How legacy corporate cards increase vulnerability to fraud and fines
Even as organizations are embracing digital transformation, many finance departments remain stuck manually managing expenses with paper receipts, monthly statements, and after-the-fact policy enforcement. The result is a costly and risky operational gap that leaves companies vulnerable to fraud, inefficiencies, and compliance headaches.
Ramp recently published Fraud, fines and forensic audits: The true cost of legacy corporate cards and expense management, a deep-dive that examines how to protect your business from key vulnerabilities. The paper lays out a network of risks and remediations for finance leaders using legacy card and expense systems. It draws on expert insights and empirical research to illuminate the path from outdated, complex finance workflows to intuitive systems that help reduce risk, increase spend visibility, and fuel the engine of modern finance teams.
Ramp identified three major risks to using outdated accounting technology:
- Delayed financial decision-making
- Increased vulnerability to fraud
- Compliance and audit complexity
The cost of vulnerabilities
Our report reveals stunning realities about the real financial impact of these risks.
A few key findings to call out:
- Companies lose a median of $50,000 yearly to expense fraud—up $10,000 from two years ago—according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners' (ACFE).
- Expense reimbursement fraud occurred in 13% of asset misappropriation cases and lasted an average of 18 months before detection, making it one of the most enduring types of fraud, per ACFE.
- U.S. credit card debt grew to more than $1.21 trillion in Q4 2024, up more than $45 billion from the previous quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported. This rising debt burden increases the risk of employees turning to expense fraud for financial relief when burdened with out-of-pocket business expenses.
- Procurement fraud is among the top three most disruptive economic crimes experienced by companies globally, just behind cybercrime and corruption, according to PwC's Global Economic Crime Survey. More than half the companies surveyed cited procurement fraud as a major concern in their countries.
Reducing the impact and cost of fraud
Ramp data shows that modernizing card and expense systems can help businesses save serious time and money.
- Large companies using Ramp saved an average of more than 36 hours per month across their finance team. Between cash back and time saved, those companies averaged $22,033 in monthly savings.
- Ramp’s data shows modern expense systems have saved businesses more than $2 billion, in many cases by cutting redundant spend.
For example: Barry's, a leading boutique fitness company operating 84 locations across 14 countries, faced significant challenges with its legacy corporate card and expense management systems that impeded the finance team’s ability to focus on strategic initiatives. By using Ramp, the business eliminated 400 hours per month in administrative work.
For more on how modern finance tools can help businesses save money and reduce risk, get your copy of the full Fraud, fines and forensic audits report.
“I assumed I would have to choose between speed and control. What I found is that you can have both. A well-designed system takes friction out, for the finance function and for everyone else.”
Justin Webster
CFO, Denver Broncos
“A well-run district should not have to choose between getting work done at the school site and keeping control of the dollars behind it. We're not hiring more people to do more jobs, so we have to be smarter about the process. With Ramp, the purchase, the receipt, and the record stay together from the start. ”
Nick Brizeno
Director of Purchasing, San Marcos Unified School District
“AI is moving faster than the finance context around it. Prices change, models change, and the value is not always obvious from an invoice. We needed enough detail to know which bets deserved more investment — and which ones did not.”
Greg Cooley
Controller, AngelList
“Invoices, cards, tokens. The categories change but the principle doesn't: know where the money is going, remove the work around it, and make sure the spend is worth it.”
Maciej Mylik. Finance
ElevenLabs
“There's just no surprises anymore. No more waiting two months to find out how a job did. We know how it's doing as it's happening.”
Erich Kuss
Financial Systems Manager, Infinity Home Services
“More token spend isn’t proof that AI is working. Less isn’t proof that it isn’t. What matters is whether we’re buying the right level of intelligence for the work. Ramp lets us make that judgment in the same place we manage every other type of spend.”
Cody Nutt
Senior Director of Business Systems, Daxko
“Most banks treat the back office as a cost to keep down. We treat ours as a return to compound, which is why we run it on Ramp. Now we put our clients on Ramp, too.”
Patrick Gaughen
President & COO, Hingham Institution for Savings
“Browserbase builds infrastructure so AI agents can do real work. Ramp is doing the same for finance. It’s not another tool. It’s a system purpose-built for AI-driven finance, and that’s why we chose Ramp as our financial operating system from day one.”
Paul Klein IV
Founder & CEO, Browserbase
