Ramp Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2023
Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.
Danielle is a writer for the Finance division of Fit Small Business. She has owned a bookkeeping and payroll service that specializes in small business, for over twenty years.
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
Ramp offers a free suite of financial management tools that help businesses manage their expenses, invoices, and budgets. These tools are designed to be user-friendly and accessible to businesses of all sizes, with features like automated expense categorization, receipt capture, and approval workflows. Ramp also provides a corporate charge card that offers 1.5% cashback rewards on every purchase and has other useful features such as spending controls, real-time alerts, and integrations with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero.
Pros
- Streamlined expense management tools
- Corporate card offers unlimited 1.5% cashback rewards
- Real-time financial insights
- User-friendly dashboard
Cons
- Not able to carry a balance on Ramp charge card
- Not a full-featured accounting software program
- Limited customer support
Ramp Deciding Factors
Supported Business Types | Startups, small and mid-sized companies, remote businesses, and financial services firms |
Pricing | Free |
Payroll | Available via Gusto integration (Read our review of Gusto) |
Standout Features |
|
Customer Support | Email form on website |
Ramp Alternatives
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Best for: Businesses struggling with cash flow | Best for: Businesses seeking free expense tracking | Best for: Businesses seeking a streamlined bill pay solution |
Cost: Free for unlimited users | Cost: Starts at $0 per month for up to three users | Cost: Starts at $55 per month for plans that include bill pay |
For even more alternatives to Ramp, see our guide to the best accounts payable software.
Ramp New Features 2023
- Integration with Microsoft Outlook: This new integration is designed to save you time by automatically fetching and pulling receipts from your inbox into Ramp without needing to forward them. Ramp will only pull data that’s essential and will delete it once it’s no longer used.
- Added flexibility for approval workflows: You can now create and assign custom groups of approvers, as well as department and location approval owners, to approval workflows.
- Control what your admins can issue: In the approval settings, you have the ability to allow your admins to self-issue and self-approve transactions. You can toggle the option off if you don’t want them to issue or approve transactions.
- Multi-login for mobile: Easily switch between profiles in the iOS app if you have multiple logins with Ramp for a more seamless experience.
Ramp Pricing
Ramp’s charge card and financial management software is completely free to use. By using the charge card, you’ll receive 1.5% cash back on all charges. Ramp doesn’t charge any card replacement fees, late fees, or interest.
Ramp Accounting Features
Ramp isn’t a full accounting system. It focuses on paying bills, managing expense approvals, and categorizing expenses. However, it integrates with most popular small business accounting programs, including QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage.
Ramp offers automatic expense submission, which allows users to take a picture of the receipt and email or text it to Ramp. It also automatically categorizes transactions based on the rules you set up and auto-declines transactions that are out of policy, flagging them to the manager and finance teams. It uses the latest technology in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to automatically digitize the invoices you forward.
Meanwhile, Ramp’s corporate card was designed to reduce unnecessary spending. It offers 1.5% cash back on every transaction and automated savings insights that will identify opportunities to help you save money. You’ll receive spending alerts in real-time for large transactions, and an integrated expense policy will allow you to define your amount thresholds for receipts and other specifications. You can also choose which vendors to exclude or allow on any given card.
With Ramp’s Bill Pay feature, you can handle all of your company’s spending in one place. You can email or upload PDF invoices that you receive, and create, approve, and pay your bills in less than a minute. Ramp syncs every bill and payment to your accounting software, streamlining your accounting tasks. The ability to import purchase orders is another feature that will be added soon.
You can download an A/P aging report to forecast outflows and create and customize approval workflows. Ramp’s payments platform automates check payments, securely delivers ACH transfers and international wires, and gives you 1.5% cash back when you pay with a Ramp card. You can also set up recurring bills to make routine vendor payments, customizing the frequency and ending date.
Ramp’s Vendors section
(Source: Ramp)
Ramp also offers Flex, a financing solution embedded in Bill Pay. It allows you to extend payment terms to vendors right when you pay your bills. Using Flex to finance a bill will incur a small fee, which will be communicated to you upfront before you select the payment option.
