An Edinburgh-based cash flow forecasting tool that connects to Xero, QuickBooks Online and FreeAgent.
Float is a cash flow forecasting tool. Cash flow is simply the money coming into a business and going out of it, and forecasting means working out ahead of time whether there will be enough in the bank. Float connects to accounting software (Xero, QuickBooks Online and FreeAgent), pulls in the real invoices, bills and transactions, and turns them into clear, visual forecasts. It is used by finance teams at small and growing businesses and by the accountants who advise them, so they can see what is coming and test decisions before they make them.
Float was founded by Colin Hewitt, who is its CEO and co-founder. A computer science graduate, he freelanced for a year and then ran a digital agency for around ten years. There he felt the problem first hand: he says he could not tell whether he could make payroll the following month because client payments were so unpredictable. He tried a notebook and then a spreadsheet, found both slow and stressful, and built Float as his answer. Float's website says the company has been helping businesses since 2011 (an older source gave 2012). It is based in Edinburgh, with the address 5 South Charlotte Street shown on its site, and has worked from the CodeBase co-working space in the city. It also opened a Sydney office in 2020 to serve Australia and New Zealand.
Float does not publish a formal mission statement. Its About page says its core belief is "you can't trust a number you can't trace", meaning every figure in a forecast links back to the transaction or budget it came from. The page also describes the aim as helping businesses understand their cash flow and make confident financial decisions. Mr Hewitt has said he values the chance to help shape the future of accounting, banking, finance and payments.
The main product is the forecasting app itself. It syncs daily with accounting software so forecasts stay up to date, lets users compare budget against actual results, and lets them set expected payment dates that differ from the official due dates on invoices and bills. Its scenario planning feature lets you test a change, such as hiring someone, winning a new client or adding a service, and see how it affects cash. Float says it first built the product for accountants and then realised that the people doing day-to-day forecasting are usually finance team members, so it reshaped the product for them. It was chosen as the first reporting app on the QuickBooks Accountant Apps Program, and its customers include small businesses and accounting firms in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Float is a small company. Its About page says it is built and run by a team of twelve, and names four people in customer success. Working in a team that size usually means broad responsibility early on, but that is our inference rather than something Float states. A 2018 interview said Mr Hewitt cared about making Float a good workplace and asked whether people were happy. We found no careers page, graduate scheme, apprenticeship or internship, so there is no published early-careers route. Anyone interested, for example in software, customer support or sales, would need to approach the company directly.
Website: floatapp.com
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