Small Business Checking

Keeping your business and personal expenses separate is important for tax and legal purposes. Even if your business is just starting out, having a separate business checking account will help make bookkeeping easier in the long term.

As soon as you have your Tax ID number, it’s a good idea to open your business checking account for the reasons noted above. There are small business checking account options (like Merchants’ Small Business Checking) that do not have a minimum balance to open or a monthly fee, which makes it easy to open the account even if you aren’t fully operating your business yet. Getting your accounts in place from the beginning will help you keep accurate records and funnel business income and expenses appropriately.

The accounts you should open for your small business will depend on the needs of your company. In general, it’s important to open a business checking account so you can keep track of business spending separate from your personal spending. This becomes especially essential at tax time. 

As for other options like savings accounts, business credit cards or treasury management tools, you’ll want to talk to a banker who can guide you through what is available and find accounts or services that fit how your business operates. For example, how much money do you intend to keep in your account? Will you be processing payroll or writing a lot of checks? Do you need a way for multiple employees to pay for business expenses? Your answers to these questions and more will help a banker recommend the best set of bank accounts and services for your small business.

Please bring the following items with you to open your business checking account:

• Legal documents for your business
• Tax ID number
• A list of who you would like to add to the account as authorized signers and a plan for how those signatures will be obtained

Being prepared with this information will help speed up the account opening process. To schedule an appointment to open a new business checking account, contact your local Merchants Bank branch.

As a small business owner, you know your business is constantly changing. When was the last time you reviewed your business accounts to ensure the best return and most efficient cash flow?

We’ll conduct a free, no-obligation cost analysis of your business checking account. Our business accounts and Treasury Management services, which include tools to help with cash flow and keep your accounts more secure, may be a better fit for your business, so we invite you to compare. Contact our Treasury Management team to begin your analysis.

Yes, we offer several online and mobile banking options for our business customers.

Small Business Online Banking - Geared toward small businesses that do not use Treasury Management tools, Merchants Bank Small Business Online Banking provides access to basic functions to manage your business accounts such as reviewing transactions, making transfers and paying bills. You may also set up secondary user access.** 

Small Business Mobile Banking - Easy-to-use, secure mobile access to your business account information on your smartphone or tablet. Our Small Business Mobile Banking provides a convenient way to check balances, view recent transactions, transfer funds, find branch and ATM locations, and more. 

If your business needs integration with Treasury Management tools and more robust features, our Commercial Online Banking and Commercial Mobile Banking may be a better fit.

You can easily transfer money between your other business accounts several ways, including ACH, automated sweep accounts, Online Banking, Mobile Banking and more.

For help setting up an external transfer to/from your Merchants Bank Business Checking account, contact our Treasury Management team.

It's easy - just use our online guide to switching your business checking account.