ParentSquare helps K-12 students’ families manage all school communications—from signing field trip permission slips to school closure notifications to messaging teachers—within a single, unified platform. 

“Parents and guardians juggle numerous responsibilities in their daily lives. They ought to have a singular place they can go to seamlessly manage their entire experience with their kids’ education,” said Sashangar Sreetharan, ParentSquare’s CFO. “We share a similar sentiment regarding our employees. They should not have to navigate multiple platforms—five or six—to get a clear understanding of their financial affairs related to the company.”

But as the business—which now serves 40 million students across the US with its two products—grew, so did its finance tech stack. Before long, ParentSquare used Emburse for expense management, Bill.com for reimbursements and bill payment, and both Chase and American Express for corporate cards. ParentSquare wanted to consolidate systems, and in the process, find a solution that automated more busywork, provided better spend controls, and was easier for employees to use.

ParentSquare already had Rippling as its HRIS and decided to use the familiar employee touchpoint for spend management. Now, the company uses Rippling Spend for tracking expenses, issuing reimbursements, and managing corporate cards. 

Sashangar said the implementation experience was top tier, allowing for Rippling to integrate with ParentSquare’s accounting system and tag all company expenses to its general ledger.

Rippling Spend gives employees an easy-to-use platform for corporate cards and expense reimbursements. “The employee experience of not having to touch four different tools is very helpful,” Sashangar said, adding that Rippling’s UI is easier than prior systems, which helps employees log spend quicker and make fewer mistakes. 

For instance, instead of remembering where receipts are or poring through photo albums to find copies, Rippling lets employees quickly upload receipts and write in memos to reconcile corporate card charges. “That saves employees a ton of time and it improves compliance,” Sashangar said. 

“Employees’ day to day work is complex enough as it is. There’s no reason to add complexity outside of that in the back office. That’s why we consolidated everything through Rippling.”

Employees’ day to day work is complex enough as it is. There’s no reason to add complexity outside of that in the back office. That’s why we consolidated everything through Rippling.

Sashangar Sreetharan

CFO at ParentSquare

ParentSquare uses Rippling to quickly issue either physical or virtual corporate cards to employees who need them, set spend limits for different roles, departments, and seniority levels, and adjust the limits at any time.

ParentSquare also sets vendor and purchasing controls and automatically blocks out-of-policy card transactions, making sure the company doesn’t pay out-of-pocket for noncompliant spend.

In addition to moving more employees into using corporate cards with tighter controls, Rippling made it easier for ParentSquare to track expenses. The platform automatically tags transactions to purchasing categories and maps them to its accounting system—saving accountants time tying the books out while better monitoring employees’ purchasing patterns.

ParentSquare already stored its employee data in Rippling HRIS. Once it also implemented Rippling Spend, the integrated HR and finance suite helped the company better manage employee compensation.

Sashangar uses Rippling’s pay bands features to set up compa ratios and show employees their total compensation—including salary, benefits, and stocks. 

“Our benefits are in Ripping. Our spend is in Rippling. Our PTO information is in Rippling. Our payroll is in Rippling,” Sashangar said. “The company has been a good partner in supporting our growth.”

• Consolidated systems: ParentSquare now uses one unified platform for expense tracking, reimbursements, and corporate cards.
• Time saved: Employees can quickly upload receipts for every transaction, automate building expense reports, and back up card transactions. Meanwhile, finance team members save time closing the books out because they aren't chasing receipts. 
• Improved compliance: With Rippling Spend, employees make fewer manual errors, while the company has better guardrails against excessive or out-of-policy spend.