Category: Expense Management

In today’s fast-paced business world, marketing teams need to be agile and responsive. However, managing marketing expenses can often slow things down. A well-crafted marketing expense policy is crucial for balancing financial control with the flexibility marketers need. Let’s explore how Float, a leading expense management solution, can help Canadian marketing teams optimize their spending while adhering to company policies.

The Importance of a Marketing Expense Policy

A marketing expense policy is a set of guidelines that outline how marketing teams can spend company funds. It typically covers:

• Approved categories of marketing expenses
• Spending limits for different activities
• Approval processes for various expense types
• Documentation requirements for reimbursement

Having a clear marketing expense policy helps:

1. Control costs
2. Ensure compliance with company and legal standards
3. Streamline the approval process
4. Provide transparency in marketing spending

Common Challenges in Marketing Expense Management

Marketing teams often face unique expense management challenges:

• Frequent small purchases for digital ads
• Varied expenses for events and campaigns
• Need for quick approvals on time-sensitive opportunities
• Difficulty tracking ROI on marketing spend

How Float Revolutionizes Marketing Expense Policies

Float’s innovative expense management platform addresses these challenges head-on, helping marketing teams implement and adhere to their expense policies more effectively.

1. Easily request cards for marketing spend  🙌🏻

Your marketing team needs to be able to make strategic decisions fast, without any bottlenecks. Our Expense Policy features enable Finance Admins to give marketing team leaders the authority to set spending limits on cards and quickly approve spend requests from their staff.

You can log into Float at any time and easily request a single use virtual card for purchases like swag orders, props for shoots or photography equipment. For advertising and software subscriptions, you can request a recurring virtual card. Virtual cards are issued instantly and accepted everywhere VISA and Mastercard are – all you have to do is simply copy and paste the card details into the vendor’s billing details page.

2. Instantly create a virtual card by vendor 💳

Create a virtual card by vendor to easily categorize the types of recurring online spend your marketing team is making. A virtual card for every vendor gives you the option to create daily, weekly or even monthly recurring cards with assigned budgets. For example, if you know that your Facebook ad spend is $40K/month, you can create a recurring monthly card with that limit.

A virtual card by vendor allows you to:

💵 Set monthly budgets for specific marketing activities
👀 Easily track and control spending over the month
☑️ Set limits to every card to ensure spend isn’t exceeded
✋🏽 Ensure vendors don’t overcharge the card without your authorization
💳 Avoid disrupting other subscriptions or payments when you pause or cancel a card

3. Use physical cards for real world expenses 💳

The finance team can issue a physical card to each marketing team member who has on-the-go expenses for travel, conferences, or client meetings. Float offers unlimited physical cards to Professional plan members, and with the ability to set card limits and apply automated expense policies, there’s no reason to hold out.

Cardholders are automatically reminded to easily send Float receipts and assign pre-defined GL codes as soon as the purchase is made, eliminating month end expense reports and reconciliations.

4. Track spending in real time without any guesswork ✅

Managing corporate spending closely is on everyone’s minds right now. If your finance team doesn’t have a smart solution in place, it’s likely taking over their 9-5. 🤯 Using Float, marketing leaders can log into the platform at any time and monitor their team’s spending in real time. Expenses like Google ads, travel costs and even miscellaneous expenses like morning coffee and lunch are all visible and categorized by vendors too! Gone are the days of asking for budget updates over Slack and tracking spend through a spreadsheet. Float makes everything available for you right on the dashboard. No guesswork, no errors and no stress! 👍🏼

Managers can also assign auto-tags to clearly define each employee’s role and spending authority. As for the finance team, Float grants them full visibility over what every department is spending, what they’re purchasing and whether their budgets need to be increased.

5. Collect and manage receipts in a flash – literally. 📸

With so many transactions being made, marketing teams typically generate a ton of receipts. Float makes it easy to stay on top of those receipts through our SMS receipt upload and email receipt feature. Spenders can simply snap a picture of their receipt and upload it into the platform immediately after a transaction! And if they don’t, managers have the option to send out automated reminders until a receipt is submitted. No more chasing employees down! 🏃🏻‍♂️ Float also provides the option to tag expenses by vendor or category and add additional notes to every receipt submission so that managers know exactly what the purchase was for. 

