Streamline your cash management with a Brex business account

Note: The suggestions and guidelines presented here are intended exactly as that: guidelines. We encourage all companies to work in close concert with their Board and Legal counsel to develop the right treasury approach for your business. Questions on our offerings? Reach out to Brex customer support or visit the Brex Help Center.

Until recently, founders and CEOs of early-stage startups focused almost exclusively on two things: maintaining runway and fundraising. In the current environment where bank failures, down rounds, and lower capital deployment are commonplace, it’s crucial to develop a well-thought-out cash management strategy early in the lifecycle of your startup.

Cash flow management is often overlooked. It’s not a core component of startup accelerator programs or even business school curriculums. Yet, as we’ve seen over the past few months, getting it right can save you a lot of worry down the road.

For founders and finance leaders of early-stage startups, there are three key priorities to consider. The first and foremost is capital preservation. Safeguarding your hard-earned capital is incredibly important. The second priority is ensuring liquidity by keeping funds readily accessible in business accounts. Finally, it’s prudent to at least consider yield or returns on your investments.

In this article, we will explore the best practices for maximizing the potential of your Brex start up business bank account, a powerful tool that can streamline your cash management process by ensuring the safety and liquidity of your operating funds, while also offering yield. We will discuss allocation possibilities, setting up auto transfer rules for balance maintenance, creating separate accounts for financial functions, and leveraging Brex integrations and tools.

By implementing these strategies, you can effectively navigate the challenges of cash uncertainty and ensure the stability and success of your startup.

Set your allocation strategy

Unlike traditional bank accounts, Brex business accounts allow you to allocate your balance between yield-generating money market funds and FDIC-insured deposits based solely on your business priorities — with the ability to change your allocation at any time.

If you are seeking FDIC insurance to protect your capital, you can choose to place up to $6 million in our Bank Sweep network, which spreads your deposits across a network of established FDIC-insured partner banks (learn more about our partner banks). You can also invest all or part of your balance for [dynamic yield field]% yield in a AAA-rated money-market mutual fund administered by Bank of New York Mellon ($400B+ bank, see prospectus).

The liquidity and safety of money-market mutual funds and FDIC bank sweep programs are why many companies choose to keep the majority of their cash in programs like the ones available in the Brex business account.

No matter what allocation you choose, you will always maintain 100% liquidity — in other words, you can use your stored and invested funds to pay bills, send payments, and for everyday business expenses. Brex business accounts allow you to gain the benefit of capital preservation, liquidity, and yield via a single account.

To adjust your Brex business account allocation, follow these steps.

Automate your balance maintenance

In light of the SVB bank failure, many companies have chosen to open and manage multiple bank accounts. While having multiple bank accounts may offer additional peace of mind in case of market instability, managing your balance among them can be time-consuming and manual. On the other hand, by consolidating your business's financial operations into a single platform, you can automate transfers, diversify your funds, and gain numerous operational benefits.

By leveraging one platform for key processes like facilitating payroll and bill payments, you can easily ensure routing numbers, account numbers, and any linked software are always up to date — leading to more efficient operations. Brex business accounts make this easy by providing features like bill pay, reverse wires for payroll, and integrations with your accounting software.

Anchoring your financial operations in a single platform also enables you to easily and quickly onboard and offboard new employees and even contractors by limiting training to a single interface. Brex makes this easier than ever with user roles that allow you to determine the actions and visibility each user will have — ensuring your company information remains secure.

Understanding that businesses today likely have relationships with other account providers, Brex designed our account to help ensure that you always have the funds you need for day-to-day operations. With the auto transfer feature, you can avoid having to manually move funds back and forth between accounts. When you set up auto transfer rules, you can maintain a desired balance by automatically moving funds from other external accounts based on a set minimum balance. By leveraging this feature, you can ensure that you always have sufficient funds in your Brex business account for your financial and operational needs.

To set up auto transfer rules in your Brex business account, follow these steps.

Create separate accounts for financial functions

Unlike many banks and financial platforms where you are provided a single checking and savings account by default, Brex allows you to easily create as many separate business accounts as you wish (over 200), each with their own differentiated nickname and account and routing numbers.

For example, you can create an Accounts Receivable account solely for incoming payments or even use a dedicated account for other popular use cases such as payroll, vendor payments, or credit card payments. You’ll be able to transfer money instantly between accounts or use them to quickly pay off Brex cards.

Segmenting your funds into dedicated Brex business accounts allows you to achieve greater visibility, control, and organization over your finances. It also makes it easier for you to ensure data flows into your accounting or ERP software in an organized manner, allowing you to close the books faster and simplify your record-keeping and reporting process. Creating separate accounts makes it easier than ever to operate the day-to-day financial operations of your business out of a single platform.

To add accounts in your Brex business account, follow these steps.

Take advantage of advanced financial tooling

Speaking of ERP and accounting integrations, Brex offers a range of integrations and advanced tools that can further enhance your cash management capabilities. By seamlessly connecting your Brex business account with other core platforms, you can streamline your financial operations and get back to building your business. After all, you didn’t start a business so you could spend all day on accounting tasks.

The following are some options to consider to optimize your business's cash strategy:

Accounting/ERP software integrations: Integrate your Brex account with popular accounting software such as QuickBooks, NetSuite, or Xero. These integrations automate the transfer of financial data, eliminate manual entry errors, and simplify the reconciliation process.
Expense management tools: Leverage Brex's all-in-one spend management platform to gain control over your team’s spending. Set budgets, track expenses in real-time, and streamline the reimbursement process. These AI-assisted tools automatically capture detailed transaction data and categorize expenses accurately.
Bill pay: Automate your entire accounts payable process, from invoice to payment to expense reconciliation. Speed up vendor payments with auto-filled invoices, set up admin approvals, and manage recurring bills — all from Brex.

By leveraging these integrations and tools, you can reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and gain valuable insights into your company’s spending.

Get more out of your Brex business account

Efficient cash management is a fundamental aspect of running a successful business. By unlocking the full potential of your Brex business account, you can streamline your cash management processes and gain better control over your finances.

Sign up for a Brex business account here.