Month: September 2022

Introducing Retained Learnings

Posted on by Amrita Gurney

The corporate finance department is changing, and so are the roles and responsibilities of its leaders. Data and technology are being used in new and strategic ways, leading to fundamental shifts in the way finance professionals work.

Automation, communications, people management and training are just some of the areas that are evolving.

When you’re looking for advice that could benefit your company in these areas, there isn’t always someone in your professional network that can help. And if you’re trying to become a better finance leader, you probably want to learn from the best.

What if you could hear from other seasoned finance professionals about how they overcame some of these challenges in their own unique way? Whether you’re implementing a zero based budgeting model for the first time or raising a Series B, there’s a good chance someone has been in your shoes before.

Listening to their stories just might help you turn these milestones into career defining opportunities.

We’re excited to launch Retained Learnings, a new podcast for Canadian finance leaders. Hosted by Float CEO Rob Khazzam, Retained Learnings will feature Canada’s most respected and accomplished finance and business names to bring you some of the lessons they’ve collected during their careers.

In each episode of Retained Learnings, we’ll share strategic advice and potential solutions to answer some of the finance departments most important questions. We’ll touch on topics like preparing to go public, hiring in a tight talent market, or even moving to an ERP solution like NetSuite.

If you’re a Canadian finance professional, curious about how the best finance leaders in the country do their jobs, be sure to listen to Retained Learnings. Now available on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

3 signs your company is outgrowing its accounting software

Posted on by Amy Fisher

With growth comes great responsibility. Whether it’s new hires, introducing more efficient internal processes, or finding innovative solutions to everyday tasks. For finance teams, it’s all of the above and more. 

As exciting as growth is, the change isn’t always easy and can take some getting used to. When it comes to your accounting software, you’ll want to act fast in the face of growth… or else. 

It’s time to move on from your accounting software 😥

Breaking up with your long-time software is never easy. You’ve been together for years and have been through it all. But now something that better meets your needs has come along – cue Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). 👀

ERP is a cloud-based platform that provides visibility into every aspect of your business. While accounting software is designed to manage one area of your business, ERP can integrate across multiple departments. For example, it helps you manage sales, financial reporting, and inventory to name a few. 

Here are some tell-tale signs it’s time to cut the cord and start your relationship with ERP! 

You’re wasting time ⌚

Time is $$$! Your typical accounting software requires manual data entry, which can be incredibly time-consuming with a higher risk of errors. Once you hit a runway of growth and your transactions and expenses increase, an ERP solution will remove the administrative burden that comes with this and drive efficiency like never before. 🤩 The time previously spent on repetitive, manual input can now be invested in other areas, giving you more time to focus on improving the overall business. When you let technology take care of all the tedious work, the burden of data entry will no longer weigh on you. ERP will also track, store, and disseminate information to the entire company and give everyone the information needed to make better spending decisions. 👍

Your system is no longer compatible with the times 🙅

There’s no question that our economy operates with tech at the helm of everything we do. 👨‍💻 That said, your team has probably started to outgrown the basic accounting software currently running in your company. Nowadays, employees need user-friendly, convenient tools that allow them to complete their daily tasks in a reliable and efficient way. It’s important for organizations to use smart systems that save time, money, and stress – and ERP does just that. It empowers employees to take on more responsibility by freeing up their time from redundant tasks and is also fully functional on a laptop, desktop, or mobile device, allowing employees to work remotely with ease.

Lack of visibility across the company 👀

Growth equals more customers, products, brands, revenue streams – and the list goes on! But the bigger your company gets, the more insights there are to keep track of. Traditional accounting software will store information in spreadsheets, which requires manual updates and increases your margin of error. 

On the other hand, ERP gives you the capability to maintain a running tally of all costs and adjustments in real time. Employees can also access reports from the past to conduct long-term analyses that are beneficial to your business in the long-run. If employees need to know what their current budget is, they can simply visit the ERP system for a snapshot of funds that are coming in and out – bringing your company in a more profitable direction. 💸

While ERPs are more expensive to implement, they are proven to optimize several areas of a business. The good news is that Float now integrates with Netsuite to grow with companies as they transition from their old accounting software to ERP. 🙌 We also have native two-way sync with QBO and Xero so you can easily implement your past spreadsheets and financials into your new ERP. 

Here at Float, our team is committed to helping you step into a brighter and smarter future with innovative features that support your ongoing growth. Book a demo with us today.

