Buildstreambase
Do you need a separate grant bank account?
The agreement decides whether separation is mandatory. Even when it is not, mixed banking increases reconciliation work.
Start with the signed funding agreement. If it requires a dedicated account, opening one is a compliance condition rather than an accounting preference.
Where the agreement is silent, a separate account can still make the receipt, expenditure and remaining balance easier to demonstrate. It also reduces the chance that a debit order or founder withdrawal uses restricted money unintentionally.
If funds are already mixed
Do not create a fictional separate balance. Reconcile from the date the grant arrived, identify every grant-funded payment and mark customer receipts or ordinary operating costs separately. Keep a running use-of-funds schedule that ties back to the bank statement.
Transfers between company accounts need their own trail. A transfer is not expenditure; the eventual supplier or payroll payment is. Record both legs so the same amount is not counted twice.
Before opening or changing an account, consider bank charges, signing authority and the time needed for verification. A dormant account that founders cannot access before a milestone may create a different problem.