Zelle® for your small business is a great payment option for you and your customers.¹

Zelle® is a fast, safe and easy way for small businesses to send, request and receive money directly between eligible bank accounts in the U.S.¹ If your customers use Zelle® within their mobile banking app, they can send payments directly to your Associated Bank account with just your email address or U.S. mobile phone number. With Zelle®, payments typically arrive within minutes.²

You can send, request or receive money with Zelle®. To get started, log in to Associated Bank Digital and select “Send Money With Zelle®” Enter your email address or U.S. mobile phone number, receive a one-time verification code, enter it, and you’re ready to start sending and receiving with Zelle®.

When you use Zelle® with a small business account, you can send money to other small businesses that bank with a financial institution that offers Zelle® to small businesses. You can also send to consumers who have access to Zelle® through their mobile banking app. At this time, we don’t support sending to (or receiving from) consumers who are only enrolled in the Zelle® app. If the small business or consumer you send money to has already enrolled with Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app, the money is sent directly to their bank account and cannot be canceled. It’s important to only send money to people you trust, and always ensure you’ve used the correct email address or U.S. mobile number when sending money.

You can receive payments from consumers using Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app. You can also receive payments from other small businesses if their financial institution offers Zelle® to small businesses. At this time, you’re not able to receive payments from consumers that are only enrolled in the Zelle® app.

Once you’re enrolled with Zelle®, money you receive is typically available within minutes.³

First, you should enroll your email address or U.S. mobile number with Zelle® through your mobile banking app and associate it with your small business account. Second, share your enrolled email address or U.S. mobile phone number with your customers and ask them to send you payment with Zelle® right from their banking app. You don’t need to share any sensitive account details; they can send you money by using your enrolled email address or U.S. mobile phone number to identify you. After the consumer sends you payment with Zelle®, you will receive your money directly into your enrolled bank account. You can also request payments directly through your mobile banking app by clicking “Send Money With Zelle®,” selecting “Request,” entering your customer’s email address or U.S. mobile number and confirming the recipient is correct (make sure you've entered the correct email address or U.S. mobile number of the person or business you want to request payment from)⁴  and tapping “Request.”. If your customer is using Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app, they’ll be able to pay you with Zelle®. You’ll receive a payment notification once your customer has sent you money in response to your request. If your customer is enrolled in the Zelle® app, they will not be able to send you money with Zelle®, and you should arrange for a different payment method.

To request money with Zelle®, select “Send Money With Zelle®” in your mobile banking app, choose “Request,” select the individual from whom you’d like to request money, enter the amount you’d like to request, include an optional note, review and hit “Request.”⁴

Neither Associated Bank nor Zelle® offers a protection program for any authorized payments made with Zelle® – for example, if you do not receive the item you paid for or the item is not as described or as you expected.

No. Associated Bank does not charge small businesses a fee for this service.

Whether you use Zelle® with a business account or a consumer account, Zelle® uses the same network to initiate payments to small businesses and consumers. Consumers who are already enrolled with Zelle® through their mobile banking app don’t need to do anything different to send money to a small business – they use the existing Zelle® experience they already know and trust within their bank’s mobile app. However, the experience is slightly different for small businesses,¹ as small businesses cannot currently receive payments from consumers who are only enrolled in the Zelle® app.

As a current Zelle® user, any of your email addresses or U.S. mobile numbers associated with a business account will be recognized as businesses by us for use with Zelle® at Associated Bank. There’s no need to re-enroll or take additional action to continue using Zelle®. Your current activity, pending payments and recurring payments will not be affected.

To get started, log in to Associated Bank Digital. To enroll a small business bank account with Zelle®, you must use a different U.S. mobile number or email address than the one you used to enroll your personal bank account with Zelle®. For example, crystal@email.com would be connected to your personal checking account, and 555-555-1234 would be connected to your small business bank account.

No, Zelle® does not integrate directly with accounting software at this time. However, since Zelle® is connected to your bank account, you are able to see all Zelle® transactions in your online banking transaction records. If your bank account transactions feed into accounting software, you will see the Zelle® transactions.

To determine whether your small business is eligible to use Zelle®, log in to your mobile banking app and look for Zelle®. If you’re able to enroll with Zelle® using your small business checking account, then you are eligible to use Zelle®.

You can only cancel a payment if the small business or consumer you sent money to hasn’t yet enrolled with Zelle®. To check whether the payment is still pending because the recipient hasn’t yet enrolled, you can go to your activity page, choose the payment you want to cancel and then select “Cancel This Payment.” If you send money to a small business or consumer that has already enrolled with Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app, the money is sent directly to their bank account and cannot be canceled. This is why it’s important to only send money to people you trust, and always ensure you’ve used the correct email address or U.S. mobile number when sending money. If you try to send money to a consumer who is only enrolled in the Zelle® app, the payment won’t go through, and a message will pop up to let you know the payment cannot be completed. With small business accounts, Zelle® does not currently support sending money to enrolled users in the Zelle® app. If you sent money to the wrong person, we recommend contacting the recipient and requesting the money back. If you aren’t able to get your money back, please call us at 800-728-3501 so we can help you.