Help us understand what features you'd like to see in a Monzo business account!

(Jason Artemis Winstanley) #113

I signed up to the waiting list, but I imagine I’m probably not one of the first few to do it. :frowning: Really, really want to be able to drop all challengers, and truly to #FullMonzo! XD

(Jack Cully) #114

Hi, everyone! :wave:

I’m Jack - I’m working on Business Banking alongside Jordan and the rest of the Business Banking Team :blush:

I just wanted to drop in on this thread and say a huge thank you to everyone who’s contributed so far! Your responses are hugely useful, and we’re reading every single one!

Please let me know if you’ve got any questions about our trial, or business banking in general. Happy to chat :tada:

(William Brown) #115

I’d love to go monzo now for business though I use transferwise business account when transferring to the Irish business account I have with aib but that’s an old bank which was bailed out by the Irish government and charges heavily in fees for everything on personal accounts and business accounts not any better except two years free upfront on first account then downhill from there though having a monzo business account would make life so much easier for me when no bank in UK will give a business account I’m still finding life harder than it should be. I’m not big not got best credit score I ain’t going to pay in mega bucks to the account to generate massive profit for the bank I might have low balances etc but rbs said I used the account I had there like a personal account and they closed it was not happy one bit it’s time I was treated as a real person and not what a computer tells you as that’s not the real me the person behind the business and the one who will use the account.

(Stu S) #116

Contractor via Ltd Company

Accounting. Mainly trying to get statements to send to the accountant, they wouldn’t accept just a CSV, HAS to be headed etc…

Just my accountants app

Easy to pop in and talk to someone when it’s urgent. The online 2FA is a joke. Their password ISNT case sensitive, so I can’t have a secure password. Srsly.

Ease. Easily to navigate, get my data and get back to my :coffee:

Oh and identifiable different card. I can’t be making personal spending on my BS account and having to undo the mess.

(Richard Saunders) #117

Hi Jack. Nice to meet you. So is the trial underway, did my application make the first 100 on the waitlist? I haven’t received an email so I am guessing no. Do you know how much the business banking will cost? Good luck with the trial and hope you create something really useful :+1:

(Jack) #118

You’ll find some of the details you’re looking for in this thread

(Johnny Luu) #119
  1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

I’m a freelance animator and motion graphics artist registered as sole trader.

  1. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Keep track of expenses and filing my self assessment.

  1. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

Self-created Apple Numbers spreadsheet.

  1. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

Dislike - HSBC still use that stupid mini calculator security key-fob thing. iOS App is functional, but nothing more.

Don’t particularly like anything about it.

  1. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

Having a customisable expenses logging that matched up to the HMRC self assessment form.

Also perhaps having tax and national insurance deduction transferred immediately into an expenses pot when any payments come in, that would be great!

(Josh Carson) #120

I should caveat this post by saying, that i’m one of the directors in the business and i’m not personally responsible for managing the accounts side of the business but these are my takeaways from our pain points.

Limited Company

Cashflow management & forecasting

Quick File, Excel, our accountants

We’re only 11 employees at the minute, so the pay run isn’t too cumbersome, but we would love bulk upload. Their app isn’t the worst of the business banks, but it also isn’t the best. I find their communication to be slow and quite cumbersome. Managing account details is still a trip to the bank, and I don’t really feel any connection to them, either as a company or as an individual using their service

Forecasting tools. I know this is moving into accounts management software territory, but really my bank has all the data already, why can’t I just produce and manage my forecasts there?!

(Paul) #121

One man limited company that I contract under.

I really want to automate stuff. Things like salary, Corp tax, VAT. Remembering to make the transfer is what keeps tripping me up. Maybe alerts if nothing is scheduled would be good.

My accountant currently has access to my statements, allowing them to reconcile transactions on my behalf. I think they have agreements in place with Metro and Cater Allen to do this.

