Ramp Flex* is a financing solution embedded in Bill Pay that allows you to extend payment terms with vendors right when you pay your bills. When you use Flex to extend the payment time for a bill, we automatically create several accounting transactions for you, to be paired with a few other transactions to be executed directly in your chosen accounting software.
Jump to:
- Eligible accounting software
- Accounting for the bill
- Accounting for the Flex financing
- Accounting for the Flex repayment
- Accruing the Flex fee
1. Eligible accounting software
Flex is available to customers who use QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite or a software compatible with our Universal CSV exports. At this time, we do not support Sage. Customers on Sage can use No ERP Connected mode for Bill Pay and manually enter the bill, Flex financing, and Flex repayment entries.
2. Accounting for the bill
Because you upload, draft, and create your Flexed bills in Bill Pay, you benefit from Ramp’s Bill Pay accounting workflow. That means we’ll automatically sync bills:
- When they're created and after every update: Bills are synced immediately after they are created and after every update (approval step outcome, bill details like description, or payment method)
- After payment: Bill Pay syncs to your accounting software once a bill has been paid. A bill is marked as paid after we withdraw (debit) funds from your bank account. See more about Bill Pay payments here: Bill Payment Methods
- NOTE: if you're using our Bill Pay for Universal CSV and QuickBooks Desktop settings, we only sync the bill once - after you have paid the bill, exported the CSV from Ramp Bill Pay, and imported it to your accounting provider. More information about this integration can be found here: Bill Pay for Universal CSV and QuickBooks Desktop
The bill will be recorded like this:
|
Debit or Credit |
Date |
Account |
Amount |
|
Debit |
Date of the Bill |
Expense Account |
Bill Total |
|
Credit |
Date of the Bill |
Accounts Payable |
Bill Total |
You can learn more about accounting with Bill Pay here: Bill Pay Accounting.
3. Accounting for the Flex financing
When a Flex is activated (i.e., the financed bill payment has been initiated), we will create a Flex Liability for you which will then sync across to your accounting system. It will be shown in your overall Ramp Card account, with the Date of Ramp Flex Activation as the date.
|
Debit or Credit |
Date |
Account |
Amount |
|
Debit |
Date of Ramp Flex Activation |
Accounts Payable |
Bill Total |
|
Credit |
Date of Ramp Flex Activation |
Ramp Card Liability |
Bill Total |
4. Accounting for the Flex repayment
You will need to manually record the Flex repayment and fee at the end of the Flex repayment period or if you choose to repay early. This is easily managed directly in your accounting software. If you have a bank feed connected to your accounting software for the bank account that is used for the repayment, you can wait until the transaction appears in your bank feed.
When it does, the transaction should be split and treated this way:
|
Debit or Credit |
Date |
Account |
Amount |
|
Debit |
Date of Repayment |
Ramp Card Liability |
Bill Total |
|
Debit |
Date of Repayment |
Ramp Flex Fee Expense Account (e.g. Bank Fees/Transaction Fees) |
Flex Repayment Total |
|
Credit |
Date of Repayment |
Cash/Checking Account |
Flex Repayment Total |
5. Accruing the Flex fee
This step is for advanced accounting teams who want to accurately record any accrued liability for the Flex fee expense.
If the bill amount you have Flexed is large, you may want to estimate and accrue the Flex fee in an accrued liability account. Ramp does not currently support accruals, so you will need to use your accounting software to record this accrual manually.
At the end of the period, you would enter the following journal entry for the accrual of the Flex fee.
|
Debit or Credit |
Date |
Account |
Amount |
|
Debit |
Last date of current period |
Ramp Flex Fee Expense Account (e.g. Bank Fees/Transaction Fees) |
Incurred Ramp Flex Fees as at End of Period |
|
Credit |
Last date of current period |
Accrued Ramp Flex Fee Liability |
Incurred Ramp Flex Fees as at End of Period |
You would reverse this journal at the start of the next period:
|
Debit or Credit |
Date |
Account |
Amount |
|
Debit |
Start date of next period |
Accrued Ramp Flex Fee Liability |
Incurred Ramp Flex Fees as at End of Period |
|
Credit |
Start date of next period |
Ramp Flex Fee Expense Account (e.g. Bank Fees/Transaction Fees) |
Incurred Ramp Flex Fees as at End of Period |
If you have used Flex tenors that extend beyond the next period, you will need to re-accrue the total amount at the end of the next period and reverse again, and you continue doing this until the final repayment is made, inclusive of the Flex fee. This ensures that the fee is recognized in the periods when it was incurred.
* Ramp Flex is subject to credit approval and restrictions, and will not be available in all states.
** Loans issued by Ramp Financing Corporation and/or Lead Bank. Visit ramp.com/flex for more info.