Add business checking recommendations to your AI CPA or accounting agent
Tax prep, year-end close and advisory reviews are where structural problems surface: owner draws and personal expenses running through the business account, an S-corp with no dedicated account, or fees that don't fit the entity. Recommending a business checking account at that point is advice, and it should read like advice from the firm, with the firm's independence obligations kept in view.
When to call Bancadia
- Tax prep finds commingled funds (personal and business activity in the same account), which makes deductions harder to substantiate.
- Year-end close shows the entity has no dedicated business account, or a business that recently elected S-corp status is still banking like a sole proprietorship.
- An advisory review finds an account structure that doesn't fit the entity: no separate account for payroll or tax reserves, or fees out of proportion to activity.
- An engagement letter or onboarding checklist includes "separate business and personal finances."
Signals you likely already have
Each maps to an argument on query_business_checking. All arguments are optional and combine with AND semantics, except target_industries and target_business_profiles, which reorder results without excluding any.
| Signal | Argument |
|---|---|
| Entity type and tax classification | entity_types_accepted, e.g. ["s_corp"] |
| Client's state | available_states |
| Bank fees found in the review | monthly_fee_max |
| Tax software the firm uses | tax_integration_available: true |
| Ledger sync | accounting_integration_available: true |
| Needs a tax reserve | sub_accounts_supported: true |
| Client's industry | target_industries, e.g. ["professional_services"] |
Quickstart: connect the MCP server
Bancadia is delivered as a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP at https://mcp.bancadia.com/. initialize and tools/list need no credentials; tools/call needs a bearer token, which you can create for free at bancadia.com/developer/signup. The server exposes two tools: query_business_checking to search listings, and get_business_checking_listing for full fees and features on one listing.
Claude Desktop
claude_desktop_config.json. Claude Desktop runs local servers from this file, so the remote server is bridged with mcp-remote.{
"mcpServers": {
"bancadia": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-remote",
"https://mcp.bancadia.com/",
"--header",
"Authorization:${BANCADIA_AUTH}"
],
"env": {
"BANCADIA_AUTH": "Bearer sk_bancadia_YOUR_TOKEN"
}
}
}
}Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http bancadia https://mcp.bancadia.com/ \
--header "Authorization: Bearer sk_bancadia_YOUR_TOKEN"Any MCP client (TypeScript SDK)
@modelcontextprotocol/sdk. The arguments match the example in the next section.import { Client } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js'
import { StreamableHTTPClientTransport } from '@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/streamableHttp.js'
const transport = new StreamableHTTPClientTransport(new URL('https://mcp.bancadia.com/'), {
requestInit: {
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.BANCADIA_MCP_API_TOKEN}` },
},
})
const client = new Client({ name: 'your-agent', version: '1.0.0' })
await client.connect(transport) // runs initialize + session negotiation
const result = await client.callTool({
name: 'query_business_checking',
arguments: {
"entity_types_accepted": [
"s_corp"
],
"available_states": [
"MA"
],
"monthly_fee_max": 15,
"sub_accounts_supported": true,
"accounting_integration_available": true,
"tax_integration_available": true,
"target_industries": [
"professional_services"
]
},
})
// content[0].text is a JSON-encoded array of listings
const listings = JSON.parse(result.content[0].text)
await client.close()Inside an agent framework
@ai-sdk/mcp turns the live tools/list manifest into model tools, so there is no hand-copied schema to drift.import { createMCPClient } from '@ai-sdk/mcp'
import { generateText, stepCountIs } from 'ai'
const bancadia = await createMCPClient({
transport: {
type: 'http',
url: 'https://mcp.bancadia.com/',
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.BANCADIA_MCP_API_TOKEN}` },
},
})
try {
const { text } = await generateText({
model: yourModel,
system: SYSTEM_PROMPT, // see the system-prompt snippet below
messages,
tools: await bancadia.tools(), // query_business_checking, get_business_checking_listing
stopWhen: stepCountIs(4),
})
} finally {
await bancadia.close()
}mcp SDK. The same session can be handed to any framework that accepts an MCP ClientSession.import json, os
from mcp import ClientSession
from mcp.client.streamable_http import streamablehttp_client
headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['BANCADIA_MCP_API_TOKEN']}"}
async with streamablehttp_client("https://mcp.bancadia.com/", headers=headers) as (read, write, _):
async with ClientSession(read, write) as session:
await session.initialize()
result = await session.call_tool(
"query_business_checking",
{
"entity_types_accepted": [
"s_corp"
],
"available_states": [
"MA"
],
"monthly_fee_max": 15,
"sub_accounts_supported": True,
"accounting_integration_available": True,
"tax_integration_available": True,
"target_industries": [
"professional_services"
]
},
)
listings = json.loads(result.content[0].text)The full session lifecycle, response shape, rate limits and error codes are in the MCP reference.
