Online banks for Breezy Farms LLC - 3 picks

Single-member Georgia LLC, $5K-$50K year-one revenue, automation-friendly, Profit-First-friendly.

2026-05-12 ET - sole-prop / disregarded entity to start - S-Corp election possible later - parallel to Legacy Soil & Stone

None of these are a brick-and-mortar bank. All three are FDIC-insured through partner banks, all three open accounts fully online in 10-30 minutes with an EIN and a photo of your driver's license, and all three are zero-monthly-fee on the tier I'm recommending. The 3 picks split across best overall fit, highest yield on idle cash, and simplest single-member LLC tax prep on purpose - they cover different jobs and they actually compose well.

1 - The 3 picks

Relay Financial

Best overall fit

Monthly fee

$0 (Starter tier)

APY

0.91% on checking (Starter); 1.55% on Grow ($30/mo); 2.68% on Scale ($90/mo)

Sub-accounts

Up to 20 real checking accounts, each with its own routing + account number (not virtual envelopes)

FDIC coverage

Up to $3M via Thread Bank sweep network

Integrations

Native QuickBooks Online, Xero, Gusto, Plaid. Direct bank feed that doesn't break or dupe.

Wires

Free incoming, $0 outgoing on Pro ($30/mo); on Starter, outgoing wires are paid

Sign-up time

~15 min online with EIN + photo ID + LLC formation docs

Killer feature for Mark: 20 separately-numbered sub-accounts means Profit First works without faking it. Tax bucket, owner pay, COGS, profit, operating - each is a real account with its own routing/account number. The bookkeeping advantage is that each sub-account generates its own bank feed in QuickBooks/Xero - you don't have to tag transactions after the fact to figure out which bucket they came from. For someone with adult ADD who respects organization but doesn't naturally organize, this is the bank that does the organizing for you.

Tradeoff: APY on Starter is only 0.91% - if you park >$20K idle, you're leaving meaningful money on the table vs Bluevine. Relay doesn't have a published public REST API like Mercury does - automation is via Plaid + the QuickBooks/Xero/Gusto direct integrations, not "curl your transactions endpoint." For a Mark-style Digital-Twin pull, that's a step down from Mercury.

Bluevine Business Checking

Best for idle-cash yield

Monthly fee

$0 (Standard); $30 (Plus); waivable $95 (Premier)

APY

1.3% on Standard (up to $250K, with $500/mo card spend OR $2,500/mo customer deposits); 1.75% on Plus; 3.0% on Premier

Sub-accounts

5 sub-accounts on Standard, more on higher tiers

FDIC coverage

Up to $3M via Coastal Community Bank sweep program

Integrations

QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, Plaid

Wires

$15 outgoing domestic on Standard (free on Plus/Premier)

Sign-up time

~15-20 min online with EIN + LLC docs

Killer feature for Mark: 1.3% APY on every dollar in checking up to $250K, no separate savings account to sweep. For a business that may carry $5-30K in idle cash between Legacy Soil revenue cycles, that's $65-$390/yr essentially free. The $500/mo card-spend requirement is trivial - any business hits that on supplies, fuel, or recurring software.

Tradeoff: Documented pattern of sudden account freezes and closures with vague communication and no weekend support - same risk class as Mercury below. Don't use Bluevine as your only account; use it as the yield bucket for idle cash, with Relay as the daily-ops account.

Found

Simplest single-member LLC tax prep

Monthly fee

$0 (Found basic); $35/mo Found Plus (or $315/yr); $80/mo Found Pro

APY

0% on basic; 1.5% on Found Plus; 2.50% on Found Pro (no cap)

Sub-accounts

"Pockets" - auto-savings buckets for taxes etc.

