How to connect Ramp to Deel

The Ramp integration automates the flow of employee and contractor reimbursements by connecting your Ramp expense management system directly to Deel. By linking these platforms, you eliminate the need for manual data entry, ensuring that approved reimbursements in Ramp are automatically pulled into Deel for payroll processing and payment.

Supported worker types

This integration facilitates automated data flow for the following:

• Independent Contractors (ICs)
• Employer of Record (EOR)
• Global Payroll (GP)
• PEO (Professional Employer Organization)

In this article

• Before you begin
• Setting up and connecting to Ramp
  • Step 1: Create a Deel service user
  • Step 2: Configure the approval chain
  • Step 3: Connect Ramp to Deel
  • Step 4: Configure expense sync plugins
  • Step 5: Map adjustment categories
• Syncing Ramp and Deel
  • What happens during a sync?

Before you begin

You must have:

• A Deel account and be logged in.
• Organization Admin or Integrations Admin - Bookeeper. access to Deel.
• A user with Admin permissions in  Ramp.

Setting up and connecting to Ramp

Step 1: Create a Deel service user

Before connecting to the Deel App Store, you must create a dedicated service user in Ramp to handle the communication between the two platforms.

1. Log in to Ramp.
2. Go to Company, then People in the left navigation menu.
3. Click Invite on the People dashboard.  
4. Fill out the required fields and assign Admin permissions to the user.

Do not assign a physical or virtual expense card to this account.

6. Click Send Invite. This sends an invite to the email you entered.

We recommend adding an email shared by administrators in your organization to ensure you do not lose access to your integration if a user leaves the organization.

7. Accept the invite via the service user's email to finalize the account.

Step 2: Configure the approval chain

1. Go to Policy in the left navigation menu.
2. Click Expense Approvals in the Spend management controls section.
3. Edit the workflow to add the Deel service user as the final approver in the chain.
4. Set up either:
   1. Deel as the final approver for all reimbursement workflows.
   2. Conditional approval based on specific departments or roles.
5. Test and save the workflow.

Refer to the Official Ramp documentation for more information about setting up and building workflows.

Step 3: Connect Ramp to Deel

1. Log out of any active Ramp sessions in your browser.
2. Navigate to your Deel account dashboard.
3. Click More > Apps on the top menu.
4. Search for the Ramp integration in the left navigation menu.
5. Click Connect to Ramp.
6. Log in using the Ramp service user credentials created in Step 1. 

Review the permissions your Deel account will have in Ramp and click Allow.
Deel will automatically match Ramp users to Deel workers if they share the same email address. This process can take up to several seconds.

After the first sync:

• Deel automatically matches Ramp users and Deel workers with the same email address. You can adjust matches manually later using the People Match plugin.
• A custom field named Deel Adjustment Category is automatically created in Ramp. This lets workers select which Deel adjustment category applies to their reimbursement request directly within Ramp.

Step 4: Configure expense sync plugins

Once the connection is established, you must enable the specific plugins for your worker types to allow data to flow:

1. Go to the Plugins section of the Ramp integration page in Deel.
2. Enable the plugins according to your setup. Plugins include:
   • People Match: Manually match Ramp users with Deel workers.
   • Global Payroll Expenses Sync: Manage reimbursements for Deel Global Payroll workers.
   • IC Expenses Sync: Manage reimbursements for independent contractors.
   • EOR Expenses Sync: Manage reimbursements for Deel Employer of Record workers.
   • PEO Expenses Sync: Manage reimbursements for Deel PEO workers.

Within each plugin, you can toggle on Daily Automatic Sync to automate reimbursement retrieval. You can also toggle Payment Sync to mark the reimbursement as paid in Ramp once the funds are released to the worker.

Step 5: Assign adjustment categories

When a worker submits a reimbursement in Ramp, the worker or a manager must assign a category before final approval. 

Every reimbursement needs a category to sync to Deel. If you leave the category blank before the reimbursement request reaches the final approval step, Deel defaults to Other expense as the category.

Check the reimbursement category

If no category is selected in Ramp, Deel will automatically attempt to categorize the sync as "Other expense." If the "Other expense" category is disabled in your Deel settings and no specific category is selected in Ramp, the reimbursement sync will fail.

Follow the steps below to ensure reimbursement categories are synced correctly:

1. Go to your Organization Settings.
2. Navigate to Expenses and Adjustments under Payroll on the left menu.
3. Click the Submissions tab and scroll through the Categories to ensure your desired categories are Active and enabled for the contract types (EOR, IC, etc.) you are using.
4. Use the custom Deel Adjustment Category field to set a category for your reimbursement.

Edit reimbursement to add category

Currently, the custom Deel Adjustment Category field only becomes visible after a reimbursement is created. It cannot be filled out during the initial Create Reimbursement step. This means that workers and/or managers must manually update the reimbursement once it exists in the system.

Refer to the How to Assign Deel Categories in Ramp documentation page for detailed instructions on how to edit a reimbursement category.

Syncing Ramp and Deel

Once your configuration is complete, you can control how and when data flows between Ramp and Deel. There are two ways to sync your integration:

• Manual Sync - Click the Sync button in the top-right corner of the integration home page for an immediate update.
• Automatic Daily Sync - Enable the automatic sync toggle within each specific plugin (EOR, IC, GP, or PEO) to have Deel pull data every 24 hours.
   

What happens during a sync?

During every sync cycle, Deel automatically performs the following actions:

1. Attempts to link any unmatched Ramp users to Deel workers based on a matching email address.
2. Identifies reimbursements in Ramp that are currently Awaiting Approval from the Deel service user.
3. Creates Adjustments. Imported reimbursements are added as adjustments in Deel. These are visible on the individual Worker's Contract and in the Finance > Expenses section.

Next steps

• Learn more about Ramp capabilities and limitations in the Ramp Integration Overview.
• Find solutions to common issues in the Ramp Integration Troubleshooting guide.