An employee needs fuel for a company vehicle, but the owner doesn’t want to hand over an unrestricted card. Ramp business cards offer a way to set a spending limit and restrict the card to an approved merchant category. Accounting can then review the activity in Ramp and send transactions to QuickBooks Online.
Nectar Bridge is now a Ramp partner. For businesses that want more control over employee purchases without making the bookkeeping harder, Ramp is worth a look.
How can Ramp cards limit employee spending?
Ramp lets a business set spending limits on cards and restrict purchases by merchant category. Those controls can give an employee access to what they need for work while setting boundaries before a purchase happens.
Example: A service business issues an employee a card restricted to Ramp’s Fuel and Gas category, with a $100 daily spending limit. A purchase that falls outside the permitted category or exceeds the available limit can be declined.
Ramp describes how category restrictions work and how spending limits apply alongside those restrictions. The owner can adjust the setup as the employee’s responsibilities change.
A card for fuel is one example. A business can also consider the categories or merchants that make sense for a particular employee’s job. The point is to decide what the card is for before handing it over.
What can accounting see when employees use Ramp?
Ramp gives an accounting team access to card activity and supporting financial information, based on the permissions the business assigns.
That matters when someone is trying to close the books and needs to know who made a purchase or find the receipt. Employees can submit receipts and memos through Ramp, and users with the Accounting role can view and download company financial data and statements.
The owner should still decide who reviews purchases and how often that review happens. Giving accounting access to the information makes the review possible; someone still needs to do it.
How does Ramp work with QuickBooks Online?
Ramp connects directly to QuickBooks Online and sends card transactions over as expenses. According to Ramp’s QuickBooks Online guide, receipts uploaded in Ramp can also be attached to the corresponding QuickBooks transactions.
Before sending transactions over, the business needs to select the appropriate accounts and review how expenses will be categorized. Ramp also says that once an expense is synced, later edits to that expense must be made in QuickBooks Online.
The connection doesn’t remove the need for monthly reconciliation. Card activity and statement payments still need to be reviewed in QuickBooks so the balance agrees with the records. Ramp’s guide describes matching statement payments to the checking-account activity rather than recording the same payment twice.
We’ve written about deciding what belongs in QuickBooks and what belongs in another system. The same principle applies here: decide where spending is managed, where accounting records are maintained, and who checks that the two agree.
What should an owner check before setting card restrictions?
A card restriction is only as useful as the rules behind it. Set limits around the employee’s actual work, then review declined transactions so a legitimate purchase doesn’t leave someone stranded at a job site.
Merchant categories also have limits. Ramp notes that a merchant’s classification may differ from what a cardholder expects, which can cause an otherwise reasonable purchase to be declined. A card restricted to the Fuel and Gas category controls where it can be used; it doesn’t guarantee that every item bought at an approved merchant is fuel.
Before signing up, check Ramp’s current eligibility requirements and plan details. (And check in with us – we’re a Ramp partner). The right setup depends on the features your business needs and how you plan to use them.
How can Nectar Bridge help with Ramp?
Nectar Bridge is a Ramp partner, and we can talk through how Ramp may fit alongside your QuickBooks Online workflow. That conversation starts with how your employees make purchases today and what your accounting team needs to see.
If you’re considering Ramp, contact Nectar Bridge to talk with Gary about your business and its bookkeeping needs.