Author: Amy Fisher

New! Transaction splits 

Posted on by Amy Fisher

Over the past few months we have been getting great feedback from our customers on how to make closing the books even faster for their teams. 

That’s why we’re excited to launch our new Transaction splits feature, which allows admins to split a transaction into multiple GL codes, tags, departments, or cost centres. With Transaction splits, each individual line item is properly allocated to the right accounting code, eliminating the need for manual data entry in your accounting software. 

How it works

Select a transaction in Float that needs to be split into individual line items. Click “split transaction” and enter the amounts from the receipt that you would like to enter as their own line items, and assign the appropriate GL code, description, or tag. 

Once you click save, your transaction will automatically split into multiple line items, ready for you to export to your accounting software as separate journal entries. You can always edit the transaction you split in case you need to make changes later.

When to use it

💻 Software invoices by department or cost centre

Some teams share software subscriptions, and it’s only fair to split the cost accordingly amongst departmental budgets. For example, project management tools like Asana can be used by marketing and product teams, and with Transaction splits, you can divide up the cost by each department. 

🛠️ Retail receipts by project number or client

For customers making purchases for multiple clients or projects, transactions can be split by tags to reflect client or project numbers. For example, a receipt from Home Depot can be split out with material costs going to different project tags.

💡 Equipment purchase by hardware and shipping

Customers with research and development costs or equipment purchases may want to split transactions by hardware, shipping, and duties. For example, a hardware purchase for an R&D team may be split out GL codes for hardware and shipping or duties.

—

Float’s new Transaction splits feature is a game-changer for businesses looking to streamline their spend management and accounting processes. With its ability to split transactions into multiple line items, assign accounting codes, and provide valuable insights into spending patterns, finance admins can say goodbye to the days of tedious manual data entry and complicated expense tracking.

Available to admins and bookkeepers on Float’s Professional plan, log in today to start using Transaction splits, or book a demo with our team to learn more!

Float’s 2022 Product Roundup

Posted on by Amy Fisher

At Float, 2022 was a whirlwind year with lots of exciting product launches built to simplify our customers’ business spending. Going into 2023, we’re more determined than ever to make financial management even easier for companies and teams across Canada. 

Without further ado, check out how we simplified financial management for our customers in 2022 below (and read on for a sneak peek of what lies ahead). 

Giving you easy access to USD Cards

Since Float’s inception, USD cards have been the number 1 product requested by our customers. Many were frustrated by the offerings (or lack thereof) from Canada’s Big Banks, as most require a US legal entity, and none offer the advanced spend management tools that Float has become known for.

We are just at the beginning of what’s to come with Float’s USD Cards, and in 2023 we’re going to continue to build out this product (with some exciting announcements coming in Q1).

Helping you ensure company spending is within your guidelines

Having oversight and control over company spending is essential, especially as rumblings of a recession grow louder. That’s why we released Expense Policies in Float, so you can ensure purchases made on Float Cards meet your guidelines.

We also made it even easier for company Spenders to submit their expense information as soon as a purchase is made with custom expense URLs to upload receipts, tag GL codes, and enter descriptions. This year we’re focused on continuing to give finance teams greater control over company spending with Merchant Controls (and more).

Offering payment terms for your stage of growth

Big banks don’t make it easy for businesses to access corporate cards – oftentimes they’ll ask for personal guarantees or collateral, in addition to charging high annual card fees. Float’s pre-funded cards give Canadian companies easy access to corporate cards plus advanced spend management software. 

But as our customers grow, their need for extending their cash runway increases. So in 2022 we introduced Float’s new Charge Card product, offering qualifying customers 30-day unsecured credit terms with high limits and easy early repayment methods. (Interested? If you’re already a Float customer, you can apply in-app. New customers can apply online here.)

Growing with your finance team’s tech stack

Float’s direct accounting integrations with QBO and Xero allow customers to map their Chart of Accounts to Float so that transactions are easily coded (and embedded with receipts) for export at month-end. 

With many of our customers outgrowing these accounting platforms and moving to an ERP, Float launched its Netsuite integration to ensure your spend management processes grow with you.

And so much more

Sometimes it’s hard to quantify just how much work has been done in such a short amount of time. Luckily, we keep track of all our app updates, and in 2022 alone there were a whopping 5,982 of them! Here are some highlights:

What’s ahead for 2023?

Businesses across Canada are facing a challenging environment in the months ahead. We’re all looking for ways to do more with less and find ways to save – whether that’s through cost savings or efficiencies in our administrative processes. 

That’s why in 2023 we’re focused on:

  • Helping you find savings in your company spending
  • Automating month-end as much as humanly possible 
  • Simplifying the payment process for your company expenses

Above all, we’re dedicated to supporting our customers over the next 12 months as we navigate uncertain economic headwinds.

