Save 7% on your Spend with Float

We asked over 200 customers across Canada how Float helps them save time and money. With responses from businesses of all sizes and industries, the results were clear. 

Float offers savings far beyond the traditional rewards offered by banks like cashback (but we have that, too). From increasing team productivity to creating efficiencies by eliminating unwanted spend, Float saves companies an average of 7% of their total spend and closes books up to 8x faster.

How Float Calculates Savings

Total savings are calculated combining three areas: 

1. Financial Rewards 💳

Float offers financial rewards (and services) beyond the banks. 

  • High Yield Accounts
    • Float offers 4% interest on both CAD and USD business balances with rates up to 2.7x the Canadian banks. Learn More →
  • 1% Cashback
    • Businesses earn 1% cashback on CAD and USD spend over $25k/month. Learn More →
  • USD Cards
    • Float offers USD cards so you can avoid FX fees altogether, or get a low 1.5% FX rate on foreign transactions. Learn More →

2. Productivity Gains ⌚

Float saves companies valuable time by eliminating administrative tasks so your teams can focus on what matters most. 

  • Finance team members – 8 hrs/month
    • From streamlining spend requests to automating coding and receipt collection, Float can improve your month-end close by 1 full business day.  Learn More →
  • Employees – 2hrs/month
    • By eliminating traditional expense report processes, Float saves employees 3 days a year worth of administrative work.  Learn More →

3. Efficiency Improvements 💸

Float helps finance teams eliminate unwanted spend and unnecessary expense software costs. 

  • Save 1.3% on unwanted spend
    • Through custom card limits and controls and real-time transaction reporting, finance teams save 1.3% of their total card spend with Float. Learn More →
  • Reduce software costs
    • Float’s all-in-one software eliminates the need for expensive expense report software with both cards and reimbursements in one platform. Learn More →

Calculate your ROI

Float saves customers an average of 7% on their spend and closes their books up to 8x faster – see your company’s potential ROI using Float’s Savings Calculator. Your business’ results may vary, but we feel pretty good about it. 

Interested in learning more on how much your business could be saving with Float? Get a personalized ROI analysis with a member of our team and see how Float can help you save today.

Methodology

Our calculations are based on real customer-reported savings from over 200 businesses of all types and sizes across Canada.

The survey was run from November 1-30 and included responses from companies with average employee sizes ranging from 15-200. Respondents were primarily C-suite executives, Heads of Finance, Controllers, and Accountants.

Participants were asked a series of questions relating to their time savings with Float in two primary areas: time savings for team members and cost reductions resulting from Float’s software.

Responses were paired with Float’s platform data and industry research to create an ROI calculation representative as a percentage of an illustrative customer’s total card spending when using spend management features designed to reduce business expenses. We also take into account what you have to give up by joining Float, including existing rewards programs and the monthly subscription cost, if you select the Professional and Enterprise plan.

A Better Way to Manage your Company Subscriptions with Float

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 ✏️

  • Create a spreadsheet listing all of your subscriptions, and be sure to include the team owner, cost, plan type and payment frequency and update it throughout the year

Step 2: Set up a virtual Float Card by vendor 💳

  • To make subscription payments easier, Float allows you to set up an unlimited number of virtual corporate 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 3: Automate your subscription spend monitoring 🤑

  • Using Float’s Savings Insights to get monthly suggestions on how to save money on your company’s software spending and notifications of any unexpected billing increases, or double charges.
  • Monitor spending using our Reporting feature, to track spend trends over time and spot anomalies as they happen

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.

PCI-DSS: From Compliance to Certification

At Float, we’re committed to protecting the personal and financial data of our customers. Following our recent SOC 2 Type 2 Certification, we are proud to announce that Float is officially PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) certified.

Being PCI-DSS certified means that Float abides by the highest standard of security in the storage, processing, and transmission of cardholder data. While we’ve always been PCI-DSS compliant, our new PCI-DSS certification gives customers an extra layer of validation for the fact that Float protects sensitive data at every level — from employee onboarding to payment processing. 

We worked with a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), an approved external auditor, to confirm that we comply with the requirements under PCI-DSS and receive our PCI-DSS SAQ D Report & Attestation of Compliance (AOC). 

Float is one of the few Canadian financial technology companies with both certifications, demonstrating our team’s commitment to security at every step of the way (and just another reason to choose Float).

What is PCI-DSS?

For as long as there have been virtual payment systems, there’s been the risk of fraud and data breaches. PCI-DSS was established in 2006 to serve as an international baseline of data security for companies that accept or process payment cards. 

