Set Up Your Assisted Living Biz Bank Account: A Quick Guide
Dec 30, 2024
Starting an assisted living business is exciting, but you’ll need a dedicated bank account to keep things running smoothly! Opening a business bank account may feel tricky, but with a little prep, you’ll be ready in no time. Let’s break it down!
Check out the video, too:
Why You Need a Business Bank Account
Why not just use your personal bank account? Great question! A separate business account keeps your money organized. It separates your personal funds from your business funds, making taxes easier and protecting your personal assets. Plus, it shows clients and vendors that you’re a serious business!
Figuring Out What You Need from Your Bank
When it comes to picking a bank, think about your unique needs. Do you need online and mobile banking? Or maybe easy access to a branch? Assisted living businesses sometimes handle cash for small daily expenses, so having ATM access nearby could be helpful too.
Banking on the Go: Mobile and Online Banking
In today’s digital world, mobile and online banking is a must! Look for a bank that makes it easy to deposit checks and transfer money online. This can save you trips to the bank and give you more time to focus on your business. And if you’re moving money between different accounts—like for payroll or expenses—you want this to be simple.
Avoid Unnecessary Fees
Business accounts can come with extra fees for things like cash transfers, ATM withdrawals, or direct deposits. These little charges can add up! Look for banks with low or no fees on everyday transactions. It’s a small detail, but it makes a big difference over time.
Access to ATMs and Cash
Depending on your assisted living business, you might need quick access to cash now and then. For example, if you have to pay for small expenses, you’ll want an ATM nearby. Some banks charge extra ATM fees, so find one with easy access or low fees.
Checking, Savings, and Sub-Accounts
Do you need a checking and a savings account, or just a checking account? Also, consider whether the bank lets you create “sub-accounts.” These mini-accounts can be super helpful for keeping your money organized, like for taxes, savings, and everyday expenses.
Perks and Protections
Some banks offer bonuses, fraud protection, and business services to help you out. Fraud protection can be especially important to keep your money safe. Extra perks like points or rewards can be nice, but make sure any extras don’t come with hidden fees.
What You’ll Need to Open Your Account
Once you’ve picked a bank, it’s time to gather your documents. Here’s what most banks will ask for:
- Owner Info: Your name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact details. They may also need an ID like a driver’s license or passport.
- Business Info: You’ll need your business’s legal name, address, and Employer Identification Number (EIN). The bank might also ask about your business structure (like LLC or corporation) and industry (like healthcare).
- Business Documents: Be ready with key documents like your EIN letter, business license, Articles of Organization, and Operating Agreement. Keeping everything organized will make the process faster!
Final Thoughts
Opening a business bank account can feel like a big step, but with a little preparation, it’s no problem. Know what you need, gather your documents, and you’re set! Finding the right bank will make it easier to keep your finances on track, letting you focus more on what matters—providing the best care for your residents!
If you’re ready to take the next step, download our Business Plan Checklist to ensure you have everything you need to write a solid business plan.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
so i think sometimes people look at business bank accounts and they think oh my gosh i can't believe i've got to set this up what's that process like what what type of documentation are they going to need from me what's that process going to look like and what can i expect when i'm i'm going through the process there we're going to get into that in today's video hi everybody i'm brandon gustafson i own and operate two assisted living facilities and i created this channel to help people like you
00:00:25
learn the ins and outs of investing in assisted living welcome to assisted living investing [Music] welcome back to assisted living investing uh in our last video we talked about six reasons that you need a business bank account why do you need a business bank account and today we're going to get into what's the process like of of setting up a business bank account what do you need to look for what what type of stuff can you expect to see as you're kind of going through this process how do you set up a
00:01:05
business bank account number one the first thing you want to kind of get a feel for is or consider is what are your needs what do you want out of your business bank account it's going to be the most important thing you want to make sure you know do you need things like online or mobile banking or do you need access to go into a branch or do you need both what's that process like for us you know we we're out of state having somebody that has a branch where our administrators can go in and go and
00:01:36
deposit checks when they get rent payments from our residents and from their family members is is great um but also being able to remote deposit and and put those checks in there um for us if we receive a check or even for our administrator so that they can do it without having to go to a branch is nice there's pros and cons unfortunately for us finding a bank that operates in both utah and colorado was extremely difficult which for me was actually really surprising but utah and idaho there's a lot of
00:02:06
similarities in banks and things like that we found a great bank that we're able to work with um next is you know are you going to be doing those mobile deposits um do you need that it's important to have them um especially in this world where online and mobile banking is is just so prevalent you want to make sure that you have that information there um you know we found that sometimes we need to transfer funds back and forth between different bank accounts whether that's us personally to
00:02:33
cover expenses or you know if we have bank accounts between our real estate entity and our business entity being able to transfer funds over to to make the lease payment those types of things having being the ability to do fund transfers between banks is is extremely important and most banks have that ability it's not something that's uncommon but having worked with several different banks as we've gone through this process some of them are far easier to deal with in that fund transfer process and so kind of get
00:03:05
familiar with it if it's already a bank that you're familiar with um that you know you're you know exactly how they work and what that process is like then and you're comfortable with it then i would say go with that bank i i think having the ability to have ease of the making it easy to to transfer funds or do mobile deposits or things like that is is just gonna make your life a lot easier um do what you need to to get the right bank account but have one that meets your needs and is easy to
00:03:36
use another thing that you want to be aware of is low or no fees you don't want to have transfer fees you know a one percent transfer fee when you're transferring funds back and forth or a 2.50 charge when you do something like that or when um somebody's you know trying to do a direct deposit into your bank account you don't want to have fees there so try to avoid them if you can um that would be a big suggestion that i have um another thing to consider is do you need access to an atm uh you know maybe
00:04:07
