Ramp Debuts AR Tool to Keep Finance Teams From Chasing Payments

Ramp has introduced a tool designed to automate invoicing and payment collections for corporate clients.

Ramp Accounts Receivable, announced Tuesday (Sept. 22), allows the FinTech’s clients to use Ramp to manage both costs and revenue.

“This has been a top request from our customers,” Geoff Charles, chief product officer at Ramp, said in a news release.

“Finance teams today spend too much time chasing payments for outstanding invoices. Ramp’s AI turns contracts into ready-to-review invoices, prepares informed follow-ups, and matches payments back to the books.”

The release argues that for most businesses, accounts receivable information is spread across contracts, purchases, spreadsheets, email threads and bank teams, creating a host of manual work for finance teams, as well as opportunities for delays and error.

“Ramp Accounts Receivable automates the full invoice-to-cash workflow so businesses get paid faster,” the company said.

Finance teams can now create invoices without manual entry, draft quicker follow-ups and have an easier time matching payments to invoices.

The company argues this is particularly important when — per Federal Reserve data — 56% of small businesses say paying operating expenses is difficult and 51% wrestle with uneven cash flow, meaning that a “single late payment can make it harder to pay bills or make payroll.”

Meanwhile, research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that one-third of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) continue to rely on manual accounts receivable (AR) processes, which create friction and delays even in cases where the underlying payment rail is fast. Beyond that, 32% of businesses point to payment speed as a major pain point, yet many remain married to legacy systems like paper checks because of perceived cost savings.

“However, the tide is turning as the true cost of payment delays becomes clearer,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this year.

“Thirty-five percent of SMBs now explicitly state they are willing to pay fees for instant payments because the stability of their cash flow outweighs the transaction cost. Digitally forward industries are leading this charge, receiving 41% of their payments instantly compared to just 30% for less tech-savvy sectors.”

Ramp’s news release added that this launch follows the company’s announcement last week it was opening its corporate cards, expense management, bill pay and accounting automation to businesses in the U.K.

“The UK is home to some of the fastest-growing companies in Europe, and we built our product to match that,” Jacob Wallenberg, vice president for international expansion at Ramp, said in the announcement. “We have a team based right here in London and we can’t wait to get to work.”

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