Category: Product Education

Ready to learn more? Reply YES!📱

Allow us to introduce you to our SMS Tracking feature. It gives users the option to add a phone number to their Float account so that every time a request or purchase is made on their Float card, they receive a text with the details of their transaction. This will include the vendor name, approval status and total dollars spent. Shortly after receiving the first text, users will then be notified to text back a picture of their receipt. If the receipt is sent back within 10 minutes, it can be stored in the Float platform and automatically matched with the transaction for easy review. 👨🏻‍💻

It’s the most convenient expense management tool around 👍🏼

With our SMS Tracking feature, employees no longer have to collect and save their expense receipts and managers don’t have to chase them down ever again. Spenders can simply snap a photo of their receipt after every purchase, submit it within Float and toss the physical receipt away. This feature also notifies cardholders of every transaction made via text, making it easier to identify any fraudulent activity or inaccurate charges. 👀  If you’re travelling for work, taking photos of your receipts versus collecting physical receipts will save a lot of time and keep things way more organized.

The Benefits of SMS Tracking

Employees can track their own spending 💸

Users can view and monitor their own corporate spending and see their approvals in real time. For example, if they were to make an online transaction, they could instantly see if the request was approved, make the purchase and confirm whether the purchase went through. Sometimes you don’t realize if a transaction was rejected unless you revisit the website, but this feature makes it 10x easier by instantly notifying spenders if the transaction was completed. ✅

Easy receipt collection and matching 🧾

Employees no longer have to worry about keeping a pile of receipts and submitting them to the finance department at month end. They can simply snap a photo after a purchase is made and send it off for the OCR tooling software to work its magic! If a receipt is submitted within 10 minutes of a purchase, the software can automatically recognize the receipt and match it to a transaction. This will save your finance team hours of valuable time, removing the need to manually collect, review, match and mass upload thousands of receipts!

Allows for seamless spending with no interruptions 💳

Float allows finance managers to pause purchases on corporate cards if a certain amount of receipts haven’t been submitted. It’s a great incentive to hold employees accountable to their spending responsibilities — and the SMS tracking feature is one more way to ensure this. It gives spenders an extra nudge to send in their receipts immediately and prevent their corporate card from being paused. Whether you’re in the middle of a conversation after a business meal or running to catch your flight to a conference in Montreal, it’s easy to forget to send in those receipts. With Float’s text reminders, we can help you stay on top of things for seamless corporate spending!

Smarter expense management for a happier finance team. 🤩

Let’s say it like it is. 🤷🏼‍♂️  When accountants don’t have the right system in place, they’re likely spending endless hours reconciling expenses and matching and collecting receipts. Float’s SMS Tracking feature cuts that time in half and allows for greater accuracy throughout the process. It speeds up reconciliation and makes it easier to manage and review corporate spending over the course of the month.

For more information on our SMS Tracking feature,  book a demo with us today!

Introduction

Many companies are frustrated by their inability to close their books efficiently at month-end. Employees’ misplaced receipts, ineffective software and lengthy credit card reconciliation processes are some of the challenges that financial teams encounter. Companies looking for a more effective way to control and monitor their spending should consider Float. Float ensures that your books are accurate and closed by month-end.

Automation

Float allows businesses to save time by eliminating the need to manually enter data and ease the minds for their finance teams. Companies no longer have to worry about expense reports because our software automatically gathers and matches receipts. Businesses can also set up spend guidelines for their employees, automatically pre-approve expenses and attach simple notifications anytime Float requires a receipt when a transaction is made.

Centralized platform for collaboration

Float has put together a collaborative platform that allows for immediate communication between departments. The team management feature allows businesses to build divisions and designate specific managers within Float, providing transparency and smarter spending habits for employees. TM features relieve the workload for finance managers by delegating controls to managers and securing key financial information for administrators.

