How BenchSci Saved 40+ Hours a Month Streamlining Spend Management with Float

Bonnie Kershaw stands as a testament to excellence in the accounting field, bringing over four decades of rich experience that cuts across diverse sectors, from construction to the forefront of innovation in artificial intelligence. Throughout her storied career, she has consistently observed the indispensable role that accounting plays in driving the success of businesses in every industry. Currently at BenchSci, a trailblazing AI firm revolutionizing pre-clinical pharmaceutical research, Bonnie has navigated through both familiar terrains and uncharted waters. Amidst the company’s explosive growth, which saw its size double in 2022, BenchSci faced a number of accounting challenges. One challenge included handling an overwhelming tide of expense reports. These expense reports, burdened by unwieldy spreadsheets and the painstaking process of manual data entry into accounting systems, represented a significant bottleneck in the company’s operational efficiency.

BenchSci has successfully transitioned to using Float to issue both physical and virtual cards to employees, moving away from the cumbersome and outdated expense report process. This strategic shift has resulted in a significant time saving of 40+ hours per month, streamlining expense processing and enhancing operational efficiency. This achievement is a monument to the fruitful partnership between BenchSci, and Float.

A Partner First, Customer Second

BenchSci distinguished itself not only as an early adopter of Float but also as a key partner in honing the platform’s features to better serve its needs. By actively engaging in the feedback loop, conducting thorough testing, and contributing to the feature development roadmap, BenchSci helped ensure that Float’s offerings were finely tuned to address the complexities of modern financial operations. This partnership allowed BenchSci to significantly benefit from Float’s cutting-edge capabilities, tailored to streamline and enhance its expense management processes. In turn, Float’s features evolved through this collaborative process, becoming more aligned with the practical demands of companies like BenchSci. This mutually beneficial relationship underscored the value of Float’s features in addressing the specific challenges faced by BenchSci, showcasing the platform’s adaptability and relevance in a fast-paced business environment.

From Tedious Expense Reports to Corporate Cards for All

“We wanted to alleviate the pressure of employees having to pay with their own funds and waiting for reimbursement for company expenses.”

As BenchSci underwent a period of rapid expansion, it encountered two primary challenges with its existing reimbursement approach. The first challenge was the laborious nature of expense reports for employees. The manual entry of data into Google Sheets not only consumed considerable time but also resulted in delays in delivering these reports to the finance team. Bonnie highlighted the frequent issues, stating, “A lot of times people weren’t sending their expenses in on a timely basis… because we’re remote, you’d have to go back and forth as well when information or receipts were missing.” As the company’s transaction volume increased, the process of entering expense report data into the Accounting System one at a time consumed a significant portion of Bonnie’s schedule.

The second challenge involved employees having to use their personal funds for significant company-related purchases, such as travel expenses. “We wanted to alleviate the pressure of employees having to pay with their own funds and waiting for reimbursement for company expenses,” Bonnie explained. The adoption of Float presented a solution to these challenges, offering BenchSci the ability to issue an unlimited number of physical and virtual cards. This enabled proactive control over company spending and eliminated the reliance on the cumbersome reimbursement process, significantly improving the efficiency of expense management and employee satisfaction.

A Culture of “Freedom and Responsibility”

“It’s very handy. If somebody needs a temporary increase, they can click on a button and request higher spend. We also love that people can request virtual cards for things like subscriptions.”

At BenchSci, fostering a culture of “Freedom and Responsibility” is a top priority. Bonnie encapsulates this philosophy, stating, “Each person is responsible for the success of the company. So you treat company money like your own personal money.” This principle guides the finance team’s use of Float to empower each employee with their own physical Float credit card, endowed with a predefined monthly renewable limit. Moreover, to enhance flexibility and autonomy regarding employee benefits, additional expense policies are implemented on these corporate cards. These policies cater to specific stipends, such as learning and development, with annual limits, thus offering employees greater freedom in utilizing their perks.

For situations where additional funds are necessary, Float simplifies the process, allowing employees to request a temporary increase in their spending limit with just a brief explanation of the intended expenditure. Bonnie appreciates the efficiency of this feature, noting, “It’s very handy. If somebody needs a temporary increase, they can click on a button and request higher spend. We also love that people can request virtual cards for things like subscriptions.” This shift has significantly empowered employees, allowing them to directly manage software subscription payments pertinent to their teams, a task that was previously handled by the finance team through ACH or wire transfers. Float’s vendor-specific virtual cards, which can be set with recurring limits and expiration dates aligned with the company’s contractual terms, further streamline this process and safeguard against unnecessary spending.

Accounting Automations: A Huge Time-Saver

“Huge time saver! The fact that we can automate transactions going from Float directly to the Accounting System makes things simple.” 

