Importing Journal Entries from RAMP

@Marie Scheurich Omatic Software has a data integration tool built specifically for importing journal entries into FE NXT – can be used for RAMP data as well as any other third-party transactional data that you may obtain from other systems and external sub-ledgers. Thanks and best wishes.

@Marie Scheurich
We use RAMP and I have had no trouble importing the transactions as Journal Entries (I export from RAMP using the Journal Entry feature, and then cut out most columns to match my FE import template). I utilize the “notes” field to capture the receipt link from the ramp export so that if I need to look at the receipt in FE, it's easy to click on the link.

However, we don't use the payables portion of RAMP, and I'd love to be able to import the cc transactions, with vendor, into the AP vendor record so we capture all of the vendor activity through both AP and credit cards. I have not been successful writing this import because I cannot change the credit account on the invoice import.

Has anyone been successful importing RAMP credit card transactions as payments (or invoices and payments) into the vendor record of FE?

@Marie Scheurich
We utilize RAMP Credit Cards and download from RAMP as a csv and upload all expenses as invoices to one AP Vendor that we named Ramp.com. There are so many other fields on AP Invoices that can be used to code expenses, unlike a Journal Entry. We utilize the Line Item Description field and include the actual name of the vendor for reference and include the Ramp Memo in the Notes area, along with the Ramp link to the receipt.

@Patricia Nowak
Unfortunately, no you can't search by vendor in FE NXT and get those that were paid with a Ramp card, as all expenses have been import onto 1 vendor “Ramp.com”. I made an AP Query with criteria that you can pick a specific vendor and then also include query criteria for the Invoice Line Item Description field, because we import the actual Ramp Merchant name in this field for the purchases.

In the beginning we were looking into the Ramp Custom Field option and were going to enter all of our Vendor ID's into Ramp on each Merchant. But this would require a lot of new FE NXT Vendors to be set up. A lot of our credit card expenses, we really do not care about the vendor/merchant name (ex: vehicle gas; meals; etc.

We use the FE NXT query option instead for any Vendor searches that are needed. On our Fund Activity Reports, when an AP invoice is then processed/posted it shows on the report as RAMP.com-(Inv #); then also includes the Line Item Description, which would be the Ramp Merchant and we include a very brief description (character limit is 50). Hopefully this makes sense.

@Marie Scheurich
Sorry for the delay getting back to you. We currently are unable to import as invoices in FE NXT, so we continue to use the DataBase view.

@Tina OGuinn: Check out and Ramp For Financial Edge NXT on the Blackbaud Marketplace and on rampforfe.com. This is an integration that was purpose built to simplify the process of connecting Ramp and Financial Edge NXT.

@Tina OGuinn: Ramp for FE supports creating invoice transactions (and vendors automatically) in FE NXT when you are using Ramp cards to pay vendor bills using Ramp's Bill Pay feature. Feel free to direct message me or fill out the contact us form on rampforfe.com if you would like to explore how this works! We are happy to talk to you further about Ramp for FE.

@Marie Scheurich We use the Bill Pay feature and love it so far.

@Marie Scheurich Adding to the conversation for anyone new that comes along. We use different methods based on what we are doing. For the credit cards we import with a JE using the “Create Journal Entry Batch” in Excel from the add-ons. In each description line we concatenate the actual vendor name with a short description. When we run GL reports and queries we know where the money is being spent. For reimbursements we use the invoice import. Because the import does not have a good template for multiple GL lines on a single invoice, we use the invoice number and then “-01” “-02” “-03” to create multiple “invoices” for the same invoice. We load them as a bank draft. To pay them in NXT for bank recon purposes you can run them like checks, except choose draft and the payment date to batch a whole bunch together if needed. Our you can pay each one individually. We usually only pay expense reports once a month. We have not started using Bill Pay, but when we do, I plan to use invoice import for those those too. We use the Vendor ID as the link. In Ramp we will use the “-01” “-02” “-03” as an extension to the Vendor ID for vendor owner approval purposes and then remove the extension when importing into FENXT. It can be multiple vendors in ramp if several people use the same vendor and then one vendor in FENXT. Interested in seeing what other people are doing.