Float also makes sure all data points and context have been centralized on the platform by categorizing transactions, making closing books month-end simpler. This includes:

• Preprograming GL accounts to the cards at the time of a cards creation
• Using merchant rules which automatically categorizes transactions 
• Card users having the option of writing a description to provide context of purchase
• Receipts being uploaded directly from card users
• Bookkeepers having access to Float’s platform

Integration speeds up the process

Float has an adaptable platform and software that connects readily with other applications like Slack and Quickbooks, guaranteeing that books will close quicker. Companies can integrate specific financial software with Float, making work more effective and convenient for all teams involved. Another advantage is companies do not need to fight with downloading CSV files and uploading them to accounting software. It’s merely a matter of pressing a button. In fact, you’ll likely save 1 to 2 hours by using Float’s software.

Conclusion

Are you looking for a better way to manage your corporate spending and close your books faster? Book a demo with Float today.

Aside from prioritizing the well-being of team members and practicing effective communication, it’s key for companies – big and small – to embrace transparency in every part of their business, including the health of their finances. This foundational component promotes a healthy corporate culture and smarter spending policies, which really sets the stage for optimal growth and success.

What exactly does transparency mean? 🤔

Transparency in the workplace is about sharing information openly and freely for the greater good of an organization and its employees. It’s about building honest, mutually beneficial relationships between employees and senior management to ensure everyone is aligned and on the same page. Without transparency, companies will often struggle to build trust from the inside and may even start seeing signs of low performance and inefficiency within their teams.

A closer look at the pros of corporate transparency

🗣- Promotes openness, accountability and clarity across the company.

✅ – Guides corporate policies and creates a more productive and efficient workplace.

😁 – Motivates employees to feel more invested in the company’s growth and success.

👫 – Encourages teamwork, open communication and honesty among team members.

🤝 – Strengthens relationships at every level of the company and builds trust.

Greater transparency with the right systems and tools

Promoting transparency is only possible when the right processes and policies are paired with strong tools that enable you to maintain transparency across teams. The automated expense management platform within Float gives businesses the power to set clear parameters and policies to guide their financial processes and share spending information in real time. This makes it possible to have open conversations about corporate spending which gives greater accessibility to company financials and visibility of who’s spending what, when and why.

Full transparency for Finance Managers and teams

Float automated spend management software supports finance managers with clarity about budgets, expense details, and purchases. Finance managers can go right into the platform at any time with full visibility of what every department and individual team member is spending. It also supports employees by providing them with clarity into their budgets and instantly prompts them to submit a receipt after a purchase is made.

Without the proper visibility into your finances and spend management there is a risk of losing money that ultimately impacts your bottom line. When there’s more transparency in your spending processes and reporting, you can have a clear picture of where the money is going and immediately resolve any issues before it’s too late. A transparent workplace is one where employees feel empowered, finance managers have greater control and everyone has a hand in driving the company toward growth.

Book a demo with our team today and get on the path to smarter spending.

You know that feeling when you walk into a neat and tidy office with a desk clear of paperwork and nothing but the essentials? Well, the same goes for your expense management too. Here are some tips to help you clean up your internal processes, better track spending and eliminate the clutter of expense reports on your desktops this spring.

Clear your desk by ditching expense reports  📑

Expense reports are outdated, time-consuming and often the culprit of unnecessary paperwork piled on our desks. In the spirit of spring cleaning, introduce your finance team to automated expense software like Float – no more headaches or chasing employees for expense reports.  Virtually track company expenses in real time. ✅

Ctrl+Alt+Del the clutter of receipts  🖥

Your pockets, your desk, your drawers, your glove compartment – you’ve likely got receipts floating everywhere! But not if you’re tracking them virtually. Automated expense software simplifies managing those flailing receipts by moving everything neatly into the cloud. ☁️ Employees are instantly notified to submit receipts after making a purchase and finance managers can easily access and view these receipts at any given time. You might find your finance managers with more spring in their step, especially if they don’t have to chase anyone down.

