Finance

Found Business Banking Review: A Freelancer’s Dream?

Kayne Collins

0 40 11 minutes read

Found

Strengths

No monthly fees
Unlimited transactions
No overdraft fees
Built-in tools for budgeting and payments
Send unlimited invoices

Weaknesses

Limits on cash deposits
Limited customer service during evenings and weekends
No check-writing capabilities
No outgoing wire transfers

More small business owners are shying away from traditional banks in favor of banking fintechs that offer free business banking, along with a wide variety of tools to help them manage their businesses.

One of those fintechs is Found, which has become popular with freelancers and solopreneurs in particular. In addition to free, unlimited banking, Found integrates with several leading apps to make bookkeeping, tax prep, and sending and receiving payments easier. This Found review covers the key features, pricing, pros and cons, and more.

Table of Contents

Pros
Cons

Found Alternatives

Found is not a bank. It’s a financial technology company (fintech) that was created to help small business owners manage their day-to-day banking. It offers a free online business checking account, along with tools to help with bookkeeping and taxes. By upgrading to Found Plus, users can access a higher savings APY, along with enhanced support.

Found’s banking services are provided by New York-based Piermont Bank, which is an FDIC member institution.

Found Account Features

Found’s flagship product is a no-fee business checking account, which comes with built-in tax and bookkeeping tools. Here’s a closer look at its main features.

Found Business Checking

Key Features:

No monthly fees
Unlimited transactions
No minimum balance requirement
Connect bookkeeping and payment apps
Cash deposit available
Mobile check deposit
Spend with a Mastercard business debit card and virtual card
Free ACH transfers
FDIC-insured up to $250,000 through Piermont Bank
Unlimited, customizable invoices
Direct deposit can be available up to 2 days early

The Found business checking account offers unlimited transactions, no monthly maintenance fees, and no minimum balance requirement. Users can connect bookkeeping and payment apps, like Quickbooks and Stripe.

You can deposit cash into your Found account at over 79,000 retail locations and deposit checks via mobile deposit using the Found mobile app. You can manage your business spending with a Found debit Mastercard or virtual card. This includes free ACH transfers or paying people via their email address or phone number. You can also pay through Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Found Plus

If you’re willing to pay a monthly or annual fee, you can unlock premium features with a Found Plus subscription.

Price: $19.99 monthly or $149.99 annual

Fund Plus includes all of the free features, plus:

1.5% APY on balances up to $20,000
Set unlimited custom rules, categories, and tags
Auto-import expenses from receipt
Import activity from bank, credit card, Venmo, and PayPal accounts
Get in-app quarterly federal tax payments for all Schedule C filers
Priority customer support

Get Started with Found

Found Transaction Limits

Found offers unlimited transactions, which include incoming wire transfers, Direct Deposits, transfers from integrators such as Venmo and PayPal, or bank transfers.

However, check deposits are limited to a total of $3,000 per week, and cash deposits are limited to a total of $2,000 per week and $4,000 every 30 days.

You can transfer a daily maximum of $5,000 from your Found account to a linked bank account. ATM withdrawals are limited to $550 per day.

Debit card purchases are limited to $4,000 per day. Note that you may apply for a limit increase for some of these limits. Contact Found for more details.

Reporting and Insights

Found provides a wide array of reports for small business owners. For example, you can get up-to-date income, expense, and profit and loss statements at any time. This allows you to compare your business expenses and income month-to-month, track what bills you may have coming due, and get real-time notifications of virtual and physical card activity as well.

Found integrates with payment apps, such as Venmo, PayPal, Etsy, and more, for easy uploading of transactions. Found also keeps track of your estimated tax bill to give you an idea of what you will owe at tax time.

Manage and Pay Contractors

Found also helps you manage and pay any contractors you might use. You can create contractor profiles and store W-4 forms, contracts, and other documents.

You can also pay your contractors with Found Business Banking’s app and send unlimited invoices with your company’s own logo to companies that owe you money. Found will also send reminders for payment if the invoice isn’t paid in a timely manner.

