About Rippling

Rippling is the leading modern HR and finance platform that processes payroll, bills, reimbursements, and other employee-centric transactions at global scale. That scope brings unique controllership demands: high-velocity fund flows, specialized entities, and strict regulatory reporting.

“We close our books in seven business days with most numbers locked in the first 4 business days and take pride in accurate and efficient processes across all functions,” says Vipin Sethi, VP, Controller at Rippling and PwC alumnus. “As our bank activity exploded and got complicated - thanks to our company’s compound startup concept, we needed to automate how it hit the books to reduce human error and give the team time to handle more complex issues, and spend time in quality review and timely account reconciliation.”

Challenge

Cash activity sat at the center of close, with the main US operating account being especially complex. Rippling’s accounting team was downloading large datasets from banking portals, breaking down batched bank transactions into details using internal data from engineering and data teams, applying GAAP and policy logic in google sheets, and uploading journals to the ERP,  manually. With more than 2.6 million monthly transactions across 150 bank accounts across 50+ active entities, keeping entries accurate and timely consumed valuable close time and introduced error risk.

“The goal was not just a faster close,” Vipin notes. “It was better accuracy and more time for quality reviews, reconciliations, and flux analysis. Historically we found issues after close. That is not acceptable for our nature of business where we need to maintain high standards in bank ledger accounting as we deal with a significant amount of customer funds.”

Evaluation

Rippling evaluated multiple vendors and even tried to solve this by building a solution in-house. Many vendors focused on reporting and close orchestration. They help once records already exist in the ERP, but they do not automate the creation of those records, so journals still had to be created before any automation could happen. Vipin’s priority was bookkeeping automation at the transaction level.

“I wanted my close automation system to create accurate entries, not just report on them. If you cannot automate bank journals into the ERP with controls, it is not solving my problem. Maxima met us where the pain was, with bank ledger accounting that matched our volume and control needs. And the solution was as simple as what we wanted, build mapping rules in the application, bring your data and press the button”

Solution

Rippling implemented Maxima’s Journal Automation for bank ledger accounting by first tackling its hardest use case: a high-volume U.S. concentration account with many rule variations. After two months of validation, the team went live and then quickly expanded to all other bank and payment processor accounts.

“The goal was accuracy first, then speed. Maxima lets us get journals posted early in the cycle so the team can spend the rest of close on reconciliations and flux. That is the operating rhythm we wanted.”

Eight months in, bank-ledger automation now covers all major accounts, delivering:

• A shift from end-of-month scramble to in-month processing for cash book keeping, creating a structured and predictable close.

• Standardized reconciliation with about 90% of transactions on large concentration accounts processed automatically.

• Removal of spreadsheet prep and redeployment of effort that previously consumed about 4 FTEs toward reconciliations, flux, and issue resolution.

Impact

Maxima turned Rippling’s cash accounting from reactive and manual to streamlined and proactive. What once took days of spreadsheet work and late-night fire drills now happens faster, with higher accuracy and far less effort. “Running this daily instead of waiting for close has lowered stress and freed time for higher-quality work: thorough reconciliations, proper reviews, analytic procedures, anomaly detection, and sharing useful insights with cross-functional teams. Even junior staff are learning faster because they are working on real analysis and ensuring compliance, rather than wrestling with spreadsheets and manual journal entries.”

Most importantly, Maxima established a strong foundation for SOX (automated controls, audit trails, segregation of duties) with step-by-step proof of reconciliation, centralized evidence, clear reviewer workflows, and robust preventative controls that support audit quality. “We automated the bookkeeping where it matters, with controls built in. Maxima records complex bank activity correctly and early, enforces maker-checker review, and preserves the evidence we need for SOX. That is how you run a seven-day close with confidence,” Sethi adds.

Rippling has finished onboarding the remaining bank accounts and continues extending automation to additional bookkeeping areas. The north star remains the same: automate the work, surface the evidence, and give accountants time to review and add more value to  the business.