Automatically lock cards

Overview

Ramp allows finance teams to automatically lock cards if an employee fails to submit the required receipt or items after a set period of time. With this feature, employees are more timely with their submissions, and finance teams end up spending less time chasing them down. Please note that turning this feature on will apply to all transactions retroactively, and cardholders with missing items based on the enforcement policy will receive a notice the following day.

Jump to:

• Overview
• How to setup
• How to enable auto-lock
• How this works
  • Example with multiple missing items
  • Lock timing
• Card locking when a transaction is disputed
• Grace periods
• Cardholder experience
• Unlocking auto-locked cards
• Exempting specific merchants

How to enable auto-lock

Note: this is a Plus-only feature. 

1. From your Ramp Dashboard, go to: Company > Expense Policy.
2. To update an existing policy, click on the 'Expense Requirements' button and the  'Edit' box next to the policy you would like to apply auto-locking to. Please note: auto-locking must be applied individually to each policy. 
3. To create a new policy, click on the "New Submission Policy" button.
4. Within the selected submission policy, toggle the 'Auto-lock cards with missing items' on.
5. Select the number of days that your cardholders have to submit missing items
   1. You can choose from 3, 7, 14, 30, or 60 days for cardholders to submit missing items. If the card with this submission policy is missing items after the allotted time period, the card and/or associated funds will automatically lock.
6. Auto-lock is enabled! 

How this works

Example with Multiple Missing Items

• Scenario: A cardholder made two purchases on May 10 and May 15 with missing receipts. Their card is on a policy that auto-locks after 7 days for missing items.

  • On May 17, the card locks because 7 days have passed since the May 10 transaction.
  • If the cardholder submits the May 10 receipt, the card unlocks immediately.
  • If they do not submit a receipt for the May 15 transaction, the card will lock again on May 22.

• If no receipts are submitted:

  • Submitting the May 15 receipt on May 20 keeps the card locked because the May 10 receipt is still missing.

Lock Timing

• Cards lock a set number of days after the transaction clears, at the nearest Noon ET.

  • Example: If a 3-day policy is set and the transaction clears at 10 a.m. on 2/1, the card locks at 12 p.m. on 2/4.
  • For transactions cleared at 2 p.m., the card locks at 12 p.m. on 2/5.

• Special categories: For "Lodging" or "Fuel and Gas," the time to submit starts from when the transaction clears, as these charges often involve temporary holds.

Disputed Transactions

• Missing items are dismissed if a transaction is disputed, and no lock occurs when the deadline passes.
• If the dispute is canceled after the deadline, the card will lock that day or the next.

Grace Periods

• If a card is moved to an enforcement policy, cardholders have a grace period equal to the new policy's timeframe to submit missing items on old transactions.
  • Example: If a purchase was made 7 days ago and the new policy has a 3-day limit, the cardholder will have 3 days to submit missing items before the card locks.

Cardholder experience

There are several ways that cardholders will be notified and have ample opportunity to submit the required items: 

• When a policy is set. When the policy is changed, users will see it in an email stating that their card will lock after X days.
• Before locking. 24 hours before the card is locked, the user will receive an email warning them and showing their missing items. From the Ramp dashboard, users will see a warning icon on cards that will be locked, along with the date the lock will occur.
• At lock. At the time the card is locked, the cardholder will receive an email stating the card is locked and showing their missing items. The cardholder's manager (or admin if user has no manager) will receive a notification that the card was locked. 
• At declined swipe. If a cardholder tries to make a transaction with a locked card, they will get an SMS informing them that they need to submit missing items.
• At unlock. When the card is unlocked, the cardholder receives an email notifying them.

Unlocking Auto-Locked Cards

• Submit required information:

  • Cardholders can unlock their card by submitting the necessary info, such as a missing receipt.
  • If the receipt is lost, they can request an exception, which also unlocks the card.

• Policy exceptions:

  • If a cardholder requests an exception before the auto-lock date but it isn't granted in time, the card will still lock.

• Edit policy settings:

  • Adjusting the policy (e.g., auto-lock settings or required items) can unlock the card.

Exempting Specific Merchants

• Cards only lock when required items are missing.
• You can exclude certain merchants from needing item submissions (e.g., receipts for Facebook transactions).
  • Navigate to "Spend Guidelines" in Settings, then go to the "Auto-approved merchants" section to add merchants to this list.
  • Transactions from exempted merchants won’t lead to locked cards, regardless of submission policies.

More information here: Excluding merchants from receipt & memo requirements