Is Honeybook Balance Worth It?

 Hey ​@Karissa Lorinne! I’ll of course let members speak for themselves, but I did want to share this interview I did with ​@Dannon Byrd of Tap the Coast about her experience with HoneyBook Balance! 
 

1. are you able to use the account with Zelle? - You can connect your HB Balance debit card card to Zelle, yes! You can also use Venmo and PayPal with a HB Balance account. Clients can pay you using those platforms and the money will enter your HB Balance account and show up in your HB reports and financials. 
2. are you able to pay other independent contractors from your Honeybook Balance? If so, what are the requirements? Do they need to also have a Honeybook Balance? - While we don’t have a payroll program in place currently, you’re able to send ACH transfers from the account just like any other account! We see current users transferring their contractors and employees no problem.
3. Does the savings accrue interest like a regular savings account? -  It’s a checking account so no interest! 
4. Have you experienced any bugs like not being able to access your money or anything like that? I’ll let other folks speak but I can tell you we aim to fix everything asap if there is ever a glitch or bug! 

It didn’t work for me as Honeybook doesn’t work with Quickbooks Self Employed so it messed up my end of the year reporting for last year. 

Hi ​@Karissa Lorinne ! I have had HB Balance since Jan 2024. As with everything, there are pros & cons. Below are the answers to your questions based on my experience, and a few other thoughts!
1. No, I don’t believe you can use Zelle, but I’ve not tried.
2. YES!!! As long as your contractor has a US-based bank account (does not have to be HB Balance) you can transfer funds with NO FEES on either end. This is a huge plus for my team!
3. No, there is no interest - the buckets are primarily ways to “hold” money for specific purposes. I have buckets for Taxes, Team, & Tithe, and recently added one for a Rainy Day fund. It’s kind of fun because you can also add emojis for each bucket and can control the % of each payment that gets funelled into the buckets.
4. Nope! I have not experienced any bugs like this. In fact, one of the primary benefits of having Honeybook Balance is that you get IMMEDIATE access to your funds when a client pays you - no more waiting 1-3 business days or paying a $5 instant deposit fee! Super convenient.

Other thoughts: 

1. The buckets do make bookkeeping a bit more complicated. I’ve had to create a fake “account” in Quickbooks just so I can mark all the transfers to and from the buckets as “Transfers” and it isn’t counted as revenue or expenses. 
2. You cannot access the funds when they’re in the bucket - you have to transfer them OUT of the savings bucket in order to access the funds to pay a team member or pay a bill.
3. Transfer time when you’re transferring OUT of Honeybook Balance is the normal 1-2 business days. So, if you are paying yourself via owner’s draw, you’ll need to account for that transfer time. (again, no fees though)
4. When setting up your buckets, you HAVE to have a minimum of 1% of each payment in order to create a bucket. This may be inaccurate depending on what the circumstance is. For example, some of my services don’t require any team work (consulting calls). In order to have a Team bucket, I do just put a 1% minimum to keep the bucket open, then for any services that require team contribution, I’ll manually calculate the amount I need to move into the bucket, and do it manually. I do wish this was something they would edit; allowing for a bucket to be a holding place without taking a % of every payment. 
5. I’m not sure you could accept check payments w/ HB Balance. I have kept my Chase business account for this reason - I have a couple local clients that pay me by check (they always pay on time, so I’m happy to do this to avoid processing fees) then use the Chase app to deposit the check same day.  Then I mark as paid in Honeybook.

Hope this helps!