Category: Product Education

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. 

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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 has been built from the ground-up with financial control at the centre of everything we do.  Float’s real-time spend management control lets you see financial transactions as they happen, and allows finance teams to: 

• Issue physical or virtual cards by employee or vendor with spend limits and the ability to pause or cancel cards at any time
• Apply card controls like Merchant Controls to limit transactions to specific merchant categories
• Route and audit spend requests with multi-level approvals 

On top of Float’s spend management controls, our Risk team works hard to keep your account and cards safe by monitoring for suspicious activity and working with our customers to implement best practices. Your team can help keep business spend secure with Float with these 5 tips: 

Enhance account security and enable MFA or SSO

Protecting login details and having strong passwords are important steps to keeping your team’s accounts secure.

With Float, your team can enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) or single-sign on (SSO) for improved account security. Both MFA and SSO help prevent someone from accessing your account if they get hold of your username and password. 

✅ Learn more about MFA and SSO

Review company transactions as they happen 

Review transactions made on Float cards in real-time via the web-app, and ensure cardholders have notifications turned on for automated expense notifications and receipt capture. That way, cardholders are notified immediately when transactions are made and can be alerted to suspicious activity.

✅ Turn on transaction notifications on your Float cards

If you notice a suspicious transaction or a Float card is lost or stolen, immediately notify the Primary Admin or our Support team at support@floatcard.com for help. 

Cancel inactive cards

Regularly review your company’s Float cards to look for unused or inactive cards. Go to the “Cards” page and filter by Spender, Merchant, or Pause status to find cards to edit or delete. Our team can help bulk delete cards, just contact our Support team.

✅ Terminate inactive or dormant cards 

Also be sure to regularly review card limits and ensure recurring limits are still relevant. With Float’s Audit Logs, you can export a history of recurring cards and limit increases from the “Cards” page. 

✅ Exporting Float Audit Logs

Review access to company information

Fund transfers to Float are completed via secure electronic pre-authorized debit agreements. All Admins have access to transfer funds to Float and can view transfer histories. Ensure access to your bank account is given only to those who need access. 

Primary Admins will get notified of fund transfers. If you notice an unauthorized transfer to your Float account, please contact support@floatcard.com and we will immediately review the activity. 

Keep cardholders and users up-to-date

Remember to remove users and cardholders who no longer need access to Float or a Float card as soon as possible. Float can help remove users in bulk if you request as well! 

Remember, it’s best practice to delete and create a new card instead of re-assigning a card if possible. If you have SSO set up, you should still remove the user’s associated card from Float. 

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If you have any questions on how to enable MFA, terminate cards, re-assign cards or remove a User, please check our help center or reach out to support@floatcard.com. We’re here to help!

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.

Tired of wasting time filtering through hundreds of receipts? Or even worse, maybe you’re constantly chasing employees down for missing paperwork. We know the struggle. That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to put an end to this once and for all! With Float’s Expense Policy feature, we can ensure employees submit their receipts on time every time. 🙌🏾

What do we mean by “receipt compliance”? ​​🧾

Receipt compliance is essentially the financial policy that ensures all employees at all levels of an organization are meeting the receipt requirements set out by their finance teams. Float’s Expense Policy feature enables receipt compliance by giving administrators the power to determine the number of missing receipts allowed in specific expense categories before a Float card is paused. ⏸️ Through this feature, admins are able define several levels of compliance to better organize and track employee purchases, while enforcing spending policies across departments.

Once a card is paused, employees will no longer be able to use it. They’ll either have to go into Float to upload the missing receipt or mark the receipt as “lost.” This feature also eliminates the typical routine of last minute receipt uploads at month-end, which often leave finance teams stressed during their busiest times. Float’s receipt compliance feature is an optimal way to keep employees on top of their spending, while giving finance teams and controllers greater visibility into spending all month long.

How to set up receipt compliance in your organization 👩🏼‍💻

To set up receipt compliance within Float, you’ll first want to implement your company’s expense policies via our Approval and Submission policy features. Submission Policies let you define the transaction information that employees are required to submit, like receipts and accounting codes, while Approval Policies let you assign multiple approval layers for employee spend requests within your organization.

From the “Settings” page click “Submission Policy” and create a policy around specific expense categories like travel, entertainment, or employee benefits. Select whether or not receipts are required and if you’d like to pause cards with missing receipts.

Every time you create a card going forward, you will assign a specific submission policy to the card and employees will be automatically prompted to submit receipts as soon as a purchase is made. 👍🏼

How to submit receipts to Float 🤳

Float has the simplest way to submit expenses as soon as they are made, eliminating the need for tedious expense reports and back-and-forth with the finance team.

Once a purchase is made using a Float physical or virtual card, the spender will be automatically sent a link to upload receipts and submit all the relevant purchase details.

Best of all? There’s no need to log into Float or download yet another app. Here’s how it works:

1. Make a purchase on a Float card 💳
2. Float will text or email a link 📧
3. Upload receipts and fill in the purchase details 🤳

Our receipt compliance feature keeps both employees and finance teams on top of corporate spending – avoiding bottlenecks whether it’s monthly, quarterly or at year-end. It simplifies accounting and reconciliation and reduces your chances of lost receipts or high volumes of receipt submissions at the 11th hour. It gives employees that friendly reminder they need to upload their receipts in real time, while empowering bookkeepers to organize and tag those transactions with ease. You might say it’s a win-win! 🎉

If you’re ready to simplify your accounting processes and bring greater financial accountability into your organization, book a demo with Float today!