Somebody registers a company on a Monday, needs to invoice a client on the Friday, and starts a business account application on the Tuesday.
Three weeks later it is still in progress, twice returned for information nobody listed at the start, and he has been paid into his personal account because he had no alternative.
The checklist
Publish these and applications stop stalling.
1. What documents are required
Named, exactly, for each business type. Sole trader, partnership and limited company have different requirements and providers publish one general list.
2. Identification for whom
Every director, every owner above a threshold and anybody who will operate the account. Applicants list one person and are returned for the others.
3. What counts as acceptable identification
Which documents, how recent, whether copies are accepted and what to do if somebody lacks the usual ones. Applications fail here constantly.
4. What evidence of the business is needed
Registration details, the nature of the activity, expected turnover, expected transactions and where money will come from. Applicants find these questions intrusive unless told why they are asked.
5. The realistic timescale
From application to a usable account, as a range. New businesses plan around it and are stranded when it takes three times longer than assumed.
6. Whether anything can be done in advance
Gathering documents, booking an appointment or completing a form. Applicants want to prepare and are given no way to.
7. Whether an appointment is needed
In branch or remotely, how far ahead they book and what to bring, which sits with branch access and appointment questions members ask.
8. What the charges are
Monthly fee, transaction charges, any free period and what happens after it. Small businesses compare on this and providers bury it.
9. What happens to a returned application
Why applications come back, what the most common causes are and how quickly a correction is processed. Publishing the common failures prevents most of them.
10. Whether trading can start meanwhile
What a business can and cannot do while waiting, and whether any interim arrangement exists. Applicants improvise and create problems.
11. The switching position
For an existing business moving provider, what transfers, what they must do and how long it takes, which relates to business account enquiries from founders and finance teams.
12. Who can be added later
Additional signatories, accountants with view access and how permissions work. Businesses grow and need to know it is possible.
13. What a sole trader actually needs
Whether a personal account is permitted, whether a business account is required and what the provider's position is. It is the most common question from the smallest customers.
13b. What happens to an account that is barely used
New businesses frequently open an account months before they trade properly and worry that dormancy will cost them. Saying plainly whether a minimum activity is expected, whether fees still apply and what happens to an account with no transactions lets somebody open it at the right time rather than waiting until they need it urgently.
14. Answer application questions at any hour
Because people start businesses in the evening, which is the availability in an AI receptionist for a small business and the registration friction in account opening questions new customers ask.
Getting started
Publish exact document requirements by business type with a realistic timescale and the common failure reasons, then answer at any hour. SpideyChat for financial organisations answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.