Float is Canada’s only all-in-one corporate cards, reimbursements, and bill pay platform that helps customers:

• Earn cashback on all categories and save on FX
• Generate 4% interest on funds held with Float
• Eliminate expense reports and receipt chasing
• Close the books 5x faster at the month-end

Want to learn how companies like Clutch, Neo, Knix, and 1,000s of other Canadian businesses on average save 7% of their monthly spend with Float? Get started with Float today by clicking the button below!

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Want to learn more before singing up? Book a demo today to learn more about the product from our team!

Today we released new data that shows companies are struggling with managing corporate spend, particularly with the shift to a remote or hybrid workforce. The survey, conducted among business decision makers on the Angus Reid Forum, reveals the negative impacts of inefficient spend management on company security, workforce productivity and employee happiness — which are of increasing concern as businesses navigate the uncertain economic climate.

Key survey highlights include:

• 61 per cent of businesses who have most or all employees working remotely express that expense reporting is one of the most tedious jobs in their organization
• More than half (51%) at these companies agree that time spent reporting expenses negatively impacts their ability to accomplish work
• 49 per cent of businesses where most or all employees work remotely share company credit card across multiple employees, and among this group, 63 per cent share card details over Slack or email, more than three times the proportion of businesses with only some employees working remotely (18%)
• Seven-in-ten (71%) businesses report that their employees incur company expenses on personal credit cards, increasing to 80 per cent for businesses with remote employees

Shift to remote work has created new pain points for employees and HR leaders

The pandemic was an unexpected push to remote work that created operational challenges as businesses moved quickly to adapt. Even in a post-COVID world, the strain on employees and HR leaders lingers as companies settle permanently into hybrid and flexible working arrangements. Four-in-five (80%) businesses with remote employees have staff who incur company expenses on their personal credit cards, and 45 per cent report that employees are incurring more company expenses personally for reimbursement since shifting to remote work. With inflation and the cost of living rising, this is a significant financial burden for many Canadians. 

For HR leaders, maintaining existing benefits such as team building activities and socials, as well as managing new employee benefits brought on by remote work arrangements, has resulted in difficulties with expense tracking. Over half (54%) of businesses working primarily remotely report an increase in funds or stipends distributed to employees, and half (51%) of businesses who had most or all of their employees shift to remote work said that it has made receipt tracking more complicated. On both ends, more than half (53%) at these companies agree that expense reporting is a major pain point for employees, and 51 per cent agree that time spent reporting expenses negatively impacts their ability to accomplish work. As remote or hybrid work becomes the norm, these challenges will only become more prevalent unless businesses adapt new processes and technology to streamline spend management.

Concerns for corporate spend management in a tough economic climate

As recession fears grow in Canada, business leaders are increasingly focused on maximizing productivity and finding cost-saving opportunities. The survey found an operational bottleneck amongst many Canadian businesses to be their manual expense tracking, which directly impacts productivity. 82 per cent of businesses spend at least a day to close their books at month-end, and among businesses whose workforce shifted to remote work during the pandemic, two-in-five spend at least four days on the task. This is significant as almost three-in-four (74%) businesses agree that they could spend less time closing their books at month’s end.

The ripple effect of heavy manual expense tracking is that it leaves businesses unable to scale up without increasing overhead. Currently, the most time-consuming expense reporting tasks for companies that have shifted to remote work are: ensuring expenses are accurate (64%), fixing human errors (56%), tracking down employees for receipts (56%) and manually reconciling and entering data (55%). These are pain points that will become larger as a company grows, limiting Canadian businesses’ ability to shift as needed during a volatile economic period.

Additional findings include:

• Almost half (48%) of businesses with most or all employees shifting to remote work are seeing increased paperwork from expense reporting
• 30 per cent of businesses who have most or all of their employees working remotely use 6 or more different finance software and tools for accounting-related work 
• More than two-in-five (44%) businesses with primarily remote employees plan to purchase new software for finance and accounting-related work in the coming year

Methodology: These are the findings of a survey conducted by Float from May 26-30, 2022 among a nationally representative sample of 427 Canadian finance decision makers at companies with 15-300 employees. All respondents were members of the online Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would yield a margin or error of +/- 4.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The survey was offered in both English and French.

