We’re feeling a little sentimental today thinking about all of our incredible customers across Canada that have trusted Float with their business spend.

Our team started Float with one thing in mind – to simplify business spending for Canadian companies and teams. From our fast (and friendly) support team to smart software that automates even the most complex Canadian tax codes, we know what unique challenges Canadian businesses are facing – and we’re committed to tackling them.

Let’s delve into what sets Float apart and why it’s the ideal choice for Canadian finance teams.

Friendly. Fast. Canadian. 

At Float, we know that quick and effective support is crucial for the success of Canadian businesses, especially when it comes to money movements. That’s why our dedicated Support and Success teams are based in Canada, allowing them to understand and address the unique challenges faced by Canadian businesses. 

While officially located in Toronto, ON, the Float team spans coast to coast with members from St. John’s, NL to Victoria, BC. Our team is known for our willingness to go the extra mile and understanding the intricacies of Canadian finance. And unlike the big banks, our response times are fast and satisfaction scores high – just ask any Float customer.

We know our PSTs from our GSTs

Float’s business spend software has been built from the ground-up with Canadian business needs in mind. Not only do we work closely with trusted Canadian banking partners, we also have a deep understanding of the complexities of Canada’s banking infrastructure. 

That means our features are tailored to simplify Canadian team spending, from complicated multi-part provincial tax codes to access to hassle-free USD cards. 

Float’s cutting-edge OCR technology enables your company’s cardholders to effortlessly scan and upload receipts as soon as a purchase is made. Even better? Float’s intelligent software accurately reads tax and tip information and parses the data back to Float. With accounting automations, you can automate tax codes and parse tax amounts directly to your accounting software according to the specific provincial tax regulations. This ensures compliance with local tax regulations, and more importantly, that your company isn’t leaving any GST refunds on the table. 

A lot of Canadian businesses are also holding USD funds but aren’t able to spend them. Big banks make it difficult to get access to USD Cards without having a US entity, and you often need a US address to make purchases.

With Float you can easily spend in the currency you get paid, with quick access to corporate cards in USD paired with business spend software tailored to Canadian businesses.

We Get Canadian Business Needs

Canada’s financial landscape is unique, and before Float, a lot of content, events, and training were focused south of the border. 

That’s why Float goes beyond offering a software solution, by providing resources and building a community designed specifically for Canadian finance teams.

With Float’s Retained Learnings Podcast, you can learn from Canada’s most interesting and innovative finance leaders. Or our Retained Learnings Magazine where we cover unique topics from the ultimate financial tech stacks for Canadian finance teams, to how to build a finance team from scratch in the Canadian landscape. 

If you sign up for Float (or request a demo), you’ll also get invited to exclusive dinners, events, and seminars so you can connect with other leaders in the field. 

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Float offers a truly Canadian approach to business spend management with tailored product features, local support teams, and a community of connected finance leaders. Interested in learning more? Reach out to our team – we’re here to help Canadian companies simplify their spend!

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.

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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.

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. 👋🏼 

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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!