Employee repayments
Overview
Ramp's Employee Repayment (a.k.a. "reverse reimbursement") feature allows employees to easily pay back their company for accidental or out-of-policy transactions made on their corporate card. This feature gives reviewers a simple way to request full or partial repayments for these charges and lets employees self-initiate repayments from the account they linked for reimbursements.
To repay through Ramp, a US employee must have a US bank account linked and complete our verification process, which can take 2-3 business days. Ramp does not support marking repayments outside of the system, nor does it support reversing or marking a reimbursement as repaid.
Enterprise For employees outside the US or with Ramp cards issued in any supported currency, a debit card can be used to repay through Ramp.
For Admins, Owners, and managers
Repayments are available by default to all businesses. To successfully request and receive ACH repayments in the US, an employee must have a linked USD business account. If the US employee does not have a bank account linked, they will still see a ‘Repay’ button, but it will default to ‘Repay Off Ramp’.
Requesting Repayment on a Transaction:
- Navigate to Expenses > Card transactions .
- Click the transaction for which repayment is being requested.
- Select Reject .
- This will prompt you with two options: Request Repay and Request Changes .
- If requesting repayment, select Request Repay to proceed.
The Rejectbutton will appear only if the transaction is not fully approved (still in review or eligible for a reviewer's action) and is not fully matched to a bill in Bill Pay.
Confirming Repayment Request:
- The employee will receive an email notification informing them of the flagged transaction and the requested repayment. Reminder: a US employee must have a verified U.S. bank account connected to Ramp to repay, and a non-US employee or any employee with a Ramp card issued in any supported currency must have a personal debit card connected to Ramp to repay.
- Once the employee has initiated the repayment, you'll receive a notification in the Ramp dashboard.
- The repayment amount will be transferred from the employee's bank account to the company's bank account in an estimated five business days.
- The company must create a manual journal entry to account for the repayment once it is complete.
For Employees
To repay your company for accidental or out-of-policy transactions, see the article Accidental or personal transactions.
Repaying a pending transaction
Cardholders can repay a pending transaction before it clears. Ramp will queue the repayment and process it after the transaction clears.
If the cleared amount is different from the pending amount, Ramp cancels the queued repayment and emails the cardholder so they can repay the cleared amount instead.
Debit card repayments
Available on Ramp Enterprise. See Ramp Enterprise overview for plan details.
Employees outside the US, or employees with Ramp cards issued in any supported currency, can use a personal debit card to repay transactions through Ramp.
Note: Personal credit cards are supported only for CAD repayments.
Employees can enter their debit card information by:
- Navigating to the employee profile in the top right corner
- Selecting the Payment methods tab
The funds will be withdrawn via the employee’s debit card, and your company will receive a credit on your card statement for the value of the transaction.
Ramp will cover all fees associated with card processing for your company so that you receive the full amount as a credit. The only fee that may be assessed is a foreign transaction fee charged by the employee’s bank.
Example:
- John Doe, an Irish employee with a personal debit card in EUR, spends $100 USD on Uber on a USD Ramp card
- John opts to repay the transaction, which was for personal use
- John’s debit card is charged $100 USD
- John will see a charge for $100 USD converted to EUR (may include fees) by his bank on his bank statement
- The company will see a credit for $100 USD on their next Ramp statement
Note: Repayment syncing is currently available in beta for QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite. To confirm eligibility and setup requirements, see Sync repayments to your accounting software.
Repay off Ramp
When bank account repayment is not possible, Ramp lets employees, managers, and admins settle accidental or out-of-policy card spend through any method outside the Ramp platform (e.g., ACH, payroll deduction, wire, cash, etc.) and record the result in Ramp for clean books and clear audit trails.
When bank account repayment is not possible
- Reimbursements are disabled for the company
- ACH or debit card fails (e.g., insufficient funds)
How repay off Ramp works
- An employee may initiate repayments from the transaction page on desktop web and mobile app, or from a repayment request made by a transaction approver.
- If Ramp determines that the employee cannot repay via their bank account, Ramp will direct the employee through the Repay Off Ramp flow, where the employee will confirm their repayment amount.
- After an employee initiates Repay Off Ramp, the repayment will appear in the Repayment table as `Repay off Ramp`. Throughout the product, the original transaction that the employee is repaying will be shown as "repayment in progress." Ramp will notify admins at the business via weekly digest emails after an employee initiates repayment outside Ramp.
- Upon seeing the repayment, an admin needs to manually settle the repayment outside of Ramp with the employee, via payroll deduction, wire transfer, check, or another method used by the company.
- Once the admin has manually settled the transaction, they can click `Mark as repaid`. Ramp will now reflect that the repayment is complete.
- If the admin decides not to collect repayment, they can also cancel the repayment and approve the transaction instead.
Frequently asked questions
- How can I view the repayment status of transactions?
- Manager, admin, and Accounting roles can use Expenses > Card Transactions > three dots in the top right > Repayments to view repayment details.
- This method is available to those with the Accounting role and other non-admin roles if permitted by your company's settings. Cardholders without access to the Expenses tab can view individual statuses only by clicking into the transaction details for relevant transactions.
- Can I request repayment from an employee for a reimbursement?
- No, Ramp only supports repayments on transactions made on Ramp cards.
- Can employees self-initiate a repayment for accidental charges?
- Yes, employees have the option to self-initiate repayments for accidental charges. Please take a look at the article Accidental or Personal Transactions .
- If repayments through Ramp are not possible for certain employees, arrange repayment outside Ramp (for example, payroll deduction or bank transfer) following your internal process. After the repayment is settled outside Ramp, an admin can use Repay off Ramp and Mark as repaid on the repayment to record that the transaction has been repaid.
- Can I repay a pending transaction?
- Yes. Cardholders can start the repayment while the transaction is still pending, and Ramp will queue it until the transaction clears.
- Can admins request repayment on a pending transaction?
- No. Only the cardholder can initiate repayment while the transaction is still pending.
- What's the repayment processing timeline?
- Repayments take five business days to transfer from the employee's bank account to the business account. If an employee needs to have a bank account connected , the verification process may take 2-3 days to complete.
- What if I don't see the repayment option for my transaction?
- Ask an admin or account owner to update reimbursement settings if you are an employee or manager who cannot see the Repay transaction button.
- For admins, confirm that Reimbursements is enabled and a company bank account is connected under Expenses > Reimbursements > Settings> Payment . If repayments are disabled here, the Repay transaction option will not appear.
- How do I handle accounting for employee repayments as an Admin?
- Repayment syncing is currently available in beta for QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite. See Sync repayments to your accounting software for eligibility and setup requirements. If your business does not use repayment syncing, create manual journal entries from the bank feed in your accounting provider to reflect these repayments as bank refunds.
- In which bank account will I receive the repayment as an Admin?
- We'll send the repayment funds to the business bank account set as the auto-pay source in Banking Settings.
- Will funds ever be pulled from my account without permission?
- No funds will be withdrawn from linked bank accounts without permission for repayment or any other reason.
- What happens if I flag a transaction as "Accidental", select "Repay", and then cancel the repayment?
- If a user marks a transaction as "Accidental" using the Repay transaction option and then cancels the repayment, non-admin users will not see the required fields (e.g., memo, accounting codes) revert to an editable state . Admins should be aware that this could be confusing for users who expect those fields to become changeable again.
- What happens to repayments if an employee is made inactive?
- If a repayment is already processing, making the employee inactive will not stop or reverse the repayment. The repayment will continue to settle as expected.
- Making an employee inactive only restricts their ability to initiate new activity. It does not affect transactions already underway, including repayments in progress.