Picking a small business banking account can be like eating at a buffet. There is something for everyone but it is hard to tell which offerings are the best for you given that they are so diverse. The issue is compounded by the fact that small business banking is not like personal banking. A small business typically requires a lot more services than personal banking and there should be, from the customers' perspective at least, there should be a balance between paying the lowest small business banking fees and deriving value.
I have used 5 different banks and 1 credit union for small business banking. As a lawyer, I have dealt with all the major banks on either transactions or written nasty letters on behalf of clients to these same institutions. From all these experiences I would make the following observations about picking the right small business bank account.
Not all small business bank accounts are built the same; every bank has a niche. As one of the comments in Million Dollar Journey's linked post noted, every bank has a professionals division (banking for doctors, dentists, accountants, lawyers etc. etc.) or some type of niche they serve. The plans for these types of industries are different than other businesses. Lawyers, for example, need to have no holds trust accounts (for example, a real estate lawyer has to be able to deposit mortgage funds in trust for a purchaser and then immediately pay it out to the vendor soon after deposit).
Some banks are great at servicing these types of industries (Scotiabank is traditionally the leader for servicing doctors and dentists; RBC is very active in this same industry). Others have a particular niche; TD is still my favorite for banking on-line. HSBC is a very good bank if you have business internationally (there is an extremely long hold period if a USD cheque is deposited from a non US bank; HSBC has a plan that avoids this issue). The key is to ask around and see who does what well because…
You need a good account manager. Forget purely a narrow focus on fees. Ask instead what someone is going to do for you for those fees. Most entry-level tellers have limited clearance; for example, most cannot process a deposit over $500 without a supervisor signing off. This is not a large deposit for a business. In other words, the person you see on the other side of the counter has limited authority to solve your problems.
A good account manager can authorize deposits with typos on them, release holds, transfer money from one account to another (with your authorization) if your account goes into the negative, waive fees (yes, it happens if you ask nicely), shift you from one fee schedule to another periodically and refer you clients (if you tell them what you want).
