First National Bank has a new offering, Doc Trail, which allows its business clients to upload files onto their online banking system for record-keeping purposes.

It is a value-add service that will certainly come in handy, especially during tax season, when businesses are asked to provide supporting documents for their submissions. Auditors will also find it very useful.

The service comes at no additional cost to clients.

“An invoice, for example, can now be attached to any particular payment,” says Jesse Weinberg, product head for business accounts at FNB.

“The documents stay there for five years, so if someone, like an auditor for example, wanted to to get proof of certain transactions, that information would be readily available.”

FNB CEO Jacques Celliers says the bank has taken the same approach with its business clients as it does with its personal banking clients. So, if consumerism is about protecting and advancing the interests of consumers, then “business-ism”, as he jokingly refers to it, should do the same for entrepreneurs.

Other innovations are that people can open a business account online in real time, while FNB also offers company registrations. It can reserve a name for entrepreneurs and update them as to how the process is going.

According to Celliers, the bank registers close to 18 000 businesses a month. There are also online black economic empowerment (BEE) score calculators and entrepreneurs can get assistance with BEE certifications.

“For us it’s all about helping people start, establish and grow their business, becoming a partner from day one,” says FNB’s newly appointed head of innovation, Yolande Steyn.

The company’s commitment to innovation has seen it reward staff members with over R42,5m since 2004.

Steyn says that it is important for all banks to innovate because the country’s banking system is so intertwined that everybody has to evolve at relatively the same pace, otherwise some innovations — such as contactless cards — won’t be practical when it comes to implementation.

FNB also has an eWallet solution for business and corporate clients whereby companies can use eWallet as payroll, meaning contract workers can be paid automatically without employees having to follow the normal eWallet payment process.

“If you have a small business and you want to pay casual labourers, you can use eWallet Pro, and it comes with a plastic card as well which recipients can then use. The money is still sent via their cellphone but they can use the card to either withdraw the cash, or swipe it at a retail outlet,” says FNB head of eWallet Lytania Johnson.

For many years, business has been fraught with bureaucracy and, as more regulations are introduced, it becomes more difficult to run a company. But now, things are becoming easier as entrepreneurs don’t necessarily have to follow separate processes for their business and personal accounts.

Says Celliers: “In the old days it didn’t work like that: you had to register your business account separately and go through all the admin of providing ID and proof of residence again. Not only were the costs significantly more, but it was a very frustrating process for clients. And if we did something to anger them, clients would close both the business and the personal account because the relationship was soured. Now business and personal accounts can be managed as one relationship.”

He says it is also now easier for the bank to check credit profiles to influence whether it gives entrepreneurs credit in the first place. If you’re a good client, the chances are that you would be given a shot in terms of getting a business loan.