How Float Simplifies Financial Audits

Posted on by Amy Fisher

The word “audit” can set many of us in a tailspin. It’s a heavy lift and can take up to weeks to complete and sift through financial records – especially if you don’t have the right tools in place. However, internal and external audits are a customary part of business operations and help to assess and verify the accuracy of your financial records – which means they’re here to stay.

Thankfully, Float has a solution that helps your auditing process run smoother than butter. 🧈 Our smart spend software and corporate cards give finance teams automated spend controls and quick access to audit trails for company spending. With better control and greater access to your financial records, audits are no longer something to dread. 👍🏼 Here’s why.

Get accurate information with real-time reporting 🕑

Audits are great for looking at historical snapshots of company spending, but wouldn’t it be great if you knew everything in real time? Float enables a real time overview of company spending so finance teams can ensure the books are always up to date with the right information. If your team is using Float cards for business purchases, then you’ll always know who is spending what as soon as a purchase is made. Float’s automatic SMS and Inbox receipt forwarding ensure that spenders submit their receipts on time, while automated receipt matching eliminates the need for manual expense reports and reconciliations. With Float there’s no waiting on employees to submit expense reports or tracking down receipts in the middle of an audit! 🧾

Set automated controls so everything runs smoothly 😌

Approval Policies ✅
Float allows finance managers to put financial controls in place to give teams the freedom to spend, while still having oversight and control on their end. This unique feature also offers proactive approvals for spend rather than reactive approvals. When you set up “Teams” in Float, you can ensure that approval requests are automatically sent to the right people every time an employee requests a corporate card or a spend increase. You can even set up multiple approval layers based on spend amounts and types.

Submission Policies 📩
Float also allows you to implement your company’s expense policies through our Submission Policies feature. Finance managers can set up submission policies for different expense categories and require employees to submit receipts and transaction details for purchases over a specific dollar amount or for all transactions. Float can also autopause cards for non-compliant transactions.

Seamlessly integrate with your existing accounting software👨‍💻

Float integrates directly into accounting software like QBO, Xero, and Netsuite to export transactions that are already coded and embedded with receipts for you. We also take the stress away through our Transaction Rules, which are designed to automatically code transactions from recurring merchants. So when an auditor is reviewing your books, you can rest easy knowing that all your transactions made on Float cards will have been exported with the correct GL codes, tax codes, and receipts too. ☑️

Stay organized and in-the-know with Audit Logs 🔎

Float offers Audit Logs for cards created on our platform and for spend requests and approvals too! 🤩 This allows finance teams to quickly access audit trails for specific time periods, ensuring their spend approval and card creation controls are being adhered to. The best part: Float provides a quick and easy way to submit documentation when it comes time for an audit. 💨 No loose paperwork or piles of receipts to gather. Our Audit Logs feature enables admins to export a history of creation, changes, pauses, expiration, and deletion for all their Float cards to date. You can also review a history of the creations, approvals, and declines of spend requests from your employees too.

—

Every finance team needs a set of controls in place to ensure business spending meets company policies – and that their financial records are as accurate as can be.👌🏼 Float’s smart spend software and corporate cards empower finance teams to easily automate their financial controls and have clear oversight of their corporate spending all year long. Finance teams can also use our real-time reporting tools and conveniently review records of audit trails for Float cards and spend requests so they’re fully prepared for an audit.

Ready to get started with Float? Book a demo or connect with us today and we’d be happy to show you all of the incredible features we have for you.

How Float makes expense reports a thing of the past

Posted on by Amy Fisher

Every business in any industry knows the struggle of creating and managing expense reports – whether it’s for travel, marketing, or even simple daily business purchases. This dreaded process is far too tedious and difficult to keep track of, especially if your team is rapidly growing.

At Float, we consider this the old way of doing things. It goes a little something like this. ⬇️

💳 An employee makes a purchase
👨‍💻 Employee fills out an excel spreadsheet
🧾 Employee scans and emails their receipts (if they still have them)
⏳ Employee waits to be reimbursed

But now, we’re introducing a new way: The Float way 🤩

With Float, you can wave goodbye to submitting expense reports altogether. Our software makes it quick and easy for employees to record transaction details of business purchases in real time. We’ve eliminated all the paperwork, long waits for reimbursements, and the back and forth required between employees and the finance team. You’re welcome in advance! 🎉

Along with our software, Float’s smart corporate cards give employees the option to submit their receipts easily and effortlessly! 👍🏼 No spreadsheets to manage and no reports to file! 

