Can employees choose which fund a purchase is spent from?
Short answer
Employees usually cannot choose a fund at the time of purchase, but they may be able to reassign a transaction afterward if they have access to multiple funds.
On Ramp, admins control fund assignment through card configuration and accounting rules to make spend allocation automatic and consistent.
How fund assignment works on Ramp
Ramp assigns transactions using admin-defined settings and automatic matching:
- Card configuration: When a card is issued, admins assign it to a department, cost center, or entity. All transactions on that card default to the assigned fund.
- Accounting automation: Ramp uses merchant data and custom rules to map transactions to the correct GL accounts, classes, and locations.
- Auto-matching: When employees have multiple funds, Ramp automatically matches transactions to the relevant fund based on merchant category and fund restrictions. For example, if you purchase office supplies and have "education," "wellness," and "office" funds, Ramp automatically matches it to the office fund.
- Employee reassignment: If auto-matching assigns a transaction to the wrong fund, employees can manually switch it to a different available fund after the purchase.
- Memos and receipts: Employees provide additional context through memos and receipts (requested via SMS or app), which accounting teams use during review.
- Multi-entity support: For companies with multiple entities, admins assign each card to the correct entity during setup
Example
An employee is issued a card assigned to the Marketing department. They make a purchase at a design software vendor.
Ramp automatically assigns the transaction to Marketing's cost center and the appropriate software GL account based on the merchant category and card configuration. If the employee has access to multiple funds (such as a general Marketing fund and an Events fund), Ramp's auto-matching intelligently assigns it to the most relevant fund, in this case, the Marketing fund since it's software-related.
After the purchase, the employee receives a text message asking them to submit a receipt and confirm the memo for the transaction. If the auto-match assigned it to the wrong fund, the employee can manually switch it to the Events fund through the Ramp app or web interface.
How employees can switch a transaction to a different fund
If auto-matching assigns a transaction to the wrong fund, employees can:
- Sign in to their Ramp account
- Navigate to My expenses
- Select the expense they would like to edit
- Open the Spent from dropdown
- Select the correct fund for the transaction
When fund reassignment isn't possible
There are certain situations where you cannot reassign a transaction to a different fund:
- Insufficient balance: If the target fund doesn't have enough remaining balance to cover the transaction amount, it won't appear as an available option.
- Restriction conflicts: If the transaction violates the target fund's merchant or category restrictions, you cannot reassign it. For example, you cannot move a restaurant charge to a fund that blocks dining expenses.
- Transaction limit exceeded: If the transaction amount exceeds the target fund's per-transaction limit, reassignment will be blocked.
- Virtual card transactions: Transactions made with virtual cards are typically locked to their assigned fund and cannot be moved to other funds.
In these cases, admins may need to adjust fund settings or balances before reassignment is possible, or the transaction may need to remain on its originally assigned fund.