Case Study · Contabilizei · 2021–2026
Onboarding 2.0
Designing the first structured onboarding experience for Brazil's largest digital accounting platform — 100K+ SMBs served.
Context
Brazil's largest digital accounting platform for SMBs
Contabilizei serves over 100,000 small and medium businesses across Brazil, handling the full accounting lifecycle — tax filing, invoicing, payroll, and compliance — so entrepreneurs can focus on running their business rather than managing bureaucracy.
As the platform scaled, a recurring pattern emerged in customer support. Every month, newly onboarded clients contacted the support team with the same questions — about concepts they had never needed to understand before opening their company.
The Problem
Predictable questions were consuming unpredictable support capacity
Every month, new clients opened tickets asking about foundational accounting topics: how to issue service invoices, how taxes are calculated, what pró-labore means, and how INSS contributions work.
These were not errors or product bugs. They were knowledge gaps in a specific audience — first-time business owners with no accounting background, arriving at a complex platform with no guidance.
There was no onboarding experience before this project. New clients completed the company registration process and landed directly on the platform.
Recurring support topics
Tax calculation and due dates
INSS contributions explained
The User
A first-time business owner, alone, without a map
The target user just opened their first CNPJ and contracted Contabilizei to manage their accounting. They have no background in accounting or tax law.
They arrive at the platform immediately after the company registration process — alone, at their own pace, with no clear understanding of what they need to do next or why.
This is not a power user. This is someone encountering concepts like pró-labore and DAS for the first time, under the mild anxiety of having just taken on financial and legal responsibilities they don't fully understand yet.
User profile
First-time business owner
Recently opened first CNPJ. No prior experience managing a formal business.
Desktop, self-paced
Accesses the platform on desktop, without guided assistance from Contabilizei staff.
No accounting background
Unfamiliar with tax obligations, invoice rules, or payroll concepts.
Design Principles
Three decisions that shaped every screen
Desktop-first
Data showed that Contabilizei's clients access the platform almost exclusively on desktop. Mobile-first would have introduced layout constraints with no real user benefit.
Plain language
The audience has no accounting background. Every piece of content was written for someone encountering these concepts for the first time. No jargon without explanation.
Content over decoration
Illustrations were used sparingly, only where they aided comprehension. The content carries the weight of the experience. Visual elements support; they don't replace.
The Flow
Three sequential stages, one clear goal
The onboarding is triggered immediately after the company registration process, before the client accesses the platform for the first time. It is self-paced and structured in three stages.
Stage 01
Introduction
Sets expectations. Reduces first-contact anxiety before it builds.
→
Stage 02
Profile
Collects company data. Delivers personalized financial guidance.
→
Stage 03
Taxes & Invoices
Covers core accounting concepts the client will face in their first weeks.
View complete flow
All three stages · Annotated screens · Desktop prototype
Open in Figma
Stage 01 · Introduction
Reduce anxiety before it builds
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1
Frame it as preparation, not bureaucracy. The first screen tells the user what they will learn, why it matters, and how long it will take — before asking anything of them.
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2
One concept at a time. No cognitive overload on arrival. The introduction doesn't try to teach everything — it establishes safety and sets a learning mode.
-
3
Progress is always visible. The user knows where they are in the journey at every step, reducing the anxiety of not knowing how much is left.
Stage 02 · Profile
Where the onboarding becomes personal
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1
Data collection with immediate payoff. The profile stage collects monthly revenue and client type, then uses that data to deliver a personalized pró-labore recommendation — so the effort of providing information has a clear, visible return.
-
2
Transparent calculation logic. The recommended pró-labore is shown with a plain-language explanation of how it was calculated — not just a number handed down from the system.
-
3
Customization with visible consequence. The user can adjust their pró-labore and see the real-time impact on INSS contributions — turning a passive recommendation into an informed choice.
Stage 02 screens
Profile · Revenue input · Pró-labore recommendation
View in Figma
Stage 03 · Taxes & Service Invoices
Dense content made navigable for a layperson
-
1
Sequencing mirrors real-world use. Content is presented in the order the client will encounter it in practice — not in the order it's easiest to explain.
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2
One concept at a time. Tax obligations and invoice issuance each get their own dedicated space. No concept competes with another for attention on the same screen.
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3
Concrete examples over abstract definitions. "DAS is paid by the 20th of each month" is more useful than a definition of the tax regime at this stage of the journey.
Stage 03 screens
Taxes & Invoices · Educational flow · Annotated
View in Figma
Results
Fewer tickets. More capacity where it matters.
This was the first onboarding Contabilizei had ever built. The results came from addressing a gap that had existed since the platform launched — not from optimizing something that already existed.
−30%
Support tickets on covered topics
Reduction in tickets related to invoicing, taxes, pró-labore, and INSS among newly onboarded clients.
Freed capacity
Support team reallocation
The support team stopped handling predictable, recurring questions and redirected capacity to complex cases and long-term clients requiring substantive help.
Reflection
What I learned looking back — with better tools
After delivering this project, I used it as one of the first test cases for Pinpoint — a Figma plugin I built that automates heuristic UX audits using the Claude API.
What Pinpoint surfaced
Running the Onboarding through Pinpoint revealed that certain screens carried more information density than necessary, and the content hierarchy in a few key moments could be restructured to reduce cognitive load. Working on a project and auditing it are different cognitive modes. Pinpoint made the second mode available after the fact — and the insights it generated on a project I knew deeply gave me confidence that the tool works on material I have no prior context for at all.
Ongoing maintenance as a design requirement
Brazilian tax law changes periodically. Any change to tax rates, invoice rules, or INSS calculation directly affects the accuracy of the content in this flow. A designed experience that becomes outdated is worse than no experience at all — which means this project's work is never truly finished.