Bravo Indies!

Oh, thank you indies! I am so pleased to know that you read my info and use it in your professional life. Congratulations. It does my indie-accountant heart good.

Here are a few of the emails that I received about You Do Not Need A Business Checking Account and There’s no shortage of bad advice out there.. More to come, as well as my next reponse to Attila Attorney.

To recap what I've said here, there and everywhere:
1. The IRS does not require a sole proprietorship to have a separate business checking account. Of course records must show whether inflow and outgo are for business or personal, however, for indies that is typically more easily and more accurately accomplished with one checking account.

2. Corporations must keep separate records for business and personal. For independent professionals that's one of the negatives of incorporation.

3. LLC law is governed by each state. If you formed an LLC for the purpose of liability protection you need to check whether your state requires separate accounts for business and personal in order to maintain that protection. If in doubt, keep them apart.


From Lisa Lepine, Consultant, Branding for Creatives
Portland, OR
I love your eletter re: one checking acct. Don't let those dissenters get you down!

For many freelancers - having separate checking accounts is just ridiculous.I tried it for about a month - and still have a stack of checks that I will never use. I have followed your approach for the last few years with confidence and peace of mind.What makes your advice so dependable is that you truly LOOK AT THINGS THROUGH THE LENS OF TRULY SMALL BUSINESS. Here is a gadget some folks would love. -- Neat Receipts.


From NancyKay Sullivan Wessman, WessComm, LLC
Jackson, Mississippi
Thanks for the advice!
I do have a business account, but it’s in my Federal Credit Union; so it’s basically free. My desire was to NEED to keep work and personal money separate – but, sigh, I’ve never had enough of either to justify. Still, the business checks come in handy for buying some things. Most of the time, everything that can gets charged for easy access to American Express and Visa end-of-year statements. That makes identifying the business vs personal expenses fairly easy. . .

I especially like getting advice from another woman and, specifically, one who lives in Santa Fe near my friends. Bill and Sue and Margaret!

Best to you!


From Rose at Content Matters LLC in Colorado Springs, CO
Writing, Training, and Project Services for people who need help with the content that matters to them.Rose.CMLLC@gmail.comhttp://www.content-matters.com/
Dear June -

I'm a sole proprietor LLC with a service business and in-home office. I read your post and the two contrarian posts, and I have several responses based on my 15 years as an Indie.

Either the contrarians have not read your book or have forgotten key points that you make in it, such as that an Indie needs to find the system that works best for her. In no way are you insisting that people use only one account.

It is only in the past several years that I began using two accounts. The primary factor influencing my switch was the increased frequency of business income and expenses due to an increase in clients. To use an analogy, it was ok to put all my socks and stockings in the same drawer so long as I could keep the drawer neat. When I started spending more time sorting socks than wearing them, it was time to use two drawers: one for socks and one for stockings.

I keep track of all my personal and business monies in a single Quicken file, which lets me see at a glance the balance of any account and whether I need to make any transfers. I tried using two files, one for personal and one for business, and abandoned that in a hurry because I had to track inflow-outflow via paper reports. This is another example of not making your system any harder than it has to be.

I reconcile all monies at least once a month; I tried doing it less frequently and didn't like it.

A business associate is a Sub-S with a business that is far more complicated than mine. She reconciles just once, at the end of the year. Different strokes for different folks (cliche but true). We each trust our systems to work for us.

Over the years your book and your site have helped tremendously in getting myself "straight" about how to best manage my checking accounts, credit cards, and records as an Indie. You are doing a great job and a great service by focusing on the Indie as you do!


Thank you, all.
June Walker