How I built it: Ramp's 'Know Your Customer' spend program
In fintech, KYC usually means compliance requirements. At Ramp, it now means something more.
With more than 30,000 businesses using Ramp, we wanted to give employees a way to explore and support our incredible customers while also putting our own product to the test. In this case, we’re testing our merchant restriction features.
That’s why we launched the “Know Your Customer” spend program: a quarterly initiative that gives every employee $50 to spend with a select group of customers.
To make it even more engaging, our Customer Marketing team crowdsourced nominations and shared details about each customer’s story and offerings.
Some of our recent featured customers:
- Barry’s—Get your sweat on with HIIT workouts
- AllTrails—Find your next hike and grab outdoor gear
- Athletic Brewing—Enjoy non-alcoholic craft beer
- Kolkata Chai—Sip on authentic chai without leaving the U.S.
- Food52—Discover beautiful kitchen and home goods
Here’s exactly how we implement our Know Your Customer spend program at Ramp.
How the spend program works
1. Set an amount and frequency
Each employee gets $50 per quarter, and the balance automatically resets at the beginning of each quarter. We select new customers each cycle based on employee nominations.
2. Decide how funds are issued
Funds are auto-issued to every employee and appear instantly upon onboarding so new hires can start using Ramp right away.
3. Set restrictions
The fund can only be spent at the five selected customer merchants. Employees can use their Ramp card in-person (for example, at Maman’s cafe on Manhattan’s Upper East Side), access a virtual card for online purchases (like ordering hydration packs from LMNT), or reimburse themselves for out-of-pocket purchases.
4. Set accounting rules
Every transaction is automatically booked to a dedicated “Know Your Customer” general ledger account in NetSuite. Since we’ve already mapped these transactions to the appropriate accounting category, we mark them “ready to sync” to the GL. This helps us close the books faster.
5. Enable auto-approval and post-purchase requirements
After the purchase, employees submit receipts and memos. The system auto-approves card transactions and reimbursements go to managers for approval. If someone loses a receipt, employees can submit a missing receipt affidavit.
Spend programs that scale
Ramp’s Spend Programs feature is one of the most versatile features in our product. It makes it easy to issue and manage company money at scale, whether for coffee, wellness, remote work, travel, or company events.
Who knew compliance could be this fun?
“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
