Reality San Francisco · Finance Operations

The Ramp Manual

Task-by-task instructions for spending, submitting, and stewarding church funds well. Tap any task to open its steps. Links jump straight into Ramp in a new tab.

Questions #helpfinance on Slack Updated July 2026
Start here 01 Code a transaction 02 Receipts 07 Vendor bill 08 Recurring bill
Open in Ramp Bill Pay ↗ Vendors ↗ Reimbursements ↗ Cards ↗ Dashboard ↗
Start here
New staff & guest users

Quick Start — set up your Ramp account

Do this once, on day one. Accept your invite, set up your profile, and add your bank details so reimbursements reach you fast.
Who: every new staff member and guest user Time: ~10 minutes Need: your bank routing & account numbers

Accept your invitation

You'll receive an email from Ramp inviting you to join Reality San Francisco. Click the link in that email to get started. The invite is time-limited, so do this as soon as it lands.

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Can't find the invite? Check spam and your promotions tab before asking for a resend. If it's genuinely missing, post in #helpfinance. Never accept a Ramp invite forwarded from someone else's inbox — invites are tied to your address.

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Create your login

Set a password, or sign in with Google using your @realitysf.com account. Google sign-in is the simpler path and means one less password to manage.

Use your church email, not a personal address. Your Ramp identity needs to match the rest of our systems.

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Turn on two-factor authentication

Ramp will prompt you to secure your account with a second factor — a code by text or an authenticator app. Complete this when prompted rather than deferring it.

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This protects church funds, not just your login. Your Ramp account can move money. Two-factor is the difference between a compromised password being an annoyance and being a real loss.

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Complete your profile

Fill in your name as it should appear on a card and in reports, plus your mobile number. The mobile number matters — it's how you'll text receipts to Ramp later, and how Ramp reaches you about a transaction.

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Add your bank account for ACH reimbursements

This is the step people skip, and then wonder why their reimbursement hasn't arrived. Go to your personal settings and add your bank details:

  • Routing number — 9 digits, from your bank
  • Account number — your checking account
  • Account type — checking (not savings)

You can either link your bank directly through Ramp's secure connection, or enter the routing and account numbers manually.

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ACH is always preferred. Direct deposit reaches you in days rather than waiting on a check to be cut, signed, and mailed. Set this up before you submit your first reimbursement, not after.
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Enter these yourself, and check them twice. Never send your routing and account numbers over Slack or email to anyone, including finance staff. A single wrong digit sends your reimbursement to a stranger's account and it is slow and painful to recover.

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Install the mobile app

Download Ramp for iPhone or Android and sign in. Nearly everything you'll do day to day — snapping a receipt, coding a transaction, commenting — is faster on your phone, in the moment, than at a desk a week later.

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Activate your card

If you've been issued a physical card, activate it when it arrives. Virtual cards are ready to use immediately — no activation needed.

Go to your cards ↗

Guest users often won't have a card at all — that's normal. You may be set up for reimbursements only.

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Know the standard before you spend

Every transaction you make needs four things. We call it CCMR:

  • Class — which ministry or fund the spend belongs to
  • Category — what kind of expense it is
  • Memo — a specific, plain description of the purpose
  • Receipt — the itemized proof of purchase

Do it at the moment of purchase and it takes fifteen seconds. Do it at month-end and you won't remember what the charge was for.

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You're spending money people gave to God's work. The memo is how we tell them where it went. "Barbier Security — Sunday services, June" beats "security." Write it for someone who wasn't there.

Know the deadline

Code your transactions and attach receipts as you go. Everything for a given month needs to be complete within the first few business days of the next month so the books can close on time.

Miss it and someone has to chase you, guess at your memo, or hold the close waiting on you.

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The habit that makes this painless: handle it on your phone in the parking lot, before you drive away. Fifteen seconds then beats fifteen minutes of archaeology three weeks later.

Know who to ask

Stuck on anything — a decline, a category you can't find, a charge you don't recognize — post in #helpfinance on Slack. That's the front door, and it beats a direct message because the answer helps everyone.

If it's about one specific transaction, comment on that transaction in Ramp instead. See Task 03.

