Frequently asked questions

Cardboard is a platform designed to manage and streamline SaaS subscriptions for businesses. It replaces the chaos of SaaS subscription management with clarity and control.

We aim to redefine how businesses across the globe manage and interact with their software subscriptions. From our roots in Norway, we're set on a journey to simplify SaaS management for companies everywhere. We're excited about what's ahead, and we hope you'll join us on this journey!

No, Cardboard is a digital platform for managing SaaS subscriptions. Our name is a nod to bringing order and organization, similar to how a box might, but for your software services!

While we don't sell cardboard boxes, we can offer you a solution to streamline your SaaS subscriptions. If you're still in need of boxes, local storage or office supply stores might be a good place to check!

Yes, that is exactly what we have built Cardboard for. At Cardboard, we've faced firsthand the challenge of managing SaaS subscriptions. Traditional options often seemed complicated and didn't prioritize the user's experience. So, we thought: why should it be this hard? That's how the idea of Cardboard was born. Our founders envisioned a solution that simplifies SaaS management, prioritizes the user, and actually makes the whole process enjoyable.

Cardboard offers a centralized platform where businesses can oversee their entire SaaS portfolio, set spending limits, approve new subscriptions, and automatically collect and sort receipts.

Yes, Cardboard allows businesses to move away from manual spreadsheet tracking, set budgets per online channel, monitor whether they're over or under budget, and automate receipt collection.

The onboarding involves a few steps:

1. Adding your subscriptions,
2. Completing a Know Your Customer (KYC) process,
3. Topping up your Cardboard account with funds,
4. And finally, for each subscription, replace the payment card and billing email with a new virtual payment card from Cardboard and a subscription-specific email generated by Cardboard.

Cardboard offers a streamlined operational approach to simplify SaaS management. This includes a unified view of all your subscriptions, hassle-free payment and fund management, as well as automated receipt collection. Additionally, Cardboard facilitates a seamless export process for accounting. Learn more about our process on the How It Works page.

As we set up a bank account for our customers, we are mandated to run the KYC process to ensure compliance with regulations.

Yes, your payment cards will still function as they only rely on our card issuer, Adyen, for day-to-day operations.

The main reason we recommend using virtual cards from Cardboard instead of your own card is so that we can give you better control and enhanced management features over your subscriptions. With Cardboard Cards you can:

• Streamline payment handling with automated receipt collection and subscription accounting.
• Maintain control with instant notifications about your spends.
• Easily set and monitor budgets, and get alerted if a budget is exceeded or if funds are running low.
• Empower employees to purchase only what they need without providing access to the company's main card.
• Gain detailed insights into your SaaS expenditures and trends.

Cardboard's unique one-card-per-subscription approach enhances financial control, simplifies cancellations, and offers unparalleled flexibility.

• Providing individual cards for each subscription allows employees to purchase exactly what they need without accessing a shared card.
• This ensures that if one card is blocked, access to other services remains unaffected.
• If you are having issues with canceling a subscription, simply cancel the corresponding card. This way, you won't be anxiously waiting for an unwanted charge.
• With Cardboard, you can also set a specific budget for each card or service, giving you greater control over your expenses.

Cardboard's one-email-per-subscription system streamlines automation, ensuring that receipts from subscriptions are automatically matched to their corresponding transactions, eliminating manual efforts for users.

• Each email is specifically linked to a particular subscription.
• When a subscription sends a receipt via email, Cardboard effortlessly matches the receipt to the appropriate transaction.
• This approach ensures accuracy and saves users from the hassle of manual sorting and matching.

No worries! As long as you are using payment cards, Cardboard knows about all of your payments, and can notify you when receipts are missing. You can then upload the receipt manually.

• Summary: While we have the capability to offer EUR accounts, our initial focus is on serving our Norwegian customers by offering NOK bank accounts to help save on foreign exchange losses. It's not a limitation; we can indeed provide EUR accounts.
• Most competitors require Norwegian customers to convert from NOK to EUR, leading to unnecessary FX losses.
• Our primary focus is on the Norwegian market, hence the provision of NOK accounts to mitigate FX loss.
• If you wish for a EUR account, please reach out to us. We value feedback and are assessing demand.
• You can reach out to us via chat or hello@cardboard.inc if you wish to set up a EUR account.

Cardboard automates SaaS expense tracking, consolidates all SaaS receipts in one place, and provides exports compatible with popular Norwegian accounting software, making the accounting process more efficient.

Our CSV and PDF exports are compatible with most accounting systems used in Norway, including Tripletex, PowerOffice, eAccounting, and 24SevenOffice.

Cardboard streamlines SaaS spend management for clients, providing a unique selling proposition for accountants to offer their clients struggling with collecting SaaS subscriptions and online marketing spend receipts in one place without having to manually follow up with team members.

Cardboard prioritizes the safety of your funds by holding them with our trusted banking partner, Adyen, under your company's name.

• Funds are stored in an account specifically under your company's name with Adyen.
• Even during any downtime, your cards will continue to function seamlessly.
• Should anything happen to Cardboard, you can be assured that your funds will be returned to you.

For users of Cardboard's payment cards, a card account owned by your company will be created with our card issuer Adyen N.V. in the Netherlands.

Adyen is the financial technology platform of choice for leading companies. By providing end-to-end payments capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products in a single global solution, Adyen helps businesses achieve their ambitions faster. With offices around the world, Adyen works with the likes of Meta, Uber, H&M, eBay, and Microsoft.

No, Cardboard never stores any payment card information. All card data is encrypted throughout the entire process.