They say if you follow all the rules, you miss out on all the fun. But when it comes to your financial policies, you’ll want to ensure your team knows every single one! 

The road to better corporate spending is always smoother when there are robust financial policies in place. They instantly map out expectations from every employee and link their actions directly to the bottom line. For startups in particular where growth is fast and expenses pile on quick, this is even more essential. These policies act as a bridge between your finance team and employees and formally outline the “boundaries” of corporate spending in your organization. When everyone is aligned on this, you can expect greater compliance, lower risk of expense fraud and a healthier spend culture.

It keeps everyone aligned on spending goals 💰

By formally outlining financial policies, it’s an opportunity to get employees aligned and informed on the larger financial goals of the company. These policies communicate key financial expectations related to the distribution and use of corporate cards, spending responsibility as well as transaction limits across all departments. ✅ They also help to clearly define roles when it comes to spend and expense management. Having these policies in place are especially important during onboarding as you can set expectations early on and build a healthy spend culture from the moment they join. 👍🏼

It enables greater oversight and spend control 👀

As your team grows and more corporate cards are assigned, it becomes even more critical to have financial guidelines for spending – especially from a risk management standpoint. With more people having access to corporate funds, greater oversight and control is needed. 

At Float, we take this one step further by allowing managers not only to create policies but to distribute corporate cards with predefined limits. Not only does this allow you to protect your business but it also empowers employees to make smart spending decisions in a fast and reliable way – without long approval wait times.

It can save time and money with the help of automation 🙌🏾

Setting financial policies eliminates a lot of frustration and wasted time – especially during critical times like month-end. When you add automation into the mix, it’s even easier! Smart spend software like ours at Float can help to promote your financial policies and encourage compliance through a range of key features. 🤩 For example, our receipt collection feature not only allows companies to set a standard for how they wish to track and manage daily transactions but it also holds employees accountable to their spending. Once a transaction is made, employees are instantly prompted to submit a photo of their receipt. 🤳🏻 And if they don’t, finance managers can auto-lock the card after a certain number of receipts are left unsubmitted. 

At Float, we empower startups and SMEs to establish financial policies, simplify complex processes and gain more visibility into company-wide spending. We want to ensure that you’re equipped with everything you need to grow your team, spend smarter and keep a pulse on your finances at all times. Book a demo with us today and learn how Float can help you!

Keeping up with your corporate expenses can be a total nightmare but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, 15% of all Canadian SMEs have found tracking expenses and reconciling their books to be a major challenge. If your team is growing, there’s a good chance your expenses are too, which means getting a handle on your expense management is key. Finding a better way to track and manage corporate spending can save you thousands of dollars a year – and we’re here to let you in on the solution. 

It pays to keep track.

Canada Revenue Agency requires Canadian businesses to keep records of all transactions to support their income and corporate expense claims. Companies can claim tax deductions on expenses, but only if they have a valid proof of purchase and can prove it was a business expense. How can they do this? 🤔  By providing a receipt. 🧾  
If your corporate receipts aren’t organized or properly submitted, you won’t be able to use these expenses as a tax reduction, which means less money back in your pocket come tax season. That’s why companies need to invest in the proper tools to enable managers to easily collect and record receipts from employees all year round. This will help them easily track their expenses and have a better picture of where their money is going, who is spending it and why. When it comes time to file taxes, you’ll feel like a major weight is lifted off your shoulder!

