The following user guide will walk you through setting up your chart of accounts, transaction fields, vendor list, etc. within Ramp and exporting your bill payments to your accounting provider. For more information on setting up Ramp Accounting for Universal CSV and QuickBooks Desktop read these: Universal CSV Overview and QuickBooks Desktop Overview. More information about the Bill Pay product can be found on this page: Bill Pay Overview

 

 

Jump to:

• Setup for QuickBooks Desktop (using IFF file format)
  • Export your required files from QuickBooks Desktop
  • Import your required files into Ramp
• Setup for Universal CSV (non-QuickBooks Desktop software)
  • Export your required files from your accounting provider
  • Import your Chart of Accounts into Ramp
  • Import your Vendors List into Ramp
• Exporting bills from Ramp to your accounting provider
  • Ensure the bill you are exporting is paid
  • Export your bills from the Accounting tab
  • Import your bills into your accounting software

  • (Optional) Add your accounting system's IDs to your vendors and re-import them into Ramp

• Note about Accounting syncing

 

Setup for QuickBooks Desktop (using IIF file format)

Export your required files from QuickBooks Desktop

1. Create a liability account to keep track of Card expenses in your accounting platform. Most clients choose to call the account “Ramp Card.”
2. Download an IIF file (File > Utilities > Export > Lists to IIF files) containing your chart of accounts, customer list, vendor list, and class list
3. Check out these instructions for how you can export IFF files

Import your required files into Ramp

1. Navigate to Accounting > Bill Pay. You’ll see the screenshot below.

1. Import the IIF file containing your chart of accounts, vendors, and lists. Link your liability account and which Bill Pay AP account. Now you’ve fully set up the QuickBooks Desktop accounting integration for both the Ramp card and Bill Pay products.
2. Navigate to Bills and begin uploading bills!

 

Setup for Universal CSV (non-QuickBooks Desktop software)

Export your required files from your accounting provider

1. Download a .csv file for your Chart of Accounts
2. Download a .csv file for each additional transaction field you use for coding bills
   1. Example: if you want to code transactions by Department, Location, Class & Customer, you will have 4 different .csv files
3. Identify the cash account in your accounting platform that corresponds to the bank account that a) you plan to use to pay bills, and b) has been connected to Ramp.
   1. Write down the account name and GL code number
4. Download a .csv file with all the vendors you pay
   1. the name of the vendor (make sure the second column, Column B, that has the vendor names has the header: ‘Vendor’)
   2. Segment ID (make sure the first column, Column A, that has the Segment IDs has the header: ‘Segment ID’)
      1. Optional column: the unique ID that your accounting provider assigns to the vendor

Import your Chart of Accounts into Ramp

1. Log into Ramp as an Administrator or Business Owner
2. Navigate to Accounting > Bill Payments > All Other Providers
3. Add the account name and GL code number (ID) for the cash account you use to pay bills
4. Click on “Import Chart of Accounts”
5. Using the template downloaded from inside Ramp, format your Chart of Accounts downloaded from the Accounting Provider in step 2 above.
1. If you are also using optional transactional fields, you should also format your additional .csv files for any other transaction fields you will use for coding.
2. Tip: the fields you import to Ramp should match exactly to your chart of accounts or other transaction field values. If you do not have segment IDs, you may leave the first column blank, but leave the header.
6. Import the newly formatted Chart of Accounts
1. If you are also using optional transactional fields, click “Import additional fields (optional)” to add an individual .csv file for each of the other transaction fields you will use. Ex: Department, Location, Class & Customer.
2. You will add the name of the field & the .csv for each additional field.
   Click on “Start Coding Transactions”

Import your Vendor List into Ramp

1. Download the “Vendor template” CSV. Using your downloaded list of vendors, format your vendors to match this format.
2. Upload this reformatted list of vendors on this page,
3. Navigate to Bills, and begin uploading bills! 

Exporting bills from Ramp to your accounting provider

Ensure the bill you are exporting is paid

You can only export bills that have been fully paid. (If it's an ACH transaction, Ramp marks the bill as paid when the vendor has received the funds. If it's a check, Ramp marks the bill as paid when the check is sent. If the bill is paid with the Ramp Card, the bill is marked as paid when the card transaction is matched to the bill.) For more information on how to pay bills: Bill Lifecycle and Bill payment methods and timelines

You'll see your paid bills at Bills > Paid.

Export your bills from the Accounting tab

You'll see all paid bills that haven't been exported on the Accounting > Bill Payments page. Select the bills you'd like to export.

 

If it's the first time you've paid a vendor, you'll have created a new vendor when you paid the bill. On the next screen, you'll see all the bills and vendors to be exported.

This will download two CSV files: one with any new vendors you've created, and another with journal entries for the bills you've paid. In the bills file, we create two journal entries per bill: a) the bill itself, and b) the bill payment.

If you're using QuickBooks Desktop: you'll have the ability to export a single IIF file containing bills, payments, and vendors. You can then import this in one step and you're done. 

Import your bills and vendors into your accounting software

This process depends on your accounting system. If you're using QuickBooks Desktop, here's a helpful guide.

(Optional) Add your accounting system's IDs to your vendors and re-import them into Ramp

So you've exported your vendors once. How can you make sure that future bills that you pay to those same vendors you've already exported are synced to the correct vendors on your accounting system?

Some accounting providers will require you to upload bills that are matched to vendors by their ID. If you're uploading bills for vendors you've paid before and the import fails, this may be the problem.

To solve this:

1. Export new vendors from Ramp and import them into your accounting software
2. Then, export those vendors from your accounting software with their unique ID
3. Go to Accounting > Bill Payments > Settings, and then download the vendor CSV template. Format the vendor list you just exported with the unique ID in the same format as the vendor CSV template, then upload this to Ramp.

Note about Accounting syncs using Bill Pay for Universal CSV/QuickBooks Desktop

Bill Pay for Universal CSV/QuickBooks Desktop does not create an open bill in your accounting system when you first create the bill in Ramp.  We create the bill and payment entries in your accounting system only after you have paid the bill within Ramp and exported the bill and the vendor to your accounting system.

 

This reduces the number of syncs required from two to one - only after the bill is paid, not when it is created and again when it is paid.

 

To keep track of outstanding liabilities, login to your Ramp account and see unpaid bills in the Bills > For Payment page.

 

If you have created the bill entry in your accounting software already, Bill Pay will not be able to proactively eliminate the duplicate bill entry in the CSV export from Ramp. You'll need to respond to duplicate bill entries within your accounting software as we don't have the visibility nor control to respond to duplicates in your accounting software.