If you own a small business or startup, having dedicated checking accounts is mandatory to keep your money safe and build a solid financial record.
Running a startup or small business means dealing with hundreds of things—tracking inventory, generating invoices, paying vendors and employees, and managing various payment methods. A standard checking account is not enough to meet the needs of a modern-day business owner.
You should have a business checking account to ensure growth and sustainability for your business. It separates your business finances from your personal account and lets you process financial transactions better.
What Are Business Checking Accounts?
With the help of business checking accounts, you can manage all your fundamental financial tasks related to your business. These tasks could be paying the vendor through writing checks, depositing checks obtained from clients, electronic fund transactions, money deposit and withdrawal, and many more.
You may not find any difference between business checking accounts and regular personal checking accounts. But, contrary to the personal account, these business accounts have associated fees in most cases.
Though many banks waive such fees, you need to meet specific requirements that tend to be higher than their personal counterpart. Despite all these, checking accounts can cater to the needs of new and small businesses.
Earlier, businesses could create checking accounts in banks like Citibank or Bank of America. Nowadays, various fintech companies let you open these checking accounts with them. These new platforms often offer additional business management attributes and are worth trying.
Standard Features of Business Checking Accounts
Banks and organizations providing business checking account facilities offer different relevant features to their customers. Here is a compilation of some standard features of these accounts.
#1. Most companies offer online banking options that are essential for business today.
#2. Banks often offer business checking accounts with no or low fees for startups and small businesses.
#3. Many organizations let you integrate the business account with popular bookkeeping and payroll software applications.
#4. For seamless updates, these accounts can also be operated through mobile apps.
#5. Most companies offer a high limit for daily or monthly transactions, while some have no limits.
#6. Many small business checking accounts come with attractive rewards and discount offers that can be used for professional and personal purposes.
#7. Some banks allow you to transfer money for free between your multiple accounts, partner accounts, or personal and business accounts.
#8. Some banks offer no limits or extra processing fees on cash deposits for companies with a lot of cash.
#9. Many banks and fintech companies offer after-hours services to business account holders for late deposits or withdrawals.
#10. Many banks offer a liability protection feature to protect you against unauthorized account usage.
Here are the best modern business checking accounts for SMBs in the USA:
Novo
If you consider yourself those business owners who want to increase profit by reducing time, effort, and money wastage, you should choose Novo. Its online business checking account product is fee-free. At the same time, its easy-to-use online banking interface saves time and effort.
Further, you do not need to export banking and finance data from the online banking portal and upload the files on third-party business tools. Instead, with its app integration module, you can link third-party tools like QuickBooks, eBay, Zapier, Square, Stripe, Shopify, etc.
Its salient features are:
- Integrated invoicing tool for error-free and automatic invoicing
- Zero monthly account maintenance fee
- Tag transactions as per clients, products, agents, and so on
- Free mailed checks
- Worry-free, secured, and charge-free transfer of fund
However, a minimum account opening cash deposit requirement is $50. Once the account is up and running, there are no minimum balance requirements.
Relay Financial
Yet another convenient business checking account service provider is Relay Financial. This money management platform can quickly advance since it provides free online and mobile banking. Also, if you want high value for your business funds, scalable fee structure, flexible account services, and low banking fees, visit its website and check out its offers.
You need not worry about penalties and charges for large amounts of direct deposits, ACH transfers, or wire transfers. The services are highly scalable, and you can speak with the relationship manager anytime to make changes.
Business banking needs reliable insurance on its banking services. Hence, Relay Financial offers up to $250,000 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-linked insurance. The banking cards that your business shall use will come with Mastercard’s Zero Liability insurance coverage. Moreover, you get two-factor authentication for extreme security of banking.
Wise
If your business operates globally, you must send and receive money overseas. Sending and receiving foreign exchange (forex), like USD, comes with multiple conversion fees and transaction fees. Such fees accumulate and hurt your revenue. Hence, you can go with Wise, the leader in money transfers across countries with the most negligible conversion charges, markup, and transaction fees.
Though Wise is not a conventional banking platform, you can manage your forex online on Wise online. When you need funds in your local bank account in native currency, you can convert the held forex and transfer that to your bank account.
Also, Wise offers multi-currency business accounts. Thus, instead of only receiving USD or EURO from clients, get payments in other currencies and convert them directly to native currency when needed. You save multi-way conversion and transaction charges. Moreover, you can connect QuickBooks for easy and efficient accounting of business transactions.
Revolut
Are you a brand-conscious business owner and want to connect or do business with brands that showcase sleek designs? Then you can visit Revolut’s and check out its excellent branding. You get high-tech business banking, business spending cards, and money transfers at low fees. That is not all! You can get 1.5% to 1.9% cashback on every valid spend using your banking card from Revolut. No air miles or reward points to spend, just direct cash.