New! SAML SSO login for Float

Posted on by Ruslan Nikolaev

Account security is vital for companies who are giving their teams access to software that contains valuable company information. For any organization, it’s important for team members to have the tools they need to perform their jobs on a daily basis. At the same time, it can be difficult to keep track of accounts, ensure employees are using secure passwords, and verify that account access isn’t being shared with others. 

At Float, account security for our customers is one of our biggest priorities. That’s why we’re excited to offer SAML SSO login for our Professional Plan members, and multi-factor authentication for all Float customers. 

What is SAML SSO?

User management can be a headache, especially for large companies or those who are scaling. The reality is, employees come and go and keeping track of accounts and logins can be quite difficult – not to mention, it poses a security risk too. 

SAML enables Single Sign-On (SSO) and provides increased security and convenience for companies by allowing for just one set of secure login credentials across platforms, including Float. SAML works by passing information about users, logins, and attributes between the service providers and identity providers (iDp) including Azure, Okta, Auth0, and OneLogin. 

For Professional Plan members, Float uses SAML to securely pass authentication and authorization from your identity provider to Float for a secure Single Sign-On experience! 

The Benefits 🤩

Employee onboarding or offboarding 👋🏼

IT and security teams can seamlessly manage users in the organization.

Greater convenience 👍🏼

Employees only need to sign into one platform. No need to remember multiple usernames and passwords! 

Increased security 👀

SAML SSO is one of the most secure ways to enable account access for companies and teams. 

We’ve got more tech acronyms for you! 

Have you heard of MFA? No? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Well hear us out! Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides basic authentication for your company’s team. It works to improve account security and prevent unauthorized login attempts by requiring an additional “factor” to verify that the person logging in is really who they say they are. 🧐

This can include a text message with a unique code or a one-time-password (OTP) issued by a third party authenticator app such as Google Authenticator. 

The Key Benefit: Increased Security

By adding an additional checkpoint for a user login, you protect the company from hackers getting access through compromised passwords. 

Here’s how it works ⬇️

To set up SAML SSO

SAML SSO is available to Professional Plan members. (Not yet on our Professional Plan? Upgrading is easy! Just contact our Support team and we’ll walk you through the process of coming to the Professional side.) 

  • Head to your Settings page and click “Account Security”. From here, you’ll be asked to enter your identity provider’s information and connect to Float.
  • Visit our Help Centre for more detailed instructions on setting up SAML SSO.

To set up MFA

Did you know MFA is available to all Float customers?! Here’s how you can enable it: 

  • Go to your company “Settings” page and click “Account Security”. From there you can configure your login policies with our MFA settings. 
  • Once enabled, the next time your team logs into Float, they will be prompted to set up MFA and choose either text or OTP as their second factor for login security. 
  • After that is complete, they will be prompted to enter their one-time code or password. 
  • Visit our Help Centre for more information on setting up MFA.

At Float, we’re bringing you one step closer to smarter, more secure spend management. 👊🏼 If you have any questions about enabling SAML SSO or MFA, we’re a click away!

New! Sync your expenses and receipts from Float to NetSuite

Posted on by Dave Freiman

Did you know? Float has Canada’s most powerful accounting integrations! Along with Xero and QBO, our platform is now compatible with NetSuite and allows growing companies to close their books even faster with their accounting software of choice. 

Float users can create cards for all of their company spending and automatically code transactions with GL codes and vendors, as well as export them to NetSuite with embedded receipts. 

How it works 

✅ Import accounts, vendors and tax rates, classifications, departments, and locations into Float from NetSuite

✅ Code transactions with GL codes, vendors, classifications, departments, locations and tax rates 

✅ Export coded transactions into NetSuite as journal entries with the relevant accounting data

Our features 

Float allows you to close your books in NetSuite faster and automate tedious manual accounting tasks. We do this by enabling you to: 

👩🏽‍💻 Create Merchant Rules that automatically applies GL codes to certain vendor transactions 

💳 Use Submission Policies to assign GL codes to cards they are created 

💰Bulk update hundreds of transactions for purchases that have similar accounting settings 

🧾 Automatically remind employees to submit receipts and assign their own GL codes to transactions 

Watch our team export a transaction from Float to Netsuite in the video below to see our new integration in action.

Using the above features makes for easy month end reconciliations because you can simply have every transaction made on a Float card be automatically coded and matched with receipts for easy export to your NetSuite.

