Case Study: Ethical Energy achieves 5x headcount onboarding in one day with Rippling

Why Ethical Energy ditched Ramp for Rippling Spend

Ethical Energy, a U.S. solar manufacturer, needed to convert 40 contractors to W-2 employees overnight to comply with FLSA rules and scale operations 5x, but their HR, payroll, and finance workflows were fragmented across multiple tools—including Ramp—and heavily manual. They turned to Rippling (using Rippling HCM, Rippling Payroll, Rippling Spend, and a NetSuite integration) to consolidate systems, automate onboarding, and connect HR and finance data.

Rippling implemented unified HCM, payroll, and Spend workflows with automated card provisioning and approval flows (using Rippling Supergroups and attribute-based approvals), plus a stable credit line. The switch eliminated five software tools, onboarded 5x headcount in one day, increased corporate cards from 6 to over 40 (6x), saved 15 hours in the first 90 days, and enabled a 5x increase in project volume with no added finance or HR headcount.

Ethical Energy

Frank Himes

CFO & COO