This new, proactive approach to spend reduced the need for the team’s spreadsheet expense reports (and transcribing them into the Accounting System). In addition to creating a better alternative to the manual processing of expense reports, the team unlocked further time-savings with Float’s Accounting Automations. To streamline reconciling the company’s expenses, they use Float’s Merchant Rules to automatically code all transactions made at the same vendor with the matching GL codes and tags. Employees also have the ability to add GL codes to transactions themselves as they spend, to help streamline the close process for the finance team as well.

When BenchSci’s finance team wants to review transactions before exporting to their accounting software at month-end, they can use Float’s Accounting Workboard to pull a list of non-compliant transactions in a single click. They can filter this list and make updates in bulk so all transactions are quickly ready for export. Bonnie says, “You’re proofing everything before exporting it, so you know once it gets into the Accounting System you don’t have to go check on things to make sure they’re done properly.” As Float integrates directly with their accounting software, the team can sync transactions in bulk from Float to the Accounting System in a few simple steps without worrying about downloading and manipulating data in spreadsheets. On tying Float’s Automations and Accounting Sync together, Bonnie said, “Huge time saver! The fact that we can automate transactions going from Float directly to the Accounting System makes things simple.”

Security and User Management at Scale

“Automatically on their final day their card is paused, which is amazing. I’d normally have to put a reminder in my calendar to do that, but now it’s done for me.”

With a growing team of over 350 employees, BenchSci required a spend management solution equipped with robust user management and security features to safeguard company finances. To streamline the process of employee transitions, BenchSci integrated Float with their Human Resources Information System (HRIS). This integration facilitates the automatic synchronization of employees’ names, titles, and direct managers to Float, ensuring that card activity can be efficiently managed in alignment with personnel changes. Cards are automatically paused when an employee leaves the company, significantly reducing manual effort and enhancing security. Bonnie appreciates the automated efficiency, remarking, “Automatically on their final day their card is paused, which is amazing. I’d normally have to put a reminder in my calendar to do that, but now it’s done for me.”

To further secure and simplify access to Float, BenchSci utilizes the single sign-on (SSO) solution provided by Okta. This allows IT to distribute a single set of secure login credentials to employees, which can be used across the company’s diverse platforms, including Float. This approach not only streamlines the login process for employees, enhancing user experience, but also maintains a high level of security across all company-sanctioned software and applications, ensuring that access to sensitive financial management tools like Float is both secure and efficient.

Supercharging The Finance Team’s Efficiency

“The Accounting Automations are the biggest Float features for me. There’s also other features – being able to control spending limits, submission policies, approval workflows… They’re all great audit controls.”

Transitioning from an era dominated by paper-based processes, Bonnie has witnessed firsthand the transformative impact of technology on accounting and expense management.

Reflecting on the advancements that solutions like Float represent, Bonnie says, “I can’t even imagine going backwards to that old time when we had to do things manually. I look back and think why didn’t someone create this 20 years ago? It would have definitely been well received by accountants, especially someone in my position who is the one doing work on the ground level.”

Bonnie leveraged Float’s suite of accounting features to not only work more efficiently but also to enhance the company’s control of employee spend. “The Accounting Automations are the biggest Float features for me. There’s also other features – being able to control spending limits, submission policies, approval workflows… They’re all great audit controls.”

Revolutionizing Financial Operations

“Without Float, we’d be in the position of needing to expand our team. Thinking about the sheer volume of time saved, we’re talking a monumental 40 hours every month at the very least.”

The adoption of Float’s pioneering expense management software has revolutionized BenchSci’s financial operations, delivering unprecedented time savings each month. This transformation has empowered BenchSci’s finance team to elevate their focus to higher-value activities, underscoring their role in driving the company’s efficiency and strategic financial planning. Bonnie’s adept navigation through Float’s capabilities showcases not just her expertise but also her commitment to optimizing the finance team’s workflow, maintaining its agility and precision. Bonnie’s enthusiasm for Float’s impact is palpable: “Without Float, we’d be in the position of needing to expand our team. Thinking about the sheer volume of time saved, we’re talking a monumental 40 hours every month at the very least.” This testament not only celebrates Float’s innovative solution but also highlights Bonnie’s pivotal role in harnessing technology to forge a leaner, more dynamic finance operation at BenchSci, making it clear that with Float, the future of expense management is here, and it’s transformative.


About BenchSci

BenchSci’s vision is to exponentially increase the speed and quality of life-saving research by empowering scientists with the world’s most advanced biomedical artificial intelligence. You can find them at benchsci.com.