Other cool features are:
- Add multiple administrators for the business account through subscriptions
- Physical and online prepaid cards for controlled and supervised business expenditures
- Multicurrency accounts for up to 28 currencies, sort codes, IBAN, etc.
- Invoicing tools with automatic reconciliations, invoice-sent notification, invoice-paid notification, etc.
Finally, for accounting and audit purposes, you can integrate business checking accounts with Clear Books, Xero, QuickBooks, etc., and perform online accounting directly from the banking portal.
Mercury Bank
Tech startups that love advanced technology injected into their regular business and personal finances choose Mercury Bank. Hence, if you sought after tech, Mercury Bank is your destination.
Some notable features of Mercury’s business banking:
- Savings and checking accounts
- No minimum balance
- Free international and domestic wire transfers
- Mercury’s banking partners are FDIC-insured
Like other platforms, you can integrate Mercury accounts with Gisto, Xero, QuickBooks, PayPal, etc. Thus, payments and accounting become worry-free.
Moreover, if your balance is higher, you get exclusive access to Mercury Tea Room and Mercury Treasury. The perks of such services are online discounts, developer discounts, money market access, securities trading access, etc.
Bluevine
Are you a small business and want a banking partner that values small ventures? Try out Bluevine! To let you invest more money into your business, Bluevine eliminates many typical checking account fees.
The fee waivers that you can expect with a Bluevine business checking account are:
- No minimum balance and no minimum balance penalties
- Zero transaction fees for incoming wire payments
- Free from Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fees
- No charges on ATM cards, monthly or yearly
LendingClub
Another option for business checking accounts is the Tailored Checking Business Banking account from LendingClub. The account focuses on mobile platforms and lets you perform the following business finance and banking tasks directly from your iPhone or Android mobile:
- Deposit checks online by uploading a picture of the check using Mobile Check Deposit
- A secured Mobile Wallet app for credit and debit cards
- Download Electronic Statements on the go from mobile
- Manage business books, perform audits, reconcile transactions using Autobooks
Some account-specific features are:
- Minimum deposit of $100
- $10 monthly fees and waived for higher balance
- Minimum 0.10% APY.
Finally, get direct cashback to your checking account up to 1% on all business checking debit card spends. Hence, you are earning even when you spend money on business operations.
Axos Bank
Axos is a reliable banking brand when you need savings, business checking accounts, and loan accounts. Go for the Basic Business Checking account to make things easier and earn $200 if you are a newly incorporated small business.
Apart from 100% online and mobile banking, here are the other features that you will love:
- No cash or opening deposit needed
- Zero average balance for the whole month
- Unlimited reimbursements on ATM fees
- First 50 physical checks free
- Enhanced VISA card benefits
All the deposit accounts that your business may manage with Axos are FDIC insured. Moreover, if you want to let the idle money of your business grow handsomely, you can opt for Axos Invest services. It lets you invest your money in the money market, securities, and bonds market.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)
For a bank specifically designed for startup businesses, go for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). There will be no fee for the first three years, a superb interest rate on the savings, and unlimited reward points on the purchases you make using the card. Also, this banking service provider has no minimum balance requirements.
The most significant advantage of having this account is the tools it provides to help startup businesses.
Companies can use resources, guidance, and opportunities through hiring workshops, networking events, founder and investors meetups, and fundraising tips and tools. Moreover, you can purchase 50+ apps and services, including AWS, Salesforce, and Zendesk.
Grasshopper
Many small business owners consider Grasshopper as their favorite digital business checking account, and here is why—this account is entirely fee-free and offers you some great perks. Moreover, you can earn unlimited 1% cashback depending on the money you spend through debit.
Additionally, you can enjoy unlimited free transactions (including ACH and incoming wires) on Grasshopper. Also, it takes about 5 minutes to open a business checking account on this platform through an online application.
Furthermore, this account’s owners can free withdraw money from 46,000+ ATMs all over the USA. They can also make the most of features such as online banking and free online bill pay.
NorthOne
If you are a business startup, NorthOne has one of the best business checking accounts for you. Using it, you can perform most business banking tasks, such as creating invoices, payrolls, and wire payments.
This platform offers you a simple business banking experience in business management with mobile apps. You can contact its support team using live chat if you have difficulty understanding any feature or managing your account.
The highlighted features of this fintech are:
- Quick deposits to save your valuable time
- Referral bonuses for promoting NorthOne to others
- Easy integration with top apps like Shopify, Stripe, Freshbooks, Gusto, ADP
- Supports all merchant payment processing providers and point-of-sale terminals
Summing Up
Business checking accounts offer added convenience to small business owners. Using these accounts, you can manage all your business-related financial transactions from one account.
Here, we listed some best companies that offer business checking accounts. Since the banking needs differ from person to person, check out the features to know which one will be best for your startup or SMB.
Using these spend management solutions, you can also track your business expenditure.
