CASE STUDY

How Holistic Roasters Streamlined Spending and Bookkeeping with Float

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113% increase

in search-driven site traffic with more time spent on content strategy and less on admin

QB integration

automates bookkeeping and reduces manual work

Canadian focus

gives peace of mind regarding regulatory and tax compliance

THE CHALLENGE

Holistic Roasters’ team spent a lot of time managing complex and fragmented bookkeeping processes. In the absence of corporate cards and a centralized financial system, tracking and reconciling transactions became time-consuming and tedious.

Since the company’s bank didn’t provide access to corporate cards, team members were using personal cards for business expenses. This led to a lot of extra data for the finance team to sift through when it came time to process expenses.

THE SOLUTION

By leveraging Float’s modern finance solution, Holistic Roasters was able to give employees corporate cards and centralize all company spend. Despite initial hesitations, the accountant and bookkeepers quickly became fans of the platform after they saw how easy Float was to adopt and use.

Another bonus?

Knowing that Float is built specifically for Canadian companies (and therefore is in line with Canadian regulations, accounting and tax practices) gives Holistic Roasters peace of mind that its team has access to specific features Canadian businesses need.

THE RESULTS

Eliminated reliance on personal credit cards, streamlined financial processes and more time spent on growth-oriented business activities
Search-driven website traffic increased by 113% thanks to more time dedicated to content marketing strategy
Automated bookkeeping and reduced manual work thanks to Float’s QuickBooks integration

About Holistic Roasters

Holistic Roasters is a coffee roasting company with five cafés as part of its business operations. The brand is known for its specialty Biodynamic® and Melk coffees, produced using agricultural practices that go beyond certified organic standards. All of their coffee is roasted in-house and sourced exclusively from family-run farms that use regenerative, toxin-free farming practices, in line with Holistic Roasters’ vision for a healthier planet. The company’s regenerative practices eliminate the need for herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers, helping restore entire ecosystems while producing great coffee.

THE DETAILS

The Holistic Roasters team was buried in manual bookkeeping and admin tasks. This made for tedious expense reconciliation and reimbursement processing. The company was banking through RBC, which made it difficult for startups to get corporate cards. As a workaround, employees were using personal cards. However, this was causing overwhelming bookkeeping complexity.

“The amount of time it would take to make sure financial information was correct and to do all of the reconciliation was huge,” says Greg Kalinin, Co-Founder of Holistic Roasters.

Greg knew the company needed a better system to manage business finances. So, he set out to find a service that would simplify the process of getting corporate cards for employees without the hassle of personal guarantees and bureaucratic red tape.

Float offered the perfect solution, built on a mission to give businesses the financial tools they need to move faster and access more opportunities. The all-in-one platform was easy to implement and learn. The only hurdle Greg faced was convincing his bookkeeper and accountant to try it.

“They were resistant to use Float at first,” he says. “But I insisted, and once they started using it, their feedback was, ‘This is amazing! You were right, Greg. Thank you!’”

Greg has since become an enthusiastic advocate for Float, recommending it to other businesses and sharing how easy it has made life for his team.

Having a centralized system for all financial operations helps Greg and his bookkeeper streamline spending and reduce admin work. Float’s integration with QuickBooks helps automate the bookkeeping process, giving Greg more time and capacity to dedicate to other high-value work, like a targeted content marketing strategy. The company has seen a 113% increase in search-driven website traffic as a result.

“I’m super happy with Float. I think what helps us the most is that we can have everything in one spot. It makes our lives so much easier to keep track of things, from the bill pay process to reimbursements.”

Greg Kalinin, Co-Founder of Holistic Roasters

Although Holistic Roasters doesn’t need to use reimbursements much now since the company has both virtual cards and physical cards for team members, Greg says it’s a nice feature to have. Another thing he loves about Float is that it offers 4% interest on funds stored within the platform, with no restrictions on use.

“From a fintech perspective, Float is nailing it,” says Greg. “I’m so happy they’re doing this because banks are kind of a pain to work with, and Float is just the opposite.”

Greg also appreciates Float’s customer service, recalling a situation when the team provided Holistic Roasters with proactive support and responded quickly to feature gaps like adding Hong Kong as a separate country option to make bill payments to.

In addition, Float’s Canadian focus gives Greg and his team peace of mind knowing the platform is built with Canadian regulations, accounting and tax practices in mind.

Holistic Roasters has started the process of adding all of the company’s cafés to the Float system. Greg is looking forward to having additional features in the future like deposit accounts connected to his point-of-sale systems, lines of credit, a payroll system and more. Holistic Roasters’ growing partnership with Float is rooted in enthusiasm and collaboration—and of course, fuelled by great coffee. “The Float community is super passionate and engaged, and as a marketer, that’s really nice to see,” Greg says.

“From a fintech perspective, Float is nailing it. I’m so happy they’re doing this because banks are kind of a pain to work with, and Float is just the opposite.”

Greg Kalinin, Co-Founder of Holistic Roasters