Category Archives: Features

It’s the small things: Printing and CSV export

Posted on by

We’re (very) hard at work on some big things at Float at the moment, but we know that sometimes it’s small things that make people rather excited.

As such, I know that a number of you will be pretty pleased to see these two tiny little buttons on your Float cash flow:

Going to a meeting? Want to sit and think about your cash flow over a strong coffee away from your computer? That little print button is just for you.

Spreadsheet junkie? Hit that export to csv button as hard and often as you like!

Being able to get your data out of Float easily is just as important to us as getting your data into Float in the first place, so this is just the start. If you have any ideas about what you’d love to see in either printable reports, or CSV exports, just give us a shout in the comments or get in touch via email.

Subscribe for Float by Direct Debit with GoCardless

Posted on by

I’m delighted to announce that as of today if you are are a UK customer you can subscribe for Float by Direct Debit through GoCardless instead of through PayPal.

GoCardless is a great new service that makes it easy for companies (like us) to accept payments online via Direct Debit. And for customers, it’s much nicer to use than PayPal and because it’s direct debit you’re protected by the Direct Debit guarantee.

If you haven’t subscribed to Float yet, subscribing with GoCardless is easy, first just hit the button on the payment page (if you’re new to Float why not start a free trial now):

You’ll then be taken to GoCardless, which will take you through the rest of the setup process:

 

We’re pleased to use and support GoCardless, as it’s great to see companies making online payments easier in Europe. You may have also seen that FreeAgent recently announced that you can even accept payments online for your invoices with FreeAgent’s recent integration with GoCardless. This is a great move, as anything that makes it easier for your clients to pay you should be good news for your cash flow!

If you have any questions, or if you are an existing subscriber who would like to switch to GoCardless, just drop us a line.

 

Struggling to stay on top of your business’s financials? Float can help. Start managing your cashflow better today by signing up for a free trial.

Already using Float? Spaces on our Founder Plan are going fast. Help shape Float and get a bargain in the process by grabbing yourself a Founder Plan now.

 

 

Introducing Float’s new Sales Pipeline

Posted on by

A key part of building a good cash flow forecast for your business is having a good understanding of what income you are going to bring in over the next few months. This is often called something like your “sales pipeline”. A sales pipeline is useful for your business as it helps you keep track of:

  • How much you hope to bring in each month (in Float we call this your sales target).
  • What money you’ve actually brought in each month (these are the invoice receipts that Float imports from your accounting system).
  • How much money you are currently owed by customers, and when you should receive it (these are your invoices that Float imports from your accounting system).
  • What money you might make in the future if you win certain jobs or projects (in Float we call these projections).

Many CRM (customer relationship management) tools try to help you track some of these things, but no CRM tools actually tie these sales and potential sales back to your bank balance, to tell you how much money you will actually have in the bank in the future if you win/lose the work. This is why we have been building an improved sales pipeline screen for Float, and it’s looking great!

On top of the four items above, Float also adds projects, which let you group projections and invoices, to make it easier to find them, and see the effect on your cash flow if you do or don’t win projects.

 

Float’s new pipeline screen

Here’s the new pipeline screen in Float. At a glance, you can see your current cash flow forecast, as well as a more detailed breakdown of your sales pipeline for the next few months showing your sales targets, projections, open invoices, and paid invoices. In the table below the graphs you can also see any projects you have added to Float and how much they are worth.

If you want to see what happens if a project doesn’t happen, you can just untick the checkbox next to the project, and it will be removed from your forecast instantly and the graphs will show you what that means for your cash flow.

Float's new pipeline screen

 

Detailed project view

If we jump into a project, we can see all the invoices and projections associated with that project. It’s really easy to add extra projections to a project (useful if you charge your customers in multiple phases), and you can also add any associated costs for the project (like sub-contractor costs).

You can also add any relevant notes about the project to help you keep track of what’s happening with them.

Float's new pipeline, project detail page

 

We think the new pipeline screen is going to really simplify the way you deal with upcoming projects, and let you really easily see the effect they will have on your cash flow – which is a crucial part of business planning. If you are an existing Float user, we haven’t turned it on for all accounts just yet, so just give us a shout if you would like to try it out!

 

Struggling to stay on top of your business’s financials? Float can help. Start managing your cashflow better today by signing up for a free trial.

Already using Float? Spaces on our Founder Plan are going fast. Help shape Float and get a bargain in the process by grabbing yourself a Founder Plan now.

Improving multiple account and credit card support

Posted on by

When managing and forecasting your cash flow, you need to be able to see what your cash situation is like across all your accounts – not just your current account.

I am glad to announce that as of today, Float officially supports multiple bank accounts, and everyone can set it up easily.

Adding more accounts:

You can now easily add any extra bank accounts that you have in FreeAgent to your Float account by clicking the link next to your graph on the cash flow page:

Just follow the instructions on that page to add accounts.

Net Transfers Section

For every account that you have pulled in to Float you will now see a line in the Net Transfers section, and all your transfers into or out of those accounts will appear in here. Here’s an example:

In this example you can see that last month, a total of 3000 was transferred out of my Savings account, and into my Current account. Because they are just transfers between my accounts, the net transfer is zero, so it doesn’t affect my cash flow.

By moving transfers into this section, it keeps your expenses section much cleaner and easier to understand.

Credit card payments

Float also now has improved support for your credit cards. If you add your credit card to Float (see the “adding more accounts” section below) you will see a new line in the expenses section of your cash flow, here’s an example:

This row acts much like a budget, so that you can easily forecast future credit card payments from your current account. Float does not pull in the actual transactions or the current credit card balance yet (we’re still working on that), but this should help you handle forecasting of your credit cards more easily.

Bank Accounts Panel

The panel next to the graph, as shown above, lists the current balances of all your Current/Savings accounts. You will also notice the checkboxes next to the accounts. 

If an account is ticked this essentially means “I would like to include the balances and transactions on that account as a part of my cash flow”. 

Some people like to think of their available cash as only what’s available in their current account: by unticking the savings account, you can still see how much money is available in it – but not have the balance be included in the forecast.

Have a look and let us know what you think!

Float is the easiest way to create a cash flow forecast for your business that is always up-to-date – no spreadsheets required!

If you aren’t a Float user already, you should sign up for an account now.