Item: Found Small Business Banking
Rating: 4.4

Our Take

4.4

NerdWallet rating

The bottom line:

Found business checking is a great banking option for freelancers and sole proprietors thanks to its built-in invoicing, bookkeeping and tax-planning tools. But Found’s limits on deposits and transfers could challenge the owners of larger businesses.

Full review

Found Small Business Banking

Checking

Deposits are FDIC Insured

Monthly fee

Bonus

$125 Requirements to qualify

Learn more

at Found, Deposits are FDIC Insured

Smart money moves for your small business

Grow your small business with tailored insights and recommendations.

Grow your small business with tailored recommendations.

Pros & Cons

Pros

No required monthly fee or minimum opening deposit.
No excess transaction fees or overdraft fees; free incoming domestic wires.
Free, built-in invoicing, bookkeeping and tax-planning features.
Integrates with popular business and gig work apps, including Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, Etsy and PayPal.
Account holders are assigned to a dedicated banker or customer support representative.
Built-in payroll features for contractors.

Cons

No weekend or after-hours phone support.
Not available to partnerships or nonprofit organizations.
No fee-free cash deposits.

Full Review

Found is a fintech company that partners with Piermont Bank, an FDIC-insured institution, to provide banking services. Its business checking accounts are available to sole proprietors, single- and multi-member LLCs and corporations, but not partnerships or nonprofits.

Found is a great choice for self-employed business owners and freelancers. Its entry-level’s account, which has no required monthly fee*, is full of freelancer-friendly features like built-in invoicing and tax calculation (with the ability to automatically set aside estimated tax savings). If you hire contractors or subcontractors, Found lest you manage their tax forms and pay them with no fees.

This review, and the corresponding star rating, are based on the features and services available with Found’s free business checking account.* Found also offers a subscription option, Found Plus, which costs $19.99 per month or $149.999 per year.

» COMPARE: Best business accounts for self-employed workers

Found is best for:

✔️ Manging self-employment tax.

✔️ Paying contractors.

✔️ Sending invoices or accepting customer payments in person.

Not a fit? Consider these competitors

Lili Basic Business Checking Deposits are FDIC Insured	North One Standard Business Checking Deposits are FDIC Insured	Found Small Business Banking Deposits are FDIC Insured
NerdWallet rating Learn more at Lili	NerdWallet rating Learn more at North One	NerdWallet rating Learn more at Found
Monthly fee $0	Monthly fee $0	Monthly fee $0
APY N/A	APY 2.50% With $0 min. balance for APY	APY N/A
Bonus N/A	Bonus N/A	Bonus $125 Requirements to qualify

Lili: Better for running multiple businesses. Lili, another fintech company, offers a business checking account quite similar to Found’s. For most freelancers and sole proprietors, Found offers more features for free. Lili is the better choice if you run multiple businesses, though — you can set up a separate account for each business using the same login information. Read NerdWallet's review of Lili business checking.

North One: Better for earning interest. Found’s 1.50% APY is only available to users paying the Found Plus subscription fee, and you can only earn interest on your first $20,000. If you want to earn interest without a monthly fee, consider North One Standard Business Checking, another online-only account that offers 2.5% APY on balances up to $250,000 as long as you spend at least $500 per month on your debit card. Read NerdWallet's review of North One business checking.

Found account details and subscription plans
Found benefits and perks
Found drawbacks and alternatives
How we evaluated Found business checking
Found customer support
How to open a Found account

Found account details and subscription plans

	Found	Found Plus
Required fee:	$0.*	$19.99 per month or $149.99 per year.*
Minimum opening deposit requirement:	$0.	$0.
APY:	None.	1.5% on balances up to $20,000.
Software features:	Features include automated expense tracking, receipt capture, invoicing, contractor payment management, estimated automatic savings for taxes and tax write-off tracking.	All the features included in Found's free plan, plus: Automatic imports of expenses from receipts, in-app Schedule C filing and activity imports from bank accounts, credit cards, Venmo and PayPal. Annual subscribers get free tax filing via Column Tax.

Benefits and perks

Tax planning tools

Tax planning can be a pain for the self-employed, especially those otherwise accustomed to W-4 tax withholding through an employer. Found aims to simplify the process.

