Designing a Project & Timesheet Management SaaS for Modern Teams

From complex workflows to a streamlined product experience for admins, managers, and team members.

Industry

B2B

Platform

Web App

My Role

Product Designer (End-to-end)
UX Strategy & Information Architecture
User Flows & Journey Mapping
UI Design System & Screens
Collaboration with development team

Overview

Managing projects is hard. Tracking time is harder.
Doing both in one system—without frustrating users—is where most tools fail.

I designed a project and timesheet management SaaS platform that simplifies how teams plan work, track time, and collaborate—while giving managers full control and visibility.

The Product

A web-based SaaS platform (similar to tools like Monday.com) that helps:

  • Team Members → log daily work via timesheets
  • Project Managers → manage projects, tasks, and approvals
  • Admins → control system structure, roles, and permissions

The Challenge

Most existing tools suffer from:

  • Overwhelming interfaces
  • Confusing workflows
  • Poor timesheet experiences
  • Lack of clarity between roles

The challenge was to design a system that:

  • Works for multiple user roles
  • Handles complex workflows
  • Still feels simple and intuitive

Understanding Users

After user research and analysis we found following pain points of user:

  • Manual way of filling and submitting timesheet on a daily basis is time-consuming process
  • Can not save the same copy of work
  • Manually management of project, team, and task allocation
  • Difficult to manage multiple timesheet of team members came in different formats
  • Keeping track of tasks and its status is very problematic
Empathy map - SaaS Product design

Users and Roles

To simplify the flow, I defined three key user groups:

1. Admin (Global Control)

  • Manages clients, users, permissions
  • Defines system structure

2. Project Manager

  • Creates projects & tasks
  • Assigns teams
  • Reviews and approves timesheets

3. Team Member (End User)

  • Logs daily work
  • Submits timesheets
  • Tracks assigned tasks

Core Workflow Design

Mapped out detailed user journeys to visualize the entire experience, identifying touchpoints and pain points. Created comprehensive process flows for both Team Members and Team Leaders, ensuring optimal user interaction and a seamless process.

After mapping user journey,  I organizationally depicts the key tasks to focus on:

1. Onboarding Experience

  • Guided setup for first-time users
  • Role-based entry into the system
  • Clear next steps (invite team → create client → create project)

2. Project Creation Flow

  • Create project → add tasks → assign team
  • Designed to reduce friction and steps

3. Timesheet Entry Flow

  • Easy daily task logging
  • Separate views for: Week and Month
  • Defined different timesheet states like saved, submitted, approved, reopened

4. Approval Workflow

  • Managers can:
    • Approve
    • Reject
    • Send back timesheet with comments

5. Role-Based Access & Permissions

  • Dual-layer access system combining user-level and project-level roles for precise control.
  • User Roles: Global Administrator, Project Administrator, Regular User
  • Project Roles: Team Leader (approves timesheets) and Team Member (submits timesheets)

Process flow

Conducted detailed process analysis, resulting in comprehensive process flows for distinct user roles within the application.

For Team Member

  • Streamlined the onboarding process, enabling team members to efficiently enter and save timesheet data.
  • Developed a seamless submission process for timesheets, allowing easy approval by Team Leaders.
  • Implemented advanced timesheet reporting and download functionalities.
  • Enhanced profile management features for improved user experience.

For Project Managers

  • Designed intuitive features to manage team members, projects, and clients.
  • Created an efficient system for allocating team members to various projects.
  • Crafted a project overview page with comprehensive metrics for individual project analysis.
  • Enabled Team Leaders to review, approve, and reject team member timesheets.
  • Designed robust reporting and analytics capabilities at both project and month levels.

Information Architecture

To handle complexity, I structured the product into clear modules:

  • Clients
  • Projects (Tasks, Team)
  • Timesheets
  • Approvals
  • Reports & Dashboard

Each module was designed with:

  • Clear entry points
  • Consistent patterns
  • Minimal cognitive load

Design Process

1. Wireframing

  • Low-fidelity layouts to test structure
  • Focus on usability first

2. UI Design

  • Strong visual hierarchy
  • Consistent spacing and components

3. Iteration

  • Multiple versions of key flows
  • Simplified interactions step-by-step

Design System and Component Library

Created a design system and component library to maintain consistency across the application. Defined typography, color palettes, buttons, form elements, and other UI components. Ensured a cohesive visual identity and a seamless user interface.

Key Design Decisions

  • Simplified Timesheet UX
    Instead of complex forms → quick, repeatable entries
  • Role-Based Experience
    Each user sees only what they need
  • Clear Action States
    Save / Submit / Approve / Reject made obvious
  • Scalable Design System
    Reusable components for future expansion

Key Screens Designs

  • Onboarding & first-time experience
  • Dashboard (role-based views)
  • Client management
  • Project, task, and team management
  • Timesheet entry, submission and approvals
  • Approval interface
  • Reports

Key Learnings

  • Designing for multiple roles requires deep system thinking
  • Simplicity is achieved through structure, not visuals
  • Permissions and workflows are critical in SaaS UX
  • Good UX reduces management overhead

Final Reflection

Designing this product taught me how to balance:

  • Business needs
  • User needs
  • System complexity

And turn them into a cohesive, usable product experience.

Live Projet