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.
There was a point when it seemed the pandemic would break Fresh Tracks Canada, a Vancouver-based travel-agency — a fate faced by many businesses and industries in those tough times. As it happened, navigating the challenges helped the company thrive.
That is because, despite a more than twenty-year track record of delivering stellar personalized travel experiences across Canada, many of the company’s processes and systems had fallen out of date. Then the pandemic hit, and the company was forced to lay off more than half of its staff.
“The pandemic was chaos, but chaos brings opportunity,” says the company’s Director of Finance, Robert O’Herlihy. “We broke down a lot of our systems and processes and rebuilt them up during the pandemic to be more efficient, and we’re seeing the rewards of that right now.”
Bringing A Travel Agency into the Digital Age
“The process we used was to assign a new virtual card to every booking,” O’Herlihy says. “Customer service would apply for a card, which had to be approved by finance — so inevitably there was a time lag before someone sees and approves it“
O’Herlihy says that the company emerged from the pandemic under new management with a mandate to operationalize new technology projects to drive productivity. For the accounting team, the area most ripe for improvement was payments.
O’Herlihy explains that in the hospitality industry just about everything runs on credit cards, from hotel and tour bookings to employee expenses and even overhead costs. Overall, he estimates about half of the company’s transactions go through credit cards, which often racked up six-figure statements, with thousands of transactions requiring manual reconciliation.
To make matters more complicated, Fresh Tracks Canada used one provider for its physical cards and another for virtual cards, of which they required many.
“The process we used was to assign a new virtual card to every booking,” O’Herlihy says. “Customer service would apply for a card, which had to be approved by finance — so inevitably there was a time lag before someone sees and approves it — then it goes back to customer service so they could book the hotels and tours and other components.”
Not only was the process itself inefficient for customer service staff, but it was also a nightmare for the accounting team, who had to chase staff for receipts and spend hours comparing them against bookings. As the company emerged from the pandemic with a mandate to find modern solutions, O’Herlihy says Float seemed like the most obvious fit.
“It seemed to have a lot more features than other options on the market,” he says. “Some of them had receipt matching but didn’t allow us to add a description [to each transaction], or they might not integrate with our accounting system — Float just seemed like the full package of features we wanted.”
One Platform, Many Solutions
“The integrations with our online banking and to our accounting software Xero were very easy, there was no custom API needed, it was plug and play essentially,”
Fresh Tracks Canada began using Float in August of 2022, following what O’Herlihy describes as a seamless onboarding process.
“The integrations with our online banking and to our accounting software Xero were very easy, there was no custom API needed, it was plug and play essentially,” he says. “The system itself is also pretty intuitive, there wasn’t a lot of training that we had to give to the teams.”
O’Herlihy adds that reception at Fresh Tracks Canada was “overwhelmingly positive” because Float provided a degree of autonomy and efficiency that had been lacking previously.
“They don’t have to seek approvals, we don’t have to chase them for receipts; it’s all kind of self-managed,” he says. “When someone’s name is on a card, they’re more likely to manage it correctly, but we can set approvals in Float as well.”
Within the accounting team O’Herlihy says life has gotten a lot easier now that all the company’s cards are managed in one system, including their U.S. dollar transactions, of which the travel company processes many. In fact, O’Herlihy says the company is saving thousands on American transaction fees alone, but cash savings wasn’t even the biggest benefit of the transition.
“Time savings is the biggest one, like operational efficiencies, because we’re enabling our Legendary Hospitality team to take ownership and accountability of their own spending,” he says. “Getting the Float system in place was a big win for us, especially because it integrates with our accounting software, so there’s no manual entry into our accounting system — it’s all uploaded automatically.”
How Float Improves Supplier Relations
“We’re striving to play our part in facilitating more efficient operations across the board, not just in the finance department, which is where the idea of using Float was born.”
In fact, O’Herlihy says that the change has even had a positive impact on the company’s relationship with its suppliers, as Fresh Tracks Canada can now issue virtual cards with spending limits to tour operators directly.
“We give them a dedicated virtual supplier card, so ‘here’s a Visa, it’s got a limit of $5,000 or whatever it might, whenever you serve our clients feel free to charge that,’” he explains. “That builds trust with them and good relationships with them, and they know they won’t have any problems dealing with us.”