Speedy Transfer Capabilities

Found offers a few different transfer capabilities to make managing your business funds easier. For instance, you get free, unlimited ACH transfers to and from your Found account.

As mentioned earlier, Direct Deposits into your Found account will arrive up to two days early. You can also receive money via wire transfer, cash, or check.

Budgeting Tools

Found can help you budget with its ability to create custom “pockets” in your Found account. You can create Pockets for savings, tax payments, payroll, future expenses, or anything else you want to save for.

And you can automatically break any income up and have the money go immediately to any pocket you want to use it for.

For example, let’s say you get a $2,000 payment from a client. Found allows you to automate where the money goes. For example:

30% to a Taxes Pocket
50% to an Operating Expenses Pocket
10% to a Rainy Day Savings Pocket
10% to a Future Expenses Pocket

You design and customize your Pockets in whatever way works for your business and then allocate income to those pockets as you see fit.

Found Pricing

Found’s business checking account is free to use. In addition to free deposits and withdrawals, Found does not charge any overdraft fees or minimum balance fees.

However, there are a couple of optional services that do cost money.

Found Plus: If you sign up for Found’s premium plan, there is a $19.99 monthly fee or $149.99 yearly. Found Plus offers advanced tools and support.
Instant withdrawals: You can transfer money instantly from your Found account to an external debit card. There is a 1.75% fee for instant transfers.

Other instances when you may be charged a fee include when another financial institution charges you for using its ATM, foreign exchange fees if you’re using your card outside of the U.S., or invoice fees, when your customer pays an invoice using Stripe.

How to Open a Found Business Checking Account

Opening a business bank account with Found is easy and can be done online in just a few minutes.

To get started, download the Found app, which is available for iOS, Android, and desktop devices. From there, you’ll provide an email address and password. Found will also ask you for a Social Security number and your date of birth.

If you want Found to help you estimate your annual tax bill, you’ll need to provide a few more details, such as your expected income and tax filing status.

Note that some business types are prohibited from using Found: this includes businesses involved in the manufacture or sale of drugs, drug paraphernalia, and equipment, including medical marijuana, cannabis seeds, tobacco, weapons, and more. You can find a full list in the Support section of Found’s website.

Get Started with Found

Found Pros and Cons

With free business banking and unlimited transactions, there’s a lot to like about Found. However, no product or service is perfect, and Found won’t be suitable for every small business. With that in mind, here’s our list of Found pros and cons:

Pros

No monthly fees
Unlimited transactions
No minimum balance requirements
No overdraft fees
Unlimited free invoicing
Built-in free tools for budgeting and payments

Cons

Limits on cash deposits
Limited customer service during evenings and weekends
No check-writing capabilities
No outgoing wire transfers

Found Alternatives

Found is one of many online business banking fintechs on the market. Other business banking accounts may or may not be more suitable for your business needs. Before signing up with Found, we recommend that you check out the following Found alternatives.

Novo Business Checking

Novo is a fintech company that functions similarly to Found. It offers banking services through its partnership with Middlesex Federal Savings, which is an FDCI member. Some of Novo’s Business Checking account features include:

No monthly maintenance fees
No minimum balance requirement
Unlimited transactions
Free transfers, mailed checks, and incoming wires
ATM fees reimbursed up to $7 per month
No cash

Novo offers mobile check deposits and free and virtual debit cards. Integrations include Stripe, Freshbooks, Quickbooks, Zelle, Zoho, and more.

One thing you might like about Novo is that it does offer joint accounts for business owners. In addition, you can order checks to be printed through a third-party check printing service.

Novo also offers free invoicing for business banking customers. It offers Novo Reserves, which is similar to Found’s Pockets, where you can set aside money for other financial goals, such as paying taxes.

Unlike Found, you can’t deposit cash directly into your Novo account. You have to purchase a money order with cash and then deposit the money order via Novo’s mobile check deposit service.

