Business banking
The account your business runs on, chosen on the numbers.
A business checking account keeps your company's money in the company's name — separate from yours, which is what keeps the books clean and, for an LLC or corporation, keeps your liability protection intact. Beyond that separation, the accounts differ on the things that quietly decide cost: the monthly fee, the transaction and cash-deposit limits, and how well it fits your accounting stack. Here's what to weigh.
Start with why the account is separate
A business account is held in your business's legal name and its tax ID, not your Social Security number. That's not a formality: mixing business and personal money is how bookkeeping gets painful at tax time, and — if you run an LLC or corporation — it's how you can weaken the "corporate veil" that separates your personal assets from business liabilities. The account is the first piece of operating your business like the separate entity it legally is.
Four things that decide what it really costs
The welcome bonus gets the attention. It's the least of it. What you'll actually pay — month after month — comes down to four things. Run every account through them before a promo talks you into anything.
The monthly fee — and exactly what waives it
Most business checking accounts carry a monthly maintenance fee, then waive it if you keep a minimum balance, spend a minimum on a linked card, or receive a minimum in deposits. Read the waiver conditions, not just the fee. An account you can realistically keep fee-free beats a lower nominal fee you'll pay every month.
Transaction limits — the cap before per-item fees
Business accounts usually include a set number of free transactions a month, then charge per item beyond it. If your business runs high volume — lots of vendor payments, deposits, ACH — that cap is a bigger cost than the monthly fee. Match the limit to how you actually operate.
Cash-deposit limits — a real cost for cash-heavy businesses
Many accounts cap free cash deposits (by dollar amount or item count) and charge past it. Retail, restaurants, and services that take cash can quietly rack up deposit fees. If that's you, weight this heavily; if you're fully digital, you can mostly ignore it.
Integration and payments — how it fits your stack
Wire and ACH pricing, bill pay, corporate cards, and whether the account syncs cleanly with your accounting and payroll software. The right integration saves hours of reconciliation every month; the wrong one means manual exports and errors. This is where a slightly pricier account often pays for itself.
Beyond checking
When idle cash should be doing more than sitting
Checking is for money that moves. Once your business holds a buffer it won't touch for a while, a business savings or money-market account — or a sweep that moves excess balances into an interest-bearing account automatically — puts that cash to work without tying it up. The tradeoff is the usual one: liquidity versus yield. Keep enough in checking to run operations comfortably; let the rest earn. As with personal savings, any rate is set by the bank, changes over time, and should be confirmed at the source before you decide.
The protection question, answered straight
Business deposits at an FDIC-insured bank are covered up to $250,000 — the same limit as personal accounts, with your business as the depositor. If your operating balances routinely run above that, that's a treasury question worth real thought: spreading balances across insured institutions, or using a cash-management service that does it for you, are the usual answers. The insurance comes from the bank through the FDIC — never from ClearValue Banking, which is not a bank and holds no deposits.
Business banking by metro
The account is national. The context is local.
What a business needs from its bank shifts with the local economy — a Houston energy firm, a Boston biotech, and a Las Vegas hospitality business all bank differently. We've written the metro-level context — the industries that shape demand and the state banking regulator — for 46 of the largest U.S. metros.
Browse business banking by metroFrequently asked
What's the difference between a business checking account and a personal one?
A business checking account is held in the business's legal name and tax ID (EIN), not yours. That separation is the whole point: it keeps business and personal money apart, which matters for bookkeeping, taxes, and — if you run an LLC or corporation — for preserving the liability protection your entity is supposed to give you. Business accounts also tend to carry transaction limits, cash-deposit fees, and minimum-balance rules that personal accounts don't.
Is my business deposit FDIC-insured?
If the account is at an FDIC-insured bank, business deposits are covered up to $250,000 — the same per-depositor, per-institution, per-ownership-category limit that applies to personal accounts, with the business treated as the depositor. The insurance comes from the bank through the FDIC, not from ClearValue Banking. Confirm a bank's status with FDIC BankFind before you move money.
What should I actually compare between business checking accounts?
The recurring cost and the limits, not the sign-up bonus. Look at the monthly maintenance fee and exactly what waives it, the number of free transactions before per-item fees start, cash-deposit limits (a real cost for cash-heavy businesses), wire and ACH pricing, and whether the account integrates with your accounting and payroll software. A low headline fee with a tight transaction cap can cost more than a higher fee with room to operate.
Does ClearValue Banking open business accounts?
No. We're an independent education and comparison publisher, not a bank. We don't open accounts, hold funds, or give personalized financial advice. We explain how business banking works and what to weigh; the account itself is opened with and held by a bank, which is the FDIC-insured institution.