ANNA Money
Payroll service for the British fintech project
We did a lot of analytical work on launching a payroll project in the UK and placed first in the Pioneum contest.
Intro
Contest websiteWe chose the "Financial services" category, where we had got the British fintech service ANNA Money.
We only had a month to help ANNA to find a simple and convenient payroll solution that would help the business every day.
About ANNA Money
Company websiteANNA — is a smart banking assistant. ANNA can bill a client, monitor the balance on accounts of other banks, pay taxes, and file tax returns.
ANNA’s goal is to save British small and medium-sized businesses from bureaucracy and red tape.
"The banking system in the UK is so complex, so we could not even open an ordinary bank account at first. You need to call and make an appointment with the manager to open an account. There is no opportunity to make it online.
Then the bank checked all our documents for a long time and in the end, the request was denied, because of a supposedly too complex structure of the company’s co-founders. As a result, we could open an account only in Revolut."
Task. The task was to develop a simple and convenient payroll solution for ANNA Money to help businesses daily just in a month.
Implementation
According to the rules of the contest, all the case solutions were put into a fifteen-minute video. Tim Mostivenko, a MobileUp analyst, talks about the work done.
Version for those who love to read
Analytics. We investigated the service, our direct and indirect competitors, current legislation, tax regime, and the Open Banking system
Investigate ANNA Money
According to the public roadmap of the service, the company sets its sights on further optimization and automation of everything related to tax accounting. The automation of VAT payments became the first step in this direction.
As part of the work on the payroll project, we could rely on the previous experience of integration with HMRC to reduce the time frame significantly.
Plunge into context
We studied the tax regime for different legal persons, found interesting guidelines, and checked the requirements for employers. We structured information on Open Banking and PAYE as well.
Open Banking is a concept of using open APIs in finance that gives third‑party developers access to banking data.
PAYE (Pay As You Earn) is a UK Taxation System.
The support of Open Banking and other similar initiatives at the national level lets us suggest that ANNA Money can rely on the current business model in the future.
Analyze competitors
Then we found and studied 146 competitors of ANNA. We took into account competitors with/without Payroll and those who can be potentially dangerous.
Competitors without Payroll
- Holvi
- Qonto
- Countingup
Competitors with Payroll
- Cashplus
- Revolut Business
- Pento
The first company to release a full-fledged solution for Payroll in the mobile app form may become the leader of the SME segment.
Structure open-source data
There are 6 million companies in the UK, almost half of them (40,6%) may be interested in Payroll.
- 23,8% of the companies are employers
- 16,8% of them are limited companies with just one employee, who gets paid
Approximately 70% of these companies are ones of up to 5 people(with an average number of employees about 3.6)
- 41,5% one‑man limited company
- 47,6% 1‑9 employees (on average about 3.6)
- 9,1% 10‑49 employees
- 1,8% 50+ employees
Gather the opinions
The UK market is very specific in terms of regulation, so ANNA Money needs to focus on it first and postpone the customization of the solution for other countries.
ANNA Money can provide various accounting services including a personal accountant and remote accounting
Hypothesis. The target audience was limited to companies of up to 5 people. It helped to cover a large part of the audience and keep a simple UI.
SMART problem statement
The curator of the contest hinted that it had a case format. And it would be easier for the jury to evaluate our work if we created a task for ourselves before the implementation with SMART goal setting, for example. So, we had made use of this advice!
We decided to develop a concept for a payroll project for the small business of up to 5 employees, which ANNA Money could implement in 2021 and thus contribute to the revenue growth by 22% through higher customers with the most expensive tariff plan from 10% to 30%
Everybody, this is Stevie!
We created a character — a quokka, named Stevie. The quokka is the owner of the flower shop with a whole Payroll world around IT.
As a result, it was Stevie who helped us win the challenge and get 0.6 points, which let us leave our competitors behind.
Project Roadmap
Project Roadmap. Our goals, functionality, risks, ways to minimize risks, and success criteria were described for each stage.
