- Why finance teams are moving beyond SAP Concur
- ABB Optical Group: cut audit prep from two months to two days
- Brandt: tripled their card program without adding headcount
- Crossings Community Church : automated hundreds of weekly check runs
- Common patterns in the switch from Concur
- See why teams are switching to Ramp
Enterprise expense management is shifting. Finance teams that built their workflows around SAP Concur are discovering that as their organizations grow, they want a platform that's simpler to manage and covers more ground—without the manual workarounds.
The three companies below made the switch to Ramp. Their stories illustrate what changes when your expense, AP, and procurement tools actually work together.
Why finance teams are moving beyond SAP Concur
SAP Concur is a cloud-based travel and expense management platform that helps organizations manage expense reporting, travel booking, and invoice processing. It's been a fixture in corporate finance for decades, and for good reason—it works. But "works" and "works well for your team right now" aren't always the same thing.
Many finance leaders find themselves hitting walls as their organizations grow. Integrations with modern accounting systems don't always sync cleanly, which means manual cleanup. Customizing workflows to match how your team actually operates can feel like fighting the software. And audit prep? That can stretch into weeks of pulling reports, chasing receipts, and reconciling exceptions.
None of this means Concur is broken. It often means your finance operations have simply evolved past what the platform was designed to handle. When you're ready for real-time visibility into spending, native integrations that don't create exceptions, and automation that genuinely reduces manual work, exploring alternatives makes sense.
The three teams below made that switch. Their stories show what's possible when the tools finally match the workflow.
ABB Optical Group: cut audit prep from two months to two days
| Company | Size & Industry | Description | Pain Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABB Optical Group | Enterprise, Healthcare & Biotech | Leading optical products and services provider serving eye care professionals nationwide for 30+ years | Compliance felt like a checkbox rather than an integrated workflow; quarterly audits took 2 months |
The challenge
ABB Optical Group's finance team faced a familiar problem: audit prep that consumed entire quarters. With over 10,000 transactions to review every three months, the process stretched to two full months. Error rates ran high. Missing receipt affidavits piled up. Year-end corrections became routine rather than exceptional.
The field team, spread across the country, toggled between multiple systems just to submit expenses. Compliance wasn't built into the workflow—it was bolted on afterward, so problems were only caught after they'd already happened.
What changed with Ramp
Ramp's embedded transparency reporting gave ABB Optical something they hadn't had before: true transaction-level clarity. Instead of reviewing batches of expenses after the fact, the compliance team could see individual transactions as they occurred.
The platform's native integration with MedPro Systems meant data flowed without manual exports or reconciliation. Field employees started submitting expenses via mobile, with AI-powered policy enforcement catching issues at the point of purchase rather than during audit prep.
"Compared to our previous vendor, Ramp gave us true transaction-level granularity, making it possible for me to audit thousands of transactions in record time." — Lisa Norris, Director of Compliance & Privacy Officer
The results
- Audit timeline: Reduced from 2 months to 1–2 days
- Error rates: Dropped 85–90%
- Missing receipt affidavits: Decreased 85–90%
- Total savings: $2M+ since switching
- Mobile adoption: 90% of field team submits via mobile without formal training
Read the full ABB Optical Group story →
Brandt: tripled their card program without adding headcount
| Company | Size & Industry | Description | Pain Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandt Information Services | Mid-size, Software & Technology | Outdoor recreation management software for public agencies | Month-end close collapsed into spreadsheets; staff emailed cardholders, compiled data, and chased missing receipts |
The challenge
Brandt's accounting team spent the end of every month buried in spreadsheets. Their previous expense tool cost over $800 a month but still required manual exports and constant follow-up with cardholders. The sync with their accounting system was fragile—it worked until it didn't, and when it didn't, someone had to clean up the exceptions by hand.
With only about 24 cardholders supported, the system couldn't scale with the company's growth. At least not without adding headcount to the accounting team, which wasn't the answer anyone wanted.
What changed with Ramp
Ramp's native Sage Intacct integration eliminated the fragile syncs that had created so many exceptions. Virtual cards could be issued immediately, with spend controls and approval workflows built in from the start. Most importantly, coding happened as spending occurred, not weeks later during close.
This shift from batch processing to continuous reconciliation changed how the team worked. Instead of scrambling at month-end, they maintained clean books throughout the month.