Bad -> Good:

  • All transactions take 24 hours from the next working day if after 4pm. It’s maddening!
  • £10,000 limit on transactions per day, unless I call up.
  • Free for fewer than X number of transactions a month. Was good when I started, but don’t really care now.
  • Workable web interface. Nothing special, but gets the job done.
  • Good phone support when I’ve needed it.

Automation. Automation. Automation.
API if possible.

I don’t really need a lot from my BCA, but I need the fundamentals to be clean and fast. Everything else is gravy.

(tim) #122

@jrdn

  • What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Ltd company in Telecoms equipment. 5 directors, 5 shareholders.

  • What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Usually inward payments. Customers pay, but until somebody manually checks in online banking, we don’t know. I think Monzo’s API could solve this in 2 minutes.

Other main problem is running a euro account - we don’t even have internet banking for this, so need to ring up.

  • What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

Sage L50. And a lot of our own portals and software.

  • What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

Lack of API access. Lack of online banking for euro accounts.

That transactions can appear in the past.
No unique transaction ID in CSV downloads, so hard to de-duplicate.

  • If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA

API + webhooks.

And give me a ring. DM for number.

(Pav) #123
  1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Ltd Co - US tax for non US people. Primarily individuals and some corporate.

  1. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

I use quickfile for bookkeeping and VAT returns. It uses API so transactions from Santander, Tide and Paypal (rarely use as high % fees) download automatically for reconciliation.

Also have accounts with Aldermore (Vat/Corp tax savings both fixed and easy access), Transferwise (USD receipts/payments), iZettle for card payments. These don’t integrate via API.

PAYE tools for monthly payroll. And excel for VAT reconciliations.

Main pain is multiple logins and places to see how much cash is in the bank. Would be nice to have an API that shows then all in one login. Also if Monzo offered card payments at a reasonable fee versus izettle who charge a fixed % on the amount taken (which includes the VAT being charged in the fee %). Accounting is not an issue as I quickfike is easy to use and most things automatically download into it.

  1. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

As above. Quickfile is very good. Does what I need and provides management reports. I also use excel to budget/reconcile.

  1. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?
    Santander is my main account where I receive receipts. Can pay in cheques. Delayed texts advise when money is in plus I receive nominal interest on the balance. Tide is used for DDs and card payments out. They are not FSCS so I only keep what gets spent.

  2. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

Ideally being able to take card payments from the client (face to face or online link), receiving interest on any balance, separate pots for tax payments so its not spent, FX or separate FX accounts would be nice so everything is inhouse.

(Mark) #124

1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Sole director of a limited company (app developer, contractor).

2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Managing tax money (Pots would be awesome, ideally with some interest). Would prefer to keep using Freeagent for the accountancy stuff + Monzo business for the actual money stuff.

3. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

Lloyds Business Banking (not too terrible) + Starling Business (I like the Forex rates, get billed in US dollars for a lot of software services) and export data to Freeagent by hand - Starling have been very tardy in releasing a direct Freeagent integration.

4. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

Not the best app (Lloyds Business isn’t even as updated as Lloyds Consumer, no TouchId, etc) and of course no real-time notifications of money moving. Getting 5k overdraft from Lloyds was a pretty sane process and relatively easy, whereas Starling rejected me outright even with a history of a healthy monthly turnover (this + no freeagent integration has stopped me from crossing over to them outright, now that Monzo are in the game I will probably abandon Starling entirely).

5. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

Pots for VAT + Corp Tax, low/no fees for turnover <250k, good international payments, real-time notifs, Freeagent integration, and also importantly £5/10K overdraft with reasonable charges for times when you want to let loose :wink:

(Josh Doran) #125

1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

I’m a contractor; project management mostly for digital agencies - this is done under a limited company

2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.):
Currently using Tide business account. It’s mostly OK, however invoice generation system is pretty poor and customer service can take a while to respond. The current account transfer time can also be lengthy depending on time of day.

3. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?
I employ a 3rd-party and I manually send them copies of invoices and manually notify them when funds hit my account. To try and streamline this I’ve set up reminders to get in touch.
Aside from this, actual tool/system names are Yourcompanyportal (IMS’ own platform), Tide banking app.

4. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?
Likes
Tide has a simple, clean interface and is fairly simple to use.
It has 2FA for new payees and requires single authentication for any single transactions.
Can create custom categories

Dislikes
Transaction times vary fairly significantly. This is both for payments to arrive and leave the account.
Transaction fees; don’t affect me significantly but if I have to increase the number of transactions across this account, this will become an issue.

5. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?
Being ‘smart’ enough to know who I am; i.e. it understands that the user is also the person with the personal current account being paid. Having this link would make tracing payments/transactions between the accounts/being paid to HMRC or other payees much easier if not everything comes from the business account (including things like business expenses). On this vein, having pots to store tax and the various fees to be paid to HMRC would be nice as opposed to a single balance (stealing this one from the post above).

Failing that, it’d be nice just to manage everything from a single bank using a single, decent app.

(Anthony de Broise) #126
  1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Software development, limited company.

  1. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Lack of facility to take payments online through bank. Need to use PayPal or similar with high fees.

  1. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

Excel spreadsheet

  1. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

Account is free but has poor Web and mobile app capabilities.

  1. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

Decent mobile app, instant notifications, ability to take payments online for no/low fee.

(Euan) #127

1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Director of a limited company, which has one other Director. Contractor in Financial Services, Banks, Investment companies & Insurance

2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Online banking is cumbersome, no app. Taxes needing to be submitted electronically means I need a change of some sort by end March this year. Invoices and expenses are ok, though need better software to capture copies of the vouchers

3. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?
HSBC online banking, Amex credit card, accounts done offline and sent to tax folks to check and submit, along with payroll returns

4. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?
Dislikes - No app, online banking needs a token, which I don’t always like to take with me when travelling or on holiday. No instant notifications, faceless when looking for support. Fees despite the account holding tens of thousands as an average balance.

Likes - It does work, though slow and reactive

5. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

Single Director authorisation for payments, decent single payment limit, circa £20k, must have integration with an accounting package for VAT submissions electronically, Xero is what’s mostly being pushed. Pots for taxes could be useful, interest on savings, clean simple app, perhaps with the option to limit features for certain users (partner was nearly caught by an HMRC scam recently).
International payments and receipts could be useful for a side project. Links with Estonian E-Residency

Oh, and a far better service switching direct debits, as my current account switch to you was a disaster

#128

1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Recently (November) set up a limited company with just myself as employee and director, having previously been a sole trader.

The focus of the business is digitalisation of business processes and helping them to better manage, process, and visualise data. Things such as automation of admin heavy tasks, BI data visualisation, and a key focus on automating reporting that happens daily/weekly/monthly/annually.

2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

I set up an account with HSBC for the business shortly after set up, they recently changed their app which has made it slightly easier to use now that it has touch ID on my phone. That being said, it isn’t a very intuitive app and is pretty clunky, with not a great range of actions possible.

I use an Amex Card for most of my spending and then record it on Free Agent, and their app is considerably better to use and track that spending, I wouldn’t really want to use the HSBC app for tracking spending for the points made above.

My pain points are primarily due to access of account information and to process payments from my bank account - something not done very well by HSBC.

3. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

At the moment I am using:

  • Free Agent
  • HSBC Banking App
  • Amex Card & App

Being the single employee/director of the company has meant that the general things like payroll and expenses are all pretty easy. I use Free Agent to track all of my expenses and to do payroll - have no issues with this at all.

4. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

Like:

  • Simplicity to set it up, though potentially because I did have a personal account with HSBC in addition to my Monzo Account
  • I know there is good customer support whenever I need it - branches
  • Credit Card application was done and approved within 30 minutes after I hadn’t initially submitted it with my original request

Dislike:

  • Up until the new App update it was a bit tedious to log on using the digital secure key
  • The app is very basic and doesn’t enable you to carry out many actions
  • No push notifications when I spend or send a payment/salary
  • Difficult to have bank feeds to Free Agent

5. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

  • Integration with accounting packages for bank feed reconciliation and expense matching - would also be useful for invoicing I would imagine
  • Tracking of future tax costs or fees
  • Pots for taxes or other known future costs
  • Instant notifications of spending
  • Potential integration with other card providers such as Amex for ‘secondary tracking’ of spending - though I imagine this would be difficult. Just to read only from another app so you can budget based on spending with other cards or banks.
(Nick Stein) #129

Hi Jordan,

Here are a couple of ideas for business banking that came to mind.