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Pilot
The launching a payroll project for ANNA Money’s loyal audience of employers who have up to 5 full‑time employees.
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Goal
Test the hypothesis that the payroll project has a feasibility of development. The test is carried out on the basis of data obtained during the pilot launch
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Development period
1 — 3 months
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Functionality
- Import information on the company and its employees
- Issue of payslips and sending them to employees
- Information management of workers’ employment status
- Payroll
- Calculation of taxes on the employees’ salaries
- Issue of tax reporting for export
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresThe Pilot doesn’t cover 100% attendance records cases, only vacation and sick days
Using ANNA Money’s proven Early Birds channel on Facebook
A large amount of unstructured feedback — who could react to it and what to do with it?
Separate the team to provide a prompt reaction to feedback and fine-tuning of scenarios (if necessary)
Feedback could not reach ANNA Money
Providing multiple feedback channels. Beta‑testers should be able to leave feedback inside the app and not just on FB
Difficulties with reproducibility of user problems
Provide logging and data collection
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Level of risk
2/5 (low risk)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- Architect
- DevOps Engineer
- BA
- Art-Director
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Senior Backend Developer
- Middle Backend Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria and some evidence of a shift towards MVP I
- 30 Beta‑testers
- No problems with HMRC when ANNA Money is reporting
- Positive feedback
- No app’s crashes and scenario implementation errors
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MVP I
Launching a minimum viable payroll project for clients with up to 5 full‑time employees
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Goal
We need to gain a competitive advantage by becoming the first in the UK market to implement a payroll project as a set of simple steps in a mobile application
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Development period
1 — 2 months
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Functionality
- Import information on the company and its employees
- Issue of payslips and sending them to employees
- Information management of workers’ employment status
- Payroll
- Calculation of taxes on the employees’ salaries
- Issue of tax reporting for export
- Payment of the salaries to employees
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresThe user may not have 100% confidence in the effectiveness of the solution after a single salary sending
Provide an opportunity to use the functionality for free for up to three months (a trial period)
Reluctance to change the current process of maintaining a payroll project for a while to some other solution("What if ANNA Money rolls back in the feature?")
Provide an opportunity to continue using the app under the maximum subscription plan when a trial period is expired
Double-entry bookkeeping during the trial or transition period
Provide a free trial period
Low adoption of new functionality among current users of the application
Explore onboarding scenarios for customers who may be interested in a payroll project (videos, tips, articles, publications in social networks)
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Level of risk
1/5 (risks are not identified)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- BA
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Senior Backend Developer
- Middle Backend Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria
- 5% of users carry out a payroll project using ANNA Money (25% of those who, in principle, have employees)
- No problems with HMRC when ANNA Money is reporting
- Positive feedback
- No app’s crashes and scenario implementation errors (immediately or once finalized)
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MVP II
Launching a payroll project for clients with up to 5 employees among which there are part-time ones
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Goal
Enlarge the target audiences of payroll project by means of offering the solution for part-time employees
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Development period
1 — 2 months
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Functionality
- Import information on the company and its employees
- Issue of payslips and sending them to employees
- Information management of workers’ employment status
- Payroll
- Calculation of taxes on the employees’ salaries
- Issue of tax reporting for export
- Payment of the salaries to employees
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Risks and measures
It doesn’t cover 100% attendance records cases, only vacation and sick days
Risks are similar to the risks in MVP I
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Level of risk
1/5 (risks are not identified)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- BA
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Senior Backend Developer
- Middle Backend Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria
- Positive feedback on attendance records of part-time employees
- Criteria are similar to the criteria in MVP I
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Release I
Cover our client’s requirements by developing accounting services inside ANNA Money
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Goal
Save clients from the need to keep an account in the staff and provide an opportunity to receive needed services in ANNA Money
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Development period
3 — 6 months
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Functionality
- Tax reporting audit (from MVP stage)
- Accountant interface
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresANNA Money has a lack of specialists on its side
Build partnerships with accountants, involving them in work
Some clients may want to use the services of their personal accountants
Retain the possibility of manual unloading of tax reporting
