Commercial business banking protection involves utilizing the right treasury management and digital banking tools, separating personal and business accounts, providing employee training, and implementing internal controls. That’s why we offer treasury management tools in the DMV and a secure digital banking platform. You work hard to make your business profitable, so we offer the following advice to help you maintain its success.
Utilize Treasury Management Tools for Risk Control
Treasury management tools includes treasury management and merchant services tools to make your business payments easier and secure. This offers full control of your payments, including configurable access levels for each employee.
With our online banking tools, you can initiate and stop payments, make wire transfers, view check images and statements, and set account alerts. We can also provide you with one of our scanners, so you can deposit checks remotely without having to visit a branch or an ATM.
Automated Clearing House (ACH) Filters
ACH transfers are a popular way for businesses to issue payments because they’re a fast, secure, and inexpensive way to manage funds. With our ACH payment system, you have full control over who accesses your payment system, and you can set individual limits on the types and amounts of transactions that each employee can initiate. You can also set up automatic payments, examine your payments and accounts online whenever you need, and sign up for alerts.
Use Positive Pay for Extra Security
With Positive Pay, you provide us with a list of each check issued by your business, including the check number, the date, the account number, and the amount. For every check presented for payment against your accounts, we’ll compare it to your Positive Pay list. If something doesn’t match, we’ll freeze that check and contact your business to see if we should authorize or reject payment.
Separate Personal and Business Finances with Structured Accounts
Every business owner should separate their business and personal finances, even if you’re a sole proprietor or small business owner. Failing to do so could result in serious consequences for your tax and legal liabilities.
Many small business owners create a limited liability corporation (LLC) to protect their assets from an expensive lawsuit against their business. Co-mingling your business and personal funds could put that protection at risk. It might also make it hard to separate your business and personal expenses at tax time, which could give you all sorts of headaches with the IRS.
You can start by setting up different bank accounts for your business and personal life. You’ll probably need a business checking account, and you might also need a business savings or money market account. Depending on the size of your business, you might open multiple bank accounts and use them for different reasons. Some of our customers have separate accounts for issuing payroll, setting aside future tax payments, and collecting funds.
Get a business credit card for yourself and for any employees who have to make payments on behalf of your business. As with your business and personal bank accounts, even the occasional use of your credit card for a business reason can create a lot of headaches and unnecessary risks for your business.
Make sure you keep track of all your business expenses, including receipts. While having separate business bank accounts and a credit card makes this easier, you’ll still have to justify each business expense and deduction by documenting each of them. Being unable to produce these records, especially in case of an audit, could leave you in financial trouble.
Leverage Secure Digital Banking Tools
While online and mobile banking make managing your finances easier than ever before, they can also create risks that we’d like to help you avoid. That’s why our secure online banking platform lets you access your financial data in real time, with your information protected by advanced encryption and fraud prevention tools.
Make sure you require two-factor authentication for all logons by yourself and your employees. This could be done through a text message or a mobile app, where you have to enter a code or approve logins through your phone. This step alone can prevent many cyberattacks against your business.
Never disclose personal or sensitive information about your accounts via email or text and avoid accessing any links and messages requesting this information. A common phishing scam is when a fraudster sends an email or text message with a link that tries to convince someone to enter or change their password.
Here are some ways to enhance your commercial business banking protection:
- Encourage your employees to require a password, PIN, or some other security method for their cell phone and/or your authentication app for an extra layer of security.
- Use a virtual private network (VPN) that encrypts your Internet traffic and hides your IP address, to reduce your chance of being hacked.
- Have antivirus and anti-malware software on all your devices, such as your computer, cell phone, and related equipment.
- Use online banking to disable mobile and text banking on any lost or stolen cell phones.
- Consider using an app that lets you remotely delete data from your mobile device if it’s lost or stolen.
- Set up transaction limits and email or text alerts for all your accounts.
- Don’t conduct any business or banking activities through a public Wi-Fi connection.
Use Employee Training and Internal Controls
In many cases, the weakest link in any digital banking or data system is the human factor. Even an innocent mistake could leave your business vulnerable to a cyberattack and financial loss. No matter how secure your systems and methods are, regular employee training can remind your staff of your security protocols and keep them on the alert for the latest trends in phishing and hacking attempts.
Just as two-factor authentication can protect your data, requiring two levels of approval f6or large transactions can reduce the chance of an unauthorized payment. Make sure you also have more than one person overseeing your accounts and payment processes. Not only does this help protect against employee theft, it can also reduce the chance that one of them would make a mistake. Regular audits of your accounts and your payment processes can help you detect any vulnerabilities and improve your financial security.
Plan for Continuity with Expert Relationship Managers
At FVCbank, we want to help all our customers in the DMV with business asset protection. That’s why our business advisors can help you protect your assets through every business stage — from startup to succession planning.
For more information, contact one of our representatives today by calling 703.436.4740. You can also contact us online, or visit one of our eight locations.
