Is Revolut Business right for the best choice for small business owners? We’ll cover everything businesses need to know in our Revolut Business review.
What is Revolut Business?
Revolut Business is an electronic money institution established in the UK in 2015 with the goal of creating a financial super-app. The company started out catering solely to personal users, but launched Revolut Business in 2017 to offer advanced digital payment options and multi-currency accounts for small businesses.
As of 2023, Revolut Business has more than 500,000 business customers and more than 35 million personal customers. The company supports payments in over 150 countries around the world and offers multi-currency accounts for 36 currencies.
Revolut Business has considered holding an initial public offering, but so far it remains a private company. The company’s largest shareholder is its CEO, Nik Storonsky.
Revolut is beloved by customers, with a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot after more than 144,000 reviews. The company has also won numerous industry awards, including:
- #1 on Deloitte’s Tech Fast 50 (2020)
- Fintech Company of the Year, City AM Awards (2018)
Revolut is headquartered in London and has a US headquarters in New York City.
Revolut Business Features
Revolut Business is packed with features to help business owners make and receive payments, manage their finances, and more. Let’s take a look at everything Revolut Business offers.
Multi-currency Account
Revolut offers multi-currency business accounts that support 36 currencies including GBP, USD, EUR, and more. Businesses can send and receive payments in any currency without converting. Revolut also allows multiple sub-accounts in a single currency, which is great for businesses that want to track payments and expenses by office, region, or another categorisation.
When businesses need to convert currencies, they can do so using Revolut’s currency exchange. The digital account offers competitive foreign exchange rates.
In addition, Revolut offers several ways to manage currency risk. Business owners can get alerts when a currency pair reaches a specific price or set up limit and stop orders for conversions.
Revolut Business also offers forward exchange contracts up to 12 months in length that offer fixed exchange rates. This is a huge benefit for international businesses that want protection from market fluctuations.
Team Management
Revolut Business enables business owners to create accounts for each of their employees. There’s no limit on the number of employees that can be added to any Revolut Business account.
Owners can monitor all of the transactions that employees make and set transaction limits for individual employees. Business owners can also set up custom approval rules for each employee. For example, if a manager wants to spend £5,000, they may not need approval. But if a junior employee wants to spend £5,000, they can be required to get approval first.
Business owners can also get debit cards to distribute to their employees. Debit cards support local payments in 150 currencies for employees who travel for work. Employees can also instantly create one-time-use virtual cards to make online payments while keeping your card information safe.
Merchant Accounts and Payments Processing
Revolut Business enables businesses to accept payments in any of the currencies supported by its multi-currency account. Payments are processed in 24 hours or less, which is significantly faster than for many other UK merchant accounts.
Revolut Business offers multiple ways to accept payments including:
- An online payments gateway for websites
- Integrations for Shopify, WooCommerce, and other ecommerce platforms
- Payment links shareable by email, text message, or invoice
- Contactless QR codes
- Card reader with EMV chip reader and tap-to-pay
- Tap-to-pay for iPhone
Revolut also offers an API for businesses that want to set up custom online payment options.
Supplier Payments and Payroll
Revolut Business’s multi-currency account makes it easy to pay suppliers and employees all over the world. It’s an especially good solution for businesses with international employees and contractors who need to make payroll in multiple currencies.
Revolut also offers its own payroll system. Business owners can set up multiple schedules to pay employees as well as give employees a portion of their paycheck instantly with on-demand pay. Payroll taxes are filed automatically each month, which is one less thing business owners need to worry about.
In addition, Revolut integrates with payroll providers like Quickbooks. It’s also possible to set up and schedule bulk payments to suppliers and employees in multiple currencies.
Bookkeeping and Analysis
Revolut Business includes basic bookkeeping tools to help business owners track expenses and revenue. The software lets users import receipts by taking a photo or copying details from emails. Business owners can then categorise expenses with labels, annotate approvals, and leave notes.
The platform also offers expense analysis dashboards. Business owners can break down expenses by currency, employee, expense category, supplier, and more. Data can be exported as a CSV for more detailed analysis and visualisations.
Revolut Business Mobile App
Revolut Business offers a free mobile app for Business users for iOS and Android devices. The app provides access to nearly all of Revolut’s features.
With the app, it’s easy to quickly check balances in all the currencies a business uses. Business owners can also view a real-time list of transactions from their account or on their employees’ debit cards. They can set up alerts, approvals, and manage spending controls for employees.
The Revolut Business app also enables business owners to create and send invoices, set up payment links and QR codes, accept credit card payments (iOS only), and run payroll. Business owners can even set up integrations with other finance software through the Revolut Business app.
This is a really powerful digital accounts and business management app for business owners on the go. It’s easy to use and offers in-depth information about a business’s finances.
Revolut Business Integrations
Revolut Business supports integrations with a wide variety of popular business tools. There are numerous accounting integrations including for software like Xero, Quickbooks, Surf Accounts, Kashflow, Freshbooks, Zoho Books, and Sage.
