Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

unlucky67

Thanks:j
Unity Trust I think is looking good for us - and maybe Triodos (CAF looks like we need to pay in through a bank branch - which would involve the same problems (10 mile round trip and parking problems) as we will have with the Clydesdale )
Think I need to get together a list of questions and give them both a call
Unity Trust internet banking looks great - what I'm sure a lot of charities need (but would need me to get my act together and stop leaving paying the wages until the absolute last minute if I need to get someone else to authorise too - but definitely less dodgy than the current situation - only needing me to authorise a payment - I know I won't pay anything I shouldn't (and am well trusted) but think it should be set up more securely... )

Savvy_Sue

unlucky67 wrote: »

Unity Trust internet banking looks great - what I'm sure a lot of charities need (but would need me to get my act together and stop leaving paying the wages until the absolute last minute if I need to get someone else to authorise too - but definitely less dodgy than the current situation - only needing me to authorise a payment - I know I won't pay anything I shouldn't (and am well trusted) but think it should be set up more securely... )

I agree with you about the current situation: DH is able to make internet payments from the charity he works for on his sole authority, and it scares me.

As for getting your act together, it may be worth knowing that you can set a payment up for several days in advance. For example, when I get back from lunch I'm going to authorise the salary payments, which my colleague will have input to go out on Thursday. It certainly makes life less stressful than having to input and authorise on a particular day. So yes, you need to get your act together, but you can offer your fellow 'signatories' a little flexibility, it doesn't have to be done NOW RIGHT THIS MOMENT.

BTW, you can also have different people as signatories and doing the internet banking. So my colleague isn't a signatory, but she can input bank payments, but not authorise them. Our signatories can all authorise things.

yorksaver

My small business banks with Santander (ex Alliance & Leicester), with no charges at the moment, provided we have at least £1000/month coming into the account.;) We've just taken on someone to look after our accounts and wanted her to be able to prepare them but with me and/or my fellow director 'signing them off'. However, Santander only has either 'view only' or 'full access' (i.e. being able to make payments) in its online banking system.:( Does anyone know of a comparable small business account that would let us do this, preferably without charges provided we have say £5k in the account, or have to pay a minimum amount in per month (as with Santander). I should add that our annual turnover is around £68k, so the Unity Trust small organisation account would not be possible for us. Also we are a limited company, without charitable status. Thanks in advance for your help. Christopher

Savvy_Sue

I'm not entirely sure what the problem is: the UT equivalents are View, Submit and Authorise, so any payment has to be both submitted and authorised, ie two people involved, but some people can only submit (enter) payments and not authorise them.

If Santander doesn't have that Submit option, but does require a two stage process, would it matter if your accounts person had the full access? You and your fellow director would never authorise payments without checking their validity first, would you?

yorksaver

Hi Sue

Thanks for your help.
Problem is that 'view only' means that she can't do anything. The alternative is full access, which means that she can pay anything to anyone, just as I can. No 'submit' stage, unless you include the authorisation via 'One time password' text message to my phone, which then has to be entered to effect payment. Santander's system seems to be based on just one person being involved.

Christopher

Savvy_Sue

yorksaver wrote: »

Hi Sue

Thanks for your help.
Problem is that 'view only' means that she can't do anything. The alternative is full access, which means that she can pay anything to anyone, just as I can. No 'submit' stage, unless you include the authorisation via 'One time password' text message to my phone, which then has to be entered to effect payment. Santander's system seems to be based on just one person being involved.

Christopher

Right. I can see the problem, and personally I think that having just one person able to make payment to anyone is madness. But what I can tell you is that HSBC do it in a similar way, because all that stands between DH running off with all his charity's money is his integrity. And I think you'll find NatWest are the same, because I run a small walking group which originally banked with them: we still have that account but we don't have internet access on it because I was told that I couldn't have dual signatories and online banking. Our main account there is with Unity Trust.

I'm not sure I'd recommend them, particularly, but I wonder if it's worth asking the Coop how their accounts work wrt online banking? I know they supply some services to Unity Trust.

Aquamania

yorksaver wrote: »

My small business banks with Santander (ex Alliance & Leicester), with no charges at the moment, provided we have at least £1000/month coming into the account.;) We've just taken on someone to look after our accounts and wanted her to be able to prepare them but with me and/or my fellow director 'signing them off'. However, Santander only has either 'view only' or 'full access' (i.e. being able to make payments) in its online banking system.:( Does anyone know of a comparable small business account that would let us do this, preferably without charges provided we have say £5k in the account, or have to pay a minimum amount in per month (as with Santander). I should add that our annual turnover is around £68k, so the Unity Trust small organisation account would not be possible for us. Also we are a limited company, without charitable status. Thanks in advance for your help. Christopher

I don't know of any small business bank account that caters what you are looking for.

HSBC is probably the most accomodating system I've come across but Sue says even with them it's not possible.
I remember you could set up secondary users with control over their access rights including setting payment limits, etc.
(Most small business banking doesn't even have the option to view only - it's either you have full access or you have none)

As a small business, I'm not sure why you need the access to do what you ask.
The new employee does your accounts for you, tells you what needs paying ... and then you (or whoever is responsible for paying) goes into internet banking and pays the amounts owed.
It's not difficult. In your scenario you would still need to log in to authorise the transactions - it's not that much more difficult to actually pay someone (especially once the payee is set up).

Savvy_Sue

Aquamania wrote: »

HSBC is probably the most accomodating system I've come across but Sue says even with them it's not possible.

Having listened to DH's regular rants about their system, I find that a profoundly depressing thought! Although, to be fair, he has finally managed to increase his payment limit (so that all the staff can be paid on the same day, for example), and they have 'upgraded' their systems, so now it may even be possible to amend or delete payees (if anyone changes their name or bank account, for example).

Aquamania

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Having listened to DH's regular rants about their system, I find that a profoundly depressing thought! Although, to be fair, he has finally managed to increase his payment limit (so that all the staff can be paid on the same day, for example), and they have 'upgraded' their systems, so now it may even be possible to amend or delete payees (if anyone changes their name or bank account, for example).

Yes, I agree.

In HSBC's attempt to offer customers a more accomodating system, it is somewhat complex to use in comparison for the average, small (perhaps one man band) business because of the huge functionality that often goes unused.

e.g. I knew, as a primary user, about the possibility of setting up secondary users, with limitations as to access granted but never had the need to (hence not fully aware of what is and isn't possible to limit).

yorky10gas

Hi,
Just after the best advice whether or not to use a personal account or business for a new sole trader?. I am a gas/plumber and potentially be paid cash/cheque for work, this could lead to several cheques and cash having to be paid in each week. Would I be better off with a business account and if so does anyone know if Co-operative bank still offers free business banking to federation of small business's members?
Thanks.