Float User Case Study – Powercore Electric Standing Desks

My company, Powercore desks, was built around the idea that modern workplaces need an overhaul. Standing, stretching and moving should be a part of everyone’s workday. Powercore desks is around to help build those active work spaces.

I burst out of the gates with my Float trial.

I was facing a really tight couple of months with cash flow. My start-up business that imports and sells stand/sit desks in New Zealand was experiencing one of those growth spurts with the associated growth pains. To be frank, my start-up systems were showing themselves for what they were – a temporary solution. But no one in their right mind starts a business and tries to cater for this sort of eventuality.

I’m a Xero user, and that’s a good start, but Xero was missing the sort of budgeting functionality and flexibility that I needed.

I didn’t need 5 year plans (they single handedly brought down the Soviet regime!). My issue was getting enough money into the business to be able to handle the next few months. But how much did I need and when did I need it ?

I mean, every day I’ve got a change in when I’m getting paid or when I have to pay someone else and that impacts my cash flow all the way down the line. Not just now but it could be two months away when the crunch comes – I’ve got to know where and when the proverbial shit is going to hit.

The second lesson is that month end cash balances are of limited use. You know the spreadsheets that show your month end and month start balances and you automatically assume they show the low points of your cash reserves. My daily cash flow view shows me on a daily basis what my balances are and you quickly realise that it can fluctuate wildly from your month end balances.

Listen, you may all be a bunch of accounting geeks out there and this could be self-evident to you but even with a reasonable amount of accounting knowledge I had no concept of the amount of fluctuation until I looked at my daily cash flow view.

Third lesson was – you are always overly optimistic with budget. I loved the fact that the data imported from Xero showed me my real expenditure over the past few months. If I wanted to fool myself into believing I could do differently – I was free to – but the real numbers were staring me in the face (which I liked).

Look, it isn’t perfect. It’s quite tricky budgeting for sales tax (GST or VAT) and importing of purchase orders is a bit clumsy (creating draft bills) but Float has definitely made me way more confident I’ve got the resources to be able to handle the crap that is inevitably going to come my way and it has definitely helped me get the shut eye I need to be able to front up the next day.

And after all “fronting up the next day” is what it’s all about in small business because if you don’t no one will.”

-Stuart Davenport

Harriet Stevenson

Conversion Marketing Manager at Float