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Valen · Fintech & payments

Making every dollar easy to follow.

Valen is designed to bring billing, payment collection and reconciliation together for B2B software companies. We explored how a product built for finance teams could explain itself through evidence rather than claims, and shaped the positioning, homepage narrative and interfaces around that idea.

Industry: Fintech · B2B payments
Audience: Finance & RevOps teams
Focus: Positioning · Narrative · Interfaces
Services: Web design & dev · Brand design · Motion

01The approach

Finance teams don’t buy features. They buy numbers they can trust.

The challenge
Three products in one, each with its own vocabulary. Money movement has no natural shape, and the people evaluating it check every detail.
What we focused on
One transaction, followed from issue to payout. Invoice VL-2048 appears in every section, so each feature is read through a record the visitor already knows.
How it shaped the visuals
Interfaces do the explaining, not illustrations. A near-monochrome system leaves room for one product colour, used only when a payment is matched.

02The journey

Issue to payout, drawn at two scales.

Timeline from invoice to payout for Linear Labs: $24,800.00 billed on Oct 1, four days and three hours waiting on the customer drawn as one thin line, then the four seconds on Oct 5 — payment collected at 09:14:00, matched automatically to VL-2048 at 09:14:04, fees resolved and revenue booked at 09:14:05 — and $24,787.60 settled to the bank on Oct 6. — Swipe to follow the timeline

Days of waiting get one thin line. Nothing happens there, so nothing is drawn there.
Four seconds get the full width. The match is where the product does its work, so that is where the detail goes.

03The match

Show the inputs, not just the answer.

Raw data arrives as systems send it: references that don’t line up, amounts in different formats. Placing it beside the resolved record is what makes “automatic” believable.

What Valen read, raw as received: five source lines in mono — CRM (Salesforce account 00418 “Linear Labs, Inc.”, terms NET30), billing (invoice VL-2048, amount due 24800.00, open), bank feed from Chase (ACH credit, reference LL-1024, 24800.00), processor (ACH fee capped at 12.40) and payouts (24787.60 to account ending 2841, due 10-06). — Detail — five sources, set in mono, exactly as received

Reconciled record REC-77104, Oct 5, 09:14:04: “Matched automatically” — 5 sources, 5 signals, 4 seconds, 0 manual steps. Customer Linear Labs, Inc.; invoice VL-2048 paid in full; payment $24,800.00 by ACH; processing fee −$12.40; net revenue $24,787.60; payout to Operating ••••2841 on Oct 6. Booked to ledger 4000 Revenue, audit trail with 5 sources linked. — Blue is reserved for one state: matched

04In motion

The match, assembled on scroll.

Inputs arrive
Five raw sources, unresolved.
Each source finds its field
Lines draw in, one by one.
Matched
The record turns blue, and only then.

05In the details

Every claim carries its own proof.

A · The match states its evidence
Not just “matched”, but matched to what and how fast. A claim with a reference is a claim a controller can check.
B · Usage shows its arithmetic
Units and rate sit under every metered total. Nothing on the invoice needs a separate spreadsheet to explain it.
C · Approvals have names
Every exception shows who asked and who signed off. In finance software, accountability is part of the interface.

Month-end close for October 2026 (Halyard, Inc., USD ledger): revenue billed, payments received, processing fees, payouts to bank and refunds and disputes, each with 0 open items; 31 of 31 days closed the same day; close status “Ready to close”, all 5 controls passed; 0 unmatched payments.

Close status “Ready to close” — all 5 controls passed, Nov 1, 06:00 — and 0 unmatched payments: no spreadsheet to rebuild, no transactions waiting for review.

06The outcome

The most important number is a zero.

The month-end view leads with unmatched payments, not revenue. For a controller, nothing left to chase is the real headline.

Record history for Linear Labs invoice VL-2048 ($24,800.00), record complete: seven logged events from payment received on Oct 5 to the October period locked on Nov 1, each with time and actor; permissions for Finance Admin, Billing Ops and Viewer; the approval rule “Credits above $5,000 require Finance Admin approval” with CR-0311 approved by Dana Kim.

Permissions — Finance Admin: full access and approvals; Billing Ops: invoices and credits to $5,000; Viewer: read only. Approval rule: credits above $5,000 require Finance Admin approval — CR-0311, Halyard Systems, −6,200.00, requested by Sam Ortiz, approved by Dana Kim.

07Control

Trust, argued last.

Audit history, permissions and approval rules form the page’s only dark section, placed right before the call to action. The last objection is answered before the page asks for anything.

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Finance teams don’t buy features. They buy numbers they can trust.

The challenge

What we focused on

How it shaped the visuals

Issue to payout, drawn at two scales.

Show the inputs, not just the answer.

The match, assembled on scroll.

Inputs arrive

Each source finds its field

Matched

Every claim carries its own proof.

A · The match states its evidence

B · Usage shows its arithmetic

C · Approvals have names

The most important number is a zero.

Trust, argued last.

Start with one sentence.