Comparing corporate cards: Airbase vs. Ramp vs. Stampli Card
Are you thinking of getting corporate credit cards to help manage your expenditures?
Corporate cards are a valuable tool for effective spend management, as they minimize transaction costs and give greater control over business expenses. The top corporate cards not only enhance transparency in spending patterns but also streamline payment and approval workflows, mitigating the risk of fraud and errors.
It can be challenging to navigate the costs and benefits of corporate card solutions. Fintech platforms like Ramp, Brex, Divvy (now BILL), Stampli, and Airbase offer a wide variety of reward programs, expense automation solutions, and add-ons.
We’ll help you choose the best card solution for your business. In this article, we’ll compare three industry leaders, Airbase, Ramp, and Stampli Card, so you can decide which is the best fit for you.
Choosing the right card for your business: Airbase vs. Ramp vs. Stampli
The right corporate credit card can help your business manage expenditures and maximize working capital. Businesses today have many cards to choose from, each offering a unique mix of features and rewards.
Here are three criteria you can use to pick the right solution for your business.
1. Achieving total spend management
In Stampli’s 2022 Card Benchmarking & Spend Management survey, 44% of finance leaders prioritized managing total spend. Leveraging a corporate card solution with automation technology improves spend tracking, reduces costs, minimizes payment risk, and ensures compliance. Many card providers offer automated expense workflows, eliminating slow, manual processes.
2. Real-time spend visibility and control
Most corporate card platforms track transactions and purchase details in real-time so you can monitor expenditures as they are made without waiting for a monthly card statement to arrive. You can also control spending by issuing cards as needed, and many card solutions let you pre-code cards for transaction types, MCC restrictions, spending limits, and location, depending on the card type.
3. Integration with ERPs, HRIS, and business systems
Some card solutions (like Stampli Card) integrate with spend and AP management platforms. Integrating these platforms with ERPs, accounting software, HRIS, and communication systems allows you to share current and accurate information and manage AP and card expenditures in one place.
The comparison: Airbase vs Ramp vs Stampli Card
Before we dive into the ratings, let’s quickly check out the competition. Each of the providers we’re looking at has a lot to offer.
Who is Airbase?
Founded in 2017, Airbase is a comprehensive spend management platform focusing on cards. It provides corporate cards, employee expense management, and bill payment services.
Who is Ramp?
Ramp was founded in 2019 and provides a corporate card solution focusing on cost savings and spend management for small and medium businesses.
Who is Stampli?
Founded in 2015, Stampli is the leading accounts payable automation company. They offer corporate credit cards, accounts payable automation, integrated payment processing, and expense management solutions. Stampli helps businesses streamline their financial operations, improve spend tracking, reduce costs, and ensure compliance.
Continue reading to discover the features of each of these card solutions.
Stampli Card: Best credit card for AP spend, not just expenses
Stampli Card is specifically designed to manage Accounts Payable expenditures beyond just employee expenses. It provides a secure integrated card management and AP automation solution, allowing finance teams to handle both employee expenses and vendor spending efficiently.
ERP integrations
Stampli Card combines with Stampli’s industry-leading AP automation solution to seamlessly integrate card spend management with over 70 ERPs and accounting platforms, including SAP, NetSuite, Acumatica, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, and QuickBooks. You can implement Stampli’s pre-built, no-code API integrations without changes to your IT infrastructure or existing processes.
Card Types
Stampli Card comes in a number of different types to give greater flexibility and control over spending:
- Accounts payable cards: Pay recurring services like utility bills, rent, subscriptions, and supplier invoices, and vendor bills or invoices.
- Travel & entertainment cards: Earn cash back on expenditures and gain visibility and control over employee T&E spending.
- Expense cards: Pre-set spending limits and spending restrictions help AP teams to stay on top of employee spending.
- Physical and virtual cards: Unlimited cards as needed, with settings for different types of spending.
