Guideline

Setup flow for Accountants

An end-to-end workflow redesign that puts power into the hands of accountants to build 401(k)s for their clients.

 

SCOPE

  • PRODUCT DESIGN

  • CONTENT DESIGn

  • UX ResearcH

business impact

A workflow redesign that resulted in 122.5% more signed plans and 42% faster time-to-conversion.

New “Add a plan” flow (Post-rebrand)

WHAT’S GUIDELINE FOR ACCOUNTANTS?

Built for CPAs, bookkeepers, and other accounting professionals who manage Guideline 401(k)s on behalf of their clients. As we started this project, our business goal was to increase average # of plans per accountant while reduce time to add plans.

Note: Since 2024, Guideline for Accounts has been rebranded to Guideline Pro.

PROBLEM VALIDATION

Before I worked on the project, Guideline for Accountants was born out of necessity and had been implemented without a designer. Unfortunately, we had little to no data or qualitative information about how the product was being used.

I became the first solely dedicated designer on the product. With no existing usage data or prior research, I designed a discovery sprint from scratch before touching any UI.

 

Research METHODS

  • Customer journey mapping
    current user/business actions and sentiments

  • Cognitive walkthrough
    current experience via 1:1 interviews

  • Competitor analysis
    of Gusto for Partners product

 

Problem Definition

Accountants aren’t confident setting up 401(k)s for their clients.

In our interviews, we learned that the accountant user base don’t typically see themselves as 401(k) experts.

The client setup flow was ambiguous, and accountants also weren’t sure what steps are involved for their clients.

Previous design

 

Sub-PROBLEMS

  • 401(k) subject matter expertise
    While accountants felt responsible for the financial matters of their clients, they didn’t necessarily understand the ins and outs of setting up and managing a 401(k) plan.

  • Accountants were flying blind
    Without visibility into what their clients saw, every conversation became a guessing game.

 

HYPOTHESIS SOLUTION

I believe if we give Accountants access to the full client 401(k) plan setup, then they’ll feel more confident in their knowledge and more empowered to help their clients set up their plan.

If I’m right, then we’ll see a faster time to conversion and more plans added per accountant.

 
  • Add “Plan setup” into the flow to promote visibility into client’s experience
  • Add a “Skip for now” option reducing friction for accountants, while allowing clients to complete certain parts of the setup
  • Add a “Review summary” screen allow accountants to verify what they’ve completed, and what the client needs to complete
  • Updated confirmation to be clearly explain what the client’s responsibilities are
To validate these proposed changes, we conducted a usability test and moderated interview to:
  • Measure accountants’ confidence completing the flow 
  • Gauge accountants’ willingness to complete Plan
    • setup  
  • Understand if accountants are aware of next steps
 

1 — Client info

All 5 accountants were successful filled out the information in the “Company Info” card. Payroll provider also made complete sense.

2 — Plan setup “Mirror”

All said they would have attempted filling out Plan Setup, and wouldn't skip this page. They wanted to take the first pass for their clients.

 

3 — Summary page

This page met expectations. It was clean and easy to understand. More importantly, they understood that the client would need to edit the missing fields before signing.

4 — Confirmation screen

Accountants felt confident know that their clients received their invitation. They were glad to see that the system automated the next steps.

 
“This would make me happy because I would not be the middle person, it would be sent directly to [the client]. This would surpass my expectations. ”

THE Results

More invitations per accountant were sent, and those clients were signing their 401(k) plans faster.

Invitations grew by +67%

1 month after release, the average number of client invitations per accountant grew from 2.7/day to 4 /day

Plans signed +42% faster

6 months after release, the average days from invitation to signed decreased from 21 days to 12 days

Signed plans increased +122.5%

From Sep 2021-2022, Accountant-signed plans more than doubled year over year.

Proposed next steps

Monitor, iterate, and focus more upstream

If we had continued investing in this product, the immediate priority would have been monitoring invitation and signing rates to track sustained performance and identify areas for iteration.

But the bigger opportunity I would have proposed was upstream. This project focused on removing friction from the setup workflow — but accountants still faced a harder, unaddressed problem: how do you convince a client to start a 401(k) in the first place?

My proposed next design challenge would have been evolving Guideline for Accountants from a plan management tool into a client acquisition tool — giving accountants the resources, talking points, and visibility to actively grow their book of 401(k) clients. The north star metric would shift from time-to-signed to average number of clients per accountant.