Many solutions come with top-down procedures that often make the process tedious. At Cardboard, our approach is straightforward. We want to empower businesses to have control over their SaaS portfolio, ensuring that the software serves their needs efficiently.

Driven by a passion for simplicity and optimal user experience, we aim to make SaaS management easier and more intuitive.

A key difference between Cardboard and Cledara is localization of SaaS spend management, especially when considering the specific needs and preferences of Norwegian businesses.

• NOK Bank Account
  • Cledara: Lacks a NOK bank account, instead offering EUR or GBP for Norwegian businesses.
  • Cardboard: Offers a Norwegian Krone (NOK) bank account, which simplifies financial transactions for Norwegian businesses.
• Compatibility with Local Accounting Software
  • Cledara: Doesn't offer integration with local accounting software in Norway.
  • Cardboard: Ensures compatibility with Norwegian accounting tools, including Tripletex, 24Seven Office, Power Office, eAccounting, streamlining financial workflows for local businesses.
• Virtual Payment Cards
  • Cledara: Yes, offers virtual payment cards, recognizing the shift towards digital transactions.
  • Cardboard: Yes, provides virtual payment cards, catering to modern digital transaction needs.
• Automated Receipt Collection and Matching
  • Cledara: Can collect receipts sent to a dedicated Gmail account by giving them access to the account.
  • Cardboard: Offers an advanced system for automated receipt collection and matching, ensuring accurate and efficient tracking.
• Spend Analysis Features
  • Cledara: Provides spend analysis.
  • Cardboard: Offers spend analysis and has new functionalities being introduced soon.
• Dedicated Support Channels
  • Cledara: Doesn't provide dedicated Slack support.
  • Cardboard: Offers dedicated Slack support in both Norwegian and English.

The key difference between Cardboard and Pleo is that Pleo offers general expense tracking tied to individual employee spends, including gas and dining, while Cardboard zeroes in on SaaS subscription management, addressing the unique organizational challenges of software subscription expenditures.

• Nature of the Platform
  • Pleo: Operates as a general spend management system, accommodating a variety of organizational expenses.
  • Cardboard: Specializes exclusively in SaaS spend management, catering specifically to the needs of businesses with SaaS subscriptions.
• Card Distribution and Usage
  • Pleo: Provides both virtual and physical cards to every employee. These can be used for a wide range of expenses, from meals to software subscriptions. However, SaaS payments are linked to individual employees, instead of the organization.
  • Cardboard: Exclusively issues virtual cards to companies for managing their SaaS subscriptions.
• Clarity on Subscriptions
  • Pleo: With payments tagged to individual employees, it might pose challenges in providing a holistic view of all the company's SaaS subscriptions.
  • Cardboard: Offers organizations a clear and transparent view of all their active SaaS subscriptions, ensuring comprehensive tracking.
• Subscription Tagging and Cost Allocation
  • Pleo: Payments for subscriptions are tied to the individual employee who made the payment, making team-based allocation trickier.
  • Cardboard: Enables tagging of each subscription to specific team members or entire teams, simplifying cost allocation.
• Subscription Management
  • Pleo: Canceling a subscription requires dealing with the specific employee's card details and might affect other linked expenses.
  • Cardboard: Allows easy suspension of a specific card tied to a particular subscription, facilitating hassle-free cancellation without affecting other services.
• Accounting and Receipt Management
  • Pleo: Generalized expense tracking might pose challenges in the reconciliation of subscription receipts at month's end.
  • Cardboard: Streamlines the accounting process by automating the tracking and reconciliation of subscription receipts, making month-end closures more efficient.

• Approach to SaaS Management
  • Subtrackr: Takes a reactive approach, primarily focused on analyzing SaaS spending based on reconciled records in the accounting system. This means it's more of an after-the-fact assessment.
  • Cardboard: Is proactive, offering real-time, end-to-end SaaS management. This encompasses tracking and paying for subscriptions, automatically collecting receipts, and seamlessly exporting the results for accounting.
• Real-Time Budget Limits
  • Subtrackr: Does not allow users to set real-time budget limits.
  • Cardboard: Enables users to set real-time budget limits, ensuring more control over expenses.
• Automation in Payments & Accounting
  • Subtrackr: Doesn't provide the ability to automate SaaS payments and accounting.
  • Cardboard: Fully automates both SaaS payments and accounting, simplifying financial operations from start to finish.
• Accounting Approach
  • Subtrackr: Analyzes contracts only after they are entered into the accounting system. This is contingent on the efficiency of the firm's accounting practices.
  • Cardboard: Automates the entire SaaS accounting process, right from adding subscriptions to exporting receipts with accurate accounting information.
• Payments and Real-Time Insights:
  • Subtrackr: Doesn’t offer payment cards. Insights and control are based on data received by the accounting software, which is not in real time.
  • Cardboard: Provides payment cards, ensuring real-time insights into each subscription. This information is readily transferred to the accounting system.
• Targeted Firm Size
  • Subtrackr: Primarily targets larger enterprises that predominantly work with contracts.
  • Cardboard: Suitable for firms of all sizes, focusing on subscriptions. This is especially beneficial since most SaaS subscriptions don't rely on contracts but rather charge through credit cards.
• Notifications and Alerts
  • Subtrackr: Notifies users if there's a discrepancy between the contract value and the actual billed amount, after the billing information is received by the accounting software.
  • Cardboard: Offers real-time alerts for situations like potential budget overruns or low funds.
• Receipt Collection
  • Subtrackr: Lacks automation for SaaS receipt collection.
  • Cardboard: Not only automates the receipt collection process but also handles the SaaS accounting for companies, ensuring no receipt goes untracked.