Band Bank Account

[EssexBuccaneer]

Hi all, some advice would be appreciated.

 

When being paid for gigs, we don’t take a share each, but the money is ‘the Bands’ for use on a PA, lighting, consumables etc. 

 

Our gigs have so far been cash-in-hand with the guitarist looking after the money in his safe at home. However we’re playing a gig soon who will pay us electronically via concur - as such we’re thinking about setting up a band bank account. Has anyone experience with this? Does one person control the account and act as treasurer? Are you all signatories to the account? Are there fees for a multiple person account? Anything else we need to know?

[Steve Browning]

In my band we use a personal bank account in my name. The business account charges were prohibitive and the turnover didn't warrant it. 

 

I maintain full accounts and keep the guys fully up to date. I send them the file with a bank reconciliation done.

 

I do the same with CD sales and reconcile sales to the number of them left.

[zbd1960]

Other than having a member use one of their accounts to handle it all, there are a couple of ways of doing this, but one of them probably doesn't suit your set-up. 

 

A small business account is the obvious route. The challenge here is that it's not free and to some extent charges will be based on turnover.

 

The other option, which probably is not a valid one here is if you were set-up as a small society/club, most banks have some sort of 'clubs and charities' account, which below a certain level of activity will offer free banking. If you were running some sort of local 'come and play' thing then that might be a viable option. Downside is you'd have to set up as a club with a constitution etc - which is why I say it's not really an option for you. I mention it as it might suit some people for some types of set up. 

[acidbass]

A business account is a bit complex, probably best to avoid that route.  How about a Revolut/Monzo online/app account that everyone has access to?  You can then use virtual debit cards to pay for band-related stuff instead of everyone having a physical card.

[jezzaboy]

What, you can actually make money doing this music lark??? 😁😁

[Dad3353]

8 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

Other than having a member use one of their accounts to handle it all, there are a couple of ways of doing this, but one of them probably doesn't suit your set-up. 

 

A small business account is the obvious route. The challenge here is that it's not free and to some extent charges will be based on turnover.

 

The other option, which probably is not a valid one here is if you were set-up as a small society/club, most banks have some sort of 'clubs and charities' account, which below a certain level of activity will offer free banking. If you were running some sort of local 'come and play' thing then that might be a viable option. Downside is you'd have to set up as a club with a constitution etc - which is why I say it's not really an option for you. I mention it as it might suit some people for some types of set up. 

 

Not sure about the UK, but, in France, it's easy enough for a local Association (table tennis, footie team, Am-Dram society etc...) to have a bank account. It needs only three designated members (President, Secretary, Treasurer...) and have meetings with Members. Our band (Kiemsa...) used this for the whole of its existence, with official 'meetings' every three years, to vote in the statuary roles, above. It works very well, for very little, or no, cost, and has advantages when contacting other Administrations, such as Town Halls and the like. 

[zbd1960]

1 hour ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Not sure about the UK, but, in France, it's easy enough for a local Association (table tennis, footie team, Am-Dram society etc...) to have a bank account. It needs only three designated members (President, Secretary, Treasurer...) and have meetings with Members. Our band (Kiemsa...) used this for the whole of its existence, with official 'meetings' every three years, to vote in the statuary roles, above. It works very well, for very little, or no, cost, and has advantages when contacting other Administrations, such as Town Halls and the like. 

Unfortunately, the UK's approach to the AML and KYC legislation (anti-money laundering and 'know your customer') has been to over react and make it draconian. You are unlikely to get a club/associations account without evidence of a governing document, designated officers, and an extract from committee minutes authorising the setting up of the bank account.  

[Happy Jack]

>30 years as a Finance Director here, and I would advise very strongly against going this route unless you genuinely expect to be as successful as Taylor Swift.

 

Technically speaking, any working band is automatically a Partnership under the 1890 Act but nobody gives a toss and I've never heard of anyone acting (i.e. sueing someone or trying to claim equal shares of band revenues) on that basis. Don't mean it ain't happened, mind.

 

Open a 'band' bank account, however, and you open a number of doors. Very probably, no bug-eyed monsters will walk through those doors; but if the doors aren't there then there's no risk.

 

Shared ownership of anything in band is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

The bands I play in get paid variously through all sorts of channels ... cash, Concur, Opus, etc. Whichever person can be bothered to deal with it collects the money and then distributes it later, usually (but not necessarily) as cash. If you can't trust one of your bandmates to give you your £50 from playing the Dog & Duck last week, then you should probably reconsider who you play with. 🤨

[Dad3353]

9 minutes ago, zbd1960 said:

Unfortunately, the UK's approach to the AML and KYC legislation (anti-money laundering and 'know your customer') has been to over react and make it draconian. You are unlikely to get a club/associations account without evidence of a governing document, designated officers, and an extract from committee minutes authorising the setting up of the bank account.  

