Why legacy systems can’t keep up — and how Ramp is reimagining expense management

For decades, companies have accepted that expense management will always be painful: tedious reports, paper receipts, and endless manual checks across multiple, disconnected systems.

Legacy tools like Concur depend on a network of add-ons and third-party integrations to deliver even basic automation, so users end up having to patch together workflows with extra tools.

“For accounting, we had to pay for another third-party tool just to generate a report we could upload into QuickBooks because Concur didn’t work natively,” said Gaby Edmead, business operations manager at J/PR, a global communications agency.

At Ramp, we saw an opportunity to rebuild expense management from the ground up with one mission: save companies time and money by removing the busywork that slows finance teams down.

“Employees handle expenses on the go, in the back of an Uber or after they put their kids to bed."
Gaby Edmead, Business Operations Manager, J/PR

When finance professionals aren’t stuck chasing receipts or coding expenses by hand, they can focus on what really matters: strategy, insights, and growth. That’s why Ramp is built to work with and for you. Behind the scenes, Ramp automatically handles every step, from card swipe to approval to accounting sync, all in one platform.

The booking and expense submission experience on Concur vs. Ramp

A simple expense on Concur can touch up to four or more different systems and three or more paid add-ons. Compare that to Ramp, where booking, spend, approval, and sync all happen natively in one platform, eliminating the need for additional tools or paid connectors.¹

^{The following table captures a hypothetical user experience a company might have using either SAP Concur or Ramp and is intended to highlight some differences in how users of each platform may handle the expense reimbursement process.}

3 ways ‘zero-touch’ expenses change work

Processes shift from static reporting to real-time submission, review, and sync

Traditional systems rely on batching expenses into reports for later approval and syncing, making expenses a slow, stop-and-go process with downstream reconciliation delays.

“Employees would put it off because it would require them blocking off a solid two hours, and managers had to approve entire monthly reports with unfamiliar client spend,” Edmead said. “It was an all-or-nothing model that could take up to eight weeks for expenses to reach accounting.”

"Prior to Ramp, the enforcement was hit or miss. Now we have system-generated rules and actions, so managers don’t have to be the bad guy."
Erik Holt, Treasury Manager, Kaman Corp

Ramp reviews and codes transactions in real time, syncing routine spend directly to your ERP. This continuous flow accelerates processing, improves visibility, and gives finance teams a live view of where money is moving.

“Employees handle expenses on the go, in the back of an Uber or after they put their kids to bed,” she said. “For managers, custom approval workflows mean managers approve by transaction and only review what pertains to them. Everything's in real time, which we love."

Systems evolve from rigid rules to adaptive intelligence

Legacy systems depend on fixed, “if-then” rules that only change when an admin manually updates them. These basic automations can save time, but they still put the burden on finance teams to anticipate every possible scenario and don't help with gray areas.

By contrast, Ramp’s agents, your newest AI hires that automate key finance processes like expense reviews and coding, learn and improve with every transaction. Just like onboarding a new team member, if you give them your expense policy, org chart, and employee notes in natural language, they’ll have the context to make smarter decisions.

This shift also transforms how compliance is enforced. Instead of managers chasing employees to submit reports or follow policy, intelligent systems handle it automatically.

“Prior to Ramp, some employees would go months without doing their expense reports. The enforcement was hit or miss," said Erik Holt, treasury manager at aerospace manufacturer Kaman Corp. “Now we have system-generated rules and actions, so managers don’t have to be the bad guy. There are calibrated reminders and the system enforces the discipline automatically based on the context.”

Ramp’s agents operate without the limits of human capacity or bias. They apply policies consistently, flag exceptions instantly, and create a transparent audit trail for every decision. The result is a system that not only learns and scales but also enforces compliance fairly.

Finance teams and employees freed from manual work

With automation, managers, admins, and accounts always stay in control by overseeing outcomes, handling exceptions and applying judgment where there is real nuance.

"AI can remove repetitive, low-stakes tasks,” General Catalyst Accounting Manager Josh Goldberg said. "The question for growing companies is always: do you throw tooling or headcount at a problem? The idea here is to grow with AI — it's cheaper and more efficient for routine tasks, and eventually, through agentic flows, it can automate most of those tasks."

Ramps agents’ level of automation and autonomy are fully customizable and in your control:

• Ramp Policy agent can provide recommendations OR automatically approve select or all in-policy transactions on reviewers’ behalf.
• Ramp Accounting agent can suggest coding OR directly sync finalized entries to ERP.

Employees move from coding GLs, filling out forms, and attaching receipts to simply providing lightweight context (“what was this for?”) — if they have to do anything at all.

"The question for growing companies is always: do you throw tooling or headcount at a problem? AI is cheaper and more efficient for routine tasks."
Josh Goldberg, Accounting Manager, General Catalyst

Ramp’s agents gather as much context as possible from data, and human reviewers are only tapped when necessary. A memo like “client gift” or “team celebration” can completely change how a purchase is treated, and that’s where human judgment complements automation.

The opportunity ahead: Unlock finance's full potential

This new era of finance isn’t about doing more but about doing less, better. When the right systems handle the repetitive work, finance teams finally have space to think strategically, act faster, and lead with confidence.

^{1 The following table captures a hypothetical user experience a company might have using either SAP Concur or Ramp and is intended to highlight some differences in how users of each platform may handle the expense reimbursement process.}

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