Businesses can automate repetitive tasks or set up triggers for payments using Zapier. Revolut even integrates with Slack to send notifications when payments are made, balances reach a certain level, and more.
Businesses that sell online can integrate Revolut with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and Presta to process payments.
Revolut also offers an API with webhooks for businesses that want to build custom integrations and automations. It doesn’t cost extra to use the API.
Revolut Business Pricing
Revolut Business offers 3 plans for freelancers and owner-operator businesses and 4 plans for companies. Business owners can open a freelancer account in their own name, while corporate plans must be opened in the name of a registered business.
Freelancer Plans
Basic: Free
The Basic plan is a free option that includes a multi-currency business online account with a debit card, expense management, and the ability to accept payments. It offers foreign currency conversion.
Professional: £5/month
The Professional plan offers £5,000 in currency conversion and 20 fee-free local transfers. It also offers access to Revolut’s API.
Ultimate: £19/month
The Ultimate plan offers £10,000 in currency conversion, 100 fee-free local transfers, and 5 fee-free international transfers.
Company Plans
Basic: Free
The Basic plan is a free version of Revolut Business that includes multi-currency accounts, debit cards, and support for unlimited employees. The Basic plan has some limitations, as it doesn’t come with fee-free international transfers (they cost £5 each), expense approvals, or API access. In addition, businesses are limited to £1,000 in currency conversion each month.
Grow: £19/month
The Grow plan offers 5 free international transfers and 100 free local transfers per month, expense approvals, and API access. It also unlocks bulk payments and limit and stop orders for foreign currency conversions.
Scale: £79/month
The Scale plan is very similar to the Grow plan, but offers 25 free international transfers and 1,000 free local transfers per month.
Enterprise: Contact for pricing
The Enterprise plan is a customizable plan designed for larger businesses. Contact Revolut to negotiate pricing, transfer limits, and more.
Basic
Grow
Scale
Enterprise
Price per month
Free
£19
£79
Contact for pricing
Fee-free international transfers
0
5
25
Custom
Currency conversion
£1,000
£10,000
£25,000
Custom
Expense approvals
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
API access
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Payment Fees
Here are the fees for processing payments with Revolut Business:
- In-person UK credit and debit cards: 0.8% + £0.02 per transaction
- Online UK credit and debit cards: 1.0% + £0.02 per transaction
- International credit and debit cards: 2.6% + £0.02 per transaction
Here are the fees for transferring money with Revolut Business:
- International transfers: £5
- Local transfers: £0.20
It’s possible to withdraw cash from an ATM using a Revolut debit card. All ATM withdrawals incur a 2% fee and businesses are limited to withdrawing £3,000 in cash per day.
Is Revolut Business Secure and Trustworthy?
Importantly, Revolut Business is classed as an electronic money institution in the UK. Customer deposits are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). However, Revolut keeps customer funds safe by placing them in large global financial institutions, insuring them, or investing them in low-risk assets.
As part of Revolut’s wider safeguarding, its clients’ funds are either kept in dedicated money accounts or invested in low-risk liquid assets held in client asset accounts. Safeguarding better protects user funds. This means that if Revolut were to become insolvent clients would receive their money first.
Revolut Business uses a combination of security methods to keep customer accounts safe. The platform requires both biometric and two-factor authentication for login. It also provides warnings when sending payments to a new recipient and alerts business owners to suspected scam transactions.
Revolut gives business owners the ability to freeze and unfreeze debit cards using the Revolut Business app. It’s also easy to create one-time-use virtual cards to make online payments without exposing debit card numbers.
Business owners can get real-time alerts for all spending from their accounts or debit cards by employees. They can also use spending controls to prevent any employees from making transactions over a certain amount.
When processing payments, Revolut is fully Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant. The online payment gateway is fully encrypted and the card reader uses EMV chips for added security.
Revolut Business Customer Support
Revolut Business provides 24/7 customer support by live chat and email. There is no phone support and there are no physical branches to visit.
The company’s website has a detailed online knowledge base that answers common questions about how to set up an account, how to manage payments, and more.
Conclusion
Revolut Business is a financial super-app designed to help small business owners with all of their financial needs. The platform offers multi-currency business accounts that businesses can use to make and accept payments around the globe.
Revolut Business makes many of its best features available through free plans for freelancers and companies. Growing businesses can take advantage of custom pricing options, numerous integrations, and an API.
Overall, Revolut Business is an outstanding choice for businesses that have customers, employees, or suppliers in multiple countries. Check out Revolut Business’s plans today to open a Business account.
References
- https://www.revolut.com/about/
- https://www.cityindex.com/en-uk/news-and-analysis/revolut-ipo/
- https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.revolut.com
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-forward-contracts-essential-businesses-individuals-1f
- https://www.fscs.org.uk/news/protection/e-money-and-fscs-protection/