Automate & Celebrate! 🤩

Let those piles of receipts and chasing employees down be a distant memory of the past. 👋🏽 Not only is it annoying and inefficient, but it just makes things more difficult than they need to be. We have a better way with Float. Our innovative expense software and corporate cards automate this entire process, helping companies easily track employee purchases in real time while eliminating all of the headaches and paperwork that come with it. When purchases are made using a Float card, employees are instantly notified to submit a digital receipt so that your finance team has everything they need to review expenses, manage budgets and easily claim tax deductions. Float not only helps teams save hours in expense management every month, but we also give you back control over corporate spending in your organization. Not to mention, keeping financial records in the cloud has proven to be safer and more secure – and good for our planet. 💚 If there is any damage such as a fire or flooding in the office, you can ensure that everything is protecting, floating in the cloud!

We’ve got you covered.

Our platform collects your receipts so that you don’t have to – leaving extra space in your filing cabinets and less stress on your mind. With Float, you can: 

Get started fast with our simple set-up & onboarding 🚀

Quickly and easily reconcile your books ⚡️

Track business purchases in real time 💸

Create financial policies for all employees to follow 👍🏾

Instantly notify employees to submit receipts after a transaction 🧾

Set spending limits & approve spend requests in seconds ⏰

Collect and review key financial data all in one place ✅

Are you ready to introduce smarter, more efficient financial processes in your business? Book a demo with Float today!

Have you ever wondered what employees are trying to pass off as legitimate business expenses? As a financial controller, you may think you’ve already seen it all. But our team at Float did some digging and uncovered some of the most outrageous expenses ever submitted. Here are some favourites.

Take your morning commute to new heights 💸

Ever wondered if a $2,500 helicopter ride labelled as “transportation” would be approved? Well, the answer is no. 🚁  However, during the pandemic, a $20K private jet to safely travel to an international photoshoot was quickly approved – no questions asked! ✈️

Something smells funky here 😬

Although it’s a key ingredient in some of our favourite recipes, it’s not quite the aroma you want while trying to get some shut eye on your business trip. In 2015, an employee from a sales team working in the food industry admitted to booking a separate hotel room for $85 per night to store hundreds of garlic samples simply because he couldn’t stand the smell. 👃🏼 The travel expense = not approved!

Repairs and maintenance…to thyself 💆🏼‍♀️

This past year an employee thought they would be able to get away with submitting a receipt for a $7K facelift, labelling it as repairs and maintenance. I guess you could say some repairs were made but not the kind that your CEO needs to pick up the tab for. 🤨

Everyone deserves a lunch break 🍽

Picture this, you’re a production crew member shooting a commercial on a farm. Among your fellow team members and models is a stable of horses waiting to enter the next scene. 🐎  Lunchtime rolls around and everyone’s gotta eat! In California, one woman felt that it was only right to expense lunch, even for the horses! 50 bags of carrots and a detailed explanation later, her finance team approved this and went on with their day. 🥕🤷🏻‍♀️

Allow us to pick your brain 🧠

How much does a human skull cost? Asking for a friend. In 2013, a finance manager expressed that one of the most bizarre expenses he came across was for a human skull.💀  While it was being used for a legitimate medical experiment, it’s not everyday that you see a transaction like this run through the general ledger. 

All jokes aside, many outrageous expense claims like the ones listed above can fall under the radar if a company doesn’t have a smart system in place. Using a platform like Float, finance managers can simplify expense management with full visibility over company spending, how much is spent and by who. It gives finance teams an eagle eye with more control and encourages employees to spend responsibly and ethically – minimizing the chances of ridiculous expense submissions. 👍🏼

A new year is the perfect time to have a clean slate. If you’re leading a startup, it’s a great opportunity to introduce new processes and leave the inefficiencies of the past year behind you. Use this first month of the new year to make business decisions or “resolutions” that will benefit you well beyond the next 12 months. A great place to start is changing the way you manage and control corporate spending with smart spend software. Let us tell you why.

Automate and hit the ground running 🏃🏻‍♂️💨

Smart spend software transforms the entire expense and spend management process by automating everything from invoice processing, spend approvals to recording transactions and issuing physical and virtual corporate cards. It quickly captures and stores all financial data online in real time and eliminates the tedious tasks that come with managing corporate expenses on a daily, monthly and annual basis. By simplifying employee access to corporate cards (no banks required), business purchases can be made easily without ever having to bring personal credit cards into the mix.👏🏼  So, in 2022, your finance team can axe those long hours inputting data and filing receipts and use their time to focus on more important work.