Sweep responsibility over to managers 🧹

It’s time to give your finance manager a break this spring. Using Float’s Team Management (TM) feature, you can introduce multi-level approvals and give department managers more control over their team’s spending. TM provides finance managers with a clean picture of department spending and enables them to easily issue corporate cards with predefined limits to keep everyone on budget. By giving department managers more responsibility, this creates a much tidier and timely approval process for employee spend requests. 💁🏼‍♀️

It’s time to grow this spring 🌷

Consider how your company is tracking expenses and spending on a daily basis. 💸  Is your current process scalable? Are your teams bogged down by lengthy approval processes? Is finance completely losing their mind during tax season? 🤯 At Float, our automated expense software and corporate cards can give you greater visibility and control into real-fine spending, while serving as fertile ground for you to grow and scale. You can easily issue corporate cards to any employee who needs one in 3 days or less and you have access to your financials in real time to support sure-fire decision-making.

Book a demo with us today and we’ll have you fully integrated with Float just in time for spring! 🙌🏻

Since joining the team in November 2021, I’ve been spearheading our finance department and joining forces with the rest of the team to bring Float to the next level. I spent the first three years of my career at one of the Big Four firms and then switched to the startup life in 2018 at SnapCommerce and never looked back. Today at Float, I am the sole Finance Manager leading the finance department with the advantage of getting first dibs on the newest features of our spend management platform.

As the Finance Manager, I live and breathe the everyday experience we’re striving to improve for our customers at Float – and if it’s good for me, I know it’s good for our clients.

Paying the bills faster 💨

I have a lot going on in my workday, and the ability to automate some of my tasks has been a key factor in accelerating my speed and giving me the time to focus on bigger projects. The fact that Float simplifies the entire spend management process is the reason why I’m able to manage all of the finances on my own – without getting overwhelmed or drowning in monthly reconciliations. I can automate nearly everything on my to-do list and put my time to good use. For example, paying bills is now ten times more efficient for me because of Float. All I have to do is log into the platform, create a one-time card and I can pay for expenses in minutes.

I’m responsible for paying a number of vendors who charge us on a monthly basis. With our platform and corporate cards, I’m able to create a recurring monthly card with a set amount so that vendors can charge the card themselves each month. If a vendor were to charge more, the card would lock and I would be immediately notified. No overspending. No fraud. No problem.

I really don’t think I could ever go back to my old way of managing spending. Data collection, receipt management, spend approvals – they’re all getting done behind the scenes without me having to manually track and manage it.

Team Management is a gamechanger 🚥

Team Management is making a big difference for us as a growing startup. It gives me full visibility and tracking capabilities to ensure that our budgets are never exceeded and everyone is spending responsibly. Being able to create multi-level spend approvals has decentralized spending within our company and has allowed me to shift more responsibility to managers – this has been a game changer especially on my busy days. Employees never have to ask me for daily spend approvals and can go directly to their manager instead – I only get involved for big ticket spending that may have a material impact on our budgets. We don’t have lengthy approval processes and so things get done quickly and efficiently. This has given me more time to focus on higher priority projects that add more value to the business.

No more chasing down receipts 🙅🏻‍♀️

As a finance manager who has worked at startups and big corporations, I know firsthand just how frustrating and inefficient corporate spending and spend management can be without the right tools in place. I can’t imagine going back to my old ways of work – creating expense reports and chasing employees for receipts. Using Float at Float 😉 I have more control and a better handle on corporate spending, from issuing corporate cards on the spot to setting spending limits. This has allowed us to remain on budget, spend smarter and grow, while keeping our team lean.

After years of working in both startup and corporate finance teams, I can say with confidence that every company should use Float. It has completely changed the way I work.

If you need greater access to corporate funds or are looking for a better way to collect and manage receipts, Float can help. Our automated spend management software and corporate cards will ease the burden on you (or your finance team) and give time back to be more strategic.

Book a demo with Float today and wave goodbye to your financial headaches.

Is your company experiencing rapid growth this new year? Does your organization host monthly seminars? Are you planning to accelerate your marketing efforts in 2022? As you grow, expenses only pile up and in order to stay afloat (no pun intended😉) one major way to streamline is increasing the number of corporate cards floating in your organization. 