Health and Wellness SaaS Company Practice Better Closes the Books 6x Faster with Float

Deena Lu is the Controller at Practice Better, a Toronto-based software company in the health and wellness space. She’s no stranger to fast-paced startup culture and the demands that come with working on a lean Finance team. Like many SaaS startups, at Practice Better there are always multiple different initiatives on the go that produce a lot of ad hoc requests for Deena. To keep pace with the scaling company, changes were needed to boost the finance team’s efficiency. They soon made the strategic decision to bring their financial processes fully in-house and leverage new tools to help them scale and manage the company’s spending.

So Many Approvals, So Little Time

“Things would not get booked in correctly and we wouldn’t know until after close. And by then you’re almost into the next month.”

In the 6 months since Deena joined Practice Better, the company has doubled in size. As the company’s headcount expanded, new departments were being created and company processes evolved. While these budding teams established new structures, rituals, and mandates, tracking a budget was not always top-of-mind. “Depending on what stage you join, the company might not have departments set up and might not be tracking the budget very well,” says Deena. “While departments were created as Practice Better grew, approvals were still centralized to finance, which can create an environment where department leaders do not have visibility on budgets and spend.” The need for real-time visibility into company spend and streamlined approvals became more and more important as the team grew to enable department leaders to have greater control over their budgets. 

When the team was smaller, they also opted to outsource their bookkeeping and accounting. However, as their transaction volume grew, it became clear that accounting needed to be done in-house. Closing the books took about 12 days and the team had little visibility into the reconciliation process. “Things would not get booked in correctly and we wouldn’t know until after close. And by then you’re almost into the next month.” Deena would end up fixing records after the fact and things weren’t as efficient as they could be.

Finally, getting transactions into their accounting software also proved difficult. With the traditional banks, Deena was often still forced to manually upload transaction statements to Xero. 

A Solution for Canadian Companies

Having had experience with numerous expense management software and corporate cards, Deena wanted a tool that met their needs as a Canadian operating company.

Deena and her team knew they wanted to bring their financial processes in-house and find a solution that would streamline approvals and accounting, without compromising on spend control. Having had experience with numerous expense management software and corporate cards, Deena wanted a tool that met their needs as a Canadian operating company.  Namely, one that supported cross-border transactions, provided both CAD and USD cards, and supported connections to their Canadian bank accounts. These criteria and more gave Float the edge over alternatives.

Decentralizing the Approval Process

“We’ve decentralized the approval process so that it’s not all on finance. It’s really the team leads now who are responsible for the budget and can approve their team’s spend requests.”

Where before all spend requests were coming through Finance for approval, with Float Deena could now set up an automated approval process to drive efficiencies. Using Float’s Approval Policies the team could proactively route spend requests by team and amount. “We’ve decentralized the approval process so that it’s not all on finance. It’s really the team leads now who are responsible for the budget and can approve their team’s spend requests,”  says Deena. By setting up custom thresholds, requests now only go to the right person (or people) at the company to approve things quickly and keep projects moving. 

The dynamic, added layers of approvers for higher spend volumes give the team additional control, security and peace of mind while removing bottlenecks for smaller spend requests. The Finance Team is now only looped in when their discretion is needed.

Corporate Cards with Smart Controls

With card limits and expirations in place, unexpected price changes to contracts won’t go through, letting the team manage renewals that may have slipped under the radar. 

Pre-Float, Practice Better was operating with four company cards from their bank. With multiple employees putting spend through on each card, managing risk was difficult. “If, there are fraudulent transactions, it’s now easier to flag and manage. Before Float, we had four main corporate credit cards which all transactions would go through, and the cards would get shared across team members if ad-hoc spending was required.” says Deena.

If a card was breached, a time-consuming process would ensue to rectify the issue and ensure recurring transactions (like subscriptions) weren’t paused.  “I would be on the phone for two hours trying to get a reversal and issue a new card. Then I’d have to update card information because the old card was cancelled.”

Now with Float, the company gets unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards they can securely issue to employees individually. If a card is compromised, they can quickly cancel it without impacting multiple teams and subscriptions. And there’s no more waiting on hold with the bank. 

Practice Better issues each employee their own physical card when they onboard at the company and starts them off with a zero-dollar limit to prevent unwanted spend, a feature unique to Float. When they need to spend, say for a company off-site, the Finance team can give them spending power on their cards with a temporary limit increase.

Being a SaaS company, the team also has several software subscriptions. With Float they can issue vendor-specific virtual cards in both CAD and USD to manage their software spend, while saving on foreign transaction (FX) fees. Each card maps to a different bill with recurring limits in place so they’re never overcharged. Deena has also found setting up cards for unique vendors helps with contract management “A problem I’ve had in past organizations is not being able to know when a contract is renewing. It’s really hard to go back and say hey we need to renegotiate this contract after the new term is auto-renewed.”, says Deena. With card limits and expirations in place, unexpected price changes to contracts won’t go through, letting the team manage renewals that may have slipped under the radar. 

6x Faster Closes with Float

“Where it took 12 days before, I can now close expenses in one or two days. It just reconciles so easily.”

