Vendor Recommendation: Relay Bank

Short and sweet bullet points explaining which software and vendors I most often recommend

We'll start with the low hanging fruit: Relay Bank.

Relay Bank is easily the most user-friendly, feature-packed banking option for small businesses. What does it do well?

• Easy to open a checking account: No need to go to a bank to open an account. It takes about 15 minutes online.

  • Note: It's only for small businesses, so you have to have a Tax ID # for your business before you get an account.

• Easy to open MORE accounts to manage cashflow: I talk often with clients about creating separate checking accounts for income, owner pay, taxes, and operating expenses. Relay makes it EASY to open multiple checking accounts (with no minimum balances), move money between them, and even automatically distribute income between these accounts. Most clients I work with do not need the full-blown Profit First method, but the tools Relay offers makes simple cash management easy too.

• Easy to pay yourself: The integrations with external banks to regularly pay your personal checking account are great!

• Helpful receipt management: Most people want to hide when we talk about receipt tracking. Relay offers simple receipt management by emailing receipts to a custom address set up for your business and automatically attaches receipts your forward to the correct charge. Cool, huh?

• Affordable, simple vendor payments: I don't have many clients who need this feature - most of my clients are solo business owners with simple expenses - but Relay has slick bill pay options with low fees

There are other features we bookkeepers love about Relay (very readable statements, it syncs nicely with QBO).

But long story short: if you want to open a business checking account for the first time or switch banks, I highly recommend Relay Bank for most small businesses.

Are you a nutritionist, coach, personal trainer, or outdoor industry small business owner wanting help getting your business finances better organized? Let’s talk!