PCI-DSS is the highest level of security standard available to providers like Float. As one of the first Canadian financial technology companies to become PCI DSS certified, Float is leading the charge toward global-standard data security in the corporate cards and spend management space. 

Why PCI-DSS certification matters

Enhanced data security: Our PCI-DSS certification signifies that we have implemented robust security measures to protect payment card information and sensitive authentication data.

Increased trust: Our customers can have more confidence in the security of their transactions, knowing that their financial and personal information is handled with utmost care, per industry best practices.

Industry recognition: Achieving PCI-DSS certification places Float among a select group of organizations around the globe that are recognized for their commitment to data security and compliance.

Leading the way for holistic security

Float is now one of the few financial technology organizations in Canada with both SOC 2 and PCI-DSS certifications, demonstrating our commitment to providing a secure and reliable platform for the businesses we serve. But Float’s commitment to security goes beyond certifications and compliance—we’re working to ensure holistic security when it comes to company spending. 

Over the past few months, Float has released new features to ensure Canadian finance teams have ultimate visibility and proactive control over how, when, and why money is spent across the company:

  • MFA and SAML SSO
    • Float offers both Multi-Factor Authentication and SAML Single Sign-on for customers to ensure only authorized users have access to Float accounts
  • Float Cards 2.0
    • Issue cards to employees worry-free with new $0 card balances and the ability to create or approve Recurring and Temporary limits
  • Merchant Controls
    • Proactively manage spending by limiting card transactions to specific merchant categories
  • Reporting
    • Get real-time visibility into company spending with Float’s Reporting feature that allows teams to spot anomalies before it’s too late

Security is an ongoing focus at Float. Stay tuned to see how we’re ensuring that businesses across Canada can confidently rely on Float for their corporate card spend.

Not yet a Float customer? Book a demo with our team here and we can show you how Float can help you control your company’s spending more simply and securely. 

3 Ways to Simplify Corporate Spend with Mobile Wallets

Most Canadians have become accustomed to the simplicity of mobile wallets for their consumer spending – but why hasn’t corporate finance caught up? 

It’s likely because Canada’s big banks promote a more traditional way of doing business, where only a limited few hold business credit cards (and share them) due to the risk associated with credit limits and the lack of visibility into spending. 

Thankfully, Float is now paving the way for Canadian finance teams to modernize their spending with smart corporate cards backed by intelligent software that allows companies to issue corporate cards to all team members, worry-free, with real-time visibility and control over company-wide spend.

By adding Float Cards to popular mobile wallet platforms like Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, you can experience the convenience of modern business spending, while enjoying full visibility, automation, and control for administrators, and a headache-free experience for your company’s cardholders.

Wondering how businesses like yours are using mobile wallets for their corporate card spending? Here’s how:

3 Ways Canadian Businesses Simplify Corporate Spend with Mobile Wallets

1. Avoid Shipping Delays

With Float, finance teams can create virtual cards for their team members that can then be easily added to mobile wallets. That means no waiting for physical cards to arrive by mail if an employee needs a card to make company purchases fast. 

2. Simplify Employee Onboarding

New employees can be assigned a virtual card while they wait for their physical card to arrive and seamlessly add them to their mobile wallets. Float Cards come with the added benefit of custom Temporary limits, perfect for one-time onboarding expenses with limits (and cards) that expire.

3. Tap-and-Pay

Making purchases while on business trips or on-the-go is now easier than ever before. Cardholders can simply add physical and virtual Float Cards (in CAD or USD) to their mobile wallet, while reducing card clutter and ensuring all their Float Cards are in one place. The convenience of tap-and-pay allows company spenders to quickly make company purchases without any hassle, with the added benefit of card controls that ensure transactions are within your spend guidelines.

💡Pro Tip for Easy Integration

To ensure a smooth experience when adding Float Cards to your mobile wallet, simply take a picture of your Float Card or the Card Details page. This simple step can save you time and eliminate any potential input errors, making the integration process even more straightforward.

From enabling controlled team spending to streamlining employee onboarding, and providing a seamless spending experience for users, mobile wallets can revolutionize the way businesses manage their expenses. With Float Cards in your mobile wallet, you’ll have the tools you need to simplify spending and take control of your company’s financials, all at your fingertips.

Start adding Float Cards to your mobile wallets today. Not Float customer (yet)? Book a demo with our team here and we can show you how Float can help simplify (and control) your company’s spend with smart corporate cards, business spend software – and mobile wallets!

