Expenses | Notion

Accommodation, if not arranged for you
Legal document expenses, such as visa
Air, train, ship, bus or other transportation fares
Local transportation
Other per diem expenses, $100 a day for non lodging expenses in the US. $40 a day in Lisbon and $50 in London.

`Cheapest viable option`

We're at a startup and one of the quickest ways for a startup to die is to run out of cash. Please take a common-sense approach when booking travel. Please choose the cheapest option, unless it is significantly worse.

Examples of non-viable options:

Return flight lands after normal business hours.
Flight departs or lands at a time where the availability of airport transportation to/from your residence is unreasonable.

International transportation

Please use Skyscanner, Google Flights when trying to find the cheapest flight to your destination. Please pick the cheapest option, not the airline where you will collect more points.

We will only allow expensing of economy flights. For travel less than 3 days please use the baggage option that comes with the ticket. If you are travelling for longer and require other baggage options please use the "cheapest viable option" policy.

You can purchase additional upgrades on your own card if needed.

Local transportation

Please again use common sense. When picking between Uber or public transportation such as bus or subway, the preference is always to use public transportation.

Examples where it is acceptable:

If you're sharing with coworkers and its cheaper to pool in one ride.
If you're transporting equipment and its not safe via public transport.
Safety concerns (don't ride the NY subway after 10pm).
If public transport will take significantly longer.
You are late and at risk of missing a company flight because of it.

Conferences

If you are attending a conference then you will be added to a specific Ramp card for 'Conferences 202X' - you can use this for any expenses that you incur whilst being away at the conference. The $100 a day still applies assuming the conference is in the US.

Software

For company wide SaaS products please use the Ramp SaaS Tools card in 1Password, please give notice in #people-tools-ask prior to purchasing a new tool

Documentation

Ramp make it easy to upload receipts and submit memos for each of your transactions. For all transactions above $75 USD please upload the receipt. The app makes it easy for you to do this.

For anything below please write a memo and explain what it is for. If you are buying multiple items you will need to upload a receipt.

All invoices should confirm to legal standard and requirements, we can't just accept a paper with "$20 for a mouse" handwritten on it.

Other (obvious) rules

You can’t expense:

Anything incurred by spouses or other non-employees
Unauthorised or unscheduled business meetings with clients, partners or job candidates
Unauthorised/non-approved service upgrades (e.g. business class or hotel rooms)
Personal services (beauty treatments or gym sessions etc.)
Personal purchases (gifts, clothes, etc.)
Lost personal property (e.g. luggage)
Baggage oversize or overweight charges
Fines or penalties
Personal trips, including if you go and do something for personal enjoyment whilst on a business trip

Essentially, anything that you only have to pay for due to your own fault, for instance if you damaged a rental car and had to pay, that’s not expensable.

Audits

We know this is a long document but given the money we have raised, we will undergo annual audits going forward. It is important we are in compliance with these rules. We take these rules seriously and if the proper documentation aren't in place, it opens us up to liability with the IRS.

If you're not in compliance with these rules we reserve the right to cancel any cards immediately. We want to focus on building a billion dollar company, not navigating IRS audits and investigations.

Mistake purchases

If you’ve added the wrong card to a transaction, you can: