What do you need to open a business bank account?

A business bank account is a legal and financial best practice, not just an organizational nicety. For an LLC or corporation, the whole point of the entity structure is that it separates your personal assets from business liabilities — but courts can "pierce the corporate veil" and disregard that separation if you routinely commingle personal and business funds, potentially exposing your personal assets to business debts or lawsuits. The SBA specifically recommends separating business and personal finances as a core financial-management practice for new small businesses, independent of whatever entity type you've chosen.

What you typically need to open one

• EIN (Employer Identification Number): issued free by the IRS; required for corporations and multi-member LLCs, and recommended (though not always mandatory) even for sole proprietors who could otherwise use their SSN.
• Business formation documents: Articles of Organization (LLC) or Articles of Incorporation (corporation), or a DBA/fictitious business name filing for a sole proprietorship operating under a trade name.
• Ownership/operating agreement: typically required for multi-member LLCs so the bank can verify who has authority to open and manage the account.
• Business license(s), if your state, county, or city requires one for your industry.
• Personal ID for whoever is opening the account on the business's behalf.

Checking, savings, and money market — which one and why

• Business checking: the operating account for day-to-day transactions — payroll, vendor payments, incoming customer payments. Many accounts advertised as "free" waive the monthly fee if you meet a condition (minimum balance, transaction volume, or a linked merchant-services relationship) rather than being unconditionally free.
• Business savings: holds reserves separately from the operating account, reducing the temptation to spend down a cash cushion mixed in with day-to-day funds.
• Business money market account: similar to a personal MMA — often requires a higher minimum balance than business savings, in exchange for a better rate and sometimes limited check-writing, making it a common home for working-capital reserves.

Insurance and transaction limits

Business deposit accounts carry the same FDIC/NCUA insurance structure as personal accounts — up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution, per ownership category — though a growing/high-balance business should be aware that a single large operating balance can exceed that limit at one bank. Many business checking accounts also include a set number of free monthly transactions (deposits and withdrawals combined) before per-transaction fees apply, which matters more for high-volume businesses than for a low-transaction service business.