Request for other accounting services from clients (except the payroll project)
Develop the pay scales for additional services
Accountants will spend a lot of time fixing system errors of the service (therefore costs will increase)
Never-ending work on feedback from accountants, the release of updates
Increasing of system load
Provide infrastructure scalability
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Level of risk
3/5 (real risks)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- Architect
- DevOps Engineer
- BA
- Art-Director
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Middle Frontend Developer
- Senior Backend Developer
- Middle Backend Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria
- All comments from the accountants have been taken into account and added to the updates. The updated system works stably with no crashes
- Additional functionality successful deployment (for more information, see "Fine-tuning of scenarios that affect the payroll")
- Positive feedback
- 0% of refusals to accept reports by HMRC
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Release II
Fine-tuning of scenarios that affect the payroll
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Goal
We need to provide the opportunity to manage all the necessary information about the employment of the employees of our client
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Development period
1 — 2 months
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Functionality
Additional scenarios that affect the payroll
- New employee goes to work
- Change of address
- Dismissal
- Retirement
- Gender reassignment
- Death
- Payment of child-care benefit
- Education loan payment
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresLack of scenarios
Consult with professional accountants and study best practices of the Payroll industry
Low adoption of some innovations among the users, lack of feedback
Work on methods of informing the present clients about the new functionality
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Level of risk
1/5 (risks are not identified)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- BA
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Senior Backend Developer
- Middle Backend Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria
- Positive feedback
- No app’s crashes and scenario implementation errors (immediately or once finalized)
- 0% of refusals to accept reports by HMRC
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Release III
Tax reporting audit by means of AI in ANNA Money
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Goal
Speed up the tax reporting audit and make it cheaper through the implementation of AI functionality
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Development period
1 — 1,5 years
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Functionality
Tax reporting audit by means of AI
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresSome customers may not trust AI and want a mandatory manual audit
Develop the pay scales for clients who need manual audit
Algorithms can be wrong, and this is unacceptable for clients
Ensure the absolute (100%) correctness of the AI audit
Algorithms need time to learn all scenarios
Provide a transitional test period for new functionality
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Level of risk
5/5 (no guarantee of success)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- BA
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Senior ML Developer
- Middle ML Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria
- Positive feedback
- No app’s crashes and scenario implementation errors (immediately or once finalized)
- 0% of refusals to accept reports by HMRC
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Release IV
A single entry point
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Goal
Provide clients with a single entry point to interact with the tax office
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Development period
1 — 2 months
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Functionality
The transition to the timely automatic sending of all necessary data to the tax office. For example, deleting an employee’s card in the application should lead to sending a corresponding notification to HMRC
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresDeeper integration with HMRC, an increase in the number of forms that the system must successfully generate
Gradual coverage of scenarios and start to work with the next ones only after positive feedback on the implemented ones
Possibility of frequent amending the legislation
Envisage a manual interface for new model data delivery for the duration of AI learning
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Level of risk
1/5 (risks are not identified)
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Project team
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- Architect
- DevOps Engineer
- BA
- Art-Director
- Designer
- Senior Frontend Developer
- Senior Backend Developer
- Middle Backend Developer
- Senior QA
- Middle QA
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Success criteria
- The user does not interact with HMRC outside of the app
- No app’s crashes and scenario implementation errors (immediately or once finalized)
- 0% of refusals to accept reports by HMRC
- Positive feedback
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Release V
Tips and recommendations
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Goal
Providing personalized tips and tricks that benefit the client and provides new knowledge
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Development period
2 — 4 months
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Functionality
- Tips and recommendations help to work with finances
- ANNA Money provide projections based on analytics
- Recommendations and projections clients to save money
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Risks and measures
RisksMeasuresClients do not understand why do they need any tips and absorb them as noise and useless information
Every tip should be directed towards the implementation of the targeted action.
Need to go work on payments, client’s goals, client’s daily events, content, information, etc.
Develop communication channels: chat, onboarding, offers, banners, push notifications, etc.
