Hold payment for bills and vendors

Overview

Beta. This feature is currently in Beta and may not be available for all businesses.

Ramp lets you place a hold on bill payments to pause, review, and release them when ready. Holds prevent payments from going out by clearing scheduled payment dates, canceling payments that have not yet been initiated, and terminating one-time cards. You can hold individual bills or hold all bills for a vendor at once.

Placing and removing holds requires the Bill Pay permission to modify bills (typically Admins and users with Accounts Payable roles).

Hold a bill

Place a hold on an individual bill to prevent it from being paid until you remove the hold.

Go to Bill Pay.
Find the bill in the Pending tab.
Click the three-dot menu (⋯) on the bill row and select Place on hold.
Optionally enter a reason for the hold, then click Place on hold.

You can also place a hold from the bill detail drawer by clicking the three-dot menu and selecting Place on hold.

When you place a bill on hold, Ramp:

Clears the bill's scheduled payment date
Cancels any scheduled payment where the transfer to the vendor has not yet been initiated (see Cancel a bill for the cancelation boundary)
Terminates any one-time card associated with the bill
Resets any pending payment release approval

Note: A hold cannot stop a payment that has already been initiated. Once the outbound transfer to the vendor begins, the payment cannot be canceled — even by Support.

Important: Placing a hold is destructive to the bill's payment schedule. The payment date, card, and approval status are not preserved. After you remove the hold, you must manually reschedule the payment.

Hold multiple bills at once

Go to Bill Pay.
Select the bills you want to hold using the checkboxes.
Click the three-dot menu in the selection footer and select Place N bills on hold.
Optionally enter a reason, then click Place on hold.

Bills that cannot be held

You cannot place a hold on a bill that:

Has already been paid
Has been deleted
Is already on hold
Is included in a batch payment — remove it from the batch first (see Batch payments on Ramp Bill Pay)
Has no mutable payments (for example, a draft bill with no payment details)

Hold all bills for a vendor

Place a vendor-level hold to block all current and future payments to a vendor until the hold is removed.

Go to Vendors.
Find the vendor in the table.
Click the Status dropdown in the vendor's row and select On hold.
Review the number of affected bills, optionally enter a reason, and click Place on hold.

You can also place a vendor hold from the vendor profile page by clicking the status pill in the header and selecting On hold.

When you place a vendor on hold, Ramp:

Sets the vendor's status to On hold
Clears payment dates, cancels scheduled payments that have not yet been initiated, and terminates one-time cards on all eligible bills for that vendor
Blocks new payments from being scheduled for that vendor until the hold is removed

New bills created for a held vendor are automatically treated as on hold — they cannot be scheduled for payment until the vendor hold is removed.

Note: Vendor holds replace any existing bill-level holds on that vendor's bills. You cannot place or remove a bill-level hold on a bill that is held under a vendor hold — you must release the vendor hold instead.

Remove a hold from a bill

Go to Bill Pay and find the held bill in the Pending tab.
Click the three-dot menu (⋯) on the bill row and select Remove hold.
Click Remove hold to confirm.

You can also remove a hold from the bill detail drawer by clicking Remove hold in the on-hold notice banner.

To remove holds from multiple bills at once, select the held bills and click Remove hold in the selection footer.

Important: Removing a hold does not automatically reschedule the payment. After removing a hold, you must set a new payment date and, if your business uses Bill Pay payment release, release the bill for payment.

Remove a hold from a vendor

Go to Vendors and find the held vendor.
Click the Status dropdown in the vendor's row and select Active.
Click Remove hold to confirm.

You can also remove a vendor hold from the vendor profile page by clicking the status pill and selecting Active.

Removing a vendor hold:

Returns the vendor's status to Active
Allows new payments to be scheduled for the vendor
Does not automatically reschedule any bills — during the release flow, you can bulk-schedule payment dates for the vendor's currently held bills. Any remaining bills without a date must be rescheduled individually from the bills table.

Note: A held vendor can only be moved to Active status. To mark a vendor as Inactive, first remove the hold, then change the status.

How holds appear in Ramp

Bills on hold display an orange On hold status badge with a pause icon in the bills table and payments table. Held bills appear under the Pending tab in Bill Pay. You can filter by the On hold status in both the bills table and the payments table.

When you open a held bill, an orange notice banner shows who placed the hold and when. If a hold reason was provided, it appears in the banner. For bills held under a vendor hold, the banner shows the vendor name and a View vendor link to the vendor profile instead of a Remove hold action.

In the Vendors table, held vendors display an orange On hold status badge. On a bill form for a held vendor, an orange badge appears next to the vendor name with the message "This vendor is on hold. Bills cannot be paid to this vendor until the hold is removed."

Troubleshoot bill and vendor holds

"Remove hold" is not available on a bill

If a bill is held under a vendor hold, you cannot remove the hold from the bill directly. The on-hold notice on the bill shows View vendor instead of Remove hold. Release the vendor hold to free all of that vendor's bills. See Remove a hold from a vendor.

Payment is not rescheduled after removing a hold

Removing a hold does not restore the previous payment date, one-time card, or approval status. For bill-level holds, you must manually set a new payment date after removing the hold. For vendor holds, the release flow offers a bulk-schedule option to set payment dates for all of the vendor's held bills at once — see Remove a hold from a vendor. If your business uses Bill Pay payment release, you also need to release the bill for payment.

Cannot hold a bill in a batch payment

Bills included in a batch payment cannot be placed on hold. Remove the bill from the batch first, then place the hold. See Batch payments on Ramp Bill Pay for details on managing batch payments.

Cannot hold a draft bill

Draft bills that have not yet been submitted typically cannot be held because they have no mutable payment details.

Frequently asked questions

Can I hold payments for a vendor without holding each bill individually?

Yes. Place a vendor-level hold to block all current and future payments to that vendor at once. See Hold all bills for a vendor.

Does removing a hold restore the original payment schedule?

No. When you place a hold, Ramp clears the payment date and cancels any scheduled payment that has not yet been initiated. For bill-level holds, you must manually reschedule each bill after removing the hold. For vendor holds, the release flow offers a bulk-schedule option to set payment dates for all of the vendor's held bills at once — see Remove a hold from a vendor.

Who can place and remove holds?

Users with the Bill Pay permission to modify bills can place and remove holds. This typically includes Admins and users with Accounts Payable roles.

Are there notifications when a hold is placed or removed?

Hold and release events appear in the bill's activity feed. Held bills are also excluded from payment release reminder emails.

Can I set a hold to expire automatically?

No. Holds remain active until manually removed. There are no automatic expiration or scheduled release rules.