Control Employee Expenses with Float’s Latest Features

At Float, we understand the unique challenges that Canadian businesses face when it comes to managing their finances. That’s why we’re dedicated to providing innovative solutions that simplify spending and empower finance teams across the country.

Today, our team is excited to announce the launch of several new features that will give your business even more control over team spending (and savings).

Dynamic Approvers: Streamline Approval Processes

Finance teams can easily implement their expense guidelines directly in Float with automated policies and card controls. With Float’s new Dynamic Approver functionality, customers can now streamline their organization’s approval processes even more.

With this new feature, setting up your company’s organizational structure in Float has never been easier – you can now assign direct managers to team members, allowing for dynamic roles in Approval and Transaction Review policies. This means that spend requests can be automatically routed based on your company’s reporting hierarchy, in addition to individual team members. 

HRIS Integration: Keeping Employee Float Accounts Up-to-Date

We recognize the importance of keeping employee information accurate and up-to-date.

With Float’s new HRIS integration, available to Professional customers, you can effortlessly ensure that employee Float accounts reflect the latest changes in your HR system. By seamlessly syncing with popular HR systems like BambooHR, this integration saves you time, reduces administrative tasks, and maintains data integrity.

Now, you can focus on strategic financial decisions, knowing that your employee information is always current.

Transaction Reviews: Enhancing Control Over Team Spending

With the ability to issue zero-dollar card balances, top-up funds only when required, and restrict spending to specific merchant categories, Float lets finance teams enable team spending while retaining full financial control.

For companies that need an added layer of control, Admins can now set up Transaction Review Policies so that Managers can confirm that their team’s transactions were permitted under your company’s expense guidelines. This feature reinforces Float’s commitment to providing comprehensive spending management solutions for businesses of all sizes.

Built in Canada with ❤️

As a Canadian business, you deserve a financial partner that understands your unique needs. Float is committed to supporting your success by simplifying spending and providing you with the tools you need to navigate Canada’s financial landscape. 

That’s why we’re excited to reward our existing customers with locked-in Pro pricing of new Enterprise features like Transaction Reviews and our HRIS Integration – as our way of saying thanks for helping our team build the future of financial services in Canada.

Whether you’re currently on Pro or sign up for Pro in 2023, you’ll gain access to select new Enterprise features launched this year and enjoy continued access to Float’s $99 a month Pro pricing.

Take advantage of our Built in Canada offer and sign up for the Professional plan to gain access to these new Enterprise features. Sign in to Float or book a demo today with our dedicated and local team to experience the future of financial management.

What Makes Float Uniquely Canadian

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. 

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!

New! Transaction splits 

November 2023 Update: Managers and Spenders can now split transactions!

May 2023 Update: You can now split tax codes and amount directly in Float.

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, tax codes, 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, tax 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 all Float customers, log in today to start using Transaction splits, or book a demo with our team to learn more!

Introducing Merchant Controls

Our team is excited to release Merchant Controls, the latest feature in Float’s lineup of intelligent card controls designed to help finance teams save on company spending. Merchant Controls give the ability to restrict transactions on Float cards to approved merchant categories, ensuring that funds are being used for the intended purposes only.

What are merchant categories?

Merchant categories are a way of categorizing businesses according to the type of goods or services they provide. They are typically used by credit card companies to track and categorize the types of purchases made on credit cards and to determine how to classify those transactions for rewards programs and spending reports. Some common merchant categories include:

  • Alcohol and bars
  • Airlines
  • Gas and charging
  • Restaurants
  • Lodging

What are Float’s Merchant Controls?

With Merchant Controls, finance teams can limit card transactions to specific merchant categories, such as advertising, airlines, or gas. This ensures that employees’ corporate card purchases align with the company’s spending policies and reduces the risk of fraudulent or unauthorized spending.

Merchant Controls are easy to set up and can be customized for each Float Card. When creating a new Float Card, finance admins can simply add the merchant categories to include or exclude from the card’s transactions. For existing cards, click “Edit Card” to add or edit merchant categories. 

If a Spender attempts to make a purchase from an unapproved merchant category, Float will decline the transaction and inform the cardholder. 

Learn more about setting up Merchant Controls in our video below, or check out our Help Centre’s step-by-step guide here

At Float, we understand the importance of managing corporate spending and the challenges that finance teams face in keeping track of expenses. That’s why we developed Merchant Controls to give finance teams the control they need to manage and monitor spending effectively directly with Float Cards.

If you’re interested in learning more about Float’s Merchant Controls, or any of our other features, get in touch today or book a demo. We’re here to help you simplify your company and team’s spending.

Float’s 2022 Product Roundup

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.