While the pandemic nearly ended the now 26-year-old business, O’Herlihy says it ultimately made it stronger. These days Fresh Tracks Canada is back to its pre-pandemic headcount, even hiring back many of the staff it previously let go, and is now on track to surpass pre-pandemic revenues.
“We’re striving to play our part in facilitating more efficient operations across the board, not just in the finance department, which is where the idea of using Float was born,” he says. “We kind of became a little stagnant before the pandemic, and in hindsight tearing down the system and rebuilding it was the best thing for the company.”
About Fresh Tracks Canada
Vancouver-based Fresh Tracks Canada has been creating personalized Canadian vacations since 1996. Their team has explored the country — because they love to travel too — and have used this insider knowledge to create more than 25,000 personalized trip itineraries.
In 2023 we launched our new Accounting Hub for customers – a central spot to streamline their month-end process within Float. We introduced Transaction Exports to give finance teams easy-to-use workflows to export their transactions to their accounting software at scale. And we’ve seen the results! In our recent survey Float customers have reported closing their transactions and reimbursements up to 8x faster at month-end.
To keep the momentum going, we’re bringing a new Accounting Workboard to the hub – a dynamic view of your transaction review process with intelligent and personalized tips to help you close faster.
Float’s Accounting Workboard is where accountants and controllers can go to track their progress closing the books and spot unusual transactions quickly. With personalized insights, Float helps you save on time and unwanted spend each month as you gear up to transfer transactions to your accounting software. Read on to learn what’s new in Float’s Accounting Workboard.
✅ Track Transaction Export Progress
Your progress bar at the top of your Accounting Workboard visually shows you how many of your transactions for a given close period still need to be confirmed, are ready to be exported, or have been exported to your accounting software. In a simple click you can dive into a list of each transaction group.
You can also click to see a list of non-compliant transactions (ie. transactions that aren’t compliant to your company’s unique Submission Policies). This is especially helpful as you gear up to export in bulk at month-end!
🖱️ One-Click Compliance Filtering
We’ve also made it simple and quick to filter your non-compliant transactions. With a single click you are able to access lists of transactions that are:
Missing receipts
Missing a GL code
Missing a tax code
Sometimes things slip through the cracks and employees need an extra nudge to upload their receipts before you finish your transaction export. After clicking your list of transactions missing receipts, you can filter further by Spender or Manager. You can then select all the non-compliant transactions belonging to an individual employee or perhaps a team, click ‘Copy transaction links’ and send it to them or their manager with a direct link for them to action on! If all looks well (eg. small coffee purchases that don’t need a receipt), you can also mark transactions as compliant, so they’re ready to export.
Finally, you can also quickly access a list of transactions that may have failed to export previously to ensure every transaction makes it to your accounting software reliably.
🚩 Flagged Transactions
At Float we’ve built our platform with secure spending in mind. With existing features like Reporting & Insights, we’ve heard from 74% of respondents that they were saving unwanted spend with Float in our recent customer survey. Flagged transactions are a new added layer to protecting your spend.
Your new Accounting Workbaord will surface flagged transactions you may want to take a second look at, as you close the books. First, you can set custom settings to track larger than expected transactions. In a click you can see all purchases made over a custom limit set by your team, to stay aware of potential unwanted spend.
We’ll also flag irregularities amongst your merchants and GL codes. Using automated insights,, Float will show you transactions that are uncommonly larger or smaller than the rest of transactions with that GL code. For example, based on your company’s spend patterns, a $2000 transaction for Travel Parking may seem odd and get flagged. Transactions tagged with an unexpected GL code (ie. spend with a merchant historically associated with a different GL code) will also be flagged for quick review.
Lastly, we’ll also give you a list of transactions where the tax percentage paid is not matched to a typical Canadian provincial tax rate. This helps you make sure you haven’t over-reported (or under-reported) taxes.
💳 Merchants without Rules
We launched Transaction Rules to the Float platform to make categorizing spend that much easier. For transactions made with a given merchant, you can automatically attach an Accounting Vendor, GL code, tax code, or tag, so the transaction is export-ready without manual entry on your part or the spender’s part.
For example, if employees in your organization book travel frequently, you can automate Air Canada transactions to always be coded to your travel GL.
We’ll flag the top 5 merchants your company spent on in a given period, currently without a Merchant Rule, so you can quickly set up new rules and save more time at the next month-end!