New year, better expense management

‘Tis the season for year-end accounting. If you’re currently in the middle of getting your ducks in a row and aren’t using smart spend software, listen up! 📣  When companies wait until the end of the year to gather receipts and review what they’ve spent, they often find themselves buried in expense reports and dumbfounded by the money they’ve spent. 🤯  With smart spend software, all of this can be put to bed. Expense reports are eliminated altogether, you can track spending in real time, prompt employees to submit receipts and easily review expense requests and approvals without ever having to chase anyone down. 

Tracking expenses on a daily basis gives you greater visibility into how your company is spending all year round, allowing you to establish clear financial policies, develop more strategic budgets and make year-end a happier time for everyone.👍🏼

Create a healthy company spend culture 😊 💵

A healthy spending culture is when an organization has the proper processes in place to manage and track spending.  It empowers companies, especially startups, to get everyone on board in the quest to spend smarter – that includes employees too. Smart spend software enables finance teams to set these foundational financial policies and spend controls that employees can understand and follow on a daily basis. It holds employees accountable to strategic budgets and workflows to keep everything organized for finance teams. Smart spend software also makes it easier for companies to issue physical and virtual corporate cards to employees, empowering them to make spending decisions and act on innovative ideas without a complex chain of command. All this together will evoke a healthy spend culture with improved operational efficiency and happy employees who are given greater autonomy and are more engaged to do their best work. 🤩

The countdown to smarter spending starts with Float 💸

Float gives businesses the power to set smarter spending goals and improve the way they manage their money. Our smart automation spend software and virtual cards bring greater efficiency, accuracy and oversight to your financial operations – all the things you want in your organization for 2022. 🙋🏼‍♂️

To learn more about how Float can help you start 2022 with a bang, connect with us today! 🍾

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!

Out with the old and in with the new — this is a common trend we’re seeing within startups as many look to drive efficiencies and leave traditional processes behind. In case you’re wondering, that includes manual expense reports. This time-consuming process has plagued nearly every business for more years than we’d like to count. But this is changing. There’s a surge of innovation happening today that’s making it possible for startups to do expense management better and faster — so much so that you can wave goodbye to manual expense reports.

Keeping things manual will cost you a pretty penny 💵

On average, it takes 20 minutes to file an expense report, plus any extra time finance teams spend reviewing them afterwards. For startups growing at rapid speed where expense reports are piling and resources are lean, things can start getting out of hand — especially with more company cards floating around and being shared among team members. 

Manual expense reports waste valuable time and resources and exhaust your finance teams with menial tasks like reconciling books and chasing employees down for receipts. Today with automated expense software, all of this can be done in a matter of seconds.⏱ All expenses are recorded in real time and upon every purchase, employees are instantly notified to submit their receipts. This makes life exponentially easier for finance teams, eliminating those long hours of reporting and all of the back and forth in between. 👏🏼

Better cost control for a brighter future ☀️

Automated expense software also provides startups greater visibility and control over company spending, while driving operational efficiencies at the same time. It shifts employees away from meaningless tasks so they can be more productive and focus on delivering higher value work. When finance teams are no longer bogged down by expense reporting, they’ll have more time to dive deeper into financial data and find opportunities to reduce operational costs. 💰 At the end of the day, all of these factors empower startups to better control their spending, which will ultimately impact their financial strength over time. This type of resilience is vital, especially for startups, as they quickly move from one growth stage to the next. 🚀

No more errors ✅

Approximately 19% of expense reports come back with errors — yikes! Correcting these mistakes creates more work for your finance team and even more discrepancies in your company’s financial data should they go unnoticed. Not to mention, it becomes difficult to determine the difference between instances of human error and repeat expense fraud. 🕵🏽‍♀️

Thanks to automation spending software, these costly issues can be slashed completely. With a more efficient system in place, finance teams can streamline their financial processes and have better oversight into how money is being spent, who is spending it and why. It also allows them to set clear spending controls and prevent unauthorized purchases, while making it easier to manage expenses in a way that’s accurate and up to date.

