QuickBooks Cash Is Intuit’s New High-Yield Bank Account For Businesses

Intuit is a well-known name in the world of business finance. Now the financial titan is getting in on the small business banking game with QuickBooks Cash.

The Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered company announced the new product — which acts as a checking account for businesses — in a press release on Wednesday.

To snag the focus of financial decision-makers, Intuit has bundled QuickBooks Cash with a high-yield interest rate: Customers will receive a 1.00% annual percentage yield (APY) on all balances — a competitive rate compared to most accounts on the market today.

Intuit is touting QuickBooks Cash for its lack of common banking fees such as account opening, maintenance, and overdraft fees. Account holders will also be free of the need to maintain a minimum balance. Note that QuickBooks Cash does require a QuickBooks Online account, which costs money (the minimum tier is $25 per month).

This new offering is meant to work in sync with Intuit’s existing QuickBooks products, such as payroll, payments, and accounting services.

“Small businesses face unique challenges in the management of their finances — too often, they have to track and manage their money inflows and outflows through multiple solutions, which can lead to increased fees and wasted time,” QuickBooks Capital and Payments senior vice president Rania Succar said in a statement. “Combining QuickBooks Cash with the powerful insights and financial management platform powered by QuickBooks, we are building a tool that accelerates the growth of small businesses.”

QuickBooks Cash accounts are FDIC-insured via GreenDot Bank for up to the standard $250,000.

Business banking seems to be the soup du jour of financial firms as of late. Just last week, online lender Kabbage announced its own checking account for businesses, Kabbage Checking. And like QuickBooks Cash, Kabbage Checking features a high APY meant to entice business owners (it’s also insured through GreenDot Bank).

QuickBooks Cash Leans Heavily On Integrations

Outside of the above-mentioned benefits, QuickBooks Cash features these additional perks:

• Ability to see funds within 30 minutes when they’re processed via QuickBooks Payments.
• A machine learning-powered tool that aims to predict a business’ cash flow needs 30 and 90 days into the future.
• Ability to schedule vendor payments and automatically reconcile made payments within QuickBooks.
• A QuickBooks Visa Business Debit Card that can be used with no fee at over 19,000 Allpoint ATM locations.
• Access to QuickBooks Envelopes, a tool that allows businesses to create “savings buckets” for goal and expense management.

With these perks in mind, QuickBooks Cash seems to be aimed primarily at businesses already within the QuickBooks fold, with the hope of luring new companies into the QuickBooks ecosystem. The practicality of having all financial needs serviced by a single company remains to be seen, but Intuit is certainly attempting to strengthen its position in the financial sector of small businesses.

Interested businesses are able to apply for a QuickBooks Cash account today, but they first must sign up for QuickBooks Online before moving forward with the Cash application process.

Other High APY Bank Accounts For Businesses

Intuit claims that QuickBooks Cash’s APY beats the national average banking account by 25 times. Based on the latest FDIC national average of 0.04% for interest checking accounts, this claim is indeed true. However, there are still a few formidable foes that stack up pound for pound against Intuit’s freshly minted offering.

The most notable challenger is the newly announced Kabbage Checking, which just nudges out QuickBooks Cash with its 1.10% APY. Kabbage Checking also lacks any sort of fees, while QuickBooks Cash does require a paid QuickBooks Online account.

There’s also Axos Bank, which has a 0.50% APY business account, and Internet First Bank, which offers a 0.65% APY one. Local credit unions may also deal out high APYs, such as the 1.00% APY business account on offer through the Lafayette Federal Credit Union.

All told, QuickBooks Cash looks to be a solid option for businesses wanting a high-yield bank account. However, it will take time to see if this new product lives up to its lofty potential.