Architecture Overview
Two Portals, One Product
Section titled “Two Portals, One Product”SeedTrust serves two distinct user groups:
- External Clients (IPs, GCs, Agencies) — consumer-focused, transparency-driven. They need to see where their money is and what’s happening with their journey.
- Internal Staff (Contracts, Payments, Legal, Accounting) — productivity-focused, data-heavy. They need to process cases efficiently and manage disbursements.
Each group has its own layout, navigation, and feature set.
Design Philosophy
Section titled “Design Philosophy”Event-Driven UI
Section titled “Event-Driven UI”The interface reacts to surrogacy milestones. When a case status changes to “Pregnant”, new allowances and UI sections become available. Features unlock progressively based on journey progress — users only see what’s relevant to their current stage.
Gamified Productivity
Section titled “Gamified Productivity”Staff dashboards focus on velocity and streaks — clearing the disbursement request queue, processing cases efficiently. The UI rewards throughput rather than just showing data.
Radical Transparency
Section titled “Radical Transparency”Clients need visual timelines of their money and journey progress. The IP portal shows balance breakdowns, the GC portal shows upcoming payments. No information is hidden from the people whose money and bodies are involved.
Mobile-First for GCs
Section titled “Mobile-First for GCs”Gestational carriers interact primarily via mobile. Upload receipt, request lost wages, view schedule — all designed for one-handed operation with large touch targets and minimal steps.
Template Hierarchy
Section titled “Template Hierarchy”Disbursement types (the categories of expenses and their default amounts) follow a three-tier hierarchy:
Master Templates (managed in Settings → Template Library) ↓ copied to Agency Templates (customized per agency, independently) ↓ overridden by Case Overrides (per-case values, from GSA contract upload)
- Master Templates are system-wide defaults managed in Settings → Template Library
- When an agency is created, a master template is copied (not linked) to the agency — the agency can then customize it independently
- When a GSA contract is uploaded for a case, parsed values override the agency template amounts for that specific case
- Staff can manually edit case-level amounts after the GSA upload
Changes to a master template do NOT affect existing agencies or cases — only new ones created after the change.
Milestone Progression
Section titled “Milestone Progression”Journey milestones unlock features and allowance categories throughout the lifecycle:
| Milestone | What It Unlocks |
|---|---|
| Contract Signed | Journey timeline becomes visible to clients |
| Medical Clearance | Transfer scheduling becomes available |
| Confirmed Pregnant | Maternity allowances and monthly compensation activate |
| Heartbeat Confirmed | Payment tier increases |
| Birth | Final payments trigger, closing procedures begin |
Milestones affect which expense categories are available when submitting a disbursement request — the system dynamically shows only eligible expense types based on the current milestone.