After bringing bookkeeping fully in-house, the team leaned on Float’s Accounting Automations to streamline transaction coding, receipt collection and reconciliation with Xero. Deena set up custom Submission Policies to specify which details employees should submit after a transaction is made (like a GL code or receipt). To further automate coding, she leveraged Float’s Merchant Rules. Whenever a transaction is made with a merchant the company commonly spends at, she can have GL codes, tax codes, tags and account vendors automatically attached to the line item. 

By month-end, transactions are largely already export-ready, but when she needs to take a second look Deena can filter transactions (by merchant or compliance status for example) and quickly make necessary updates in bulk. With the coding happening throughout the month, she can check in periodically and flag compliant transactions as ‘ready to export’ for a smooth formal close. “Where it took 12 days before, I can now close expenses in one or two days. It just reconciles so easily,” says Deena. She can also now export transactions to Xero through Float’s Accounting Sync in a single click. “I like the integration piece with Float. It’s really easy. With our Xero integration, everything is just posted in real-time versus with the other credit card platforms.”

Streamlining Spend While Empowering the Company

“She felt empowered that she could pay for something without needing to go through Finance. She could work with her VP and get the approval done in a seamless way.”

Implementing Float has proven transformative for Practice Better, especially when addressing spend management for a scaling SaaS company. Deena and the finance team successfully transitioned from an outsourced bookkeeping model to a fully in-house approach leveraging Float’s automations and controls to streamline approvals, mitigate risk, and optimize accounting. Along with the time and cost savings that the finance team generated for themselves, they helped the employees at Practice Better move faster as well. Deena recalls a marketer at the company commenting on her pain-free business purchases using Float. “She felt empowered that she could pay for something without needing to go through Finance. She could work with her VP and get the approval done in a seamless way. It’s not a pain point that they have to struggle through just to get a $2,000 payment out.” Ultimately with Float, not only were the finance team’s operations streamlined, but they also empowered employees, fostering a positive spend management culture at the growing SaaS company.


About Practice Better

Practice Better is a leading all-in-one practice management software solution transforming how Health & Wellness professionals run their practices and support their clients. You can find them at practicebetter.io.

Creative Production Company Makers Chooses Float to Scale Spend Management

In the world of creative production where innovation and creativity drive success, Toronto-based Makers faced distinctive challenges as they grew. With roots in advertising the company soon expanded its reach to entertainment, producing documentaries, feature films, and TV series while cultivating a global producer network. 

As the company evolved from a small team of freelance producers to a production powerhouse, its project-based work created an ever-growing transaction volume that soon became a bottleneck for managing finances efficiently. Alex Dvorkin, Makers’ Head of Finance joined at a pivotal moment in the company’s expansion and championed Float’s corporate cards and spend management software as a tech-forward solution to streamline operations. 

Navigating Growing Pains

“Our growth led to a need for better controls and data practices. You’d have to collect receipts and do everything manually. That was a big strain on the company as it was going through a growth phase and the transaction volume was becoming unsustainable.”

When Makers was a smaller team, sharing a few corporate cards from the bank sufficed. However, as they expanded, the few company cards weren’t working for the team. With the company’s growing number of producers often out on set and on the go, they needed access to their own corporate cards to make purchases for their projects – everything from set props to vehicle rentals and any necessary travel for the project. As the volume of transactions across the company also grew exponentially, manual processes for receipt collection, financial controls, and accounting also became hurdles for the Finance Team. “Our growth led to a need for better controls and data practices,” reflects Alex. “You’d have to collect receipts and do everything manually. That was a big strain on the company as it was going through a growth phase and the transaction volume was becoming unsustainable.” 

Float to the Rescue: Finance’s First Choice

“Having all of the controls within Float definitely helps in terms of just feeling comfortable with the number of cards in circulation.”

Already aware of Float’s smart automations, controls and corporate cards, Alex selected Float to boost the team’s efficiency and data hygiene. With Float he first sought out the ability to issue the company’s team of producers their own corporate cards. With so many employees across departments having access to company funds, Alex also wanted to ensure the right limits and financial controls were in place to mitigate any risk to the company. “Having all of the controls within Float definitely helps in terms of just feeling comfortable with the number of cards in circulation,” Alex says.

Float additionally helps Makers get real-time insight into company spend. As the Finance Team grew and their close process became more formalized and fluid, they wanted a solution that synced seamlessly with their accounting software. The company’s transactions would now largely be coded automatically and be export-ready throughout the month. Makers’ internal project management system which connected to QuickBooks could now have the real-time financial data needed for reporting and quick decision-making on day-to-day operations. No more manual work and delays getting monthly records of transactions from the bank into their accounting tool. “With the bank, it would be harder to manage all of it and know who’s spending what while making sure the company is adequately protected and able to operate,” notes Alex. 