If you are not yet a Float customer, learn more by booking a demo with our friendly sales team.

How Forma.ai Found True Financial Autonomy With Float

Posted on by Amrita Gurney

Forma.ai, the world’s first end-to-end sales performance management (SPM) platform, is growing and they’re growing fast. Andy O’Reilly, Forma.ai’s Senior Manager of Finance & Technology, swiftly recognized after joining the company in 2021 that a quick and efficient spend management solution was necessary. With the company’s headcount increasing 4x in a little over a year, Float was the obvious solution to help manage spending and track expenses. Read how Float has enabled Andy and the entire Forma.ai team to reach their goals and maintain their rapid growth without the distractions of over-complex and manual spend management processes.

Q1: How long have you been using Float? What about Float made you choose us?

I joined Forma.ai in March 2021 and coincidentally, in April 2021, one month after I joined, Float reached out to us and we’ve been working together ever since. Given the nature of my job, I see a lot of demos – but Float’s was one of the best I’ve seen. I felt immediate confidence in the platform and in their level of service and attention. I also quickly saw that Float was able to offer our teams the financial autonomy and agility we were searching for, while maintaining full control of budgetary spend. At the time of onboarding, I was a team of one and we were a company of 50 employees.  Checking expenses against receipts was a huge bottleneck for everyone. We’re over 150 employees now and without Float we would have had an A/P nightmare.

Float has created an independent workflow where everything is automated, integrated, and digitally captured – allowing us to focus all our attention on taking Forma.ai to the next level of our growth.

Q2: What did company spending and expense management look like before Float?

Before Float, spend and expense management was tedious and time-consuming. We did not have an efficient system in place or a way to track expenses. We had one credit card and often had to facilitate wire transfers, which cost us money every time! 

Working with Float, we’ve been able to save so much money and become more streamlined at the same time. AND we get back what we spend on our Float cards with their cashback feature – it’s a win-win! 

Float also gives me the power to manage and oversee everything without having to be directly involved. Our senior leadership team can now control their own spending and expenses without constantly seeking approval to use their corporate cards. It not only makes my life easier but for our whole team too!

We recently raised $45 million in our Series B funding round, which is a big milestone for the company. Given our tremendous growth in the last year, I don’t think it would have been possible to get to where we are today without Float.

Q3: What were the biggest pain points that Float solved for your business? 

Before using Float, we had a single corporate card that a lot of people needed to access. We have a large sales team distributed across Canada and the United States – just imagine the receipt tracking that came with that!

I really value how much Float has streamlined our bookkeeping. It integrates so well with our accounting software and the process of balancing our books is no longer manual. 

Float also sends every employee a notification after a transaction has been completed, reminding them to take a picture of their receipt and upload it. It’s now so much easier to get a handle on our receipt paper trail because it’s all stored in the cloud.

Q4: What is the best part of working with Float?

Float’s ability to integrate has been a game-changer for us at Forma.ai. The automation gives us back so much time we otherwise wouldn’t have had. It has also created a smooth expense approval workflow, with no hold-ups or delays in reimbursement. 

With Float, we can easily set financial or time limits on cards and having this control gives everyone clear guidelines and expectations when it comes to company spending. 

Since implementing Float at Forma.ai, I’ve recommended the product to several colleagues in the industry. The Float team is always available and attentive, supporting us with whatever we need. The direct chat has allowed for seamless communication and no mixed messages. 

Aside from the people, the Float platform is critical for us now. Float’s virtual cards continue to give our team the flexibility and autonomy they need and deserve – we have a total of 60 currently active. If one of our team members leaves, we can immediately stop their card without having to worry about cancelling any of their subscriptions or memberships.

About Forma.ai

Forma.ai is the only sales compensation platform that allows organizations to flexibly manage what are currently brittle and easily broken sales compensation management processes. Their unique platform enables organizations to design, execute, and optimize their sales compensation strategy with a scientific approach driven by a collective data model. Forma.ai transforms one of the largest cost centers in an organization into its most powerful lever for top-line revenue growth. Founded in Toronto in 2016, the company is backed by ACME Capital, Crosslink Capital, xFund, Panache Ventures, Golden Ventures, Uncork Capital and Gaingels. Forma.ai is trusted by a growing list of innovative global enterprises with clients including Autodesk, TrustPilot, OpenTable, CareerBuilder, and more.