Ramp, Brex, Divvy & Expense Controls
We spend more time reporting than it is worth.
If like me you travel (pre-COVID) 100K miles per year for business you know a disproportionate amount of your time is spent on tracking and filing your business expenses.
I am not picking on Capgemini per se, but when I was there, I fell a bit behind when I was new at the firm to the tune of about $15,000. Note I am not an excessive spender, I traveled to Singapore within my first 2 weeks of joining. I finally filed them with the outsourced (to Capgemini in India) expense team (aka The NO Team). They questioned and emailed me back on everything I filed because the expenses were older than 30 days. OK, but I was only on board for 90 days and did NOT know how to file them when I joined.
My direct boss the EVP signed off, the CFO signed off.
NOPE, not enough. I got frustrated and even said to the person in India,
“your boss’s, boss’s, boss’s boss signed off, send me the money.”
You see the issue. Expenses have to be filed within 30 days… OK, but once you miss that are you just out the money? No of course not, so now what. Get your boss to sign off, I did. Get the person in charge of finance to sign off, I did.
Long story short (too late) I finally got reimbursed but it left a very bad taste in my mouth for the company and how they treated their employees. So why bother with this archaic process? Any CFO will tell you “you have to control expenses, people will abuse them otherwise.”
To which I reply,
“Hire better people or simply trust the ones you hired.”
Into this void steps the Corporate Card and the new generation of apps aiming to make Expenses Fun Again…they never were and never will be, but let’s make them less soul sucking at least.
I started this Blog to talk about all the great corporate cards and apps now available but I want to emphasize a key point first. The policies you set are more important.
- Trust your employees to treat expenses like it is their own money.
- Focus on the big categories not the little things
- Remember you are asking your employees to travel for business not go on vacation.
First what are the available options:
Ramp
Is a corporate card that features:
Unlimited 1.5% cash back on every transaction
10–20x higher limits & no fees
Smart virtual & physical cards with built-in controls
This handy (unbiased?) chart from Ramp’s website helps clarify it a bit
We all knew anyone could beat AMEX, but the gap between Brex and Ramp is a bit surprising on these vectors. I would caution any controller or CFO of overthinking Ramp’s apparent micro control capabilities.
But I do like…
“Cardholders are notified the instant they swipe by SMS or email. Ramp automatically reminds, collects, and matches receipts for every transaction that needs one.”
If this crumpled mess counts as a receipt then you can count me impressed !
Divvy
I applied for a Divvy account and got approved. I honestly attempted a Brex and a Ramp account too but their process felt complex, too many questions, so I abandoned it. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure they are all about the same but for me the Divvy process just flowed better.
“Congratulations! Your application with Divvy has been approved. The next step is for you to review and accept the offer. Once you accept your offer we can create your account.”
But since Divvy is now part of Bill.com, not sure how I feel about that. I really wanted to write about just a Corporate Card for expenses like travel.
This statement from Divvy’s website is what I wanted to think was finally achievable.
“Stop wasting hours each month reconciling credit card statements with your expense management system. After a spender swipes, it just takes a few taps for an expense to be fully coded and ready to upload into your accounting system.”
But as each of these platforms becomes more integrated to accounting and finance systems it seems like it is more about the CFO controlling than lowering the hassle for corporate travelers.
Brex
Brex started as a corporate card for expenses and more recently has moved to the SMB Digital Only Bank arena. I get wanting to garner more of the SMB value chain but I also like the simplicity of just being a corporate card for SMBs.
I am not saying this is a bad move, but it seems early in the game for this shift to suddenly compete against Mercury, Novo and Rho instead of Ramp.
Mercury Funding this month $120M
Novo Funding this month $40M
Brex of course raised $425M in April not to be outdone by the other SMB Digital Banks.
Honestly this might work to Ramp’s advantage as Divvy is now part of Bill.com and with the others moving into the SMB Digital Bank arena, maybe Ramp gets to be the one true SMB corporate card. Someone once said you make money in tech by bundling or unbundling, fair enough, I just did not expect it in this category so quickly.
I did due diligence on Bento for Business years ago and have enjoyed watching them grow and stay in the corporate card expense management. Note that Bento is a debit card, not a credit card. You do fund the account. If you really want to control expenses a debit card might be the way to go. You should also check out Bento for Business if you are truly shopping for SMB expense cards.
Final Point
I often turn to Nerdwallet for best of finance products. See below for their list but be warned it is mainly big bank cards and American Express cards. However Brex did make the Nerdwallet list as
“Our Pick for: No Personal Guarantee”
“Unlike most cards designed for entrepreneurs, the Brex Card doesn’t require the cardholder to personally guarantee the debt on the card.” Nerdwallet
Their other categories like
Cash back: Flat-rate rewards — Capital One
Intro APR + AmEx points — The Blue Business card from AMEX (imagine that the best AmEx points card is from AmEx)
Also from the Nerdwallet site:
“Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own.”
So my conclusion is:
- Make reasonable rules for travel expenses
- Trust your employees
- Pick the card your company needs based on the app as much as the card itself
Final point, not sure I will be using Nerdwallet in the future.
