Founding product design for a category-defining fintech

Beforepay, Australia's first pay-advance app

Company
Beforepay
Role
Design Lead · Founding Team
Expertise
Product design · 0→1
Year
2019 - 2022
Beforepay app in motion: cashing out an advance and tracking the repayment
FIG. 01The shipped pay-advance experience: cash out in a few taps, with repayment always in view.

Overview

Beforepay began with a design challenge that landed me the role. I joined as a founding team member and Design Lead, shaping the product from concept to launch and owning the end-to-end experience that followed.

1M+ downloads · 4.9★

Beforepay reached over one million downloads and a 4.9-star rating with 30,000+ reviews on the App Store.

The design challenge that started it (2019)

Before joining, I proposed a better spending-app experience as a design challenge. It showcased the product thinking that defined the app to come.

Spending page

Essential, glanceable information, prioritised for convenience:

  • "Okay to spend" amount, prominently displayed.
  • Days until the next pay cycle.
  • Total spending, filterable by date range.
  • Daily activity feed with business name, amount, and category.
Spending page concept: okay-to-spend amount, days until next pay, and a daily activity feed
FIG. 02Spending, reduced to the one number that answers "can I afford this?"

Expenses page

Deeper financial insight:

  • Graphical overview of monthly expenses, with filters and future-expense predictions.
  • Category-based comparison across groceries, entertainment, and more.
Expenses page concept: monthly spend graphed by category with future-expense predictions
FIG. 03The deeper cut: category comparison and predicted expenses ahead of payday.
Beforepay concept screen Beforepay concept screen Beforepay concept screen

From concept to the shipped app (2020)

The challenge became the job. As Design Lead on the founding team I took those concepts into the real product: designing the pay-advance experience end to end, onboarding the first users, and building the company's design stack and workflows. That experience is what grew to 1M+ downloads and a 4.9★ rating.

Repositioning from Cheq to Beforepay (2021)

I led the product side of repositioning from Cheq to Beforepay, working with brand agency Design.Studio and rolling the new identity into the product. A phased rollout strategy introduced it gradually, minimising disruption to live users while we learned from feedback at each step.

Beforepay rebrand overview: the new wordmark, palette and app icon replacing the Cheq identity
FIG. 04The move from Cheq to Beforepay, rolled out in phases to avoid disrupting live users.

Aligning on the new identity

Design.Studio ran discovery workshops to gather feedback and build a system the team aligned on. Samples from that work below.

Brand identity samples from the Design.Studio system: typography, colour and applications
FIG. 05Samples from the identity system the team aligned on in discovery workshops.

Rolling it through the product

I translated the new identity into the product and set fresh UI standards across web and app, keeping the experience consistent through the transition.

The new identity applied across product UI, with refreshed type, colour and components
FIG. 06Fresh UI standards set across web and app to keep the transition consistent.
beforepay.com.au
The rebranded Beforepay marketing website
FIG. 07The website carrying the new brand to first-time visitors.
Beforepay app screens after the rebrand, across onboarding, cash out and repayment
FIG. 08The rebranded app, end to end.
Beforepay app screen Beforepay app screen Beforepay app screen
Want the full story?This case study is a high-level overview. I'm happy to walk you through the full end-to-end flow and the thinking behind it in more detail. Reach me by email or message me on LinkedIn.
Next: Argotek → © 2026 Ramil Rama