Tasks
Who: every cardholder Time: ~15 seconds When: right after you pay

Open the transaction

Ramp notifies you seconds after you pay. Tap the notification on your phone and you're already there. Otherwise open the Ramp app or go to your transactions and select the charge.

Open your transactions ↗

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Set the Class

Which ministry or fund does this belong to? It usually defaults to your department, which is right most of the time. Change it when the spend belongs somewhere else — a specific event, a different fund, a shared cost.

If you're unsure, ask in #helpfinance rather than guessing. A wrong class quietly distorts a ministry's budget.

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Set the Category

What kind of expense is this? Meals, supplies, travel, outsourced labor, and so on. Ramp suggests one based on the merchant — check it rather than accepting it blindly. A coffee shop charge might be a staff meeting, a volunteer thank-you, or supplies.

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Write the Memo

Say what this was for, plainly, so someone who wasn't there understands it. Name the event, the purpose, or the people.

  • Good: "Lunch with 3 Alpha volunteers — spring training"
  • Good: "Barbier Security — Sunday services, June"
  • Not enough: "lunch" / "supplies" / "security"
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This is the whole point. The memo is how we tell the congregation where their giving went. It's also the first thing an auditor reads. Write it once, well, and nobody has to ask you about it later.

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Attach the Receipt

Snap it before you leave the counter. Full details on the three ways to send a receipt are in Task 02.

No receipt and can't get one? See Task 04 for the affidavit path. It's the exception, not a routine substitute.

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Confirm it's clear

Once all four are done, the transaction stops showing as needing action. If Ramp still flags it, something's missing — usually the receipt.

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Who: every cardholder Time: ~10 seconds Need: an itemized receipt

Option A — text it (fastest)

Ramp texts you right after you pay. Reply to that text with a photo of the receipt and Ramp matches it to the transaction automatically. Nothing to open, nothing to find.

This works because your mobile number is on your profile. If you're not getting texts, that's the reason — see Quick Start.

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Option B — email it

Forward an emailed receipt from your @realitysf.com address to receipts@ramp.com. Ramp reads it and matches it to the right charge. Ideal for online orders and digital confirmations.

Forward from your church email. A forward from a personal address won't be recognized.

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Option C — upload in the app

Open the transaction in the Ramp app or on the web, then add the receipt directly. Use this when you're coding a transaction anyway, or cleaning up something older.

Open your transactions ↗

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Make sure the receipt is itemized

We need the receipt that shows what you bought, not just the card slip showing the total. For a restaurant, that's the itemized bill, not the signature copy.

  • Good: shows merchant, date, line items, total
  • Not enough: the credit card slip alone
  • Not enough: a blurry photo you can't read
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Itemization is an audit requirement, not a preference. A total-only slip doesn't show what church funds actually bought, so it doesn't satisfy our auditors — which means someone will come back to you for it.

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Check it matched

Ramp matches receipts automatically, and it's very good at it. Glance at the transaction to confirm the receipt landed on the right charge. If it attached to the wrong one, detach and re-attach it.

Genuinely can't produce a receipt? Task 04 covers the affidavit.

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Who: Admin, Accounts Payable, or Accounting roles Time: ~3 minutes Need: the invoice (PDF)

Forward the invoice to Ramp

The fastest way to create a bill: email the invoice straight to Ramp and let it build the draft for you. Forward the invoice from your @realitysf.com address to:

realitysf@ap.ramp.com

Ramp reads the PDF and creates a draft bill automatically — pulling the vendor, amount, invoice number, and dates. No manual entry to start.

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Forward from your church email, not a personal one. Ramp only accepts invoices sent from an @realitysf.com address (or a recognized vendor domain). A forward from Gmail or iCloud will be ignored, and the bill silently won't appear.
Ramp guide: AP email forwarding ↗

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Open the draft in Bill Pay

Go to Bill Pay in the left sidebar. The forwarded invoice appears as a draft in the Drafts (or unassigned) section, usually within a minute or two. Click it to open the draft for review.

Open Bill Pay in Ramp ↗

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Confirm the vendor

Ramp matches the draft to an existing vendor. Check the name in the Vendor field is correct. If it's blank or wrong, start typing and select the right vendor from the list.