Novo accounts are FDIC-insured through Middlesex Federal Savings Bank.

Get Started with Novo

Bluevine

Bluevine is a popular fintech that offers a free business checking account, line of credit, and cash back Mastercard. Key features include:

No monthly maintenance fees
No minimum balance requirement
No overdraft fees
Unlimited fee-free transactions
Up to five designated sub-accounts
Fee-free in-network ATM usage

There are a few things that stand out with Bluevine. First, it pays an attractive interest rate; 2% APY at this writing as opposed to Found’s 1.5%.

Note that there are activity parameters you must meet in order to earn interest on your Bluevine account.

As with Found, there are no joint accounts allowed with a Bluevine business account. However, you can give your teammates or your accountant/bookkeeper access to your Bluevine Business account if you’d like.

Check out the Bluevine Premier account if you have a larger business with bigger transactions. For $95/month (waivable), it gives you access to a higher APY, priority support, and more. Bluevine accounts are FDIC-insured through Coastal Community Bank.

Learn more by reading our full Bluevine review.

Get Started with Bluevine

Chase Complete Business Banking

Chase Complete Business Banking might be a good option for your business if you like the option to bank either online or at a brick-and-mortar bank location.

Some Chase Complete Business Banking features include:

No monthly maintenance fees
No minimum balance requirement
No opening deposit requirements
Unlimited transactions
$15 monthly fee (waivable)
Fee-free access to over 16,000 ATMs
First 20 transactions for free, $0.40 per transaction after that

As you can see, it does cost you to have the option to bank in person. The $15 monthly fee is standard. However, it can be waived if you meet certain criteria, such as a minimum balance of $2,000 or minimum net purchases of $2,000 with your Chase debit card each month.

This account is for sole business owners only. Note that the Chase Complete Business Banking account does allow you to accept credit card payments from customers.

And like many Chase accounts, the Chase Complete Business Banking offers welcome bonuses for qualifying customers at times.

Get Started with Chase Complete

Axos Business Banking

The Axos Business Banking account is another account you may want to consider for your small business. Features include:

No monthly maintenance fees
No opening deposit requirement
No minimum balance requirement
Unlimited transactions
Unlimited domestic ATM fee reimbursements
Free domestic income wire transfers

Axos Bank’s Basic business checking account is pretty comparable to other accounts listed here. One glaring difference is that Axos is an FDIC-insured institution in and of itself and does not need to partner with another institution to be FDIC-insured.

And although Axos is QuickBooks compatible, it falls short when it comes to integrating with other popular programs.

On the upside, Axos does offer opening bonuses at times, and it has another small business checking account that pays interest. Axos also offers payroll services, merchant services and more.

Get Started with Axos Bank

FAQs

Is Found FDIC-insured?

Yes, Found Business Checking accounts are FDIC insured up to $250,000 through Piermont Bank.

Can you access your Found account outside of the U.S.?

Yes, you can manage your Found account and use your Found account and debit card while out of the country. However, you do need to have a U.S.-based phone number and address in order to open a Found account.

What are Found’s customer service options?

If your questions aren’t answered via the Found Help Center, you can email Found at [email protected]. You can also call Found at 888-845-0131 on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm EST.

Are there any other fees Found charges?

If you sign up for Found Plus, there is a monthly fee of $19.99, with the option to pay annually. There is also a 1.75% fee for instant transfers from your Found account to an external debit card.

Get Started with Found

Who Is Found Business Banking Best For?

Found was created for freelancers or solopreneurs looking for low-cost business banking and access to automated reporting, payment, and invoicing tools. That includes sole proprietors, freelancers, single-owner LLC owners, and more.

Because of the limits on deposits and spending, you may want to consider how much money will go in and out of your account on a daily and monthly basis before you open your Found account.

While most sole proprietors can likely stay within Found’s transaction limits, some may not be able to, and therefore, Found wouldn’t be the best choice.

Overall, Found offers a great banking alternative for the sole proprietor or freelance business owner.