Denim
Denim is a freight factoring and financial software platform designed to help freight brokers and carriers streamline payments, manage cash flow, and grow their businesses. By automating invoicing, payments, and financial analytics, Denim simplifies operations and enhances transparency for logistics professionals.
Client
Denim
Year
2024
Category
Fintech
/// Key Contributions:
Improved audit results visibility in job details.
Designed "Denim for Teams" for better delegation and efficiency.
Conducted pricing studies to optimize fee transparency.
Contributed to the overall design system.
With Denim expanding its services to carriers, the platform needed an overhaul to serve both user groups seamlessly, ensuring scalability and ease of use.
Beyond enhancing security, this feature also positioned Denim for strategic partnerships with industry leaders in auditing and fraud prevention, such as MyCarrierPortal. By integrating with third-party audit specialists, Denim could offer brokers a more robust, fraud-resistant ecosystem. This would not only enhance security for existing users but also attract new clients from these partners who are looking for a factoring solution with built-in fraud prevention. The ability to combine Denim’s financial tools with external auditing expertise creates a competitive advantage, making the platform a more attractive option for security-conscious brokers.
/// 1. Audit Results in Job Details
Challenge:
Freight brokers have always had to manage risk, but in recent years, security has become even more critical. Post COVID-19, the freight industry saw a dramatic increase in fraud, including cargo theft, identity fraud, and scams targeting brokers. Research shows that freight fraud has surged by fourfold, with incidents rising significantly since the pandemic began. The financial toll of this potentially reaches near $1 billion. Many new brokers started up in this post covid world and may not know the things to look out for and one miss can cost the whole new business, so there was a lot of value in tools we can provide to help catch some of these threats.
Moreover, brokers were facing delays in processing invoices due to a lack of visibility into the status of uploaded documents. There was no clear indication of whether users needed to take action on their uploaded documents or whether the audit results were approved. This lack of transparency also created opportunities for security vulnerabilities.
Solution:
I designed a way to display audit results directly within the job details page, providing users with real-time feedback on document statuses and clear next steps for any required actions. By doing so, I aimed to not only streamline the document review process which helps Denim's clients but also Denim itself in protecting from factoring bad jobs that could end up costing money if the broker fails.
Team Management & Role-Based Permissions
For larger brokerages or organizations with multiple departments, role-based access is essential to ensure each team member only sees the information and tools they need. Denim for Teams introduces an intuitive User Details Drawer, allowing administrators to:
View and customize each user’s role and permissions
Restrict or grant access to critical tasks like creating jobs, requesting funding, or editing payment details
Maintain data security and compliance by limiting visibility to sensitive financial information
By tailoring permissions at a granular level, organizations can onboard large teams efficiently, minimize mistakes, and foster accountability across the platform. This feature ensures operational agility without compromising on clarity or control.
/// 2. Denim for Teams
Challenge:
Larger brokerages required the ability to delegate automatic emails to specific team members to improve communication and reduce bottlenecks in managing client notifications. The previous system didn't offer adequate control for team-based delegation.
Solution:
I designed the “Denim for Teams” feature, enabling clients to assign email notifications to specific agents on their teams. This allowed brokers to automate email delegation based on user roles, ensuring faster responses and improved task management for large teams.
/// 3. Pricing Transparency & Fee Integration
Challenge:
Denim’s original pricing model emphasized low headline rates but obscured many of the associated fees, such as ACH, wire transfers, invoice processing, and early termination. This lack of clarity made it difficult for brokers and carriers to fully understand their total cost of using the platform, which reduced trust and sometimes led to churn—especially when rate structures shifted mid-relationship.
Solution:
I conducted a comprehensive pricing study and collaborated with product and finance teams to explore new models that balanced transparency, competitive positioning, and profitability. This led to:
A clearly structured pricing levers overview, mapping out adjustable ranges and rationales for each fee.
The design of interactive, self-service calculators embedded on the site that showed brokers and carriers real-time savings from Flexible Factoring.
A dual-mode calculator experience (broker/carrier toggle) to show savings for both audiences and demonstrate value beyond the headline rate.
