Choosing the correct business banking relationship, whether it be online, in a branch, or anywhere in between, is one of the numerous difficulties small business owners face. Making a business checking account is a top priority for almost every business owner.
It’s crucial to keep your personal funds and business finances separate, whether you run a small business alone or with workers.
How Do You Describe a Small Business?
Many people define a small firm as one that employs fewer than 500 people and generates less than $1 million annually.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) definition of a small business and this concept of “size” are in agreement. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classifications, which vary greatly in terms of industry, income, and employment, are defined in the SBA’s Table of Size Standards.
It uses firm income (from $1 million to over $40 million) and employment to define small businesses (from 100 to over 1,500 employees). For instance, a roofing contractor is considered a small business by the SBA if its yearly sales is $16.5 million or less.
Firms with less than 250 employees may be a good cutoff to use for “small” in this industry if our practical definition of “small” attempts to capture 50% of the revenue of all companies in this industry, as these enterprises accounted for 51.7% ($131.1 billion) of the total income of $253.3 billion in 2017.
Establishment Size
Many people define a small firm solely by the number of employees at a single location, rather than the overall number of employees of the organization that may possess those locations. In that regard we have some evidence also:
- More than half (54%) of all employer businesses in 2018 had fewer than five employees, although they only made up 5.5% of all employment across all industries, according to the Census Bureau’s 2018 County Business Patterns survey.
- In 2018, there were only 8,155 enterprises in the country with more than 1,000 employees, yet of the 130 million people working in the country, 20 million, or 15.3%, were employed by these major companies.
- In 2018, the largest companies also made up more than 20% of all payrolls, paying their employees an average of $73,590 annually as opposed to $52,743 for enterprises with fewer than five staff members.
What Is A Small Business Checking Account?
According to a poll conducted by Harris Insights & Analytics for Square, 71% of small business owners have a business savings account. Despite this, many of these accounts have little activity because small business owners frequently only maintain the bare minimum balance.
When you’re considering starting a business, business banking includes everything from the bank where your money is to business loans and other services. As opposed to any services you would require as an individual for personal use, these solutions and technologies are exclusively designed for enterprises.
Small business owners may have different objectives for their companies’ checking and savings accounts than they do for their own financial security.
63% of the surveyed small business owners opened a business account when they first launched their enterprise. This may be the ideal moment to think about opening a company checking and savings account if you are a small business owner just starting out.
Best Banks For Small Business Checking Account
| Serial Number | Bank Name | Best for |
| 1 | Bluevine | Best for high-yield business checking account |
| 2 | Wells Fargo | Best for branch access, business loan |
| 3 | Chase | Best for small business credit cards |
| 4 | Capital One | Best for unlimited transactions at a brick and mortar |
| 5 | NBKC | Best for free online business checking and savings accounts |
Closer Look To The Banks
1. Bluevine
Although Bluevine’s small business loans are likely their most well-known product, they also provide a competitive online business checking account option. Coastal Community Bank offers banking services for Bluevine and is FDIC-insured by doing so.
With Bluevine Business Checking, you can earn interest (1.5% APY on balances up to and including $100,000) and it’s fully digital and fee-free.
The Bluevine Business Checking account has no minimum initial deposit, no minimum balance requirement, unlimited fee-free transactions, and no monthly fees. Other crucial characteristics include:
- Earn 1.5% interest on balances up to and including $100,000 with certain conditions
- There are no inbound wire fees, NSF fees, or ACH processing fees.
- Free ATM access and a free debit card at MoneyPass ATMs
- Cash deposits are permitted at more than 90,000 Green Dot stations nationwide.
- Mobile fund transfers, one-time and recurring payments, and check deposit
- Free cheque books two
- 24/7 banking via mobile and online
2. Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo is a terrific choice for company owners searching for a brick-and-mortar bank with worldwide branch access because it has 4,900 branch locations spread throughout 37 states.
Initiate Business Checking, Navigate Business Checking, and Optimize Business Checking are the three primary options for business checking accounts offered by Wells Fargo.
The features of Wells Fargo’s Business Checking include:
- Monthly 100 transactions
- $5,000 in monthly fee-free cash deposits
- Banking via mobile and online
- With a minimum daily balance of $500 or an average daily balance of $1,000, the $10 monthly service fee is eliminated.
3. Chase
Chase provides some of the best alternatives for business checking accounts on the market, but its business credit card programme is where the bank really excels. Some of the most significant cash back and rewards point credit cards for small companies are part of the bank’s Ink suite of cards, as well as a few co-branded cards.
The Chase Business Complete Banking account provides the following features:
- A little monthly service charge that is easily waived.
- Up to 20 fee-free non-electronic (paper check or in-person) deposits and withdrawals per month in addition to an unlimited number of electronic deposits.
- Monthly fee-free cash deposits of up to $5,000.
- Convenience to online and mobile banking, such as Quick Deposit, which allows you to scan and electronically deposit checks without going to a branch.
- You and your staff can both get free business debit cards.
4. Capital One
Banking with Capital One is a wise decision if you run a business with a lot of monthly transactions. The bank provides limitless fee-free transactions, a feature uncommon in physical banks. Spark Business Basic Checking and Spark Business Unlimited Checking are two choices for Capital One business checking.
5. NBKC
Business checking and savings accounts are available from NBKC, a bank that prioritizes digital services, along with cash management tools like desktop deposit and Autobooks.
On their website, they claim that opening an account takes roughly five minutes. You can maintain your account through the bank’s website or mobile application.
The online-based NBKC business checking account has no monthly fees, overdraft fees, or transaction fees. The items in NBKC’s business checking account are:
- With no minimum balance
- Mastercard NBKC Business Debit with Free Access to More Than 32,000 MoneyPass
- ATMs located all over the United States
- $12 in monthly ATM fee reimbursements from other banks
- Free transactions that never end
- There aren’t any charges for returned goods, overdrafts, NSFs, stop payments, or incoming domestic wires.
Conclusion
There are numerous banking options available to small business owners. Focus on banks that can accommodate your particular business’ requirements, whether they be branch access, digital tools, large deposit and transaction limits, or an interest-bearing checking account. This will help you focus and make a more informed decision.
Just keep in mind that your decision does not have to be final, and you are not required to conduct all of your banking with one institution. You can always switch your business bank account to one that better suits your needs if your company outgrows your current one.
