How Sana Benefits improved control over T&E spend with Ramp Travel

Historically, Sana used a travel booking software through which employees booked all travel, which the company suspended a few years ago for cost reasons. With its previous provider, Sana had to pay a $20 flat fee, which was frustrating when travel was slow. As travel began to ramp up again, Sana realized it needed a more systematic approach to handling T&E. 

“We had gone through a couple of phases of policies, and we used to be pretty “‘no rules’ rules,” says Assistant Controller Caroline Hill. “Our policy was: everyone do what you want, and we’ll deal with it later.” That meant people were spending a wide range on airfare and hotels, and the company didn’t have guidelines or guardrails to keep travel-related spend in check. 

With a company offsite approaching, Caroline knew Sana could benefit from a better approach. As a Ramp user, she reached out to her Ramp customer success manager and learned about Ramp Travel. Caroline appreciated that deploying Ramp Travel would facilitate the introduction of common sense parameters without needing to learn an entirely new software platform.

The Sana team worked with their Ramp representatives to launch Ramp Travel in order to gain better control over travel booking. “Once we created policies around spend limits, restrictions on first-class bookings, etc., we added those guidelines to Ramp,” says Caroline. Once they’d initiated those policies, Caroline and her team alerted their colleagues via Slack that they should begin booking all travel through Ramp. 

“I think it speaks for itself,” says Caroline. “Ramp is so user-friendly that people just did it. It was pretty easy for everyone.” 

Before deploying Ramp Travel, Caroline constantly needed to encourage people to book their travel. “We really had to hassle people,” she says. “But they’re already familiar with Ramp, so they’re much more proactive about booking flights now.” Ramp Travel has also saved material time for Caroline, who previously needed to review every single travel expense for every traveling employee. Now, Caroline simply reviews any flagged out-of-policy charges, which are routed to her automatically. This system streamlines Caroline’s work while ensuring improved policy compliance across the organization.

Right away, Sana put Ramp Travel to the test by booking all travel -- including 100 or so plane tickets -- for its company retreat. “We had plane tickets and a big block of hotels and Ubers,” says Caroline. “Everything went smoothly. As a personal user myself, I find it really helpful. As soon as the transaction happens, you get a text asking you to take a picture of your receipt. It’s just easy.”

Gone are the days of “‘no rules’ rules” -- and that’s been a win for Sana, even as a high-trust company that values common sense over strict rules. “The ability to create flexible parameters, such as allowing bookings up to 25% above market rate versus rigid guidelines, has been really good for us,” says Caroline. “Plus, having all the information within the same platform is really amazing.” 

The centralization Ramp offers was important to Caroline, who strives to find ways to streamline tasks and drive efficiency in her work. “We did look at some other travel platforms, but they just seemed too robust for what we were trying to do,” says Caroline. “We aren’t trying to create a bunch of rules -- we just want to get notified when people spend too much or book in a non-timely fashion.” Ramp Travel has made that easy, without the need to learn an additional software tool. “There’s so much value in having everything in one platform,” says Caroline. 

Because employees are already familiar with Ramp’s user-friendly interface, Caroline has also noticed reduced friction in getting her colleagues to submit their receipts and memos. “With our legacy system, it took weeks to get receipts,” says Caroline. “It’s definitely so much smoother with Ramp.” Ramp also makes it easier for Caroline to flag instances where employees need to reimburse the company for personal expenses made in error on a company card. “It’s so amazing in Ramp,” Caroline says. “Before, I would have to flag it, then do a payroll deduction, and it was a multi-step process. With Ramp, I just flag it and request repayment.” For Caroline, who doesn’t enjoy policing her colleagues, Ramp Travel has made life much easier and more pleasant. 

That has been a hallmark of working with Ramp. “What’s so valuable about Ramp is that we’re able to modify our approval flows or company structure based on our needs at the time,” Caroline says. “The ability to be super flexible with the platform and to scale up or down as needed is really valuable for us.” For a company that has continued growth plans, that scalability is essential.