Every time an employee makes a purchase on their Float card, they’ll be automatically prompted to submit a receipt – that’s it! 💪🏼 There’s no need to log into Float or download another app. Once your receipt is submitted, we’ll automatically match it to the transaction on your card and voila! 🤌🏼

Float allows spenders to submit their receipts in three simple ways:

1. Upload receipt via Float’s quick link 📤

After making a purchase on a Float card, we’ll text or email spenders a custom quick link to upload their receipt. From this link, they may also be asked to provide purchase details like expense categories and a description – depending on the company’s specific expense policies.

2. Text a photo of the receipt 🤳

Spenders can simply respond to Float’s SMS transaction confirmation with a photo of their receipt! To set this up, they must add their mobile number to their Float profile on the “Settings” page. Notifications must also have been enabled for the company by an admin.  

3. Forward your email receipt 📨

All receipts delivered to the spender’s inbox can be forwarded directly to Float by using a personalized receipt forwarding address. Companies can also set up Float’s auto-forwarding feature to automatically send receipts from subscriptions or advertising platforms that get delivered via email. Check out this Float article for instructions on how to find your personalized receipt forwarding address and set up the auto-forwarding function.

Float matches receipts to transactions so you don’t have to 🧾

Once your receipt is submitted, we’ll automatically match it to the transaction for you. There’s no need to log into Float or for the Finance team to manually reconcile hundreds of transactions at month-end.

While we always recommend sending in your receipt as soon as a transaction is made, Float is able to automatically match receipts to transactions even if they’re submitted weeks after a purchase is made. Spenders and managers can also log into Float at their own convenience to view their Receipts Inbox and match receipts to transactions manually. And, if there happens to be a receipt that we can’t match to a transaction, you can easily view them in the “Not Matched” tab. 

It’s time to wave goodbye to expense reports and submit your receipts effortlessly with Float. 👋🏼 

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.

A better way to manage your company subscriptions with Float

Posted on by Amy Fisher

As teams adopt more and more software tools, you can imagine how often auto-renewal payments get mixed in with other charges on your corporate cards and go unnoticed.

A recent study found that most companies spend approximately $10,000 per employee per year on software subscriptions. 😯 With this amount of money being paid out to vendors on an annual basis, there’s a huge risk of missing questionable charges, hidden fees, or price increases. 

Pro tip: Looking at a list of your subscriptions is one of the best places to find cost savings! 💲

As a best practice, we recommend reviewing big ticket vendors and purchases regularly. Start by doing the following:

👍🏼 Ensure tools and platforms are being used

👀 Look for ways to control costs

💵 Set a budget and stick with it

Let’s go over how to review your current subscriptions to help you achieve greater accountability, transparency, and autonomy over company spending. 

Step 1: Make a list of your subscriptions ✏️

  • Make a list of all of your subscriptions and update it throughout the year
  • Be sure to include the name of the tool, the cost, plan type, and payment frequency

Step 2: Assign an owner 👨🏾‍💻

  • Distribute your list to your Department Leads or Managers
  • Have them assign an owner to each tool
  • This person will be responsible for managing users, monitoring payments, etc

Step 3: Audit your current subscriptions ❌

  • Identify which tools are still in use and/or determine if there are cheaper options available
  • Cancel any subscriptions that are not adding value to your business

Step 4: Set up a virtual card by vendor 💳

  • To make subscription payments easier, Float allows you to set up an unlimited number of virtual cards for your vendors, which allows you to:
    • Assign daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly card limits
    • Instantly pause or cancel cards
    • Request and approve card top-ups
    • Automatically capture receipts and match to transactions
    • Track spending in real time

Step 5: Successfully manage your subscription spending 🤑

  • Take the list you created in Step 1 and easily move spending over to Float by assigning the person you identified in Step 2 as the cardowner
  • Your finance team can monitor spending by looking at individual card transactions, or filtering by vendor on the Transactions page

Subscribe to Float’s management method 👀

There’s no doubt that we all love subscriptions – shoutout to Netflix! 🍿 When it comes to your business, they serve as a convenient way to pay for some pretty cool tools that support your day-to-day operations. But we also recognize that it can become overwhelming to manage these expenses at times. Luckily, Float’s virtual corporate cards can help. By assigning a virtual card per vendor, you’ll be able to stay on top of your monthly purchases and save money along the way. 🤩

To learn more about our smart spend software and how we can help you improve the way you manage your company’s subscriptions, book a demo with us today! Our team is happy to walk you through all of our incredible features.

A Guide to Setting Up Teams and Multi-level Approvals

Posted on by Amy Fisher

Ready to scale your business and ditch the growing pains? Axe your overly complex approval processes and make company spending easier with Float’s Team Management feature.