Here are three signs that your company is ready to introduce Float cards.

1. You’re a fast-growing company with multiple departments🚀

If your team is growing that means more employees are spending and you have more expenses to keep track of. A great way to get a handle on this is by issuing corporate cards within your departments with an automated system to manage it all. At Float, our latest and greatest feature Team Management takes team spending to a whole new level.⬆️ It allows organizations to easily issue corporate cards across all departments and makes it easier to empower smarter spending within teams. Managers gain greater control and visibility over departmental spending with the authority to set predefined budgets, distribute corporate cards 💳 and approve spend requests in real time.🤩

If you’re worried about getting approved for corporate credit cards, don’t fret. At Float, we eliminate all the time-consuming processes you’d experience at the bank by issuing and delivering your cards in less than 3 days! Yes, you read that correctly.😉 Float wastes no time when it comes to helping fast-growing companies spend smarter!

2. You’re dreaming of a healthier spend culture.💭

At Float, we’re in the business of making your spending dreams reality.💫 By making it easier to issue corporate cards to employees, startups can empower their teams and give them the autonomy to make valuable spending decisions. It’s a positive demonstration of trust with employees and allows them to act quickly and be more innovative in their daily projects.

With all of these cards floating around, finance managers can rest assured. All Float cards are connected to our smart spend software, which effectively tracks and organizes all purchases in real time. In addition, for each individual card, managers have the ability to create spend controls for specific categories, departments and employees to limit and monitor company-wide spending

3. You want more efficiency in your operations ✅

Ditch the expense reports once and for all. And while you’re at it, you can stop chasing down employees for receipts. If your company is looking to bring more efficiency to expense management, Float can simplify your daily accounting tasks and automate the entire process by  collecting all your financial data in one place in real time. It removes all of the manual labour and saves you from long hours spent filtering through paper receipts from the entire year. Imagine that. Not to mention, Float cards give employees the freedom to make purchasing decisions faster, without being bogged down by long wait times for management to approve transactions and spend requests. 

If your team is on a clear path to growth and there are no signs of slowing down, keep the momentum going with Float’s corporate cards. Book a demo today and experience what it’s like to spend smarter with Float!

It’s that time of year again! Everyone’s getting in the festive spirit, with no shortage of holiday office parties, dinners and team activities. 🎄 Then comes year-end ruining all the fun. 😑 It’s no secret that closing the fiscal year is always a hectic time for finance and accounting teams. And it doesn’t help that most companies are leading with outdated and inefficient processes that only cause further delays and headaches. 

Luckily, things don’t have to go on this way. Think of automated expense software as the Tylenol to your year-end headaches. 💊 It simplifies your year-end by eliminating expense reports, automating reconciliation, tracking purchases and receipts in real-time, streamlining spending approvals and requests and more. It also gives financial teams quick access to financial reporting for better business planning and decision-making. ✅

Leave manual reports in 2021 👋

Manual expense reports are a waste of valuable time and money, especially this time of year. They’re prone to human error and can potentially compromise the accuracy of critical financial data in your annual reporting. These outdated processes not only take long but they can impact your credibility with key stakeholders like investors or your board of directors.

Automating year-end processes not only reduces these risks, but it eliminates expense reports altogether. Finance and accounting teams can verify data, record and manage invoices and receipts and generate real-time reporting with speed and accuracy. It also minimizes all of the back and forth with employees and teams, cutting all those long hours and late nights at your desktop. 😴

Stay organized all year round 🗓

With the holidays coming close and employees likely taking time off, year end is not the time to be chasing people down for receipts. Automated expense software helps companies better control and manage spending 24-7-365 so that year-end isn’t a massive pile of paperwork and receipts. It introduces a more proactive approach to corporate spending with features that streamline key processes on your year-end to-do list:

• Reconcile your books in a flash ⚡️
• Track business purchases in real time 💸
• Create simple financial policies for all employees to follow 🙌🏾
• Instantly notify employees to submit receipts when they spend 🧾
• Set spending limits and approve spend requests in seconds 👍🏼
• Collect and review key financial data all in one place 👀

This keeps internal teams, financial controllers and management all aligned and organized at any point of the financial year, with no guesswork and zero stress. 

