Revolut Business - The Complete Guide

Starting life as a prepaid debit card for individuals, Revolut has since grown into one of the biggest digital banks in the world and it now offers an impressive range of Revolut Business accounts for companies and freelancers of all sizes. A Revolut Business account gives you all the features you would expect from a business bank account but, with this being Revolut, it has a few extra features up its sleeve to make Revolut Business the ideal solution to your business banking needs. Let’s take a closer look at Revolut Business and see if it is the right choice for you.

What is Revolut Business?

As the name suggests, Revolut Business is the business arm of Revolut. It launched in 2017, just two years after it formed Revolut for personal use.

Revolut Business offers multiple accounts to both companies and freelancers. The account you choose to open will depend on the size of your business, how much you are willing to pay each month (free accounts are available), and what you intend to use your business account for.

How many business customers does Revolut have?Revolut has over 250,000 Revolut for Business customers.

If you are familiar with Revolut, you may have already experienced the perks and benefits of having a personal Revolut account. If not, then you can read more about Revolut to learn more.

You can access and control your Revolut Business account via a mobile app or by using online banking if you prefer to manage your account online.

The good news is that Revolut Business has taken all the things that make Revolut great and applied it to its business accounts. Meaning, you get everything you would expect from a business bank account, plus some exclusive Revolut Business features, such as:

• Send, receive, and hold money in 28 different currencies.
• Open multiple accounts for different users, departments, offices, or countries.
• Multiple corporate cards with customisable permissions and roles.
• Pay direct debits and set up repeat payments.
• Expense management.
• Track transactions across all cards in real-time.
• Integrate your account with apps such as Slack, Xero, Quickbooks, Zapier, and FreeAgent.
• Bulk payments for expenses and payroll.

Revolut Business is ideal for businesses of all sizes and can be used by those with an international presence who need to handle multiple currencies due to Revolut offering multiple accounts in local currencies. Meaning you can send and receive payments and use your account nearly anywhere in the world.

Who can open a Revolut Business account?

You can open a Revolut Business account if you are a company or freelancer.

It doesn’t matter if you are a company of two or two thousand, as Revolut Business offers various levels of accounts to suit the size of your company.

Is my business eligible?

Revolut Business is available for the following businesses:

• Private limited company (LTD)
• Public limited partnership (PLC)
• Limited liability partnership (LLP)
• Partnerships
• Sole traders & freelancers
• Unlimited companies

Unfortunately, Revolut Business does not support associations, charities, and funds such as venture capital funds, public sector companies, trusts, SPVs, foundations, or cooperatives, but it is looking to include these.

Is Revolut Business safe?

Yes, absolutely. Revolut is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so it has to ensure that it protects your money. All money held in a Revolut account is ring-fenced in a separate account.

A ring-fenced account keeps your money separate from Revolut’s main finances and assets. Revolut can’t use this money, and it is protected if Revolut were to go into administration, so you would be entitled to it back.

You have control over your account at all times. You can freeze any of your business debit cards instantly and unfreeze them later without having to order a new card if you eventually find it. If you or a member of staff loses a card for good, you can easily order a new card at the tap or click of a button.

Admin controls allow you to activate or deactivate certain debit card features, such as contactless payments, online payments, and ATM withdrawals, in addition to giving you the option of having to authorise any attempted payments made with any of your Revolut Business debit cards before they are accepted by the merchant or Revolut.

Reviews of Revolut Business

Selectra’s own hands-on Revolut review awarded it 4.5 / 5, praising its innovative mobile banking app, extensive features and benefits, low-cost fees, and the simplicity of using multiple currencies and using Revolut for travelling.

Revolut is rated 4.5 / 5 on review site, Trustpilot, with 87% of customers rating it as good or excellent.

In terms of the business segment of Revolut, it has received similar praise for developing a business bank account that provides more than a traditional high street bank, with lower fees.

What types of Revolut Business accounts are there?

Revolut splits its accounts into two categories:

• Company
• Freelance

Within these two categories lies various Revolut Business accounts. Which one you open will depend on a few things, such as how many team members you have, how much money you will process, how much you are willing to pay each month to operate your account, and which features and benefits your business will use.

Revolut has ensured that it offers an account for all business sizes and budgets and provides a free account for small business and freelancers.

Revolut Business accounts for Companies

There are four company accounts to choose from, starting with a Free plan all the way through to an Enterprise plan for £1,000 a month. The smaller price plans come with lower free monthly allowances and fewer features.

