Case study - Spend management
Control of every dollar,
without chasing receipts.
A privately owned North Carolina camp was managing nearly half a million dollars of spend by hand. We built a spend management process around Ramp, QuickBooks Online, and a few smart automations so seasonal staff can buy what they need and leadership still sees everything.
Camp profile
Who we were working with.
- Location
- North Carolina
- Type
- Traditional overnight camp
- Ownership
- Privately owned
- Years operating
- 68 years
- Full-time staff
- 18
- Seasonal staff
- 124
- Peak enrollment
- About 370 campers per session
- Annual revenue
- About $6.0 million
- Revenue streams
- Summer camp, off-season event rentals
- Common spend
- Off-season: Amazon, ads, repairs and maintenance, travel. In-season: rafting, meals, supplies, fuel, rental vehicles
The challenge
Owners and directors had limited control over spending and no systematic approach to spend management. The process was manual, slow, error-prone, and never built for the complexity of a summer camp. Leadership could not see where money was going in real time, which raised the risk of overspending and drove up accounting costs because every transaction took extra hands to code.
The solution
Bowline deployed a spend management and reporting process built for an overnight camp. Ramp became the corporate card and control layer, integrated directly with QuickBooks Online so transactions auto-code on the way in. Automations closed the gaps around receipts, approvals, and document storage.
How we did it
The implementation.
Ramp setup and QuickBooks integration
Configured Ramp around the camp's financial structure with spend categories, limits, and approval workflows, then connected it to QuickBooks Online so transactions categorize automatically instead of being keyed in by hand.
Automated receipt capture and approvals
Used Zapier to confirm expense submissions back to leadership and to pull receipts straight out of OpenPhone SMS, creating one digital place where every receipt lands.
Streamlined communication
Put OpenPhone in place so approvals and spending questions get answered in one thread, with every receipt-related message captured and routed automatically.
Centralized document management
Built a Google Drive repository for spending reports, invoices, and supporting documents so leadership can pull anything from anywhere.
Results
Real control over spend
Customizable limits and approval workflows mean every expense is authorized and inside budget before it happens.
Seasonal staff can buy what they need
Staff spend autonomously without a director standing next to them, with card restrictions holding the guardrails in place.
Less card risk
Virtual cards cut the exposure from lost or stolen plastic while managing close to half a million dollars in expenses.
69 hours and $5,300 saved
In the first seven months, the camp ran $435,000 across more than 2,000 transactions, an average of 294 a month. Auto-coding saved at least 69 hours of bookkeeping time and over $5,300 in accounting cost.
No more paper receipts
Receipts text in and land automatically, so college-aged staff are not carrying crumpled paper around all summer and the books stay accurate.
A spend management process built for how camp actually buys things returned real time and real money. Owners and directors now have virtual card security and clear visibility into nearly half a million dollars of spend, without adding a single step to their team's day.