Controlling Spend while Empowering Spenders

With multiple projects of varying lengths happening simultaneously at the company, Alex needs to ensure that producers have access to the funds they need to spend on their projects. With Float, Alex can issue physical and virtual corporate cards to employees and in some cases, contractors, with either a recurring limit or a set temporary limit that can expire at the end of a project period. 

Suppose employees need additional funds beyond their anticipated budgets or need new funds for an upcoming project. In that case, they can quickly submit a request for a temporary limit increase in the app for the Finance Team to approve. “This is really valuable because I want them to normally be at one spend limit. Instead of having to go and change it back, the limit increase will expire. I don’t have to keep track of it.” Alex gets notified about spend requests promptly with Float’s Slack integration and can issue approvals with a simple click, to keep employees unblocked and spending.

Streamlining Accounting for a Faster Close

“It has cut the time it used to take me to process expenses by half. As a result, we’re able to close our books quicker and stay on top of coding throughout the month.”

Float’s Accounting Automations also helped the team save time by coding their high volume of transactions efficiently and accurately. The team set up custom Submission Policies for expenses unique to different projects and teams. These policies designate which supporting details employees are required to submit after a purchase is made (like receipts or accounting codes). When employees are required to add accounting details to their transactions, they’ll only see potential GL codes that are relevant to their policy, team and spend type, to make coding simple and reduce potential errors. “It’s made it easier to make sure things get coded right. It’s very obvious for them. They don’t have a huge list of GL codes they need to figure out,” Alex says. With employees empowered to code their own transactions, the Finance team saved hours each month by no longer having to search for missing information for hundreds of expenses.

When it’s time to close the books, Makers’ Accounting Associate Alyssa Ryan can filter the company’s transactions by close period and quickly identify any transactions that might be flagged by Float as non-compliant against the company’s unique Submission Policies. With the bulk of transactions already coded by Float’s automations or by the company’s employees, the closing process is streamlined for the Finance Team, with little manual work on their part. “It’s made coding transactions significantly faster and easier. I no longer have to spend hours creating journal entries or tracking down receipts and manually matching them,” says Alyssa. “It has cut the time it used to take me to process expenses by half. As a result, we’re able to close our books quicker and stay on top of coding throughout the month.” Once she confirms the expenses are accurate and ready for export, Alyssa can sync transactions in bulk to QuickBooks with a click. 

Creativity Meets Financial Efficiency

In embracing Float’s innovative solutions, Makers not only overcame the challenges posed by their rapid growth but also elevated their financial management practices. The seamless integration of corporate cards, real-time insights, and automated accounting processes allowed Makers to focus on what they do best—creating exceptional content. By creating financial controls tailored for the different groups within the company, Makers struck a balance between oversight and flexibility. As they continue to navigate the ever-evolving Production industry, Float remains a steadfast partner, empowering Makers to thrive at the intersection of creativity and financial efficiency.


About Makers

Makers is cultivating a new breed of Producer, equipped to solve global problems through collaboration and creativity. Starting from advertising, expanding globally, and into various disciplines, we’re developing a tech platform and a school to foster this mission. You can find Makers at makers.to.

Simple Pricing for Your Stage of Growth

Float’s financial platform is trusted by thousands of Canadian companies to save their teams time and money each month. 

From smart corporate cards with custom limits and controls to easy-to-use employee reimbursements, Float’s all-in-one approach to modern financial management benefits companies across industries and teams of all sizes. 

But while our customers’ average savings are the same (7%), their business needs are not.

We know that as our customers scale, their need for controls, custom automations, dedicated support, and financial flexibility have often grown alongside their operations. That’s why we’ve created simple and transparent plans on Float, built for Canadian teams of every size so you’re never paying for more than you need. 

Below is a breakdown of the features in Float’s three plans, so you can choose the one that works best for your stage of growth (or figure out when it’s time to upgrade). 

But first…

What is Float?

While Float offers corporate cards and reimbursements, we’re neither a bank or basic expense management software! 

If you’re with a Big 5, you likely know that banks tend to charge high annual card fees and have limited software – meaning manual expense reports and lengthy card reconciliations. While point solutions like expense software can help automate some pieces of the puzzle, they can be difficult to implement, have expensive per user costs, and still create delays in receipt collection and financial reporting. 

That’s where Float comes in. With unlimited virtual cards powered by custom limits and controls, finance teams can proactively enable team spending while getting real-time reporting and automated receipt collection. Paired with easy-to-use employee reimbursements, you can control your company spending in one platform and eliminate tedious administrative tasks.

No annual card fees and no steep per user costs. Float’s monthly plans scale from free to contract-based with optional integration add-ons, so you can choose a plan that best suits your business needs. 