Everyone in the organization benefits 🤩

Let’s not forget that it also takes employees a lot of time and effort to fill out those expense requests and awaiting approval. Not to mention, the stress that comes with using your own personal credit card and counting down the days until reimbursement. 🙄 As we can see, manual expense reports require attention from all members of an organization, which is why axing them completely would benefit everyone on the team!  🙌  With all transactions recorded in real time, automation eliminates the need for expense reports altogether. It’s just that easy. 😄

We eliminated expense reports. Now what? 🤷🏾‍♀️

The answer is: Float! Our automation spend software is an innovative solution that helps startups fast track on their journey to growth and leave ancient, time-consuming reports and processes in the past where they belong. We intentionally designed this software to grow with you at high speed, accompanied by our physical and virtual corporate credit cards. It doesn’t matter how many cards are floating around, Float easily tracks your expenses in real time in one place, giving you full visibility and control over your company spend at all times. 

So long expense reports, don’t let the door hit you on the way out! 👋🏽

To learn more about Float, contact us today!

The way a company manages and spends their money can either make or break them. Losing grip of your finances can place roadblocks in your startup’s journey to growth and can cause many complications down the line. Staying on top of your expenses and monitoring them annually, monthly and even weekly is a great way to keep your finances in check and hold your teams accountable, setting you up for a future of success.

Your future depends on it 💰

Tracking your expenses gives you the insights to be strategic and innovative, while powering you to grow at the same time. It goes beyond recordkeeping and provides visibility and context to where your money is going, who’s spending it and why. With this, companies can get into the driver’s seat of their corporate spending, allowing them to make better decisions that align with their budget and overall objectives. 

When companies fail to track their expenses, it can lead to overspending and ultimately hinder expansion and profitability – whether it’s onboarding new talent or investing in innovative technology and infrastructure. For startups in particular, this is especially critical if you’re looking to enter your next stage of growth.

Rule out spending issues and expense fraud 🕵🏻‍♂️

Failing to track and monitor where your money is going is like being blindfolded every time you make a business decision. 🙈  Not only that, it can also muddy the waters when it comes to identifying spending issues or inflated expense claims. Without the proper visibility into your finances, you run the risk of losing valuable dollars and ultimately impacting your bottom line. Having a full view of your daily, monthly and annual expenses will quickly reveal any inconsistencies and red flags and allow you to immediately resolve them before it’s too late.

Be prepared for tax season 🗂

Tax season is stressful enough for finance teams and managers – and when financials are all over the place, the office can feel like a total warzone. 💣  Maintaining a consistent and up-to-date record of expenses will eliminate the need for team members to rummage through files and drawers to locate receipts at the very last minute. Not to mention, it drives considerable efficiencies so that your finance team is not bogged down and that tax-saving opportunities and deductibles are not overlooked. Some key tax deductibles to look out for include: 

• Business meals 🍕
• Phone & Internet expenses  🤳🏾
• Software expenses 💻
• Travel and lodging expenses 🚗
• Office supplies 📒
• Home office expenses 🏠

Being organized and tracking your expenses can save your company more money and put it toward other areas of the business. 💸 And let’s not forget, the Canada Revenue Agency requires you to keep record of all your transactions. So, if you ever find yourself in the middle of an audit, you’ll be glad you read this. 😉

Stay accountable to your budget ✅

Building a budget is the easy part, but sticking to it requires the most muscle. 💪 Tracking your company’s expenses is one of the most critical ways to ensure your spending habits are aligned with your business goals and budget. When your finances are organized, your finance team can easily identify where cuts need to be made and what areas you can invest in. For example, let’s say you want to increase your marketing budget for an upcoming product launch. Having a clear picture of financials across the company empowers you to make informed spending decisions, without spreading yourself too thin. 😅

Revenue minus expenses equals PROFITABILITY. 💵

When you track your expenses, it becomes much easier to calculate your company’s profitability – and do it accurately! Funding is a key component for the success of any startup. When you have a clean book of financials, you’ll be able to effectively attract investors and increase your chances of getting funding. With greater insight into your finances, you’ll be able to show investors what growth looks like and how you plan to get there. 👏🏼

