[lisamint]

Hi can any of you give me advise on business banking  accounts and when to set one up?
Do you set up one straight away?, or do you use your present accounts to begin with.
I would also be grateful if any of you could let me know whether or not you took a wage from your business from the start, or you waited untill you built  it up?
Regards Newbie Lisa

[*Chris Browne]

Hi Lisa

Set your business account up as soon as you, also get an accountant, regarding wages, it was a long.....long time before i starting taking a proper wage, The best way to do it is to become a skinflint for as long as you can , take out only the bare essentials, if there is something you can do without, then do without,....... It will all be worth it in the end.


Chris

www.scsf.co.uk

[Art]

Hi Lisa,

 Totally agree with what Chris has said.

It's worth getting in touch with business link aswell, they offer free advice.
One of the most important things is get yourself an accountant. They usually offer free advice on your first meeting.

Arthur

[Trevor Knight]

Depending on your trading name you can get away with a personal account as long as you use it solely for your business.

i.e. Johns Smith's Cleaning cheques payable to John Smith

Alternatively, Barclays and Alliance & Leicester offer free banking for 1/2 years.

Whatever way you decide make sure you keep personal money away from the account and ensure business cheques/cash go into the business account.

You can speak to an accountant to get advise but in your early days its easy to pick up information either on websites or on here for what records to keep etc.....

[richyvezy]

Lisa

I would set up the Business Account as soon as you can. We are with Alliance & Leicester who offer 2 years free banking and at present do everything through the Post Office. It works for us and is no hassel at all. It's better to get into the habit from the off.

Also agree with Chris regarding taking drawings out - try and live off the bare minimum for as long as you can.

Use the time you have until you actually need an accountant to see as many as you can that offer free initial meetings and gather as much info as you can. We've seen about 5/6 so far and are gradualy piecing together what we need etc.

Richy

[lisamint]

Thankyou so much for the advice that has been given, i shall now be looking for the best deals around.
Regards Lisa

[wilclean]

hi all

       whats the link for the business link?

                                    paul

[Cleaning Resource]

I bank with lloyds they are doing 18 months free banking at the moment,

don`t assume that all accountants are trust worthy people like i did, my first accountant took a £150 retainer from me and then got sent to prison a month later for spying on kids, I now use a large accountancy firm they cost more but the peice of mind is worth it.

[MrsMeredith]

Hi Lisa, i echo what Mr Gleamservices says,,,,,i have gone with Lloyds Tsb for business banking, excellent advice and service from my own business manager and its free for 1st 18mths!,,,look around there are some really good deals about now,,,and good luck!

Tracey.

[wimbledonhandyman]

hi all,

I went for abbey business banking as its free forever (there are limits on things like how many chqs per month but for me its great). Only down side is that its all over the phone or internet or cash tills but that suits me as I hate queuing in the bank, nothing like paying chqs in at midnight at the till as its dead easy.

Have a look and see what you think

http://www.anbusiness.com/

Steve

[Art]

hi all,

I went for abbey business banking as its free forever (there are limits on things like how many chqs per month but for me its great). Only down side is that its all over the phone or internet or cash tills but that suits me as I hate queuing in the bank, nothing like paying chqs in at midnight at the till as its dead easy.

Have a look and see what you think

http://www.anbusiness.com/

Steve

That's who i bank with and so far haven't had a problem.

Arthur

[[GQC] Tim]

Let's just say your business name would be GQC Window Cleaning, I still have a lot of cleaning notes (window cleaning) with make cheques payable to [My Name]

Would the cheques still go through then? Can people use both on a cheque? Like Business name and account holders name?

thanks

[Art]

Let's just say your business name would be GQC Window Cleaning, I still have a lot of cleaning notes (window cleaning) with make cheques payable to [My Name]

Would the cheques still go through then? Can people use both on a cheque? Like Business name and account holders name?

thanks

If the account is registered to your name i can't see it making any difference.

Arthur

[[GQC] Tim]

Let's just say your business name would be GQC Window Cleaning, I still have a lot of cleaning notes (window cleaning) with make cheques payable to [My Name]

Would the cheques still go through then? Can people use both on a cheque? Like Business name and account holders name?

thanks

If the account is registered to your name i can't see it making any difference.

Arthur

Good, then I don't have to thrown away a billion cleaning chits 

[Art]

Let's just say your business name would be GQC Window Cleaning, I still have a lot of cleaning notes (window cleaning) with make cheques payable to [My Name]

Would the cheques still go through then? Can people use both on a cheque? Like Business name and account holders name?

thanks

If the account is registered to your name i can't see it making any difference.

Arthur

Good, then I don't have to thrown away a billion cleaning chits 

I'm not 100% certain, so please check on it

[[GQC] Tim]

Yea I will check it with the bank.

At the moment I have a current account. But I'm wondering if the bank will protest after a while with all the cash and cheques being paid in. I mean, do I really need a business account? What's the advantages anyway?

Sorry for the questions.

I'm with Alliance Leicester btw.

[MrsMeredith]

Using a personal bank account isnt really a good idea, as you cannot differentiate whats business and whats personal monies/cheques coming in/out,,,,,,,just my personal opinion,,,also my bank found out that i was running a business from a personal bank account and were not very happy,,,,just makes things more clear having the business monies separate.

[wimbledonhandyman]

My account is in the name of S**** T/A W******** so as long as the chq is made out to either name then its no problem with banking it - hope that helps answer your Q.

Do keep business chq's away from personal accounts because if you are ever investigated by the taxman, then you have given him the right to explore that account as well - this was advice given to me by my accountant

Steve

[[GQC] Tim]

Business account it is then I suppose !   

[*Madmary's Cleaning Services]

We use a personal account with Barclays and have done so for 2 years now.
They are aware of this and are quite happy with it. They offered us a business account with the usual - free-for-so-long - but when we looked more carefully at future charges for every transaction, we turned them down!

I agree you have to be more carefull how you use the account, but as a partnership we have our own seperate personal accounts with different banks. We draw a wage from Barclays and deposit it into our own accounts. Every other bank transaction with Barclays is then attributed to the business. There is nothing wrong in this as you must assume everything (after wages) is to do with your business and can then be tax deductable.

Having said that, I notice a previous post relating to tax inspections. Well, as long as you are legal - where's the problem?

Merry Chrimbo... I'll be in Spain!