One WhatsApp number, a whole accounting team
I led the design of GoEasy Chat at GEXP Software: a desktop app that lets an accounting firm answer clients from one WhatsApp number on several computers, with each person seeing their own clients and the owner seeing everything. It is live, with 50+ active users.
Accounting runs on WhatsApp
In Costa Rica, a small accounting firm talks to its clients on WhatsApp: invoices, tax questions, payroll, reminders. MAV Digital had one business number and a team of accountants who all needed it, at the same time, from their own computers.
Everyone shared one inbox, and nobody owned it
With one shared WhatsApp, every accountant scrolled through every client to find their own, and the owner had no clear view of which clients belonged to each person. The tools that solve this cost the firm more than it wanted to pay.
Goal: one number the whole team can use at once, where each person finds their clients immediately and the owner keeps control of every conversation.
Before
One phone, everyone’s clients
- The whole team needed the same WhatsApp number
- Staff scrolled through every client to find their own
- The owner had no clear view of who handled which client
- Paid WhatsApp management tools were expensive
With GoEasy Chat
One number, on every desk
- The same number works on several computers at once
- Each person sees only their clients’ chats
- The owner sees every conversation and who owns each client
- One app replaced the paid tools
What it changed
- 50+active users today
- ½the time staff spend looking for their clients’ chats
- 1WhatsApp number shared across the team’s computers
- 8–12weeks from first design to launch, desktop only
The firm also stopped paying for expensive WhatsApp management tools. The goal was never to need fewer people: it was to give the same team its time back.
Two roles, two views of the same inbox
The owner
“Who is handling which client, and is anything slipping?”
Needs every conversation in one place, and decides which accountant owns each client.
The accountant
“Where are my clients’ messages?”
Needs only their own clients, without scrolling through everyone else’s.
Visibility follows ownership
The core of the product is a simple rule: a client belongs to one accountant, and you see the clients you own. The owner sits above that rule and sees everything.
- Client 1
- Client 2
- Client 3
- Client 4
- Client 5
- Client 6
- Client 7
- Client 8
The choices that shaped GoEasy Chat
The owner sees everything; each person sees their own
Privacy and focus pull in opposite directions in a shared inbox. Giving staff only their clients’ chats removed the noise, and giving the owner every conversation kept the control the firm needed.
Every client belongs to someone
The owner decides which clients belong to each person. That made “who answers this client” a fact in the app instead of a question in the office, and it is what lets each person see only their own chats.
Desktop first, and only desktop
The team works from their computers, so desktop is where the product needed to be first. Leaving mobile out kept the scope realistic for an 8 to 12 week project.
Built on the studio’s design system
I used GEXP’s shared components, the same system reused in every project at the studio. It is one reason the design was ready early: most of the interface was assembled from parts the team already trusted.
The design was ready early; access took longer
The project took 8 to 12 weeks. The design was nearly finished early, because it was built on the studio’s design system. Most of the remaining time went to WhatsApp access approvals, which had to be requested many times before the app could go live.
- DesignRoles, the inbox and client ownership, built with the studio’s design system. Nearly done early.
- ApprovalsWhatsApp access permissions, requested many times before they were granted.
- LaunchDesktop app live for the firm; 50+ active users today.
And what I would design next
- Ask for platform approvals in week one. The design was ready long before launch; the wait was for WhatsApp access approvals that had to be requested again and again.
- Measure what people feel. “Half the time looking for chats” explains the product better than any feature list.
- Permissions are a design problem, not a settings page. Deciding who sees what shaped every screen of the app.
After GoEasy Chat, I asked what the same product would look like for any service team, with an AI that summarizes conversations and flags clients with a deadline today. That became Hilo, built on my own design system, Trama.