Separate business and personal with virtual cards 👏

Blurring the lines between personal and business expenses is a common mistake many businesses make – with the consequences often creeping in at annual close. 🤯 When employees use their personal credit cards for business purchases, this can make it 10x harder to track and control spending. We know that your average Canadian bank makes it even more difficult to issue corporate cards, which is why so many of us turn to our personal cards to make purchases. Good news, we have a loophole! 😉

Fully integrated with your automated expense software, virtual cards like ours at Float make it easier for businesses to issue credit cards to employees in less than a week, removing personal credit from the equation entirely. With access to virtual cards, employees have greater autonomy and more power to make responsive decisions for the business without jumping through various hoops for approval. 

End the year strong with Float 🤩

If you’re still doing things the old-fashioned way, it’s likely that your finance and accounting teams are approaching year-end feeling overworked. Well guess what, Float can help! Our automated expense software and virtual cards make it a whole lot easier to close the year without your finance team burning out. 

Float fosters a strategic partnership between finance teams and the rest of the organization by making it easy to create and follow financial policies and stay organized daily so that year-end headaches are a thing of the past. 

To learn more about how Float can help you close the year, book a demo today!

Keeping the spirit alive with distributed teams

As we get ready to wrap up 2021, there’s no better time than now to celebrate! With most teams distributed across the globe and traditional offices still largely vacant, companies are in need of innovative tools to thrive in this new environment. This holiday season, Float wants to spread cheer by making it easier for organizations to spend smarter, work better and celebrate the season regardless of where they are!

Have more fun this holiday season with Float

Whether you’re a startup with a five-person team or an organization with global teams, spreading holiday cheer has never been easier. Float’s spend management feature will simplify your finance team’s workflow during a hectic year-end so that you can have more fun and less stress! 

1. Deck the halls with zero admin work

Looking to make things more festive in the office this holiday season? Give your employees their own Float card to have some fun and decorate the office! But don’t worry, Float allows you to set clear limits so your team stays on budget as they deck the halls. You can even use our mobile receipt capture feature so everyone can save their receipts just seconds after they spend in-store. 🧾

2. Organize a ‘Secret Santa’ that everyone wants in on

Get the entire organization into the holiday spirit and organize a company-wide Secret Santa exchange. Use Float to issue virtual cards to all of your employees so they can easily purchase gifts with no muss and no fuss. With our new team management feature, only finance managers can see Santa’s secret list – you don’t have to worry about anyone peeking at each other’s receipts! 👀

3. Manage travel expenses with multi-level approvals

For distributed teams planning a holiday party, you can manage spending for those who are flying, driving or riding the train to attend the event. 🙋🏼‍♂️🧳 With Float’s multi-level spend management feature, you can empower employees and create spending rules based on category and amount. For example:

• $10 meal in an airport? 🥗  No approval is needed. 
• Need an extra night in the hotel? 💤  Submit a request to your manager.
• Want to rent a car to get to the holiday party in Montreal? 🚘 The CEO needs to weigh in.

4. Mix your way into merriness

Bartending or mixology events are a great way to bring employees together and teach a new skill that they can use during their own holiday celebrations.🍸 Use Float’s virtual cards to distribute funds for employees to shop for ingredients! You can set a clear spending limit so your teams stay within budget and circumvent anyone from accidentally buying that luxe 50-year-old scotch! 🥃

Happy holidays from Float!

At Float, we have loads of fun building our platform together and enjoy spending time with each other, both during and after work hours. We recently came together to decorate our Toronto workspace with our team members who live in the city. Check out the video below to see how we got into the holiday spirit as a team! 🎄

Is your organization a distributed team as well? We’ll be releasing more tips and showcasing our own online holiday event later in December with Floaters from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. Stay tuned!