Opening a business account is essential for business owners. Using a personal account might seem tempting and convenient, but it is not advisable in the long term. There are many benefits of having a business account for your company. It helps you streamline your finances during tax filings and audits, secure business loans, and simplify your payments.
Suppose you are a business owner starting on the journey of opening a dedicated business account for your business. In that case, you might be curious to know about how you can get started. It may sound daunting at first, but a business account opening doesn’t have to be that complicated. To learn more about how to easily open a business account for your business, follow these four simple steps.
- Get your business priorities straight:
You might be a well-established business starting with your business account journey or a startup wanting to streamline finances in the initial days. Whatever the scale of your business, you might have a few priorities in mind before you open a business account.
Before you get started, streamline your business priorities and the must-have features that you want. You might want to reduce the operational burden on your finance team, separate your personal account from your business account, or enable a credit card payment system for your customers. How you operate your business should guide you toward the type of business account you want.
You might look for features such as recurring payments, wireless transfers, business credit cards, and robust customer care support, among many other features. Once you narrow down your business priorities, you can discard the financial institutions that don’t don’t align with your vision.
- Compare and choose a business account provider:
You might approach a bank of a financial institution for a business account opening. Before you approach a bank or an institution, make sure that you do your research well.
It is advisable to compare the various services offered by these institutions, the interest rates, fees, perks, multicurrency feature, customer service and other such important factors that would influence your decision.
You might also want to check their reputation in the market and history of servicing businesses. It is also essential to find out if the offer digital banking services, cashless transfer, online web platform or application and other such tools which will make your business account handling more convenient.
- Carefully collect all documents and apply:
Now that you have chosen the financial institution of your choice after streamlining your priorities, it is time to go to the next step. A business account opening is similar to a personal account opening, differing slightly in procedure and scope. You must carefully collect all the documents that are required for this procedure.
First things first, you will need to provide your basic details like name, proof of identity, and address. For business account opening, you will need to provide all the details of your company, its Unique Entity Number (UEN), company’s business profile and an approval of the business account opening signed by the directors, if asked for.
The documents required might also differ from place to place but the basic details shall be similar. Detailed information of your business will be of utmost importance. When it was opened, its location and other certifications. Once you are all set, go ahead and apply for the business account opening at the financial institution of your choice.
- Activate your account and add funds:
Once you have proceeded with all your details and documentations, the bank or the institution will review your application and approve it in a given period of time. In Singapore, a bank may take two or more weeks to finalise approval.
After you have received the approval, add initial funds to your business account to activate it. The initial amount to be maintained might differ everywhere. These days, you can even open a business account with zero amount and later add the funds. However, it is advisable to allocate an amount after receiving the approval.
This is how you open a business account in four easy steps. As a business owner, you just need to get your business priorities straight, choose a financial institution based on your vision, sort out your documents and submit. You will receive approval and be able to start using your business account.
A business account has become essential for companies to have a robust market presence. It comes with a lot of benefits which should not be overlooked. To scale your company to new heights, start your business account journey today.