The Found app includes a tax estimate that updates as you spend and earn, and it automatically sets aside an estimate of money for your tax bill. It also helps you keep track of deductible business expenses and automatically creates a Schedule C, which you’ll use to file your taxes.

Found’s free business checking used to offer the option to pay your quarterly estimated taxes from the Found app. This is now only available to Found Plus subscribers. You can only file a Schedule C, as well — businesses with different tax needs will need to file another way.**

» MORE: Best business checking accounts for sole proprietors

Built-in invoicing and bookkeeping tools

Found’s free business checking account* includes unlimited invoicing, including scheduled and recurring invoices. You can customize invoices to include your company logo or to add a personal note. Invoices sent using Found can be paid by ACH, credit or debit card (processed by Stripe for a fee) or Cash App Pay. The first time you send an invoice and charge the customer using Stripe, it may take 7-14 days for Stripe to transfer their payment to your account.

Found also has integrated bookkeeping tools that automatically categorize expenses when you use your Found business debit card. Plus, you can save and annotate receipts in the Found app, and create multiple reports based on account activity.

Tap to pay

Found users can accept in-person tap-to-pay payments from customers in the Found app. That saves users the trouble of setting up a separate relationship with a payment processing company — another time-saving measure for newer or smaller entrepreneurs. (Stripe payment processing fees apply.)

Contractor payroll features

Found allows you to collect W-9 forms from contractors and pay them directly from your Found account. Contractors who also create Found accounts can receive payments instantly, or you can make an ACH transfer into their existing bank accounts. At tax season, Found will generate 1099-NEC forms for each payee. Best of all? All these tools are on the free plan.

Drawbacks and alternatives

High APY doesn’t add up to much

Found customers have to upgrade to Found Plus ($19.99 per month; $149.99 per year) to earn interest, and there’s a low ceiling on how much you can earn: Found Plus customers get a competitive 1.50% APY, but only on balances up to $20,000. At that rate, your subscription costs eat up much of your interest.

If you maintain a balance of $20,000 for a year, for example, you’d earn roughly $302 in interest at that current APY. But the subscription fees would cut that to $152 if you pay annually — and just $62.12 if you opt for the monthly subscription.

Several free business checking accounts offer a higher APY and a much higher ceiling. North One's business checking account offers the highest APY we know of:

2.5

% on all balances as long as you spend $500 per month on your linked debit card. And Bluevine business checking earns

1.5

% APY on balances up to and including $250,000 with similar activity requirements.

Limits on deposits, transactions

Found caps the size of some transactions, especially those involving cash. These daily and weekly limits apply to money going into and out of your account:

Mobile check deposits: $3,000 per week. (Found says customers can deposit up to $7,500 with additional verification from the company.)
Cash deposits: A maximum of $2,000 per rolling seven days and $4,000 per rolling 30 days.
Debit card purchases: $5,000 per day for new accounts and $20,000 per day for established accounts. Established accounts have been open for at least 30 days and met Found's activity thresholds.
ATM withdrawals: $550 per day for new accounts and $1,550 per day for established accounts.

There is no limit on direct deposits, wire transfers and transfers from payment apps like PayPal or Cash App.

Some of the limits on your account will automatically be increased when you hit certain balance, usage and account age milestones. Until then, you can request a limit increase using the Found app. These requests are reviewed by customer support, which Found says is typically quick to respond (but keeps rather limited hours).

Deposit and transfer limits aren’t unusual, but if your business relies on cash, you may want to consider other options. For example, Axos busienss checking and NBKC business checking allow fee-free cash deposits and withdrawals at compatible ATMs with no strict limits.

How we evaluated Found business checking

NerdWallet considers more than 20 data points for each business checking account we rate, scoring each on fees, perks and software tools, among other factors (view our complete ratings methodology). We gathered this information from Found's website and company representatives.

Accounts are scored from one to five stars overall, as well as on individual areas that are important for business banking. We only rate free accounts because that's the easiest way to standardize comparisons — plus, we know business owners can get a great account without a monthly fee (though a paid plan from Found or elsewhere may make sense for your needs.)

Here's how Found's free account* stacks up:

Transactions: Unlimited fee-free electronic transactions. (Fees apply for wire transfers, cash deposits and withdrawals and instant transfers, as is the case with most business bank accounts.)*
Domestic ATM access: Any ATM that accepts Mastercard.
Cash deposits: Accountholders can deposit up to $2,000 per rolling 7 days, and up to $4,000 per rolling 30 days at retail locations nationwide.
Wire transfers: Only domestic wires are supported.
Minimum opening deposit: $0.
Checks: Found will send checks on your behalf.