Revolut structures its accounts in a way that makes it possible for you to grow your Revolut Business account as your company grows. Meaning, you could start with the Free account if you only send a few payments a month, and then upgrade your Revolut account as your business grows to fit your requirements.

Revolut Business accounts for Freelancers

For freelancers, there are two accounts to choose from. Which one you chose will depend on your budget and which features you want access to. Similar to the company accounts, the Free freelancer account has lower monthly allowances and features.

Revolut Business account features

What sets Revolut apart from its competitors is its account features, most of which come as standard. All the account features have been designed and built from the ground up by Revolut to make your business banking quicker, easier, and more secure.

Online Banking

The main hub for managing your business banking will be Revolut’s online banking platform. A mobile app is also available, which we will cover in the next section.

Banking online gives you complete control over your business as well as information on your account balance and transactions. Key features include:

• View and manage all of your accounts
• View all balances and transactions
• Add, monitor, and manage staff debit cards
• Add new accounts in up to 28 currencies
• Send single and bulk payments
• Send and exchange money in 28 different currencies
• Move money between your accounts
• Connect third party apps (Slack, Xero, QuickBooks, etc.)
• View and manage your Revolut Perks
• Manage company and user settings

Revolut’s online banking is fast and easy to navigate, with the platform split into seven tabs. There are no hidden menus or hard to find areas, and we would go as far as to say it is one of the best online banking platforms we have used in a while.

The only feature we wish Revolut would introduce to its online banking is the budgeting tools it provides to its personal Revolut account holders. These budgeting tools allow you to set monthly budgets as well as budgets for specific categories, such as transport. This would be a great feature for businesses and would provide them with greater insight into their spending behaviour, giving them more control and insight into staff and company spending.

Mobile app

A mobile app is available which admins can use to perform the same functions they can do via online banking. Cardholders can also download the same digital banking app to their phone to access their individual business debit card, view their balance, transactions, and submit expenses.

Multi-currency accounts

We have spoken about having accounts in multiple currencies, but what exactly does this entail? Well, say, for example, you have a London office, a Paris office, and a New York office or, for smaller companies, perhaps you need to pay invoices or receive payments in a foreign currency, this is when multi-currency accounts come in useful.

With Revolut Business you can hold and exchange up to 28 different currencies. You can exchange money to and from your main account at the real-time exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Money transferred into a foreign currency sits in a separate pot. So, if you have a member of staff who is visiting The States, you can exchange money into US Dollars and when they use their Revolut card, they will pay using the local currency.

Revolut also gives its business customers the option to open a free secondary account in Euros, which provides you with a European IBAN whilst still sitting under your main account. You can send and receive payments and pay direct debits in Euros to and from any European bank account. Oh, and did we mention this is available with all Revolut Business accounts, even the free ones!

Staff debit cards

From Bob in marketing to Sandra in finance, every staff member can have a Revolut Business debit card with its own individual settings and permissions.

With Revolut Business, you can control who can do what with their debit card, including:

• Selecting the accounts staff can access
• Selecting the countries staff can use their debit card in
• Set a monthly spending limit
• Require all payments to be authorised by an administrator before they are approved by the merchant
• Activate location-based security
• Turn on or off the ability to withdraw cash from ATMs
• Turn on or off contactless payments
• Freeze a debit card

You can apply rules to each cardholder to have their payments authorised by an administrator before the merchant processes it. You can set these rules up with multiple criteria and different rules can apply to different cardholders. For example, you could set a rule that all payments under £100 don’t require authorisation, payments of £100 - £1,000 need to be authorised by an administrator, and payments over £1,000 need to be authorised by 2 administrators, such as a line manager and finance manager.

Virtual debit cards

Revolut provides its business customers with the option to open virtual debit cards.

A virtual debit card works the same as a physical card but is solely used to shop online. As it is virtual, you can’t use this card in shops or withdraw cash at ATMs.

You can open multiple virtual cards and use them with different online retailers. For example, you could open a virtual card for buying office supplies and open another to pay for repeat online subscriptions, or you could open a virtual debit card for each department and set a monthly spending limit. You can give each virtual card a name and view its corresponding transactions, the same way you would with a physical debit card.

Why use a virtual card?The main reason is security. Online card fraud costs over €1.8 billion a year, and the UK is at the top of the list.

Roles and Permissions

If you want to provide access to your business bank account to staff members, you can delegate access and assign individual roles and permissions. You can create roles for different teams and staff members and determine what information they can see and what they can edit.