Achieve all of the above with Float. 🤩

Float gives businesses the power to set clear parameters for their financial processes with our automated spend software and corporate cards. 🔋 We make it possible for startups and their employees to track spending in real time without all of the nitty-gritty manual work. Float provides an instant overview of individual, department, and category spend so you can scale with insight, while allowing to set spending limits to easily stay on budget. By automating this entire management process, we bring greater efficiency, accuracy and oversight to your financial operations. With our corporate cards, we also bring your employees into the equation, holding them accountable to submit their receipts on time, stay on budget and uphold the company’s policies. 

Float makes it easier to organize and manage your financials with the tools to level up and grow at high speed. 🏎💨 To learn more about how Float can help you, contact us today!

Getting credit can be difficult if you’re just starting out and many startups will often resort to using personal credit cards to make business purchases. While this might seem like the easier solution, it can lead to many hassles for your finance team down the line, especially in the case of a tax audit. If your company is currently double dipping in corporate and personal credit cards, here’s a list of reasons why you should keep these expenses separate. 

Managing your finances will be way easier.

We’re not saving the best for last here. Separating personal and business expenses can mean different things whether you’re an independent business owner, a startup or a large corporation. However, in any scenario, mixing up your personal and business expenses can make managing your finances way more complicated than it needs to be. By keeping these expenses separate, you are taking a major step to simplify spend management in your organization. Your finance team will no longer have to duplicate efforts and sort through various financial statements, adding years back to their life. 😜 When personal credit cards are eliminated from the equation, all company spending is coming from the same pot. This makes it easier to set spend controls, monitor employee and departmental spending and help companies stay on budget.

There’s endless tax-saving benefits.

Is there anything more motivating than extra money in your pocket? 💸 What if we told you that you could save more money each year and reinvest in your business by being more organized with your financials. When you take proper inventory of the money coming in and out of your organization, you’re left with accurate financial reporting to easily write off business expenses and capitalize on tax deductions. If your expense reports are a mish-mash of personal and business expenses, you could face the possibility of losing hard-earned tax savings – and no one wants that. Not to mention, Canada Revenue Agency requires all businesses to keep accurate financial records and stay on top of bookkeeping. Start making life easier by actively separating all things business and personal. Tax season will be a breeze and your finance team will be fully prepared in the case of an audit. You can thank us later. 😎

You’ll have more visibility of money coming and going.

Business credit cards make it possible to simplify the process of tracking and recording company expenses cross-functionally. In doing this, you can have a clear picture of the money coming in and out of your organization, granting better control on spending and the power to make more strategic decisions. It helps companies understand where they need to scale back spending, what areas of the business they can reinvest in, as well as identify any discrepancies or potential instances of fraud. When business finances are organized, up-to-date and properly tracked, companies will have a better grasp on where they are today and where they’re headed.

Float takes these benefits to the next level. ⬆️

It’s clear that creating a boundary between business and personal expenses has its clear benefits. But what if your company has trouble getting a corporate card? Look no further.

Float has taken away ALL of the headaches that come with financial management and created a simple solution. First, we make the process of getting a corporate credit card as fast as an Amazon Prime order. 💳💨 We’re not kidding, our corporate cards are approved in just 1 day and delivered to you within 3. Your employees will no longer have to carry the burden of using their personal credit cards to make work purchases. 

Next, Float saves you valuable time with our automated spend management software – doing all of the manual work for you. It’s designed to instantly record transactions, match receipts in real time and provide insight into when and why purchases are being made. Your finance team can also set spend controls and will no longer have to chase employees for receipts as they’ll be notified to upload them every time a purchase is made. Float makes it possible to get all employees aligned with company spending policies and goals by making corporate cards more accessible. So once you’ve separated those business and personal expenses, Float can take the reins to bring greater efficiency to your business and make spend management a piece of cake. 🍰 When it’s all said and done, we’re driven to bring a new level of visibility and control into capital spending so that companies are set up to grow and reach their highest potential. 

Connect with us today to learn more about how Float can help you.