Human support phone hours: Weekday business hours.
App store rating: 4.76 (weighted average of the Apple and Google Play app stores).
Ease of website use: Excellent help center.
Branch access: None.
Account availability: Nationwide.
Account opening options: Online only.
Live chat support: Found Plus subscribers only.

Monthly maintenance fee: None.
ATM withdrawal fee: Found doesn’t charge ATM withdrawal fees, but ATM owners may.
Cash deposit fee: $2 per deposit.
Wire transfer fees: Incoming domestic wires are free. Outgoing domestic wires cost $15 each.
Overdraft fee: None. (Found accountholders can't overdraft; transactions are simply declined).

APY: None on the free plan.
Sign-up bonus: This sign-up bonus is only available to new accountholders who sign up via NerdWallet, so it does not affect their star rating. Still, snag it if you can:
Earn $125 when you deposit $5,000 within the first 30 days of account creation and maintain it for another 30 days. Offer valid until 03/31/25. Terms Apply.

Found earned our maximum number of points for software features thanks to the following:

Built-in invoicing.
Tax planning tools.
Contractor management features.
Receipt capture.
Tap to pay in the Found app.

We also look at public forums (like Reddit, myFICO and Quora) and online reviews (via sites like Trustpilot and the App Store/Google Play) to understand business owner sentiment about banking with Found. We use AI tools to help gather some of this information for evaluation.

People post anonymously in these spaces, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances. This data does not influence our star ratings. However, NerdWallet does contact financial institutions regarding negative feedback that we consistently observe.

Found customer support

Phone support hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PT.
Phone number: 888-845-0131.
App messaging support hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PT, and Saturday-Sunday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. PT.

As with many online-only financial providers and neobanks, users do complain about Found’s customer service. Multiple commenters on forums like Reddit and the Better Business Bureau say that it’s hard to get someone on the phone, especially if your account is frozen, which makes resolving such issues difficult. Several also report trouble with fraudulent purchases and delays receiving refunds for disputed charges.

» MORE: What is a neobank?

We asked Found about both.

A spokesperson said phone support is available to all customers with active accounts in good standing during normal business hours, but confirmed that only email support is available for frozen accounts.
Found’s website says the company responds to reports of disputed charges within 10 business days. The spokesperson told NerdWallet that “card holders are not liable for unauthorized transactions if they have used reasonable care in protecting their card from loss or theft and they promptly report any loss or theft.”

🤓 Nerdy Tip

In general, business credit cards offer more fraud protections than debit cards. We recommend using a credit card for as much of your spending as possible.

How to open a Found account

Here’s what you need to apply for a Found business checking account:

Your legal name, home address and cell phone number.
Your date of birth.
Social Security number (for identity verification purposes).
Your business name, structure, industry and the date you started your business.
If you file a Schedule C: Your estimated business income, tax filing status and total expected income (to estimate how much to set aside for estimated tax payments).

You can apply for a Found account online in a few minutes.

It can take 5-10 business days for your Found debit card to arrive. Your card details are available in the app, though, so you can open your business account and use a virtual card while you wait.

You can fund your account via ACH transfers, other debit cards, payment apps, mobile check deposits, wire transfers or cash deposits. To make a cash deposit, use the Found app to find the nearest retail location that accepts them and, when you arrive, request a barcode in the app to scan at the store and make your deposit. There’s a $2 fee per cash deposit.

Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Piermont Bank, Member FDIC. The funds in your account are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 per depositor for each account ownership category. The Found Mastercard®️ debit card is issued by Piermont Bank pursuant to a license from Mastercard Inc. and may be used everywhere Mastercard debit cards are accepted.

*Found's core features are free. There are no monthly account maintenance fees, but transactional fees for wires, instant transfers, and ATM apply. Read more here. They also offer a paid product, Found Plus, for $19.99 per month or $149.99 per year. Advanced, optional add-on bookkeeping software available with a Found Plus subscription.

**Filing business taxes through Found is applicable for Schedule C filers (and is included as part of the Found Plus annual subscription only.)

Lili is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Sunrise Banks N.A., Member FDIC.