Clear breakdowns of total factoring rates, delayed payment discount savings, and custom results based on volume, delay days, and margins.
This empowered potential customers to make more informed decisions and gave sales teams a powerful tool during onboarding.
To increase transparency and build trust with users, we needed a thoughtful strategy for where and how to surface fees throughout the Denim platform.
We started by identifying the key pricing levers—both fixed and dynamic—and mapping them across various parts of the user journey. Each fee was color-coded based on how and where it should appear within the platform: from the job summary page to sticky modals and Denim Cash dashboards. This ensured consistency in how fees were presented and helped eliminate surprises for users.
🔍 Our goals were to:
Break down complex pricing structures into digestible, user-friendly components
Surface critical fees at key decision points, such as during job creation or invoice submission
Empower users with upfront visibility into costs, avoiding confusion or frustration later
By aligning our design and product strategy with real user concerns around headline rates and hidden fees, we were able to create a fee structure that felt both transparent and flexible — delivering clarity without sacrificing flexibility or upsell potential.
To help prospects understand the value of Denim’s fee structure and flexible payment options, we designed a set of self-service calculators tailored to brokers and carriers.
These calculators allowed users to input their average monthly volume and select how quickly they wanted to be paid (e.g., same-day, 1–2 days, etc.). Based on their inputs, the calculator returned a clear breakdown of potential monthly and annual savings compared to traditional factoring models.
💡 Design decisions focused on clarity and value emphasis:
The annual savings was displayed as the most prominent result, using visual hierarchy to draw attention to the long-term value.
Monthly costs and savings were also shown beneath, but in smaller type and muted tones to support — not compete with — the primary takeaway.
A clean layout, intuitive sliders, and short explainer text made the tool feel simple, fast, and trustworthy.
🗣️ "We wanted users to immediately grasp how Denim could save them thousands each year, without doing mental math or reading fine print."
Pricing in the Product:
When submitting or editing a job, users are presented with a clear, itemized breakdown of all associated costs. This ensures complete transparency and helps users understand exactly what they’ll pay—and why—before submitting for funding.
Streamlined Pricing Breakdown
This view above focuses on the essential fee details presented within the contractor payment section. Key callouts are:
Factoring Rates and Discounts: Users can instantly see the breakdown of the factoring rate, delay discount, and any additional surcharges, providing full visibility into how the final payable amount is calculated.
Visual Hierarchy: Key figures—such as total savings and net payment—are emphasized with larger text and high-contrast design elements, ensuring that the most critical data stands out for quick decision-making.
Contextual Transparency: Integrating the pricing information directly into the job workflow minimizes surprises and builds trust, as users see exactly how costs are derived at the point of action.
This focused presentation not only simplifies complex pricing structures but also empowers users to make confident, data-informed decisions.
Impact:
Increased pricing transparency, with clients better understanding their fee structures and savings opportunities.
Higher client trust and retention, as pricing was now presented as a collaborative conversation rather than a static number.
Improved deal close rate, with sales leveraging the calculators to demonstrate ROI clearly and visually.
The updated structure also helped internal teams identify upsell opportunities and segment pricing strategy by customer type (e.g., high-volume vs low-volume brokers).
Interactive Advance Date Selector
We also introduced a calendar-based UI that allows users to manipulate their payment advance date to see how it affects their factoring rate in real-time.
By selecting a future date, users can:
Lower their factoring rate by delaying funding,
Instantly view updated savings like the Delay Discount and Dynamic DSO Rate,
Understand cost implications upfront with a clear breakdown of their new payable factoring cost.
This feature empowers users with data-driven decisions and promotes trust by making fee calculations transparent, flexible, and visually intuitive. The ability to preview savings before submitting a job directly aligns with Denim’s mission to support smarter financial decisions for freight brokers.
By addressing these three key areas — audit results visibility, team delegation, and pricing transparency — I was able to significantly improve Denim’s platform for both brokers and carriers. The implementation of a robust design system further ensured that Denim could scale and adapt efficiently. These changes empowered brokers to make better, faster decisions and improved overall satisfaction with the platform.
