i have spent more hours than i care to admit looking for the best business checking platform
and while many of the tools that i've reviewed on this channel have unique features that are right
for certain business owners the platform that i've been using for several years to
manage the finances for this youtube channel is novo so today let's do an updated review on the
novo business checking platform and talk about some of the newest features that make this the
most simple and to the point business account in 2022. all right let's jump right into it
I have spent more hours than I care to admit looking for the best business checking platform
and while many of the tools that I've reviewed on this channel have unique features that are right
for certain business owners, the platform that I have been using for several years to manage
the finances for this YouTube channel is Novo. So today let's do an updated review on the Novo
business checking platform and talk about some of the newest features that make this the most
simple and to the point business account in 2022. Alright, let's jump right into it. What
is going on everyone I hope you are all having a fantastic day. So first of all, as I've said
a million times before you do not need to be some huge established corporation in order to
have a separate business checking account. Keeping your personal finances separate from your business
finances is incredibly important whether you are selling millions of dollars of product a year,
or you just have an idea and are looking for your first customer. So if you are unsure whether or
not you need a business checking account, the fact that you are even asking yourself that
question and you're watching a video like this means that the answer is probably YES…take that
from someone who waited way too long to open a business checking account and missed out on
thousands of dollars in write-offs and other tax advantages because I wasn't accurately tracking
my expenses. I do want to say a huge thank you to Novo for sponsoring this video however as you
all know I've used this platform for many years I've talked about it in a ton of previous videos
so when they finally reached out to me to see if I was interested in doing an updated review
the obvious answer was yes. So if you want to sign up for Novo and help support my channel then there
is a link for that down below the like button. Alright, the core account with the Novo platform
is going to be the business checking account that you can open in a matter of minutes
and access both from your desktop as well as their really well-designed and simple mobile app. And
that word simple is one that I will probably come back to a number of times today because
again we've looked at a lot of platforms that are much more complex which for the right business
owner might be what they need but in my case, I just wanted a simple way of managing my income
and expenses, send out invoices, paying vendors, all while getting some other great
benefits that we'll get to in a second. First and foremost you're going to have access to not only a
physical Novo debit card but also virtual cards that can be accessed right from your phone. You
can easily create and send personalized and professional-looking invoices in a matter of
seconds and I'll say firsthand that I use this feature all the time and I absolutely love it.
You simply input basic information about who is to pay that bill and they are then sent an email with
simple instructions on how to send those funds directly to your Novo account via easy transfer,
check payments, and a few other options. Plus you can send unlimited invoices all for completely
free. Novo also integrates with platforms like stripe, square, and PayPal just to name a few but
you can also integrate with accounting tools like QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, and Wave as well as
a number of invoicing tools, budgeting platforms, payroll providers, and even platform focused on
productivity like Slack or marketing tools like HubSpot. The list of app integrations is pretty
extensive and continues to get longer and longer and it's truly one of my favorite features of this
platform. I'm able to integrate with my QuickBooks so that all of my transactions and invoices are
synchronized into my accounting software and visible to my account. I can integrate
with HubSpot to actively track sponsorship opportunities and manage my emails. If you’ve
never used a financial tool that is intelligently communicating with other third-party platforms
that you use then let me be the first to tell you that this is a real game-changer. Of course,
the utility of something like this is going to depend on what tools you are currently using but
even as someone who's running a small business like my own, I use a handful of these tools
and the fact that they are all able to communicate with my business checking bank account has saved
me countless hours and headaches without me even realizing it. One of my other favorite features
that I love as an independent contractor is called Novo reserves which is essentially a bucket
savings tool that allows you to set money aside for specific financial goals. Now in my case,
I mostly use this feature to set money aside for taxes because as an independent contractor, taxes
are not automatically withheld from the income that I receive. So I have a tax bucket and every
time income comes into my account, I automatically take 30% of that and stick it away in the reserves
bucket so that when it comes time to make the quarterly tax payments I'm not slapped with some
huge tax bill that I didn't see coming. Currently, you can create up to five different reserve
buckets and while I used this for tax purposes you could use this for all kinds of different budgets
and purposes and you can instantly move money in and out of these reserved buckets from your main
Novo account. Plus it looks like they are soon going to be adding automatic allocations for
these buckets which I am so excited about because instead of having to make manual transfers after
income is received, Novo will automatically take a set amount of that income that you decide on
and put it away into your Novo Reserves meaning once that feature is available, you'll be able to
automate significant parts of this platform. They also recently announced a new feature called Novo
boost which allows you to receive your money via Stripe 95% faster than a standard checking account
which usually would take two or more business days all for completely free. They also have a
new express ACH feature that gives you the option to send same-day easy transfers for a fee of 1.5%
up to a maximum of $15. Now whether or not that is worth it is totally up to you and of course, you
always have the option for the standard delivery which is free but if you need to send this payment
faster for whatever reason then at least you have the option to do that same day should you need to.
