Advice please

[DimDin]

I have an online web hosting business set up and am starting to get a few accounts. So far everyone has used PayPal or sent me a personal check. I would like to be able to receive checks to the business name I've chosen but I don't know how I would cash it. Do I need a business license? Can I just go to my bank and set up an account? Thank you.

[northwind]

for you to be able to cash it under a business name you need to be a registered business in the state you are running it the business.

Then you go to your bank, show them your certificate of authority with some proof and you have to set up an business account.

[zPointe]

Some banks require businesses to have a FEIN or FIN (Federal Employer Identification Number) in order to open a business savings or checking account. I have the PDF form around here somewhere... would upload it but I don't think that has been allowed, so you can obtain one through the IRS.

This is, of course, assuming your company is based in the United States.

[northwind]

EIN not needed.

You just need to have your Certificate of Authority.

Your EIN is only needed when you begin to hire people in your company.

[zPointe]

Well, some banks require an EIN, or your social security number. Care to elaborate on what a Certificate of Authority is? The term sound foreign to me. Would that be a business liscense in other words?

And as for an EIN, it has several applications, not just for hiring employees.