The Essential Plan

Best For: Small teams looking to streamline payments, receipt collection and accounting reconciliation. 

In a Nutshell

Float’s Essential Plan is free to use, offering small Canadian teams a simple way to manage company spend. The team can issue unlimited virtual corporate cards to the company’s spenders through single-level approvals, while streamlining receipt collection. Accounting is made simple either with seamless syncs to QuickBooks Online or Xero, or through Custom Exports. Get started for free.

Plan Highlights

  • 20 physical corporate cards
  • Unlimited virtual corporate cards
  • Automated receipt collection and matching
  • Expense management with custom card limits, workflows, and mobile app
  • Employee reimbursements
  • Real-time reporting and savings insights
  • Accounting sync with QuickBooks Online, Xero, or Custom Exports
  • HRIS integrations
  • Fast (and friendly) Support and leading rates and rewards

When to Upgrade

The team grows beyond 20 spenders and needs more complex approval and expense policies, as well as stricter card compliance. 

The Professional Plan

Best For: Growing teams looking to use custom approval workflows and spend controls to manage spend across the company (all while saving time). 

In a Nutshell

Float’s Professional Plan offers a fully integrated spend management solution for growing Canadian teams. You get everything in the Essential Plan (and more). Issue unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards to the team with custom multi-level approval workflows and smart card controls to prevent unwanted spend. Custom Submission Policies and Accounting Automations work together to code transactions for you and streamline the close process. The Professional Plan is $10 CAD per user a month (with a $100 minimum). Start your free 90-day trial today. 

Plan Highlights – Everything in Essential, plus:

  • Unlimited physical and virtual cards
  • Team management
  • Multi-level spend requests and approvals
  • Advanced accounting with NetSuite
  • Card compliance rules for cardholders
  • Priority live chat Support
  • Transaction review
  • Pre-Funded one day transfers and Charge Card eligibility
  • MFA and SAML SSO 

When to Upgrade

The team grows beyond around 50 spenders and now has more complex user management and security needs. 

The Enterprise Plan

Best For: Teams who have scaled, seeking a full suite of spend management features and financial flexibility. 

In a Nutshell

Float’s Enterprise Plan is the best option for Canadian teams who have scaled. Along with Float’s smart card corporate cards, accounting automations and customized spend management features, you’ll get white glove support with Float’s Implementation Team to migrate to Float with ease. As a larger business, you’ll also be assessed for faster underwriting, higher limits, and greater access to credit. To get our Enterprise Plan book a demo with our Sales Team. 

Plan Highlights – Everything in Professional, plus:

  • Custom implementation
  • Premium support and access to new features
  • Dedicated Customer Success Manager
  • Advanced security and SOC letters
  • Multi-entity support
  • Eligibility for Custom Charge Card Services terms with a dedicated underwriting team

Calculate your Potential Savings

No matter the plan, you’ll save through financial rewards, time savings, and efficiencies by eliminating unwanted spend. Calculate your ROI by moving to Float at the link below where we provide you with real customer-reported savings benchmarks compared against your existing solution.


Ready to Get Started?

Customers reported an average savings of 6.8% on their total spend with Float – and that’s just the beginning.*  To get Float for your team you can start for free on the Essential Plan, start a 30-day free trial of the Professional Plan, or contact sales to book a demo and learn more. Visit floatfinancial.com/pricing

*Based on a user survey. 

Get export-ready faster with Float’s Accounting Workboard

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. 

Find Efficiency with Float’s Accounting Hub

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.

Get Fast Transfers to Float

Whether you’re a startup, small business, or established firm, cash flow is the lifeblood of the business. Optimizing money in and out of the company to keep cash on hand as long as possible is often top of mind for customers in their spend management strategies. 

That’s why we introduced Fast Funding – one business day transfers when moving money to Float – for eligible customers on Float’s Professional Plan.

In Canada, where bank transfers typically take a minimum of three business days to reach their destination, Fast Funding goes beyond the status quo to bring customers reliable access to the funds they need to spend for their companies. Transfers to Float are fast-tracked to quickly access available funds, so your team doesn’t have to worry about interruptions to spend.

How it Works ⚙️

1. Connect your bank account(s)

The first step to becoming eligible for Fast Funding is connecting to your bank(s) in Float’s Banking Hub. Once connected, customers will automatically be reviewed on the basis of each account type (CAD or USD) to see if they qualify for accelerated transfers to Float. If eligible, you’ll be notified by email and in-app to swiftly transition to Fast Funding.

2. Fund Your Float Account

Once you qualify for Fast Funding, all of your transfers will be eligible for a one business day transfer time. Once you initiate a transfer we’ll confirm if the transfer qualified for an accelerated payout and when the estimated arrival date is.