So the business checking account is fairly compelling with those free and easy transfers,
no hidden fees across the board, FDIC insurance, countless integrations with other powerful
business tools, and a fully online checking banking experience with a sleek and easy to use
app end desktop platform. But being a Novo member also comes with a lot of different perks. And
what I mean by this is they're actually going to offer you some significant discounts on a number
of third party business tools. You can see the extensive list here but just as a few examples,
you can get up to $20,000 in fee-free card processing with stripe which is a cash savings
of $500, you can get a 40% discount for the first six months of any QuickBooks online package
and even 30% off of your first-year subscription to HubSpot which I personally took advantage of in
this saved me hundreds and hundreds of dollars. So I will mention here that Novo does not currently
offer any interest rate on your deposits however the savings that I have seen from these various
Novo perks have equated to significantly more than any amount of interest I would possibly earn on
this account. Now in terms of the app itself in the desktop platform like I said earlier it all
comes back to that one word simple. On the mobile side of things the app has a few basic menus much
of which are fully customizable, you can see your activity and trends for your income and expenses,
instantly move money and deposit checks, and set up those different platform integrations that we
talked about and manage your debit cards. The desktop is basically just a bigger version of
the mobile app which I'm actually a huge fan of because you don't have to specifically go to the
desktop platform to access certain features or menus you really are able to do everything from
either your computer or smartphone. So what is it specifically that made me stick with Novo despite
the fact that I actually opened a number of other business checking bank accounts but decided to go
with Novo for the long term? Well obviously it's that simple and easy to understand design that
I keep coming back to and all of the wonderful features that we've talked about in today's video
but the one thing that really did it for me was actually their customer support. As I talk about
all the time on my channel, customer service is so important to me especially when it comes to
fully online checking banking platforms because when you don't have the ability to physically walk
into a bank and get help from a real person, being able to talk to a real person on the phone
is absolutely crucial and an area where a lot of financial technology companies
across the board are lacking. Not only do you have deep standard options like phone and email
support which is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
but they also have a really great support menu within the app where you can either get simple
answers from the Novo bot or you can open a support ticket and talk to a human support agent
who can help you with more specific inquiries. I've only ever had to call them a few times for
an address change and a business organization change and both times I only had to wait maybe
two minutes and I was immediately connected with a customer service representative
who helped answer my question and got those changes updated on my account all within a matter
of minutes and if you've ever dealt with some of these other computer-based support systems,
you all know that talking to a real human is a luxury. So I would love to know what you all think
of the Novo business banking platform down in the comment section below and which of the many
amazing features is your personal favorite. If you do want to give Novo a shot and help
support my channel then I will leave it link for that down below the like button. I, of course,
want to say another huge thank you to Novo for continuing to support my content and for creating
such an amazing business banking tool that I personally love. As always thank you so much
for your time I really do appreciate it so much, take it easy and I'll see you in the next one!