Managing repayments on Lenkie
Lenkie provides financial services to small businesses that are underserved. They provided a solution - the credit facility product, that enables small businesses to pay their suppliers through Lenkie then repay over some time. The repayments page provides an overview to the users on their current, historical and future repayment details and enables users export their repayments history for accounting reconciliation.
Lenkie offers credit facilities that allow small businesses to pay suppliers upfront and repay over time. As the product matured, the dashboard had gone through several incremental updates, which introduced inconsistencies in how repayment information was structured and surfaced.
As part of a broader dashboard revamp, I was responsible for redesigning the repayments page. This page is critical to both users and the business. It directly influences repayment behavior, cash flow planning, and support volume. At the time, users frequently needed to cross-reference repayments manually or contact support to understand upcoming obligations, missed payments, or historical activity.
Small business users often manage multiple credit facilities with varying repayment schedules (1 to 12 months). The existing repayments page made it difficult to quickly answer key questions:
What is my next repayment and when is it due?
How much do I still owe across active facilities?
Have I missed any repayments, and what needs attention now?
How can I export repayment data for accounting and reconciliation?
This lack of clarity increased cognitive load, led to missed or late repayments, and created unnecessary reliance on customer support for information users should have been able to access independently.
We interviewed 5 small business owners and reviewed 30 repayment-related support tickets to understand pain points and opportunities on the repayments page.
Findings:
Unclear repayment data: Users struggled to see what was repaid, outstanding, or how totals were calculated.
Batch payments add complexity: Weekly batch repayments made tracking individual payments confusing.
Export needed: Users wanted a simple way to export repayment history for accounting.
Design Impact:
Added list & calendar views for clarity.
Introduced batch breakdowns for transparency.
Prioritized export functionality to support accounting workflows.
I redesigned the repayments page to prioritize clarity, flexibility, and financial planning.
To accommodate different user needs, I introduced a list and calendar view toggle. The list view supports quick scanning of repayment amounts and statuses, while the calendar view helps users identify repayment patterns, busy weeks, and upcoming obligations in the context of their broader cash flow.
Key repayment signals are surfaced prominently, including:
Next scheduled repayment
Total outstanding balance
Missed repayments requiring action
Users can export their repayment history for accounting and reconciliation, reducing manual work and reliance on support. For missed repayments, I added clearer controls that allow users to resolve pending items directly, helping them regain control without leaving the page.
These changes reduce cognitive effort, improve discoverability of critical information, and support more proactive cash planning.
The redesigned repayments experience helps users stay on top of their financial obligations by making repayment information easier to understand, act on, and reconcile. Early signals indicate improved visibility into upcoming and missed repayments, alongside a reduction in support requests related to repayment queries.
We are tracking changes in late and missed repayment rates over full repayment cycles to validate long-term impact. This project reinforced the importance of designing financial tools that align with real-world cash flow behavior, not just repayment schedules.