your your administrator is is out like ours in colorado they're in a different state and they don't have access to go into the bank and pull it out but they could go to an atm and and get cash out so having access to an atm is also something you want to consider do you need access to that is somebody in your business going to need access to cash for some reason and is the atm going to be the best option for you in accessing that cash the next one would be do you need a savings and a checking account do you
00:04:39
just need a checking account are there fees associated with having these different accounts and on top of that do you have the ability to create subaccounts i talked in a previous video about profit first i'll put a link down below in the bio so that you can purchase that book on amazon if you do purchase via the link i might get some um you know some kickback on that a little bit just want to make sure that you're aware of that but in profit first he talks about having a few different kind of sub accounts so he
00:05:09
goes into a lot more detail he does it um a little more radical than i like to do it but for me having the ability to have different sub accounts in my bank one for taxes one for profit one for ownership compensation one for operational expenses all of those things and having it in one bank account is going to be nice most banks have the ability to do this some of them make it a lot easier than others some of them make it really difficult so that's something else that you might want to consider is can you have some
00:05:37
sub accounts in in your bank account that lets you kind of start shifting money around and and putting it into different buckets for you so you know exactly what that money is for and then are there any extra perks or protections you know some of them will have point bonuses or some of them will give you fraud protection or things like that look at those different perks and decide is this something that i want and or need for my business and are there fees associated with or is it included in the
00:06:07
bank account what is that like and so just kind of those are some of the things that you might consider looking at what are the needs that you have for your business and and then start having conversations with banks and and see what they see what they have and see if it meets your needs um the second thing i wanted to get into is um and just to make sure i note this is um that each thing that the bank each bank what they need from you is going to be different so you're going to have a conversation with
00:06:37
them and see what they need from you to get the process started that's not uncommon they're going to have an application process they're going to have exactly what you need each bank is going to be different so um yeah have a conversation with them see what they need but i do have an idea of kind of some of those things that that they might need things that you want to have handy and a lot of this is very similar to the type of stuff that you're going to need when you're doing your medicaid application
00:07:05
your license with the state when you're doing your an sba loan or or any other type of loan so a lot of this information is there it's not something that you've got to go oh crap now i got gotta go find all this information uh if you take some uh i mentioned this in a previous video if you go and create a folder where you just have all of your stuff put together and and just kind of keep it there you're going to have access to them it's going to be readily available you're
00:07:31
going to be able to hand it off to people when they request it because people are going to ask for this type of stuff often all the time as you're owning and operating your business so just create a folder that has all this information in it so the second thing is owner's information the type of information that that you're going to need for you as the owner that you need to give to the to the bank so some of the things that they might need are your full name uh your date of birth your social security number uh they'll
00:08:02
probably want a mailing address for you they'll want some contact information you know a phone number email those types of things so they can get in contact with you they'll want to know your ownership percentage in the business and um also like government issued id so you know passport or a driver's license or something like that they're going to want copies of all of those things um in my experience we actually found a bank that we really enjoy working with and we were able to give them all of that
00:08:29
information up front and now we've set up several bank accounts with them to the point that i don't need to give them all of that personal information every single time they have kept it in a file so that they have it and can access it so that when i say hey oh i need to set up another bank account for this business or something like that they've got it right there it's ready to go they don't need to ask me for that they need to ask me now for the third thing that i'm going to talk about today the
00:08:54
business information that they will need the business information that the bank is going to need are things like the business name or a dba a dba is uh an acronym for doing business as it's you know say my facility is be well assisted living but we call it um i don't know brandon's assisted living something like that that would be a dba so they'll want to know the business name and any dbas that you have it under they'll want to know the business address what's the they'll want to know
00:09:27
like a mailing address and they'll also want to know the physical address of the facility they'll want to know the ein we talked a little bit about that in our last video i'll link that up here but the ein is the the business tax id and they will want to know the type of entity that it is so is it an llc is it a sole prop is it a c corp is it a partnership they also want to know kind of what the business industry is so for you it would be you know health care assisted living senior care senior housing
00:09:57
something in that kind of vein is is what they're looking for they don't need to know specifically everything but just a general business entity a business industry um they're going you know going to want to know what that is the fourth thing is the documents you need when you're talking to that bank what type of documents do they need so they'll need something like you know an ein approval letter what you'll get from the irs when you register your business with them articles of organization
00:10:25
business license have you registered your business with the state do you have the license for that the operating agreement those types of things just things that we've talked about in the past that that you know they're going to look for they're going to need as as you're getting your business set up in our next video we're going to be getting into who you should bank with i'll link that up here so we went through the process of what it's like to set up that business bank account next
00:10:51
time we're going to get into who you should bank with and kind of just general overview of the different options that you have available to you as you're setting up that business bank account it's important to kind of have a feel for what those options are so you can be more informed as you're making that decision the pros and cons of the different options we'll get into that in our next video to learn more about investing in assisted living i would love to have you over on assistedlivinginvesting.net i've got
00:11:17
other content up there i've got resources i get a thing in place we can set up some consulting calls and have conversations together so please follow me there and and all my other and so please follow me there and on all my other social media platforms i'd love to continue the conversation outside of youtube and remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit keep going keep going step by step by step little by little just keep making progress if you do that you're gonna be successful everything's
00:11:46
gonna work out and everything's gonna be fine thanks for watching [Music] you
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