We saw the need for an efficient feature that helped startups and SMEs decentralize the expense management process, distribute responsibility across teams and give employees greater autonomy to spend. At the same time, we also know how critical it is for finance teams to maintain oversight or control over corporate spending. So, we created Team Management to tackle it all! 👊🏼

Team Management — a feature available through our Professional Plan — enables users to set up “teams” within the platform that are structured to align with their approval policies. It helps you formalize your spend approval structure and fully automates the approval process by team, spend type and amount. You can easily set up teams in Float based on departments such as Marketing, Sales and IT, or by geographic location. For instance, this is helpful if you have a Toronto-based office and a Vancouver-based office, or multiple office addresses in one city.

How to set up teams within Float 👩🏽‍💻
1. Start by determining how you want to track and approve expenses based on your approval policies. For example, if every department manager is responsible for approving employee expenses, create your teams based on department.
2. Identify who in your organization will be assigned as a “Manager” in Float. Add them as a user and assign them the “Manager” role.
3. Continue to add other team members as “Spenders.”
4. Create a team whose expenses are routed directly to the assigned “Manager.”

Create a Team in Float

Each team can have a number of managers or members attached to it. Managers also have full visibility into the spending of the team and can participate in the approval process too. On the other hand, spenders only see their own transactions but always follow the approval process that is assigned to their team.

Add users to Float

Creating your own multi-level approval structure 💸
Once your team is added into Float, you can create a designated approval policy that’s specific to a team or your company as a whole.

Create your approval policy

Using our platform, you can set up approval policies to mimic your company’s existing expense policies and set automated approval flows by spend amount or spend type. You can also create multiple levels of approval for higher spend amounts, one-time purchase or recurring expenses. For example, you can permit a Marketing Manager to approve all expenses under $2,000 and for anything over that amount, you can create a second level of approval that goes through the Finance department. ✅

This feature gives managers more visibility over team spending with the power to set predefined budgets, distribute corporate cards and approve spend requests in seconds! Employees can also log into Float and easily submit spend requests from managers, who can be notified via Slack, email or text. Once approved, virtual cards can be instantly set up and employees can request top-ups if needed. 💳

It’s a win-win for everyone 🤩
Float allows for faster, smarter and more efficient spending all around! 🙏🏽 The ability to set up teams and multi-level approvals provides long-term value for the entire company:

Greater accuracy and control 👍🏼
Managers have a better view of where money is going, how it’s being spent and who is spending it, while the finance team still has control over corporate spending.

Adds speed and efficiency 🚀
A seamless spend approval process means easier and quicker expense management and happier employees who can make transactions in a flash.

Promotes a decentralized structure 💳
Managers gain greater authority to track and oversee team spending, while employees have the flexibility to make business purchases on demand without a lengthy chain of approvals.

Ready to give Float a try? Get started with us today!

How It Works: Float’s QBO Integration

Posted on by Amy Fisher

Is month-end craziness bogging you down? Float offers a powerful two-way integration with QBO to make spend management a breeze!

Our QBO integration feature packs a punch, offering a range of benefits to make managing your finances easy as 🥧. You can look forward to 

✍🏽Improved transaction categorization 

✅ Better receipt management 

⏱ Time saved with less manual data entry

We designed this feature to sync seamlessly into your daily workflow. Our goal was to optimize the month-end process for your finance team so they could finally say goodbye to low-value tasks and guesswork. Our QBO integration feature makes it so that you no longer have to re-add and retype data with the reassurance of greater accuracy in your books – not just at month-end but on a daily basis! 🚀 

With Float’s QBO integration, you manage all card-linked transactions in Float, and then directly export into Quickbooks, with transactions automatically coded and reconciled for you. Once you try it, you’ll wonder how you lived without it!

See it for yourself in this quick product tour.

Currently using Quickbooks to manage your corporate finances? Here’s how Float levels up  your experience and your books:

3 ways to automate spend management using our QBO feature 🙌🏻

👩🏽‍💻  Auto-apply category transaction settings and pre-code cards by GL, Vendor, Tax or Tag

✅  Set up merchant-based rules to enable auto-categorization by merchant or vendor 

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

QBO manages your receipts better – with tax included 🧾

Float allows every employee to submit receipts via email, text or direct upload into the platform. Once a receipt enters the system, Float uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to pull the tax and tip off a receipt for easy and simple tracking. We know that some Canadian provinces have unique tax rules, and so we created this feature to accommodate multi-part tax codes and auto-recognize them every time a receipt is exported. 👍🏼

We know that so many SMEs and startups are using Quickbooks. That’s why our main goal is to easily integrate into every part of your work day so that managing your finances is a responsibility that’s easy, shared and simple to track. 

To learn more about Float’s QBO integration feature, book a demo with us today!