Spend management capabilities
Stampli Card is optimized for AP spending and employee expenses, providing unmatched control over company spending and working capital. Using the Stampli Card to pay vendor invoices instantly, you can avoid late payment fees and earn cash back on your purchases.
You can pre-code Stampli Card for specific vendors or categories, and transactions can be pre-approved to minimize the risk of errors or fraud. Additionally, you can create individual cards to manage recurring payments or subscriptions, simplifying the tracking and control of these often-overlooked expenses.
For enhanced visibility and control over spending, you can combine Stampli Card with Stampli Direct Pay, Stampli’s integrated payment automation solution. This allows you to centralize all payment methods (ACH, check, wire transfer, credit card) on a single platform.
Card management
Stampli provides a range of pre-coded cards and card types for every business need, allowing for precise control over employee and AP spending. All of which can be automatically synced to the GL. You can set card restrictions based on spend limits, MCC restrictions, expense types, departments, or categories. Additionally, Stampli Card’s real-time approval capabilities let approvers quickly review and approve card purchases. You can also customize Stampli Card to meet specialized spending requirements, including expense, cyclical, and single-use formats, and is available in both physical and virtual cards. Stampli offers iOS and Android apps to automate receipt scanning for cardholders.
Visibility into card transactions
Stampli Card offers a comprehensive view of all issued and active cards, including card usage statistics such as individual and total credit limits, transactions per card, employees requesting cards, real-time transaction updates, earned rebates, and more. It synchronizes transactions with your ERP or accounting software as they are posted, eliminating the need to wait for the end-of-month statement.
User adoption and process automation
Corporate card solutions with complex manual workflows often require extensive employee training, which can reduce user adoption. However, with Stampli Card, these challenges are overcome through automation. Stampli Card automates key accounts payable workflows, such as matching receipts to expenses, sending reminder emails to approvers, syncing transactions to your ERP, and enforcing internal controls.
In addition to AP automation, Stampli streamlines manual invoice management processes, including three-way matching and AI-powered OCR invoice entry. By combining Stampli Card with these automation features, you can quickly and efficiently pay vendors while taking advantage of early payment discounts.
Rewards and cashback
Stampli Card provides cashback on all card purchases, including vendor payments. This feature allows you to turn AP into a profit center while managing your payables and controlling your company’s spending.
Customer support
Stampli offers unlimited 24/7 support and training.
The bottom line
Empowered by Stampli’s advanced AP automation solution, Stampli Card offers a comprehensive payment solution for accounts payable. Unlike typical business credit cards that primarily address employee expenses, Stampli Card combines employee expenses and vendor payments into a unified platform. It provides enhanced visibility, control, and efficiency to manage total spend – all with no rework to your ERP.
Airbase: The best card for managing employee expenses
Airbase is a spend management platform designed for venture-funded mid-market businesses in the technology sector. It enables the management of corporate cards, employee expenses, and bill payments.
ERP integrations
Airbase focuses on employee expense management and offers integration with various HRIS systems like Okta, Workday, and Rippling. It also provides GL integrations with ERPs such as NetSuite and Sage. Additionally, Airbase integrates with SaaS platforms like Slack, offers procurement workflow and travel management solutions, and supports card integration with American Express and Silicon Valley Bank.
Spend management capabilities
Airbase lets employees submit expense reports through both desktop and mobile apps. The platform uses automated approval workflows to ensure compliance with expense policies. Additionally, Airbase allows companies to customize expense submission requirements, including mandatory fields, time limits, and spending limits. To control expenses, Airbase proactively identifies and prevents out-of-policy requests, helping minimize fraud and unauthorized spending.
Card management
Airbase provides virtual and physical cards with flexible spend limits and transaction restrictions. It also allows support for Amex or Silicon Valley Bank cardholders.
Visibility into card transactions
Businesses can get insights into employee spending through Airbase’s reporting and analytics features, including automatic receipt data entry, automated audit trail, approval records, and real-time visibility into expenses. These features let managers identify trends, address issues, and make informed expense management decisions.
