How Bubble’s lean finance team earns back $130k a year and 30 hours a month
“We’re able to push everything that happens on Ramp to QuickBooks. It also makes reconciling expenses easier, because you leave a very clear trail.”
Controller, Bubble
Bubble has helped more than two million people build software with little or no code. Behind the scenes, finance was a shared side project between the Co-CEO and the VP of Product, until Controller Yiwen Ding arrived with a mandate for clean books and GAAP-ready reporting. With Ramp, she built a lean finance function that closes faster, sails through audits, and earns back more than $100k a year.
Finance was everybody’s side job
As a bootstrapped company, Bubble lacked a dedicated finance team until early 2022, when the company welcomed Controller Yiwen Ding to the team.
“Before I started, finance was a very collaborative effort between our Co-CEO and our VP of Product,” explains Yiwen. “Everybody owned a piece of it.”
That collaborative approach led to processes that needed streamlining and required accuracy checks.
“My top priority is financial reporting,” says Yiwen. “I want to get our accounting records in good shape. In the past, it wasn’t an area of major investment or focus. But as we have matured, we have stakeholders who need to get a more accurate financial report.”
Bubble needed to implement a streamlined, repeatable process that would allow the company to reach this critical stage, become GAAP compliant, and ensure it was issuing the appropriate financial statements. In addition, Bubble was interested in closing its books more efficiently and identifying opportunities for cost savings.
One platform, one clear trail from swipe to QuickBooks
Bubble partnered with Ramp to centralize spend management, expedite accounting, and provide cost savings through cashback rewards and vendor negotiations.
“The integration between QuickBooks and Ramp has made bookkeeping a lot easier,” says Yiwen. “We’re able to push everything that happens on the Ramp platform to QuickBooks. It also helps to reconcile expenses more easily, because you’re able to leave a very clear trail.”
With Ramp, Bubble can easily save invoice images and sync them with QuickBooks. “That’s very helpful when auditors come in,” explains Yiwen. “It will be very easy for our team to pull and present evidence [during audits].”
Ramp has enabled Bubble to implement employee reward programs by issuing distinct cards to each employee. “It’s been great to offer our employees this benefit,” says Yiwen. “And we get rewards, because everyone is using their cards. That’s also benefiting us as a company. While we provide the benefits, we get something back as well.”
Bubble now relies on Ramp to receive rewards in multiple areas: with cashback rewards when employees use their cards, with cashback on large expenses made via Ramp Bill Pay, and by outsourcing vendor negotiations to the Ramp Negotiations team.
$130k a year back, and a close that takes 30 fewer hours
Partnering with Ramp has resulted in savings of time and money for Bubble that allows them to focus on improving their company and product. The company leveraged Ramp’s Bill Pay product to process every bill on the Ramp platform, which has resulted in thousands of dollars of savings thanks to Ramp’s cashback offer. “Before Ramp, I don’t think we were able to get any type of rewards from other vendors,” says Yiwen.
Likewise, Ramp’s Negotiations product allows Bubble employees to focus on higher-value tasks while ensuring the company receives the best possible price from its vendors. “It’s a very, very small team,” says Yiwen. “I don’t think anyone has the bandwidth to negotiate vendor contracts. Having Ramp as our partner to help us negotiate expenses has been very valuable.” Already, Ramp Negotiations has helped Bubble save over $30k in annual software contract fees, which has quickly added up to over $90k in total savings.
Leveraging Ramp has enabled Bubble to uncover time- and cost-savings in multiple ways. “Ramp has saved us a ton of time from an accounting perspective,” says Yiwen. “We don’t need to have a whole expense team, AP team. So we’ve saved headcount in that area.” The time Ramp saves extends beyond the finance team, too. “Employees like it,” says Yiwen. “When they want to spend on something, they can make a request very easily on Slack, and then it’s a very easy process. They don’t need to pay anything, and they save time. That’s very valuable.”
Ramp has helped Bubble implement a culture of savings—and those rewards will only compound over time.