Examples of roles and permissions include:

• Provide full access to your company’s finance manager
• Provide read-only access to staff members to view their individual debit card transaction history and balance
• Provide limited access to an external accountant
• Roles and permissions are customisable, so you can set them up to fit around the structure of your company

Expenses

If missing receipts and forgetful employees sounds familiar, then Revolut’s Expense Management Tool is the perfect solution.

When a staff member makes a purchase with their Revolut debit card, they will receive a notification on their phone prompting them to complete the expense information for the transaction.

Tapping the notification will take them to their Revolut app where they can take a photo of the receipt and enter a description and category. If no action is taken, then Revolut will remind the staff member periodically of any incomplete expenses and prompt them to complete the missing information.

With Revolut’s integrations, you can connect your Xero account to your Revolut Business account and all the categories and tax rates that you created in Xero will be available in Revolut for everyone to use. Once an expense has been submitted by a member of staff, it will automatically be posted to Xero for your approval.

If you don’t have a Xero account, then you can create your own categories within Revolut and then export all expenses as a .csv file.

Bulk payments

You can use Revolut Business to make bulk payments such as paying multiple invoices or payroll either manually or by importing a .csv file. You can make multi-currency payments to different countries all in one batch.

Payments can be sent immediately or scheduled for a selected date, and set up as a one-off or repeat payment. You can also choose to automatically notify recipients once your payment has been sent and provide them with an estimated payout date.

Customer support

All Revolut Business customers have access to 24/7 customer support via Revolut’s online banking and mobile app. Paid for business accounts receive priority service to have their query dealt with quickly.

Unfortunately, Revolut does not provide customer service over the phone which may not sound ideal to some. However, when you keep in mind how long you often spend on hold waiting to speak to your current business bank account provider, having customer support via online chat means you can discuss your query whilst still going about your day-to-day activities..

API Integrations

Revolut Business can be connected to a whole host of software and apps, including:

• Xero - Save time and work smarter by feeding your Revolut account data directly into Xero.
• QuickBooks - Automatically sync transactions with QuickBooks and make accounting a breeze
• Slack - Receive real-time notifications for the events happening in your Revolut for Business account.
• FreeAgent - Seamlessly import your transactions into FreeAgent and stay up to date with your cash flow.
• Zapier - Connect your Revolut account to 1000s of apps on Zapier and automate the repetitive stuff!

Using Revolut integrations removes a lot of wasted time and helps ensure information about your finances is always up to date.

Perks

Revolut offers over 20 perks to its business customers which come in the form of exclusive discounts and are available to all paid for Revolut Business customers, who will enjoy discounts from companies such as

• Apple
• Amazon Business
• Google Ads
• Slack
• Deliveroo
• Expensify
• … and more

How do you open a Revolut Business account?

Opening a new Revolut Business account is quick and straightforward.

1. Visit the Revolut Business website
2. Enter your email address and mobile number
3. Create a password
4. Select your business type - Freelancer or Registered Company
5. Input your personal information
6. Enter your business information and a short description of what your business does and where
7. Verify your identity

If you already have a personal Revolut account, you can link it to your Business account to complete the personal information and skip verifying your identity.

If you are opening a registered company account, then Revolut will ask you for some additional information, including:

• Basic incorporation details
• Name, address, ID, and photo (if you are not a director or shareholder you will need power of attorney confirming your right to open an account)
• Description of what your company does and where
• Basic details about the shareholders and directors of the company. They will also need to carry out an identity check, or you can submit this on their behalf.

How do I submit my ID?You will need to take a clear photo of all the required ID and confirm that the photos are readable. It will then be sent securely for verification.

The timescale for your application to be reviewed is 1 - 7 days. We received a near-instant response. However, others have reported waiting up to a week.

Once approved, you are then free to select the type of Freelancer or Company account you want to open and start customising your account and ordering your required debit cards.

Payments and transfers

Revolut Business operates on a truly global scale and allows you to use your account throughout the world to make payments, send money, receive money transfers, pay bills, and transfer funds between your accounts.

Payments

Using your Revolut Business card in stores works exactly the same as using any other debit card. Each card has a unique PIN and all Revolut debit cards are contactless. However, by using the Revolut admin controls you can turn on/off certain features, such as contactless payments and ATM withdrawals to suit your needs.

Money transfers

You can send and receive payments from any bank account in the world in almost any currency.

Transfers within your allocated monthly limit are free and you are then charged for each transfer you make or receive thereafter. Sending and receiving money from other Revolut bank accounts is always free, as is moving and exchanging money between your own Revolut accounts.

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