I've always followed a poor accounting procedure of having a single account that mingles business and personal. The reason I was able to do that is that I was always paid in a small number of checks my business expenses were not only small dollar, but few in number. In short I was able to keep track of my business in a single account, and record check numbers and keep receipts - so I have more or less gotten away with it. (Don't know if it might cost me problems in an audit,though hopefully, keeping receipts takes care of that.)

OK but now numbers of transactions are about to increase. So time to be a little more professional and get a separate account. Question: is there any reason not to get a second personal account rather than business account. At my bank, checks are free on a personal account. And they do let you electronically track expenses. I guess the disadvantage is that checks written to me still have to be made out to me personally. But at the moment, the account will be used for
A) my consulting business
B) books written by me and retailed by m

So I don't have problem with checks being written to me personally, and in this context I don't think it is unprofessional. Any feedback? Do you think being able to have checks written to [lastname] Information would make a seriously more professional impression than having checks written to Firstname Lastname?

OK but now numbers of transactions are about to increase.

Mazel Tov!

IMO, there's no need to go beyond a personal account unless/until you need to have multiple signatories, a separate business name, or are using it to establish business credit (yeah, kinda circular, I know). For a consulting business, you are the professional impression they're looking for, and it's been my experience that everyone I've dealt with just asks who they should make the check to anyway.

That said, do start keeping your business stuff more separate; I wasn't good enough about that in my first year, and it would've been a lot easier to keep up with tax expenses later if I had -- either way shouldn't be any more risk audit-wise, since your business finances and personal finances are legally the same for as long as you remain a sole proprietor, but I spent the equivalent of umpty-mumpty billable hours squinting at blurry receipts and saying "now what was this and which account did it come from?" when I could've just said "okay, absolutely everything on this account is business".

(& obviously, IANAL nor an accountant, but that's based on pro advice)

Typo, I think you can get a personal account with dba [TypoBoy Info] and then can take checks made out to [TypoBoy Info], if you're a sole proprietorship. I think.

Typo

I agree with amych that most corporations are used to consultants being independent proprietors and AP departments will cut a check to whatever name is on the invoice so I don't think using your name for the payment process for services will be a problem. I think the place where using your personal account may be an issue is sales tax on the books you sell. You will need to register as a business entity with the state for that purpose and the procedures for collecting and remitting sales tax may be more than you want to run through your personal account in terms of accounting for the transactions. You may want to think about setting up a Paypal account for book sales and getting a credit card solely for your business expenses; those two things will help you with tracking but allow you to avoid the fees and minimum balances that many banks impose on commercial accounts.

My reseller license is in my own name (it also has a couple of DBAs on it, but the truth is, I have never actually used any DBA's I always end up doing business as me.

I talked to the Department of Revenue and they say they see no reason why handling sales taxes through a second personal account will be any harder than handling sales taxes through a business account - as long as it is a separate account, the accounting labor should be about the same. But I certainly could be missing something, and the DOL is more concerned that I comply with the law than make things easy for myself. Can you explain a little further why a 2nd separte personal account will be tougher to run sales tax through that a business account. If it is a separte personal account used only for business, is it in practice acting as a business account?

I'm sorry - I was addressing a secondary question (which, in looking back, wasn't one you had asked!) about whether you should conduct a business using a personal account. In my experience, (which was several years ago so may be out of date) as soon as a bank gets the indication that the account is handling business transactions, it makes the owner switch to a commercial account which generally involves more fees and higher minimum balances. If your bank takes that stance, the sales tax remittance will be a major flag; my Paypal and business credit card suggestions were possible ways to work around that so you could keep a personal account while still being able to easily track the tax transactions.

Ah, I will disclose to my bank in advance that the second account will be used for business. If they insist on a commercial account I will get one and then buy my checks from a third party. But the kind of thing you are talking about varies from bank to bank and from state to state. I know they don't have a monthly fee for business accounts - or charges for ATM transactions and interaccount transfers. JUst high fees for checks and deposit slips which I could get from a third party.

But that is very helpful. Thanks to you, I know to make sure the bank is OK with a personal account being used for business purposes.

I think i got a few benefits with a business account but I do my know what they are.

ION,, I think I am going to hire a bookkeeper tomorrow. I'm just spending too much time fixing invoices and tracking payments. Does anyone have any advice or lessons they learned the hard way? I want this guy to track payments and make sure all the tax stuff is right at the end of the year.