Starling Bank beefs up business banking

The Business Toolkit can be added to Starling Bank’s free business account for limited companies and sole traders for £7 a month

Starling Bank is helping British entrepreneurs get back to business with the launch of a new digital banking toolkit and a US dollar account that allows them to spend directly in pounds and dollars with a single debit card.

The Business Toolkit can be added to Starling Bank’s free business account for limited companies and sole traders for £7 a month.

It includes new tools that will help small and medium-sized enterprises get back on track as the UK begins to emerge from lockdown.

The toolkit allows them to do their bookkeeping and accounting directly from their Starling Bank online account, including: creating, sending and tracking invoices; automating expenses; recording VAT and connecting to HMRC to submit VAT returns; and uploading bills and scheduling payments to manage cash flow.

In beta since January, the toolkit enables Starling Bank customers to calculate and submit their VAT returns using HMRC Making Tax Digital software direct from their account.

For sole traders, it will estimate the money that needs to be set aside for self-employment income tax, national insurance contributions and student loan repayments.

To help businesses with their recovery, the toolkit will be free for the first three months for those who sign up before 31 July.

Starling Bank’s new US dollar business account will enable customers that regularly carry out international transactions to hold, send and receive in USD from the digital bank’s app.

They will be able to spend directly in GBP and USD with a single debit card. This will be the bank’s second foreign currency account following the launch of the euro business account in October 2019.

Customers will have a full US bank account, which will include a US account number and sort code equivalent, known as an ACH routing number.

The account will be available to Starling Bank’s business customers for a £5 flat monthly fee. Customers will be able to transfer money from their GBP account to their USD account. Alternatively, they can fund their account from an external USD account.

Anne Boden, chief executive of Starling Bank, said: “Small business owners are under a huge amount of strain at the moment and at Starling we’re continually looking for ways to help them get back on their feet and remain open for business.”

“The new features that we’ve built for the Business Toolkit will help entrepreneurs save time and money, while at the same time allowing them to cut down on paperwork and spend more time serving their customers.”

Image: Shutterstock

Mark Dugdale