Stop mixing personal and business money (without opening ten accounts)

One GTB account for everything is common in Nigerian SMEs. It works until tax season, a co-founder dispute, or a bank compliance ask. Here’s how to separate without overcomplicating.

• Use one business account for operations you would show an accountant.
• Log owner drawings by name — not as “misc transfer”.
• Pick a clean start date; move forward even if the past is messy.

You started with one account because opening another bank account felt like paperwork for paperwork’s sake. Fair. Then a client paid ₦2M, you paid school fees from the same line, bought diesel for the van, and sent money to your sister — all in one week. Your “business balance” is now a feeling, not a number.

If you cannot print a statement and point to business-only activity, you do not have books. You have a diary.

Minimum viable separation

You do not need a fancy structure on day one. You need one rule: business income and business spend flow through accounts you are willing to show an accountant.

• One business current account for operations (even if you are sole proprietor).
• Owner drawings logged when you move money to yourself — label them “Drawing — [month]”, not “misc”.
• Personal bills do not touch the business card or business POS.
• If you must use personal money for business, log it as owner loan in, reimburse properly.

Drawings as named lines — not hidden inside “transfer.”

The conversation you avoid until FIRS asks

Mixed accounts make VAT and company income tax filings painful. Your accountant spends hours separating lines you could have tagged in June. That bill is real even if you do not see it on a payslip.

What investors and lenders actually look at

They are not judging your morality. They want to know burn rate and runway from business activity alone. Mixed accounts signal you might not know your numbers — which is worse than a thin margin.

Run business money in one workspace — Track drawings · import bank CSV · naira-native