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Best Practices Guide for Reconciliation with Charge & Cash Accounts

  • Updated

Companies that use both Float Charge and Float Business Accounts (i.e., Cash) often have unique reconciliation needs. 

Charge card activity should be reconciled to a liabilities clearing account, while Reimbursements and Bill Pay require a different accounting flow. This guide walks you through the best practices for keeping your Charge and Cash account activity separate and accurate in your accounting system.

 

Why Charge and Cash Accounts Require Different Reconciliation Approaches

It is not best practice to reconcile your Charge Card and Float Business Accounts together, as Float has two different spend models:

  • Float Business Account (CAD/USD Cash): Should use a Float Clearing Account set up as an Asset account.
    • Prepaid customers load funds into Float, and all spend draws from that balance
  • Charge Card (ChC): Should use a ChC Clearing Account set up as a Liability account.
    • Charge card spend increases a liability that must be repaid

Keeping Charge and Cash clearing accounts separate prevents the two types of activity from mixing and makes reconciliation much clearer.

For more details on reconciling Float Business Accounts items, please review the article below:

Best Practices for Month-End Reconciliation 

 

Automatic Export Overview

Float synchronizes card transactions and specific features like Bills and Reimbursements directly to your accounting system, or you can export a CSV to be used for manual entry. 

Card Transactions (Exported as Journal Entries)

  • Charge customers' card transactions pull from your Charge limit (i.e., liabilities)
  • Bill payments and reimbursement payouts are captured against your Float Business Account's Cash balance

Bill Payments & Reimbursements

Reimbursements and Bill Pay follow a different accounting flow than Charge card transactions. 

Reimbursement payouts and Bill Pay payments from your Float Cash balance reduce your Float Cash balance, not your Charge liability, so they must be mapped to Accounts Receivable & Clearing accounts

 

How to Reconcile When You Use Both Cash & Charge Accounts

To avoid confusion at month-end, we recommend the following the below structure:

Charge Card Transactions:

How this looks in your accounting system:

Product Export Detail Accounting Effect (Double Entry)
Charge Card Card transactions are exported to increase the amount owed (liability). Dr. Expense, Cr. Float ChC Clearing Account (Liability)
Interest, Cashback, & Billing These are included with your card transactions and exported as below. Dr. Float/ChC Clearing (or Expense), Cr. Selected Income/Expense Account

 

Bill Pay & Reimbursements:

How this looks in your accounting system:

Feature Accounting Entry 
Reimbursements (Creation) Dr. Expense, Cr. Reimbursement Payable
Reimbursement Payouts Dr. Reimbursement Payable, Cr. Float Clearing Account
Bills (Creation) Dr. Expense, Cr. Accounts Payable
Bill Payments (via Float Cash Balance) Dr. Accounts Payable, Cr. Float Clearing Account
Bill Payments (via External Bank) Dr. Accounts Payable, Cr. Bank Account (e.g., Checking)

 

A/P & Clearing Accounts Setup Requirements for Exporting Bills & Reimbursements

For QuickBooks Online (QBO):

For Xero:

For NetSuite:

  • Please review the following guides to ensure that your A/P and Clearing accounts are set up as per Float's requirements for direct exports to NetSuite:

Tips for Reconciling Reimbursements

For better separation and clarity, the recommended best practice is to use an Employee Reimbursements Payable account to keep these liabilities separate from your general trade payables (Accounts Payable).

Important Consideration: Reimbursements that are only "Marked as Paid" rather than paid within Float are NOT exported by Float as a payout against your Float Balance.

 

What Float Doesn't Sync and Tips for Reconciliation

The following transactions are generally considered internal movements or reconciliation items and are not automatically exported by Float:

  • Funding transfers and withdrawals (from Float Business Accounts (i.e., Cash))
  • Charge repayments and off-cycle funding
  • Transfers from Cash to Charge
  • Reimbursements and Bills marked as paid
  • FX transfers
  • Funds received in Float Business Accounts 

Best practice is to use the corresponding Float Statements for both Cash and Charge accounts as the source of truth for these transactions.

Statements capture all movements that impact the balance, including non-exported items, and show a running total for simplified reconciliation of your clearing accounts.

For more information on statements, please review the following articles: 

Statements Overview

Downloading a Float Account Statement

 

Generating a Bank Feed

If you're a customer using an accounting software like Xero or QBO, and you need to generate a bank feed for the accounts Float syncs with, you can do so by using Float's CSV export function and importing that into your ERP.

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