The challenge: rolling out a second country on a live finance stack
A second-entity rollout is not a copy and paste. The approval chains are different, the people are different, and the calendar does not stop. Month end still lands on the same day whether the integration is finished or not.
Norwex's finance team was doing two things at once: validating and testing the Canadian instance, and keeping the workflow correct while real employees submitted real expenses against it.
"My understanding is you're done with all the validation and testing, and it sounds like it went pretty well with the implementation of the Canadian instances."
The remaining work was configuration rather than firefighting.
"I'm making some little tweaks, but that's just my responsibility to do when it comes to the workflow, making sure the right approvers are being seen and having access to things. I'm not running into any issues where I need help from anybody."
That distinction matters more than it sounds. On a difficult integration, the client's open items are defects. Here, the client's open items were preferences.
What changed on credit cards and reimbursements
Norwex's team oversaw both the US and the Canadian side, which makes the before-and-after comparison a first-hand one rather than a vendor claim.
"On the credit cards and reimbursements, it's phenomenal. I've been overseeing the US one, and it is a huge difference for the employees and for accounting."
Three specific things improved.
Detail and access to information
Card transactions and reimbursements arrive in Sage 300 carrying their detail rather than as a lump sum to be researched later. The AnyWare Apps connector syncs credit card transactions and employee reimbursements from Ramp into Sage 300, and pulls GL accounts and optional fields the other way so the coding in Ramp matches the chart of accounts in Sage 300.
"It's so much more efficient, and more detailed in information and access to information."
Reporting and exporting
The reporting improvement came up unprompted, which is usually the sign of a real one.
"Report printing, exporting reports: I absolutely love it. I praise it on that aspect, when it comes to reimbursements and credit cards."
Line-level approvals, which is the quiet one
This is the detail most buyers do not know to ask about, and it is the one Norwex singled out.
In a traditional expense report, one questionable line holds the entire report. The employee waits. Accounting chases. The report sits.
"I don't have to hold the entire report. If there's one issue on one expense, I could approve everything except for that one, which is amazing. So everyone's getting paid a lot faster. Everyone could submit any time."
Two effects come out of that one change. Reimbursements stop batching around a report cycle, so employees are paid on the pace of their own submissions. And approvers stop treating a single query as a reason to defer a whole packet.
What the employees said
The finance team's read on adoption was blunt.
"On the user side, they all love it. I hear nothing but good things about it. There's no issues, and it's very real time, user friendly."
"I'm not hearing any negative feedback from the users on that end."
Adoption is the part of an expense rollout that quietly decides everything else. Employees who avoid the tool keep spending on personal cards, and the reconciliation problem comes straight back.
The honest part: payment posting timing at month end
No integration goes in clean, and a case study that claims otherwise is not worth reading. Norwex's one issue was timing, and it was specific.
"At first, the payment postings were coming in later than we wanted, but we cleaned that up, so feeling a little better."
Payment posting timing is a real consideration on any Ramp to Sage 300 rollout. Postings that land after the close window force manual adjustment even though the sync itself worked correctly. It is a scheduling and sequencing question, it is solvable in configuration, and it is worth raising during discovery rather than discovering it in your first close.
Asked directly whether there was anything else, the answer was:
"I don't see any downfalls on it. My only issue was the billing timing, but that's it."
What the implementation actually felt like
Buyers in the decision window are rarely worried about whether the software works. They are worried about what the next ten weeks of their life look like. Norwex described a two-track cadence: scheduled calls for the heavy work, and asynchronous email for everything else.
"They're very quick and responsive to questions we would have outside of our calls. We'd be sending emails, and they were very quick and responsive to help us and resolve the issues, which we were able to do without having to go on a weekly call to deal with them all."
"The quick response and reply and resolution was good on our part. I was really impressed with that, that we weren't held back with time on that."
"We had the weekly calls to do big chunks of work, and then when we had little questions along the way, we weren't held up. We were able to work through them as we went, to keep going. So it was a good, healthy balance, and we didn't ever get stuck for too long."
The measure of an implementation partner is not the weekly call. It is what happens on the four days between weekly calls, when a question can either cost you an hour or cost you a week.
Why the second rollout ran faster
Norwex's own estimate, and it is worth reading as an estimate rather than a benchmark:
"It did help that we had the USA blueprint. So in our case it might have only been six weeks of effort, whereas the US might have taken two or three months, which kind of laid the foundation for us."
The first implementation is where the decisions get made: how GL accounts map, which optional and custom fields carry across, how approval chains mirror the org, how multi-currency is handled between a Canadian and a US entity. Once those decisions exist, the second entity inherits them.
Their conclusion on the timeline:
"In the grand scheme of things, whether it takes six weeks or twelve weeks, we can get there. And it's worth trying for other people."
You can put your own numbers against that with the Ramp integration ROI calculator.
Would they recommend it
They already have, without being asked to.
"I've already shared that with friends. I'm just telling them the process, and what we're doing with this program, and I'm just absolutely impressed with it. It's very user friendly, so I would have no problem telling people about it."
"I think it's something for other people to consider trying."
Frequently asked questions
What does the Ramp to Sage 300 integration actually sync?
The AnyWare Apps connector syncs bills and vendors in both directions, payments, credit card transactions and employee reimbursements from Ramp into Sage 300, and GL accounts plus optional and custom fields from Sage 300 into Ramp. Currency conversion is handled in both directions for international transactions. Full field-level detail is in the Sage 300 documentation.
How long does a Ramp to Sage 300 implementation take?
It depends on entity count, chart of accounts complexity, and how many approval workflows have to be mirrored. Norwex estimated their first country at two to three months and their second at about six weeks, because the second inherited the mapping decisions from the first. Timelines are scoped during discovery, not quoted from a template.
Does the integration support multiple entities or multiple countries?
Yes. Multi-entity Ramp environments and multi-company Sage 300 setups are both supported. Companies that share GL accounts, vendor lists and custom fields can run under one configuration, or separate Ramp instances can be mapped to individual Sage 300 companies. Norwex runs US and Canadian operations on the same integration approach.
Can approvers approve part of an expense report?
Yes. Expenses are approved individually rather than as a batch, so a single disputed line does not hold the rest. Norwex named this as one of the largest practical improvements for their employees, because reimbursements are paid on submission pace rather than report cycle.
What should we watch for during a Ramp to Sage 300 rollout?
Payment posting timing relative to your close calendar. It is the one item Norwex flagged, it was resolved in configuration, and it is worth raising in discovery so postings land inside your close window rather than after it.
Does AnyWare Apps integrate Ramp with other Sage products?
Yes. Alongside Sage 300, AnyWare Apps builds Ramp connectors for Sage 100, Sage 100 Contractor, Sage 300 CRE, Sage Intacct and Sage X3.
See what this looks like on your chart of accounts
Norwex went from a working US implementation to a working Canadian one in about six weeks because the mapping decisions were already made. Yours start at discovery.
Book a discovery call to walk through your Sage 300 setup, your entity structure and your close calendar, and see exactly which objects would sync on day one.
Book a Discovery Call (800) 352-4032 rampinfo@anywareapps.com