FDIC coverage

$250K standard via Piermont Bank

Integrations

Built-in bookkeeping, Schedule C generation, 1099-NEC e-filing

Tax features

Real-time tax estimates, auto-set-aside to a tax pocket, in-app quarterly estimated payments to the IRS (Plus tier)

Sign-up time

~10 min online, SSN-only acceptable for sole-prop; EIN for LLC

Killer feature for Mark: Every time money hits the account or a card swipe goes through, Found updates the running tax-bill estimate and auto-tucks the right percentage into a tax pocket. For year-one Breezy Farms as a disregarded entity (so income flows to Mark's 1040 Schedule C), this is the closest thing to "the bank does your taxes." The basic free tier covers bookkeeping + Schedule C; you'd only need Found Plus ($35/mo) once quarterly estimated payments start mattering, which is a year-two problem at $5-50K revenue.

Tradeoff: Only $250K FDIC coverage on the standard tier - not a sweep network like Relay/Bluevine. No published REST API for Mark's TP3 pull. Best used as a small secondary account where freelance / single-customer payments land specifically to drive tax-estimate accuracy - not as the primary operating account if Breezy Farms grows past hobby scale.

2 - Side-by-side

	Relay Starter	Bluevine Standard	Found basic	Mercury (skipped)
Monthly fee	$0	$0	$0	$0
Checking APY	0.91%	1.30% (activity req.)	0%	0%
High-yield option	Scale tier 2.68%	Premier 3.0%	Found Pro 2.50%	Mercury Treasury 4.47% (0.5% fee, $250K+)
Outgoing wire (domestic)	Paid on Starter, free on Pro	$15 (Standard)	Free	Free
Sub-accounts	20 real accts w/ own routing	5 (Standard)	Pockets (savings buckets)	Unlimited (virtual)
QuickBooks / Xero	Native, direct bank feed	Yes via Plaid	Built-in bookkeeping (no need)	Yes
Public REST API	No (Plaid only)	No (Plaid only)	No (Plaid only)	Yes - read/write tokens
FDIC coverage	Up to $3M (Thread Bank sweep)	Up to $3M (Coastal Bank sweep)	$250K (Piermont)	Up to $5M (sweep network)
Tax features	None native	None native	Real-time est. + auto pocket + Schedule C	None native
Single-member LLC accepts	Yes (EIN required)	Yes (EIN required)	Yes (EIN required for LLC)	Yes (EIN required)
Closure/freeze complaints	Few	Documented pattern	Some	Documented pattern

3 - What I'd do in your shoes

Open Relay Starter as the primary operating account for Breezy Farms LLC. Stand up four sub-accounts on day one: Operating, Taxes (30%), Profit (5%), Owner Pay. Plug it into QuickBooks Online or Xero - the direct feed is the cleanest in the industry and your bookkeeping happens by itself.

Open Bluevine Standard as the idle-cash sweep account. Whenever the Relay Operating balance exceeds ~$5K, ACH the excess into Bluevine and earn 1.3% APY. Hit the $500/mo card-spend trigger by routing recurring subscriptions (Make.com, Cloudflare, domain renewals, etc.) through the Bluevine card. The two accounts compose: Relay for organization, Bluevine for yield.

Skip Found for now. It's the right pick if Breezy Farms ever becomes your only income and the Schedule C tax mechanics get complex - but for year one as a parallel revenue stream alongside Legacy Soil & Stone, your existing tax workflow already handles a Schedule C. Revisit Found at year-two if Breezy Farms revenue crosses $25K and quarterly estimated payments start to bite.

Skip Mercury despite the hype. See anti-recommendations below.

4 - Anti-recommendations

Mercury - the tech-Twitter darling that doesn't fit your profile

Mercury is the bank everyone in Y Combinator / venture-funded land uses. It has the best public REST API in the space (which is genuinely tempting for TP3 pulls), free domestic + international wires, and a clean product. Three reasons to skip it for Breezy Farms specifically:

Zero APY on the checking balance. Mercury Treasury earns 4.47% but only kicks in meaningfully at $250K+ balances and charges a 0.5% fee. At your $5-50K scale, you'd earn nothing while a Bluevine account earns 1.3% with no work.
Documented account-closure pattern. BBB complaints and Trustpilot reviews show a recurring story: Mercury closes accounts citing "the nature of your activity" with no specific cause given and holds funds for weeks. You shouldn't be the canary - if you'd never used a startup-y bank before, this isn't where I'd send you first. (See horror stories below - Bluevine has the same risk; that's why both of my picks are paired, never used solo, and never with all the cash.)
It's optimized for funded startups, not parallel-income LLCs. Free international wires don't help you. Their feature emphasis is "raise capital, hold runway, deploy treasury" - not "do composting jobs and keep books clean."