Take it For a Spin
If you’re an existing Float customer simply log in and head over to your Accounting Workboard to start using your personalized insights. Not yet a Float customer? You can book a demo to learn about our suite of Accounting features and smart corporate cards.
At Float we know finance teams are constantly seeking new ways to streamline processes, enhance accuracy, and achieve greater efficiencies. That’s why we’ve created the Accounting Hub – a dedicated space for the controllers and accountants on your team to review, automate, and export all company transactions quickly and seamlessly.
Float’s one-stop solution is designed to simplify export workflows and help you to regain control over your company’s spend data. In fact, in our recent poll Float customers reported closing their books up to 9x faster with Float and 2.5x faster on average.
Below we’ll introduce you to game-changing features and tips in Float to help you find speed and accuracy as you close the books each month-end.
Review 👀
The power of Float’s Accounting Hub starts with its ability to filter and review transactions by specific time periods with ease. You can quickly identify discrepancies and ensure transaction data is compliant and accurate before syncing to your accounting software.
Easily Find Non-Compliant Transactions
As you prepare to close the books at month-end you can filter transactions by the designated month and then further by Compliance Status. Get a list of transactions that aren’t compliant with your company’s Submission policies and identify which team members to follow-up with.
You can also filter out non-compliant transactions from your exports, ensuring only those properly coded and with receipts attached move on to your accounting software.
💡Pro-tip: When you message a spender about a transaction missing information, you can send them a Transaction Link to bring them right to the transaction in question. This eliminates any more confusion or unnecessary back and forth.
Split Transactions
As you review transactions, you may encounter one that needs to be allocated across different line items (like software invoices shared by multiple departmental budgets). You can select any transaction in your Accounting Hub, click ‘split transaction’ and enter the amounts you would like to enter as their own line items. Then assign the appropriate GL code, tax code, description or tag to finish split the transaction.
Update Transactions in Bulk
There’s no need to waste time updating transactions one at a time. You can filter and select transactions in bulk and assign the group the same vendor, team, GL code, or Tax code in a few simple clicks for a faster month-end.
Automate 🚀
With Account Hub, you can also put accounting processes on autopilot. This reduces those time consuming, routine tasks and the risk of human error, while freeing up time for more strategic work. By issuing smart corporate cards to automating expense categorization, Float ensures transactions are coded accurately while cutting down manual work and saving you time.
Pre-Code your Float Cards
As you prepare to close the books at month-end you can filter transactions by the designated month and then further by Compliance Status. Get a list of transactions that aren’t compliant with your company’s Submission policies and identify which team members to follow-up with.
You can also filter out non-compliant transactions from your exports, ensuring only those properly coded and with receipts attached move on to your accounting software.
Set Up Transaction Rules
Float can also help you automatically categorize your transactions based on merchant names. By clicking on ‘Manage Transaction Rules’ in your Accounting Hub you can set up a custom rule that codes a corresponding Accounting Vendor, GL Code, Tax Code, or Tag to specific Merchants saving you and your team tons of time.
Export 🔄
Effortless exports is the heart of Float’s Accounting Hub – built to support scale with the ability to quickly sync export-ready transactions to your accounting software in bulk.
Smart Accounting Syncs
If you use one of our supported integrations ( Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, and Xero), our smart two-way Accounting Sync means your Chart of Accounts gets mapped in Float so reconciliation is a breeze. By navigating to your ‘Ready to Export’ page you can quickly sync all compliant transactions for your close period directly to your accounting software in one click.
Custom CSV Exports
It’s still very simple to export transactions to alternative accounting softwares like Sage or Microsoft Dynamics. You can build your own custom export templates in Float, formatted to match your specific accounting software. You can download your export-ready transactions at month-end as a CSV and upload them to your accounting software without any additional manual tweaks.
Put Float into Action 🎬
Float’s Accounting Hub aims to help finance professionals eliminate tedious reconciliations and have more efficient month-ends. Bringing automation to transaction reviews and exports has already saved Float customers valuable time and money each month-end – and we’re just getting started. For a quick demo on the new Accounting Hub with Lauren from our Product team you can watch this video.
If you’re an existing customer head over to your Accounting Hub to try out the tips and tricks above. You can always click on the ‘Take the Tour’ button in your top menu for a refresher on your new hub. Not a customer yet and want to learn more about how Float’s Accounting Automations can power your team? Our sales team is happy to chat. Book a demo or get started directly today.
