Small Business: Online Banking Basics Your Work Needs

Your small business online banking experience requires certain services and functions in order to make the banking experience easier and beneficial to your business. These functions serve to protect your business interests and ensure that your suppliers, vendors and employees are paid properly. Managing you business banking needs online should be easy to accomplish, provided that you have certain basic functions and capabilities available to you.

Online checking services for deposits, transfers and withdrawals; bill payment services; access to online statements; and, messaging services are some of the basic functions that should be built in your online business banking services.

Online Checking

Online checking involves the ability of your business bank to allow you to make deposits, transfers and withdrawals at any time and through any account. This is important to you because there are times when you need to make sure that the correct amount of money is in your small business checking account to meet certain obligations.

Newer services allow the small business to make deposits into their online business checking account by simply faxing in the check information or keying the account codes into a computer. These conveniences allows you to run the small business and not worry as much about whether or not money is available to meet your business needs.

Bill Pay Services

Some small business banks offer online bill pay services designed to automatically debit the account for recurring and one-time expenses. This means that once the parameters have been established by the small business for the types of expenses that can be paid, the bill pay service does the rest.

Account Statements

Online banking should involve access to monthly banking statements as well as information regarding the flow of capital for the business. This type of tracking is essential for the business in order to stay informed about their accounts and see how money is being earned and spent. The ability to review bank statement online makes it easier for the small business to conduct reviews, as oppose to receiving a mailed statement.

The other advantage to this service is that it is more cost efficient for the bank and the small business to sent account statements electronically, as oppose to the traditional way using the mail.

Message Notification

In our electronic age of social networking sites, email and other means to communicate instantly and in real time, the ability of a small business bank to provide information about a small business electronically is important. Electronic message notification provides your small business with information related to account overdrafts, unauthorized access and account balances, as well as new products, services and loan rates.

A message notification system is a must have for your online small business banking needs and would leave you at a competitive disadvantage without.

Conclusion

These basic online services are a few of the offerings provided to your small business by a small business bank. The level of service that you need will dictate the type of bank you do business with and the type of relationship you will have to manage your small business needs.