User adoption and process automation
Airbase simplifies and streamlines manual processes with features like mobile receipt scanning and customized approval routing to encourage user adoption of their card management solution.
Rewards and cashback
Currently, Airbase offers cash back on their prepaid credit cards.
Customer support
Airbase offers customer support via email, knowledge base, and online chat.
The bottom line
With flexible card options and a straightforward management platform, Airbase is a good solution for companies wanting an automated expense management solution in the SaaS space from startup to mid-market. Note that some features, like support for purchase orders, multiple subsidiaries, and customizable workflows, are only available at higher price tiers.
Ramp: The Best card for growing small businesses
Ramp is a simple charge card and expense management software solution targeted at growing small and medium businesses. It offers a no-fee card solution with higher spending limits and cost savings tools. Ramp offers additional functionality in its Ramp Plus and Ramp Enterprise paid tiers.
ERP Integrations
Ramp’s free tier offers integrations with Quickbooks Online and Xero. It also integrates with HRIS systems like Gusto and Rippling, although the base tier doesn’t offer automated sync with these systems.
The Ramp Plus tier integrates with NetSuite, Sage, and Workday, and the Ramp Enterprise tier adds integrations with Oracle and Microsoft. All tiers offer bank account integrations, security integrations like Okta and Microsoft Azure, and automatic receipt collection from Amazon Business, Gmail, Lyft, and Outlook.
Spend management capabilities
Ramp offers advanced spending controls, allowing companies to monitor their long-term spending and discover potential savings. The platform identifies duplicate expenditures, unnecessary recurring expenses or subscriptions, and more cost-effective pricing alternatives. While the free tier provides basic expense policy enforcement and automated accounting coding, additional functionality is only available with the paid Ramp Plus and Ramp Enterprise tiers.
Card management
Ramp issues Visa corporate cards. Businesses can request unlimited virtual and physical Ramp cards with configurable spend limits. Ramp offers iOS and Android apps to automate receipt scanning and reimbursements.
Visibility into card transactions
Ramp’s platform helps businesses save money by finding and flagging duplicated or unnecessary spending and unclaimed rewards. It provides streamlined payment reconciliation, including automatic transaction classification – although you need to move to a paid tier for more advanced functionality such as amortization, multi-entity, and tax support.
User adoption and process automation
Ramp provides various free cost management tools such as a meeting cost calculator, automated vendor negotiations, charge finder, and burn rate calculator to help businesses save money. It also provides online onboarding and training to help businesses start with the platform.
Rewards and cashback
The Ramp card offers cashback on all expenditures. It also offers partner discounts and rewards on software and business services.
Customer support
Ramp provides phone, email, and live chat support from 9 AM to 9 PM daily, along with an online knowledge base and tutorials.
The bottom line
With its array of benefits and cost savings Ramp’s, no-fee corporate card is an attractive option for startups and SMBs who want to save money. However, the free tier offers basic integrations, spend management, and accounting features. As your business needs grow, you may need to move to one of the paid tiers to access the platform’s full functionality.
Final considerations: Choosing the right card
Corporate cards are effective tools for keeping your spending in check. It’s important to think about your current and future spending needs and how your business might grow. Airbase is a top choice for companies looking to manage employee expenses. Ramp offers great benefits and cost savings for small and medium businesses. Stampli Card is a comprehensive solution for companies that want control over their total AP spend.
Consider Stampli Card as your go-to platform for efficient and effective expense management. With its integration capabilities, smart spend controls, and support for international payments, Stampli Card empowers businesses to streamline their expense processes, reduce manual work, and gain real-time visibility into their financial data.
Stampli Card goes beyond corporate credit cards to provide higher visibility and management over expenses. View Stampli Card purchases in real-time, with instant access to transactions, sync purchases to your ERP, and limit purchases and spending limits by cardholder, type of expense, vendor, and more. All card data is accessible and manageable in real time to give total control over spend.
Learn how Stampli can make payment and expense management painless for your business. Set up a free demo today.
