup felt easier to understand, reducing cognitive load and helping users understand each decision as it came

challenge 2

Replacing blind decisions with clarity

Problem

Clients and specialists had no visibility into how changes affected real employees, causing mistakes and constant back-and-forth

Solution

Designed a real-time preview that surfaced the impact of every rule before saving

Results

Users made safer, more confident decisions with fewer errors and far less rework

challenge 3

Creating direction without taking away control

Problem

With four tabs and no guidance, users created setups inconsistently which would confuse new clients and leave room for errors

Solution

Introduced Setup Cards: a recommended path with clear status indicators that didn’t enforce a strict workflow

Results

New clients gained structured guidance, while specialists kept the flexibility to work in the way they preferred

REFLECTION

What I would do differently next time

Expand real-time feedback

More opportunities to show impact across different employee groups or display before/after comparisons

Deeper navigation connections

Visual links between related settings across tabs could make dependencies even clearer