Lack of data to build an AI model
Generate a set of rules by expert accountants based on analytics of user actions
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Success criteria
- Positive feedback
- Tips and recommendations cover all app’s sections / client’s needs
- 25% of tips result in the client’s targeted action
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Pilot’s key scenarios
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Onboarding in payroll project
Onboarding in payroll project
What do we want from the user?
- PAYE reference number
- data on the number of employees (please note that if the number is more than 5, it may be inconvenient to use)
- regularity of payment
- company’s pension fund
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Employees data is integrated with the system
Employees data is integrated with the system
The employee cards are filled out and attached
- Every card requires the following information: name, date of birth, address, tax code, NI number, job title, contract (full‑time), gross salary, and account number for the transfer of salary
- If it is a Limited Company, the system asks it to fill out the card as well.
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Viewing of attached cards
Viewing of attached cards
Viewing of all attached cards
- Add/remove an employee (we indicate that this should be duplicated in HMRC. In the future, this system will become automated)
- Make changes to an employee’s card (Here is also a mark that, for example, you should send a new address to HMRC)
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Sick days and vacations data entry
Sick days and vacations data entry
Sick days and vacations data entry in format of the chat
- Select an employee
- Select the required data
- Select the number of days
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Confirmation of info and missing data entry
Confirmation of info and missing data entry
Preliminary calculations are provided with the possibility of editing. Calculations should include such things as Payments (salary, holiday pay, sick day pay, bonuses, and Total) and Deductions (Income Tax, National Insurance, Pension).
If the user confirms the calculations, the following happens:
- Sending salary, payslips, and notification
- Generation of a tax report and a report to the pension fund in pdf format
Jury feedback
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Alexander Esin
Head of Products, Alfa‑Bank
I was pleasantly surprised that agencies can do a quite in-depth analysis of the problems and needs of users — even for international cases.
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Anna Andreeva
Head of ML Products, Tinkoff
This was an excellent presentation and a good solution for the case. You had grasped a good audience where you could make money and which would grow in the future. A detailed analysis of competitors was conducted, and the right conclusions were drawn from it. The solution was very simple and user-friendly visually, the story was interesting to listen to, and I really liked the solution with the striking character quokka Stevie.
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Alexey Avdey
CEO, Sberbank.ru, Sber
In general, I like this project. I see an in-depth study on the subject, a multidimensional approach, and an intention to make the most seamless solution for the ANNA team there.
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Almat Doshchanov
CPO, Otkritie FC Bank
There is a catchy presentation with a character, screencasts, and sounds.
The main scenarios for interaction with the bank are well thought out, but there is not enough clear answer to the following questions — what user needs they can cover and why the client should use this particular service (especially pay for the most expensive tariff).
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Vitaly Lavrinets
Chief Digital Officer, Raiffeisen Bank
First of all, I wish to point out the amazing pitch and excellent info presentation.
I’m impressed with the depth of research there. The main segment to focus on is well-defined. The development method at minimal cost was immediately suggested. There is a right approach through hypotheses and insights. A long-term product development plan was offered. In my opinion, this is one of the strongest works there.
Post-production
We were too impressed and inspired by our participation in the Position Oneum contest, so we decided to make a video even before the results were announced.
It was done to capture the moment, share emotions and tell how it was and what we think about it. Thumbs up and subscribe!
Laurels and first place in the category "Fintech"
We have got the wide experience that we are going to apply for our customers from the banking and financial spheres.
The ANNA Money case has once again shown that we are ready to be not only as an outsourcing development studio but also as a full-fledged partner in the design of complex and high-tech products.
Project team
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Project manager
- Evgeniya Moskalenko
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Analytics
- Tim Mostivenko
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Marketing
- Alisa Mashkova
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Content
- Kirill Malyshev
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UX/UI
- Alexander Yudin
- Ioann Chaikovskii
- Artem Tyutin
- Anna Matveeva
- Svetlana Nazarova
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Producer
- Asya Krivoshlykova
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Video-maker
- Sergey Nazarov
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Stevie Quokka
- Stevie Quokka