I’m an entertainer working as a sole trader: https://nickstein.co.uk

  1. I love the pots of the current account and would love those to be in he business account too

  2. A dedicated tax pot that automatically takes a predeterminded percentage of any income payments

  3. Invoicing with payment links to take payment with from clients.

  4. Being able to email receipts that automatically get recognised as expenses (1tap is a great app for this but it would be great to have it all under one roof)

  5. Accepting payments from abroad

  6. The option to charge/set up a direct debit with clients.

  7. The option to transfer from pot to pot (this would also be great for current accounts. For example moving money into the rent and bills pot and then moving any left over money straight to savings rather than having to withdraw it and then add it to another pot)

(Stefan Ferreira) #130

  1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?
    Tech consultant - limited company

  2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

  • Tools like Xero & FreeAgent do a good job of the accounting processes. Key would be good integration with those.
  1. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?
  • FreeAgent
  1. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

  • I don’t like anything about my business bank account. But there are many things I dislike with a passion:

  • Non-functional: for ethical reasons I don’t want to be a customer of the high street banks because of their exploitative business models and lending practices.

  • Secondly business banking seems crazily and unnecessarily expensive, with made-up charges, “maintenance fees” and more.

  • And finally the available tools and processes: bureaucratic account opening processes; dated apps; archaic statement and balancing processes; no real-time updates; offshore call centres; having to phone up and stay on hold for ages just to change my address - only for them to still get it wrong(:rage:); restrictive business banking service hours; and in some banks’ cases, still an insistence on sending paper via snail mail no matter how many times you ask them that you’d prefer digital comms only.

  1. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?
  • In addition to the real-time, friendly, app-driven features of the Monzo personal account, maybe provide a decent and affordable card/online/(crypto?) payment solution that integrates directly?
(Robert Brownlee) #131

1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Limited company (A Fish and Chip Shop)

2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Current business internet bank provides the clunkiest of interfaces for a bulk payment. Wish it supported uploading a batch file, that can’t be hard!

3. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

Spreadsheets (+ bridging software for MTD VAT) and internet banking.

4. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?

Fees for paying in cash. The nature of my business means that a bulk of the turnover is cash. The fee to pay in cash always feels unfair and too high. I continually have to switch business bank accounts to jump to a deal with a better (introductory) cash rate. I just want to be charged a flat low fair rate for disposing of cash.

I like that my current BCA allows cash deposits and change giving through the Post Office network.

5. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

The lowest cash deposit rate.

(Mike Wheatley) #132

1. What do you do? Are you a sole proprietor, contractor, limited company?

Bookkeeping practise registered as a sole trader.

2. What are the big pain points in managing your business finances? (think about things like invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, etc.)

Makings sure I keep enough money set by to make tax payments in Jan and Jul - so a pot with a date and target amount would be ideal with a simple graph to show I’m keeping it on taget.

3. What tools do you currently use to manage your business finances?

Xero and ReceiptBank

4. What do you like / dislike about your current business bank account?
I like that it has bank feeds for Xero, I dislike it isn’t associated with my personal bank account, can’t just switch between them.

5. If you could request one key feature for your business current account, what would it be? Are there any other features you look for in a BCA?

Bank feeds with Xero or other online accounting software is a must these days. The holy grail for business banking would be full payment integration with accounts software ( Xero, QuickBooks etc) So you can pay a bill in the accounts software and for the payment to go through to the banking app ready to be authorised without having to key in numbers again or download and upload csv files for bulk payments