3. Stay Eligible

Float uses your secure banking connection to assess your good standing for Fast Funding. This connection refreshes monthly. To stay eligible for accelerated transfers, simply keep your bank connection up-to-date and respond to any prompts to refresh your connection in the Banking Hub.

Earn 4% on Your Transfers

When you transfer funds to your Float Account you earn 4% interest on your cash balance (from the first dollar). That’s better-than-bank rates with no lockups or penalties to withdraw your funds. That means you can choose to spend your earnings on your Float cards or withdraw your funds at any time if you need to.
Curious to know how much your business could earn with Float’s high-interest yield accounts? Use our Earnings Calculator to estimate your annual savings.


Put Float into Action 🎬

For a quick demo on all things Fund Management in Float, you can watch this video from our Product team.

If you’re an existing customer who hasn’t used Fast Funding yet, head over to your Banking Hub and connect to your bank account(s) to see if you’re eligible. Not a customer yet and want to learn more about Fast Funding or earning a 4% return with Float Yield? Our sales team is happy to chat. Book a demo or get started directly today.

Introducing the Float Mobile App

The much-anticipated Float mobile app is here! 

Float cardholders can now easily manage their individual spending on-the-go, from card requests to receipt capture to reimbursements. Managers and Administrators can also manage company and team spend from anywhere, with timely push notifications on business spend and simple approvals in-app.

Let’s dive into what makes Float’s new app so game changing for business spending in Canada. (Already a Float customer? Be sure to download the app here).

Seamless Requests and Approvals

Spenders can now request new spend for business payments in just a few taps right from their phone – especially useful for those impromptu purchases that pop up when you’re on-the-go and away from a desktop. You’ll be able to:

  • Request a net new Float corporate card (this is a great option to segment spend for a new vendor or a one-time purchase
  • Request a card limit increase for a purchase on an existing Float card (either recurring or temporary)
  • Submit expenses for reimbursements as soon as you spend for speedier repayments 

When Spenders submit new requests on the app they’ll be prompted to select a Submission Policy as usual, so they’re spending within the guardrails of your company’s unique expense policies.

💡Pro-tip: Be sure to turn push notifications on to stay in the know! Managers get notified right away via push notification to quickly approve new requests. Once approved, the Spender is also notified immediately via push and brought back to the app to access their new card details.

Simplified Business Spending

We wanted to give Spenders easy visibility into their individual spending, while enjoying a frictionless experience making business purchases. On the new mobile app you can see all of your spend in one simple view and access card details simply to make business payments wherever you are.

  • No more wondering what you have left to spend across your Float cards. Quickly view your physical and virtual card limits (for CAD and USD spend)
  • Access your card details securely from your phone to pay vendors online
  • Add your card details to your phone’s mobile wallet to conveniently tap to pay

We’ll send Spenders push notifications whenever a transaction goes through on one of their Float cards, so they are always aware of their spend (and can upload receipts and expense details as soon as a purchase is made).

Hassle-free Compliance

Your company’s expense policies don’t need to be a mystery to Spenders. With policies implemented directly on Float Cards, they can easily make purchases for the business within your guidelines. 

With card controls like custom limits and merchant controls, Float automates the expense process, meaning no more receipt chasing at month-end. Spenders can tap into their Float Card details within the app, and view the Submission Policies and Approved Categories applied to their card spending by the Finance team to make informed spending decisions on behalf of the company. 

  • Spenders get prompted to add receipts, tags, and codes from their phone as soon as they spend to stay compliant
  • Spenders can snap a photo of a receipt with their phone’s camera or upload a photo from their camera roll (before those receipts go missing)
  • Spenders can easily view all non-compliant transactions that they need to take action on

Spenders get reminded via push to upload receipts along with any other information your company’s Submission Policy requires (like vendor, GL codes, or purchase descriptions) to make closing the books easier for the Finance Team.


Smart spend management that fits in your pocket

If you haven’t rolled out the new mobile app to your team yet, don’t wait. The app is available to download for free on the App Store and on Google Play. We’ve created this one-pager for your Spenders to help get them set up on the app. Not yet a Float customer? Book a demo or sign up today to start simplifying spending for your team.

The Month-End: November

Year-end is fast approaching and here at Float we’re continuing to roll out features to help you manage company spend efficiently. From new security measures to ensuring your heard-earned money works even harder for you, November saw exciting additions to spend management with Float. Read on to learn what’s new in the platform.

