Bluevine enhances business checking with features for accountants

Bluevine, a challenger bank for small-business owners, is introducing features that make it easier for accountants to do their jobs. 

On Tuesday it announced the launch of its Accountant Channel, which is meant to improve how accounting professionals serve their small-business clients. It lets small-business owners with a Bluevine checking account securely grant their accountants access to select information with a dedicated login. It also has a dashboard where accountants can access client transactions, download bank statements in bulk and reconcile transactions and bills. Small-business checking account holders could start adding “accountant users” as of Tuesday.

"We believe partnership with small businesses also means building for accountants and bookkeepers — many of whom are business owners themselves — and the work they do to help small businesses thrive," Pete Potsos, senior director of accountant partnerships at Bluevine, said in a press release. "We are committed to building tools to remedy accountants' pain points."

There is a proliferation of small-business banking apps, and features such as this could help Bluevine stand out in a crowded market. 

Bluevine rolled out its checking account to its broad customer base in 2020. It enhanced the product in February, with features that let customers grant access to authorized users, manage bills and integrate the banking app with QuickBooks. Although accountants did get high-level access to their clients’ accounts with the February updates, they could not download anything or consolidate client information on one dashboard.

Account deposits are held by the $2.8 billion-asset Coastal Community Bank in Everett, Washington.