 

We did all of that; there are templates for most of it on line, and it all worked well for several years. There was no, or very little, cost involved. How do your local football or tennis clubs work..? It should be similar, I'd have thought.

[zbd1960]

22 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

We did all of that; there are templates for most of it on line, and it all worked well for several years. There was no, or very little, cost involved. How do your local football or tennis clubs work..? It should be similar, I'd have thought.

I think this is where the issues lie. A football club etc is a club or society and it will have members who pay a subscription. They will have some sort of constitution/governing document which will means they are an 'unincorporated society' in legal terms run by a committee. A band is not a club/society but a group of people with a common business interest, which is not the same thing. They aren't going to be able to submit a governing document and list who's the chair/secretary/treasurer etc.

 

They'd have to register as some sort of business structure. 

[Dad3353]

1 minute ago, zbd1960 said:

...They'd have to register as some sort of business structure. 

 

Must be different in France, then. We were registered as an association, just like the local tennis club, a music school and the organising of our local music festivals. All declared as 'non-profit' associations.

[odysseus]

Hell no - our singer would have spent the lot on weed.

[Dad3353]

1 minute ago, odysseus said:

Hell no - our singer would have spent the lot on weed.

 

That's OK, as long as he gets a receipt, with VAT. 

 

...

 

 

[TimR]

3 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

I think this is where the issues lie. A football club etc is a club or society and it will have members who pay a subscription. They will have some sort of constitution/governing document which will means they are an 'unincorporated society' in legal terms run by a committee. A band is not a club/society but a group of people with a common business interest, which is not the same thing. They aren't going to be able to submit a governing document and list who's the chair/secretary/treasurer etc.

 

They'd have to register as some sort of business structure. 

 

This is usually because they'll be affiliated to a body and have to follow best practices. If anything goes wrong they'll have to show they followed best practices. The officers of the club (chairman, secretary, treasurer) will be the ones who have to take any financial hit or be sued. 

 

AFAIK a band is still a 'club' and the 'members' have joint and several liability for debts and will all be responsible for one of the members negligence. Hence anyone playing out should have their own insurance. 

 

The only issue with having band funds paid directly into your personal bank account is if the HMRC should take an interest in you, especially if being paid by a business. Getting paid £80 for the odd gig could potentially look like you're being paid £320. But keep records and you should all be fine.

Edited April 24 by TimR

[spacecowboy]

My band play a lot of paid gigs, our vocalist looks after all invoicing and it’s her bank account that gets the cash from the venue and we insist it’s always digital, never cash, we need to trace it all easily for the taxman and her account is a sole place to count it all up, our drummer is in accounts so looks after most of that, but our vocalist is very good at transferring it out to the band as soon as she gets it, and as a band we’re very good at paying our share of costs on time.

 

I’m lucky that I’m in a band with a reliable and trust worthy group. 

[uk_lefty]

My band money is paid to the singer. We work on the understanding that 50% goes to a band fund for costs, the other 50% is distributed to us when there's a decent amount built up. 

 

Band costs are things like XLR cables, insurance, website costs, annual guitar servicing, mic stands... And an annual trip to Amsterdam where the gig fee is only about 20% of the cost of the weekend.

[Cat Burrito]

Ours is held on PayPal as a balance with any cash in an envelope at my house. We put all of our money back into recording / band merch. I do a periodic message with where it has gone but as it's a duo consisting of two old school friends, I don't think Nick is worried I will do a Father Ted / Arthur Fowler type stitch up! 

[neepheid]

In the covers band we generally get paid in cash, so the biggest problem is finding fivers sometimes.  There is no band kitty, we're mercenaries, we divvy up the money on the night and it goes its separate ways.  When the venue pays electronically, the guitarist handles it then reimburses us when the money finally deigns to show up.

 

The originals band is different - there is a band kitty and all the money goes in there - no-one takes anything from it personally, it's all for the band.  I look after it and maintain a spreadsheet of the ins and outs.  Ins are gig fees and CD sales, outs are recording, publishing, getting CDs made if we can be arsed.  It's not used for equipment - the band generally plays in venues with house backline and we maintain our own personal musical gear out of our own pockets.

 

[christhammer666]

id have trouble putting 4 cans of warm beer into a bank account