Float’s New Notifications Centre 🔔

With so much on-the-go for the Finance Team, staying in the loop is a necessity for managing company spend. We’ve been listening to your feedback and we’re thrilled to introduce enhancements that puts the reins of your company’s spend management notifications firmly in your hands. You’ll now have greater autonomy and choice over which notifications you receive (and who at the company receives them). Whether it’s account updates, approval requests, or daily receipt reminders, you can now cherry-pick the notifications that truly matter to your business. We’ve also introduced some new notifications to help you better stay on top of your Spending Power in Float:

  • Choose to keep all Admins in the loop, so your team doesn’t lose visibility if a Primary Admin is out of office
  • Get notified about Spenders’ card declines, so you can ensure critical business payments go through on time
  • Set custom thresholds and be alerted when Spending Power falls too low, so you always have enough cash on hand to pay vendors

Check out your updated Notifications Centre today and easily manage your notifications, so they best match your company’s workflows.

Now Earning 4%

As of December 1st, we’re making your dollars work even harder for you. Float customers are now earning 4% interest on their CAD and USD cash balances. The best part? There’s no need to lift a finger – your existing Float Accounts for your pre-funded cards automatically kick into earnings mode. Similar to cashback* your well-deserved rewards will be paid out like clockwork on the first of each month. Keep an eye on your inbox for a special rewards email on January 1st and in the meantime feel free to log in to your Banking Hub anytime to see your company’s earnings to-date.

Animation of 4%

Putting Security First: Float is Now PCI-DSS Certified

At Float we believe that your financial security comes first. Following our recent SOC 2 Certification, we’re proud to announce another significant milestone – Float is now officially PCI-DSS Certified. What does that mean for you? In simple terms, it signifies that Float adheres to the highest standards of security in the storage, processing, and transmission of cardholder data. We stand tall as one of the few Canadian financial technology companies with both SOC 2 and PCI-DSS certificates, highlighting our commitment to your security every step of the way. We hope you choose Float not just for a faster month-end, but for the peace of mind that your financial data is in safe hands.

A Faster November Month-End

The updates to your financial management journey don’t stop at new notifications and earnings. We’ve also continued to simplify your accounting processes for a faster month-end. We hope with these latest enhancements, closing November’s books have never been smoother:

  • Spenders can now add receipts to transactions at any time
  • Additional Docs are easily viewable and updatable
  • Re-exporting transactions to QBO or Xero at month-end? No more duplicates – the original transaction gets updated seamlessly 

Spend less time on administrative tasks and more on what truly matters. A final reminder that your old Ready to Export page is going away December 15th. If you haven’t used the new Transactions Export page in your Accounting Hub yet, this is your sign to try it out!


Until Next Time 👋

As we approach year-end, precision, control and efficiency become bigger themes for Finance teams. At Float, we’re excited to continue to unveil new updates that are redefining spend management. Whether it’s with our new accounting automations or flexible spend notifications, we want to alleviate the stresses your team encounters in their day-to-day. If you’re not a Float customer (yet) signing up is simple. Get started for free or book a demo to connect with our sales team. Happy managing, finance professionals!

The Month-End: October

We’re transitioning out of October’s spooky season, but for many finance professionals the real scare remains – a time-consuming month-end. However, we’re here to put your financial fears to rest, and this month we’ve got all treats and no tricks for our customers at Float.

Transaction Splits for All

Transaction Splits is now available for Float customers on both the Professional and Essential plans (including Managers and Spenders too). That means every Float customer can now split different amounts to different accounts, and cardholders can now split their own transactions too. To enable Transaction Splits for Managers and Spenders, head to the “Settings – General Account” page in your Float Administrator dashboard. Spenders will be notified to log in to Float and itemize transactions for easy export. It’s all about simplifying your financial process.

Close Faster with Custom Accounting

Float’s new Accounting Hub is designed to streamline your financial close. We’ve introduced enhanced functionality to ensure your accounting syncs are tailored to your unique business needs, so you don’t have to burn the midnight oil at month-end. Customize columns you see to match your workflow, ensuring you only see what you need. Get insight into non-compliant transactions making sure every transaction is above-board and ready for export. Once reviewed, open exported transactions directly to Xero, QBO, and NetSuite – no need to fumble around with different tools. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out your new Accounting Hub today to make your next month end with Float that much faster.

The Mobile App You’ve All Been Waiting For

You asked and we answered. The Float mobile app is on the horizon and we couldn’t be more excited. This app will allow your team to manage finances on the go, offering convenience and efficiency. Your team will soon be able to:

  • Request spend and reimbursements with just a few taps
  • Capture receipts directly within the app, reducing the need for receipt-chasing at month-end 
  • View all their transactions, complete with compliance status, in one simple view

The mobile app will streamline how your team spends with a hassle-free experience. Stay tuned for the official announcement.


Until Next Time 👋

Float is your trusted partner in making managing your company spend less intimidating and more efficient. With features like Transaction Splits, our new custom Accounting Hub, and the upcoming mobile app, we’re here to support you in your journey to smarter spend management. If you’re not a Float customer (yet) signing up is simple. Get started for free or book a demo to connect with our sales team. Happy managing, finance professionals!