Overview
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. With Flex, you can finance your bill payments to vendors (including those who don't accept cards or offer terms), gain more control over cash flows, and consolidate all of your spend on one platform. Ramp Flex is a seamless experience from bill creation, to financing, to repayment. Read this guide to get started and Flex your first bill, or watch the video below.
Jump to:
- Set up Ramp Flex
- Set up Bill Pay
- Draft a bill
- Finance with Ramp Flex
- Approve and pay your Flexed bill
- Repay Ramp for your Flexed Bill
Setting up Ramp Flex
Get ready to use Flex in minutes - follow our guide here to onboard to Ramp Flex limit and get your Flex limit.
- Estimate your Flex financing spend per month
- Select the tenor you expect to use the most
- Provide the state of your primary office location
- Get your Ramp Flex Limit
- Change your default fallback setting (optional)
Setting up Ramp Bill Pay
Any bill you want to finance with Ramp Flex will be paid via Ramp Bill Pay. Set up Ramp Bill Pay using this guide. If you’ve already set up Ramp Bill Pay, you can skip this step and move to the next step.
Draft a bill
Upload an invoice
To Flex a bill, start by creating a bill draft. Upload a PDF of your bill into Bill Pay. You can do this by emailing or uploading the invoice. From there, you must save the uploaded invoice as a bill draft or create the Bill to access the Finance with Flex toggle. If you want to create the bill but not schedule it for payment, you can
Email your invoice: most bills arrive in your inbox, so we created a specific AP email address to which you can send any PDF invoices. Make sure to send one PDF per email so our OCR can parse it accurately. The email is by default <your-company-name-with-no-spaces>@ap.ramp.com. For example, a company named Fast Stuff Inc would have an AP email of faststuffinc@ap.ramp.com. To customize your AP email, contact our Support team. You can learn about setting up email forwards here: Bill Pay Setup.
Upload your invoice:you can drop any invoice file into the Bills Drafts page or click on the upload icon (to right right of the Upload prompt) to select the invoice from your file browser.
Finance with Ramp Flex
To apply Flex to a bill, either click the ‘New Bill’ button or the open a saved invoice from your Bills Draft tab (you will not be able to add Flex financing to a bill while it is being paid). Scroll down past the line items and select your payment method. Currently, Ramp Flex is available for three payment methods: ACH (Direct Deposit), Check by Mail, and International Wire. After selecting your preferred payment method, toggle the 'Finance with Ramp Flex' option to apply Flex to this bill.
Just an example
Select the tenor you want (30, 60, or 90 days), taking note of the fees associated with each one. Once you've selected your tenor, click 'Review' for one final confirmation that the details are correct before pressing 'Create Bill'. If you have set up custom controls for this vendor in Bill Pay, those controls will automatically apply to this bill, in which case the green button will say ‘Send for approval’ instead of ‘Create Bill’.
Just an example
Approve and pay your bill
Approve a bill
Bills waiting for approval live in the Approvals page. Your Admins, Business Owner, and AP Clerks will have access to this page. You can see who is the Next Approver and, if you're an Admin or a Business Owner, you have the ability to skip approvals or re-sync a bill.
When it's your turn to approve a bill, we'll let you know in an email (or on Slack if you have the integration). Vendor Owners can only approve bills via email. Find more information about approvals here: Bill Pay: Approvals and AP Clerks
Pay your bill
Pay by ACH (Direct Deposit): Ramp will automatically pay your vendor, with funds leaving for their bank account two business days before they are due. If there are any payment failures, (e.g., due to incorrect vendor bank account details), you will be informed via email and on Ramp dashboard. We’ll also email your vendor directly. In the case you made a payment to the wrong bank account, please write to our Support team by logging into your account and clicking the "Help" button on the bottom left of the sidebar and we'll do our best to help you reclaim your funds.
Pay by Check by Mail: Ramp Flex will automatically pay your vendor by mailing them a check, with the check leaving on your selected payment date to help you pay your Bills on your schedule. Note that the date the check is created serves as the funding date for the loan, not when the vendor cashes the check. Note also that checks are sent by regular mail so delivery dates are an estimate. If the vendor does not cash the check within 14 days from when the check is initiated, you will be informed via email. If the vendor does not cash the check by the end of your tenor, the check will automatically be canceled and you will not owe the principal. In this event, the vendor will not be paid by Ramp. In the event that you cancel the check before the tenor expires, the check will immediately be canceled by Ramp and you will be refunded a prorated amount of the Flex fee.
Pay by International Wire: Ramp Flex will automatically pay your international vendors, with funds leaving in time to be delivered by your selected delivery date. International bill payments are assessed additional fees. For international payments in USD, there is a transaction fee, the amount of which will be displayed to you when you choose the option to pay by International Wire. Note that the Flex fee is calculated on the sum of the invoice total and the international payment fee.
Repay your Flex
You do not need to take any further action to repay Ramp your Flexed bill. Ramp will automatically debit the principal amount (i.e:, the total bill amount) from the bank account you selected for repayment when financing the bill. Finance charges will be collected in advance following the initial disbursement of the principal to the vendor. Funds will be withdrawn from the bank account you selected while creating your bill.
If your plans change, once payment has been made to your vendor, you can also elect to repay your Flexed bill early, and we will prorate the fee. Learn more about Repayments here: Ramp Flex Tenors, Fees, and Repayments
* 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.