"With Ramp, we haven't had to add accounting headcount to keep up with growth. The biggest takeaway is that instead of hiring our way through it, we fixed the workflow so we can keep supporting the organization as we scale." — Melissa M., VP of Accounting
The results
- Month-end close: 15–20 hours faster
- Cardholder growth: From ~24 to 70+ cardholders with zero added accounting headcount
- Time savings: 46 hours/month across the company
- Total savings: $450K+ combined
Crossings Community Church: automated hundreds of weekly check runs
| Company | Size & Industry | Description | Pain Point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crossings Community Church | SMB, Nonprofit | 501(c)(3) serving Oklahoma congregations with worship locations, online services, and community clinics | Hundreds of checks processed weekly; procurement platform lacked automation and customization |
The challenge
Crossings Community Church was cutting hundreds of checks every week. Their previous procurement and expense platform didn't offer payment automation, so every invoice meant a manual check run. Limited customization made coding and editing time-consuming. Budget reports lagged, leaving the finance team without real-time visibility into spending.
For a nonprofit managing multiple locations and community programs, this manual overhead wasn't sustainable. The finance coordinator was spending 40 hours a week just on invoice and expense tasks—essentially a full-time job on top of everything else.
What changed with Ramp
Ramp's Bill Pay automated the check-cutting process entirely. Procurement tools handled requisition approvals and PO matching without manual intervention. Corporate cards with spending controls and cashback replaced the old system, while real-time budgeting gave leadership visibility they'd never had before.
The shift wasn't just about saving time—it was about reclaiming capacity for work that actually mattered.
"Me specifically? I am saving so much time. I used to work 40 hours a week just on these tasks before Ramp, and now I spend only 10 to 15 hours on them." — Mandy Mobley, Finance Invoice & Expense Coordinator
The results
- AP time savings: 25 hours/week reclaimed (75% reduction)
- Personal time savings: From 40 hours/week to 10–15 hours/week
- Invoice volume: 80–100 invoices processed weekly, fully automated
- Processing speed: 2x faster bill processing
- Total savings: ~$540,000
Read the full Crossings Community Church story →
Common patterns in the switch from Concur
A few themes emerge across these stories. The teams weren't necessarily unhappy with Concur—they'd simply reached a point where their needs had outgrown what the platform could deliver without significant manual workarounds.
| Common Challenge | What Teams Look for Instead |
|---|---|
| Audits that take weeks or months | Transaction-level visibility that reduces audit prep to days |
| Fragile integrations requiring manual cleanup | Native syncs with accounting systems like Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and QuickBooks |
| Spreadsheet-driven month-end close | Continuous reconciliation with coding at the point of purchase |
| Limited payment automation | Bill Pay that eliminates manual check runs |
| Rigid workflows that don't scale | Customizable controls, approvals, and virtual card issuance |
| Lagging budget reports | Real-time spend visibility across departments |
The shift isn't about finding a "better" tool in the abstract. It's about finding the right fit for where your finance operations are today and where they're headed over the next few years.
See why teams are switching to Ramp
Finance teams at ABB Optical Group, Brandt, and Crossings Community Church made the move to Ramp because they wanted more than expense management. They wanted a platform that could handle corporate cards, expense management, accounts payable, procurement, and accounting automation in one place.
If you're evaluating what comes after Concur, the biggest question isn't which features to compare — it's whether you want another point solution or a platform that handles the full picture. Try an interactive demo to see how Ramp works, or explore more customer stories to see how other finance teams have made the switch.
“We're accountable to our funders, our partners, and the families we serve. That accountability starts with how we manage every dollar. Ramp makes it easy for our team to spend wisely, track in real time, and keep overhead low so more resources reach the families navigating infertility.”
Rachel Fruchtman
CFO, Jewish Fertility Foundation
“Each member of our team has an outsized impact due to our focus on using high-leverage tools like Ramp.”
Lauren Feeney
Controller, Perplexity
“With Ramp, we haven’t had to add accounting headcount to keep up with growth. The biggest takeaway is that instead of hiring our way through it, we fixed the workflow so we can keep supporting the organization as we scale.”
Melissa M.
VP of Accounting at Brandt Information Services
“In the public sector, every hour and every dollar belongs to the taxpayer. We can't afford to waste either. Ramp ensures we don't.”
Carly Ching
Finance Specialist, City of Ketchum
“Compared to our previous vendor, Ramp gave us true transaction-level granularity, making it possible for me to audit thousands of transactions in record time.”
Lisa Norris
Director of Compliance & Privacy Officer, ABB Optical
“We chose Ramp because it replaced several disparate tools with one platform our teams actually use—if it’s not in Ramp, it’s not getting paid.”
Michael Bohn
Head of Business Operations, Foursquare
“Ramp gives us one structured intake, one set of guardrails, and clean data end‑to‑end— that’s how we save 20 hours/month and buy back days at close.”
David Eckstein
CFO, Vanta
“Ramp is the only vendor that can service all of our employees across the globe in one unified system. They handle multiple currencies seamlessly, integrate with all of our accounting systems, and thanks to their customizable card and policy controls, we're compliant worldwide. ”
Brandon Zell
Chief Accounting Officer, Notion
