How Eventbrite streamlined processes and improved UX with Ramp

Eventbrite’s legacy corporate card system involved multiple individual cards across various banks. “We had a very poor experience for the cardholders and approvers,” says Laura Morenno, Director of Global AP & FSO at Eventbrite. “It was a very painful process, with labor-intensive administration.” Any time an employee requested a new credit card via email or Slack, it took about three weeks to enroll, receive, and activate the new card. 

The process included requesting a new card, submitting the request for approval, logging into the bank portal, creating a request with the bank that took the company’s credit card limit into consideration, and waiting three days for the bank to approve that request. “Another issue was that our legacy provider only provided physical cards, not virtual cards,” says Laura. Those cards were all delivered to the company’s San Francisco headquarters, which meant someone needed to be physically present in the office to receive the card and mail it to the requesting employee. With 600+ global employees, this process was unsustainably cumbersome.  

What’s more, the inability to leverage a virtual card made it more challenging to deal with urgent situations. “There was no way to buy something urgently if you didn’t have a physical card yet,” says Laura. “As a backup, we had department cards, and I’d have to share those details when needed,” says Laura. “It wasn’t secure at all.” 

Once employees actually had their cards, the approval process for expenses was also arduous. “Everything was manual, and you’d have to save the email for internal audit requests,” says Laura. Eventbrite needed a new solution that could streamline systems, automate coding, enable virtual cards, and improve the user experience for employees.

Eventbrite partnered with Ramp to streamline and automate its labor-intensive card management process. One trait the team found particularly appealing was Ramp’s ability to safely, securely, and quickly issue virtual cards. “We were trying to onboard a new travel provider when we were in conversations with Ramp,” says Laura. “The provider requested a virtual card, and our legacy provider couldn’t offer one. I realized Ramp could -- and that was a big win for me.” 

At a more granular level, employees can also request their own physical and virtual cards much more seamlessly with Ramp. “People can just go into Ramp and request a new card, and the approval workflow is built in there,” says Laura. “The good thing is if they have an urgency, they have a fully-approved virtual card right away.” While it formerly took three weeks or longer for employees to receive new cards, Ramp enables employees to use cards instantly.

Expense management has also become simpler. “Employees can now just send their receipts,” says Laura. “We’ve created accounting matching rules, so there’s no need for them to code the transactions.” Expenses under $25 are approved automatically, and more expensive purchases are automatically routed to a manager for approval. This reduces friction for employees who may need to spend a small amount quickly, and it also lessens the burden on managers.

Ramp has done more than save time for employees, managers, and the finance team -- it has ultimately led to fewer errors thanks to automatic coding, and better insight into organization-wide spend for the finance team. “We have more information,” says Laura simply. “In the past, all transactions were coded to just one spend category, because we weren’t able to know the details of transactions that were not submitted for approval. For the accruals process, we now know the suppliers, we know the type of vendor, and we have rules that match the spend category depending on the accounting matching rules we’ve devised.” That improved accuracy is a huge win, Laura says, for her team. 

“It’s also helpful to see the available credit limit,” says Laura. “In the past, we could only access that by having an administrator contact the bank. Now, you can see your real-time credit limit right away.” 

The procurement team, too, benefits from the heightened visibility Ramp affords. “The procurement team is starting to migrate a lot of suppliers from credit cards to a procurement process,” says Laura. “Now they can access Ramp and easily see the potential suppliers that can be moved to procurement. The Ramp dashboard easily shows how many cardholders are paying for the same subscription -- so the procurement team has the information they need to negotiate a corporate package.”

Ultimately, Laura says, the customer service Ramp provides has been a “game-changer” for the company. “In the past, cardholders suffered a lot when cards were blocked and transactions were flagged as fraudulent,” she says. “As a card administrator, it was a nightmare to call the bank and try to figure it out. It meant I was on call all the time.” 

With Ramp, Laura is no longer on call. “With Ramp, we just send an email and have an answer in a minute. If a transaction is declined, we can access the system and see the reason in real-time. We have more information, and we can go send an email and make a call and someone is going to be there.” That level of service is important to the Eventbrite team. “I want to highlight the customer care,” says Laura. “It’s a great experience.”