Ramp vs Procurify for RIAs: What Compliance Needs Documented

An SEC exam can request records showing due diligence on a vendor, particularly one that touches client data or account access, and reconstructing that after the fact from old email threads is a miserable way to spend an exam period. Procurify's requisition model creates that file naturally: a purchase request that names the vendor, the reason, and who approved it becomes the due diligence record without anyone having to build one separately later. Ramp's card model doesn't create this kind of record on its own, so if you use Ramp as your primary tool, build a lightweight parallel habit, a shared note or form completed before any new vendor gets a card, so the same documentation exists even without a formal requisition step. The specific format matters far less than consistency, since an examiner is unlikely to fault a firm for a simple record as long as it's complete and was clearly created at the time of the decision rather than reconstructed afterward.

Research data feeds and compliance or regtech subscriptions tend to be the largest recurring cost after staff compensation, and they're also the category most likely to draw an examiner's interest, since they can touch how the firm forms investment views or monitors client accounts. Review these specifically, and more often than general office software, checking that each subscription still serves an active purpose and that the firm can explain, in plain terms, what it's used for and who relies on it.

Firms in this category typically pay vendors in around 24.4 days¹, reasonably prompt, and worth maintaining deliberately for vendors who handle anything client-related, since a strained vendor relationship over a payment dispute is a worse outcome for a small advisory firm than for a business with more vendor options to switch between. Fast, reliable payment is itself a form of vendor risk management in a relationship-dependent industry like this one.

Professional liability insurance and state or federal registration renewals are infrequent, large, and non-negotiable, the kind of purchase that should never simply auto-renew on a saved card without a human confirming the coverage and terms are still right for the firm's current assets under management and client count. Whichever tool handles it, flag these renewals for a documented review well ahead of the renewal date, not the week the policy is set to lapse.

It's common for a growing advisory firm to keep the same research and compliance technology stack it started with years after its assets under management, client count, and complexity have all grown well past what that original stack was sized for, simply because nobody revisited the decision once it was made. Review your technology spend against your current firm, not your firm as it existed when each subscription was first purchased: a data feed or compliance tool that made sense for a firm with a modest client roster may be genuinely inadequate, or genuinely oversized, for the firm you run today. This review matters as much in the direction of upgrading as it does in the direction of cutting unused seats, since firms that scale their client base without scaling their compliance technology accordingly are taking on real regulatory risk quietly, well before an exam ever surfaces it. Whichever tool handles the purchase itself, put this review on a fixed annual schedule tied to your firm's growth metrics, not to whenever someone happens to notice a subscription feels outdated.

A firm that's been through an SEC exam recently, or expects one soon, gets real value from Procurify's built-in documentation trail on every vendor decision. A newer or smaller firm with lighter compliance obligations can lean more on Ramp's card controls, provided it builds the documentation habit separately rather than skipping it. See Procurify vs Coupa vs Ramp for how a third platform stacks up.

Use these checks to judge how exam-ready your process is:

• Keep a vendor file for each relationship showing the vendor, the reason for the purchase, who approved it and why it was chosen over alternatives.
• Review research and compliance technology subscriptions more often than general office software, confirming each still serves a purpose you can explain plainly.
• Flag E and O insurance and registration renewals for a documented human review instead of letting them auto-renew on a saved card.
• Compare your technology stack against your current firm size and client count, not the firm you were when you chose it.
• If you rely on Ramp, build the documentation habit separately and assign someone to maintain it consistently.