Ramp Flex
(Source: Ramp)
Ramp offers more than 80 bank connections, so you can automate your payments within one single platform. This includes your corporate card, ACH, and international wires. This allows you to control your cash flow and streamline accounts payable, from employee expenses to bills. You can also use Ramp’s priority referrals program to securely open new accounts.
If you’re interested in looking at other expense management options, see our guide to the best business expense trackers.
Other Ramp Features
Ramp Negotiations is a software as a service (SaaS) negotiations service that is exclusively available to Ramp customers. Its dedicated procurement team is readily available to negotiate vendor contracts and manage time-consuming vendor communications, all on your behalf. Ramp allows you to test out its service with one free contract negotiation, and if you’re satisfied, then you can reach out to your account manager to determine your monthly fee.
Setting up Ramp Negotiations
(Source: Ramp)
Currently, Ramp can negotiate SaaS, cloud, payment processing, and more on the following types of contracts:
- New purchases
- Contract renewals
- Contracts that have just been signed
- Mid-term contract expansion
- Contract reductions
Ramp’s mobile app, available for iOS devices, has many useful features. It allows you to view card details, request limit changes, lock cards, and submit reimbursements for out-of-pocket spending and mileage. Ramp lets you view and flag transactions as accidental, request policy exceptions, flag incorrect merchant info, and add attendees to meals.
Ramp mobile app
(Source: Ramp)
Ramp provides automated accounting sync, which lets you customize the software to fit your company’s accounting structure. You can integrate Ramp with your accounting software to close your books quicker and automate financial tasks.
The platform allows you to manage vendor data, tracking categories, and bill payment details. You can also access the history of every transaction, providing an audit trail.
Syncing transactions to QuickBooks
(Source: Ramp)
Ramp offers more than 1,000 integrations, including
- Accounting: QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Oracle NetSuite
- Webmail: Gmail, Outlook
- Expense automation: Amazon Business, Lyft
- HR/payroll solutions: Gusto, BambooHR
- Productivity: Slack, AngelList Stack
- Security: 1Password, Okta, Google SSO
Ramp Customer Service & Ease of Use
If you need to contact Ramp for questions about your account, issues with your cards, or anything else, you can use your Ramp dashboard. Simply click on the (?) icon on the bottom right of your screen, type “contact,” and send an email to the support team. Ramp promises a quick response, but it’s not the same as being able to pick up the phone and call someone or communicate via live chat.
Fortunately, Ramp is easy to use, with a user-friendly and uncluttered dashboard and a mobile app that complements the cloud-based software. It also has an extensive list of FAQs and live onboarding events.
Ramp Assisted Bookkeeping Options
Ramp offers an accountant directory that allows you to find a bookkeeping or accounting expert with just a few clicks. Its database of partners allows it to filter results by industries and sectors served, accounting software, and types of services offered. You can view the Accountant directory on Ramp’s website.
Ramp User Reviews
On user review websites, Ramp has received positive praise. Many shared that the expense management tools, such as the mobile receipt capture feature, has streamlined their workflow. They also praised the corporate card features, like 1.5% cashback and the fact that it doesn’t charge late fees or interest. Ramp’s negative feedback focused on its limited customer service features, as it is only possible to communicate via an email form on the website.
Here are its scores on user review sites:
- G21: 4.7 out of 5 based on around 1,165 reviews
- GetApp2: 4.9 out of 5 based on about 40 reviews
- App Store3: 4.7 out of 5 based on around 4,600 reviews
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Ramp’s corporate card and expense management software are free to use.
Certain foreign transactions on your card may include a markup on the exchange rate that Ramp receives from its network partners (such as Visa) if currency conversion is required.
Ramp takes security and protection of data seriously, and its approach includes multi-factor authentication by phone number, encrypted data, tokenization, and SSO support through your identity provider such as Google or Okta.
Bottom Line
Ramp can be a powerful tool for businesses looking for a streamlined and automated financial management system. It is a good fit for startups, small and mid-sized businesses, and financial services sectors, as well as those that work remotely. Ramp offers a multi-functional software that consolidates corporate cards, expense management, bill payments, accounting, and reporting into one simple and free solution that was designed to save time and money.
User Review References:
