What’s the Best Bank for Small Businesses? Meet Relay Online Bank

By: Shay James

woman in shop

As a small business owner, the last thing you want to worry about is where to put your money. This seems like such a simple question to answer, but the reality is there are a lot of questions and the answers are not always easy to find.

  • Can I get my money when I need it?

  • Am I going to be charged fees for moving my money between accounts?

  • Will my bank support my anticipated growth?

  • Am I going to be able to accept money from clients who use varying payment platforms?

It is no small feat to come to conclusions about which bank will best support your business. But that’s for good reason. You need a bank that will be a springboard instead of an obstacle. You need a bank that will say “yes” to assistance and “no” to resistance. Your bank can never be the reason business comes to a halt. It just needs to work.

With Relay Financial, business banking is easy and you never have to worry about whether your finances will interfere with the operations of your business.

What is Relay Online Bank?

Relay Financial is an online banking platform designed to make money management painless. It provides unmatched simplicity and clarity into your business’ operating expenses and allows you to easily track your cash flow and accounts payable.

Relay is a free banking solution with no fees and no APY. Additionally, Relay doesn’t require any account minimums. It is an excellent fit for businesses who want the benefits that merging banking and cash management services can provide.

Business Benefits Banking with Relay Online

Relay Bank has a number of features business owners will find beneficial, including:

  • Increased spend visibility

  • Collaboration

  • Payment automation

  • Integrations with top software

  • Peace of mind security

Increased Spend Visibility

With the ability to issue debit cards for up to 50 members of your team, Relay allows you and your employees to eliminate the hassle of moving money from place to place. The cards you issue can be physical or virtual and you can even set spending limits if you need. If you’d like to issue single-purpose cards to manage things like marketing expenses or travel expenses, you can do this. These capabilities will allow you to easily keep track of and manage your team’s spending. 

Cash management is for you to organize as you see fit. You’ll have the ability to compartmentalize income, cash reserves, and expenses into separate checking accounts if it helps you and your business keep things straight. Relay gives you up to 20 individual checking accounts!

Collaborative Banking Made Easy

User permissions are a game-changer. Relay Online allows you to set up individual user permissions for different members of your team so you don’t have to worry about sharing your banking login information. Your team can now be empowered to manage expenses, pay the bills, or handle bookkeeping.

Payment Automation

Do you have vendors to pay on a regular basis? Recurring payments can be set up in Relay with a few simple clicks, allowing you to put expenses on cruise control. 

Besides paying your own bills, Relay makes accepting payments effortless as well. You can accept payments from major payment applications like PayPal, Square, Stripe, and more.

Integrations with Top Software

Relay isn’t just an online banking option - it’s a bank with software solutions in mind. Relay can directly integrate with top software like Xero, QuickBooks, Gusto, Transferwise, and Expensify. These types of integrations give you comprehensive data for all incoming and outgoing transactions. 

By linking directly to some of the accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks, bookkeeping can be done in a flash. You can even grant unique, role-based logins in Relay to someone like your accountant.

Peace of Mind Security

If you or a member of your team happen to lose a card, utilize the card freeze option to pause spending on the card until it turns up again.

Take it one step further - if you’ve completely lost a card - you’re still in good hands. Mastercard issues debit cards with Relay. This means banking with Relay allows you to take advantage of Mastercard’s zero fraud liability policy. You’ll never be on the hook for unauthorized spending.

Relay leverages two-factor authentication because they know the importance of keeping your financial data secure. This level of authentication is time-based and works on apps you already use.

Lastly, when it comes to insuring your money, every Relay deposit is insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000.

Besides all of these amazing features, Relay bank has a world-class customer support team to help you with any of your business banking needs.

Pricing Plans with Relay Online Bank

Relay has two plans, so it’s easy to make decisions about what works best for you. 

The ‘Standard’ plan is free. Completely free. Just by signing up for a bank account with Relay Online Bank, you get 95% of its full features list at no cost each month. This includes much of what was listed above: 20 no-fee checking accounts, up to 50 debit cards, automated spending, direct integration with top software, and the ability to bank from anywhere, on any device. This list goes on!

The ‘Pro’ plan adds some additional features for those who need a few of the more advanced options and costs $30/month. This plan includes the ability to automatically import bills from QuickBooks and Xero, view/approve/pay bills from one dashboard, set up multi-stage bill approvals, bill batch-pay, and free domestic and international wires. If you’d like, you can try the ‘Pro’ plan free for 14 days.

Get More Solutions From Lamplight Advisors

We know the importance of working with sound business partners. That’s why we recommend financial solutions like Relay Online Bank. Managing your finances is perhaps the most important aspect of running your business. Don’t trust just anyone to get the job done right.

At Lamplight Advisors, we’re another partner seeking to make your business as successful as it can possibly be. We are a CFO services company that can offer you assistance with accounting and bookkeeping, business advisory services, tax planning, and compliance, or building your personal wealth. 

To see if we can help you take the next step in building your business, click here to schedule a conversation today.