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Do not create a duplicate. If the vendor already exists, pick them from the dropdown rather than typing a new entry. Duplicates break reporting and 1099 tracking. If unsure whether they exist, search first — they probably do.
Check the Vendors list ↗

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Verify the details Ramp pulled

Check the auto-filled fields against the actual invoice:

  • Amount — matches the invoice total
  • Invoice number — matches, so we don't pay it twice
  • Invoice date and due date — the due date sets when payment sends

OCR is accurate but not perfect. Read every field against the invoice before moving on.

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Code it — Class, Category, Memo

Ramp's AI suggests coding on the draft. Confirm or correct each field the same way you would any transaction:

  • Class — the ministry or fund this belongs to. Defaults to your department; sub-class it if it belongs to a specific event or fund.
  • Category — the kind of expense (Outsourced Labor for security or contractors, Honorarium for a guest speaker).
  • Memo — a specific, plain-language description. Reference the event or purpose.
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RSF memo standard. Write it so someone who wasn't there understands the purpose. "Barbier Security — Sunday services, June" beats "security." Don't just accept the AI's guess.

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Set the payment account and create the bill

Confirm the payment is coming from the correct account, then submit the draft to create the bill. It moves into For approval, where the next approver reviews it before payment is scheduled.

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Tag for visibility. If an approver should know something, use the Comment tool on the bill and @-mention the reviewer. Comments create the audit trail; email does not.

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Track it to paid

Follow the bill through For approval → For payment → History. Once it's in History with a paid status, the vendor has been paid and the record is stored for audit.

Only Admins can stop a bill after payment is initiated, and only until the transfer sends. Catch mistakes early.

Track bills in Bill Pay ↗
Who: Admin, Accounts Payable, or Accounting roles Time: ~5 minutes Use when: a fixed payment repeats and there's no invoice

Open the Recurring Bill setup page

Go to Bill Pay, click Recurring bills at the top right, then New recurring bill.

Open Bill Pay in Ramp ↗

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Create the new vendor

In the vendor field, search by name. Because this vendor is new, no results appear — select the option to create a new vendor, then fill in their details (name, address, and so on).

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QuickBooks stays in sync automatically. Because QBO is connected, Ramp also creates this vendor in QuickBooks. Enter the name exactly as it should read in QBO the first time — fixing a mismatch later means cleaning it up in both systems.
View the Vendors list ↗

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Choose "Create bill without an invoice"

When prompted, select Create bill without an invoice instead of uploading a file. This opens a blank draft you'll fill in manually.

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Fill in the bill details

Enter the details of the payment:

  • Amount — the recurring payment amount
  • Memo / description — what the payment is for
  • Accounting fields — GL account and department / class / location from the QuickBooks chart of accounts
  • Line items — add any line-item detail as needed
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RSF memo standard. Write it so someone who wasn't there understands the purpose. Because there's no invoice attached, the memo and class are the only record of what this payment is — make them specific.

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Set the recurring schedule

Configure how and when the bill repeats:

  • Frequency — weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and so on
  • Start date — when the first bill should generate
  • End date — when the series should stop
  • Payment method — how the vendor is paid. ACH is preferred; check is the fallback.

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Review and save the series

Check every detail, then save the recurring bill series. Ramp will automatically generate a new draft bill at each scheduled interval based on your settings.

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Submit each generated bill

Each cycle, Ramp creates a draft from the series — it is not paid automatically. Open each draft in Bill Pay, review it, and submit it for approval before it can be paid.

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The series generates drafts, not payments. If nobody submits the generated draft, the vendor doesn't get paid. Build a recurring reminder to check for generated drafts around each scheduled date.
Check for generated drafts ↗

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Coming next

  1. 03 Comment directly in the transaction
  2. 04 Submit a lost or missing receipt affidavit
  3. 05 Submit an out-of-pocket reimbursement
  4. 06 Request a temporary limit increase on your card

Tasks 07 and 08 are for staff who handle vendor bills. Most ministry staff only need Quick Start and tasks 01 through 06.