If you want the API access later, you can always open a Mercury account in year two for the automation layer specifically - just don't put your operating funds there until Mercury proves it can hold an account for 12 months without surprise compliance reviews.

Chase Business / BoA / Wells - skip

Brick-and-mortar business banking has monthly fees ($15-$30), minimum balance requirements, and tier-based wire/ACH limits. Their integrations are weaker than the fintechs above. You wanted online-first, this confirms it - no exception worth making here.

Novo - close but not picked

Up to 20 "Reserves" sub-accounts, $0 monthly fee, decent integrations. Reason it didn't make the top 3: $250K FDIC only (no sweep), zero APY on checking, and the sub-accounts are virtual envelopes not separately-routed accounts. Relay does this job better.

Lili - close but not picked

Built for solo-LLCs, FDIC up to $3M, has tax features. Reason it didn't make the top 3: tax features that matter are paid ($15+/mo for Pro), and Found does the same job better for free on the basic tier. The cash-deposit-at-retail feature is nice but Mark doesn't need it.

5 - Account-closure horror stories (honest)

Mercury and Bluevine both have documented patterns of sudden account freezes and closures with vague explanations and slow customer support. Real users have been locked out of operating funds for days-to-weeks while compliance review runs. This is real - not Reddit theater - and it's the single biggest risk in the fintech-bank category.

How to neutralize it: Never run all of Breezy Farms through one fintech. Pair Relay (low closure incidence, more conservative compliance posture) as the operating account with Bluevine as the idle-cash bucket. If Bluevine freezes, Relay keeps paying bills. If Relay ever freezes, Bluevine has the cushion. Don't keep more than ~30 days of operating expenses outside of Relay until you've watched any new fintech for 6+ months.

Relay has materially fewer closure complaints in 2025-2026 - it serves a more traditional small-business customer mix (not the high-risk-flag startup/crypto crowd Mercury and Bluevine attract) and its underwriting is less twitchy. Found is small enough that horror-story volume is low; the bigger Found risk is the $250K FDIC ceiling, not closures.

6 - Next steps

What to have ready before you start (15 min of prep)

EIN for Breezy Farms LLC - if you don't have one yet, get it free at irs.gov/EIN-online in 5 minutes. Required for all three.
Georgia Articles of Organization (filed with Georgia Secretary of State) - PDF copy ready to upload
Operating Agreement - even though single-member LLCs in Georgia don't legally need one, most banks ask. Free template at legalzoom; print, sign, scan, done.
Driver's license photo (front + back)
Personal SSN (for identity verification, separate from the EIN)
Business address - your home address is fine for an online bank; no PO box on most.

Open in this order

Relay first: relayfi.com/get-started - 15 min. Set up 4 sub-accounts on day one before the first deposit. Connect QuickBooks / Xero before the second deposit.
Bluevine second, after Relay is funded: bluevine.com/business-checking - 15-20 min. Move any cash above ~$5K from Relay Operating into Bluevine for yield.
Found only if you want it: found.com - 10 min. Optional, low priority for year one.

What happens after you're approved

Order the debit card (arrives in 5-7 days). Route Make.com / Cloudflare / domain renewals onto the Bluevine card to hit the $500/mo activity trigger.
Set up an automation: every Friday, if Relay Operating > $5K, ACH the excess to Bluevine. Make.com scenario via Plaid, ~30 min to build.
Connect QuickBooks Online to Relay (free for one user; Simple Start is $30/mo if you need it, or use Wave free).
Add a single line to your Digital Twin (TP3): pull Plaid transactions from Relay nightly, tag source=breezy_farms_ops. Same pattern as Legacy Soil if you have it wired already.