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?