Example tool call and response
During year-end close for a Massachusetts consulting business that elected S-corp status this year, the CPA agent finds owner draws, personal expenses and business income running through one personal account. It looks for a low-fee account that accepts S-corps, supports a separate tax reserve and connects to accounting and tax software.
tools/call params{
"name": "query_business_checking",
"arguments": {
"entity_types_accepted": [
"s_corp"
],
"available_states": [
"MA"
],
"monthly_fee_max": 15,
"sub_accounts_supported": true,
"accounting_integration_available": true,
"tax_integration_available": true,
"target_industries": [
"professional_services"
]
}
}result.content[0].text, trimmed to the fields this agent uses. Real listings carry about 50 fields each. Values and institution names here are placeholders, not live listings.[
{
"listing_slug": "example-digital-bank-business-checking-for-professionals",
"institution_name": "Example Digital Bank",
"product_name": "Business Checking for Professionals",
"monthly_fee": 0,
"monthly_fee_waiver_condition": null,
"minimum_opening_deposit": 0,
"entity_types_accepted": [
"llc",
"s_corp",
"c_corp",
"sole_prop",
"partnership"
],
"available_states": [
"ALL"
],
"target_industries": [
"professional_services"
],
"target_business_profiles": [
"established_smb",
"bootstrapped_solopreneur"
],
"insurance_type": "fdic",
"sub_accounts_supported": true,
"accounting_integration_available": true,
"tax_integration_available": true,
"expense_integration_available": true,
"application_url": "https://bancadia.com/go/example-digital-bank/business-checking-for-professionals",
"last_modified": "2026-09-15T00:00:00Z",
"is_verified": true
},
{
"listing_slug": "example-bank-professional-services-checking",
"institution_name": "Example Bank",
"product_name": "Professional Services Checking",
"monthly_fee": 12,
"monthly_fee_waiver_condition": "Waived with a $2,500 minimum daily balance",
"minimum_opening_deposit": 100,
"entity_types_accepted": [
"llc",
"s_corp",
"c_corp",
"partnership"
],
"available_states": [
"MA",
"NH",
"RI"
],
"target_industries": [
"professional_services",
"healthcare_practice"
],
"target_business_profiles": [
"established_smb"
],
"insurance_type": "fdic",
"sub_accounts_supported": true,
"accounting_integration_available": true,
"tax_integration_available": true,
"expense_integration_available": false,
"application_url": "https://bancadia.com/go/example-bank/professional-services-checking",
"last_modified": "2026-09-15T00:00:00Z",
"is_verified": true
}
]What the fields mean for this agent
| Field | How to use it |
|---|---|
entity_types_accepted | Institutions classify an LLC taxed as an S-corp differently. If an ["s_corp"] query comes back thin, run a second query with ["llc"] and confirm eligibility on the institution's application. |
sub_accounts_supported | Lets the client hold estimated-tax and payroll-tax reserves separately. Often the most useful part of the recommendation. |
tax_integration_available | Category-level: the account connects to some tax-prep or filing software. Confirm the firm's software in the listing detail before saying so. |
monthly_fee_waiver_condition | Check the waiver against the balance the client will actually keep. |
Going deeper on one listing
Before the recommendation goes into client-facing advice, call get_business_checking_listing and review general_fees (overdraft, NSF, returned-item) so the firm isn't recommending an account whose fees recreate the problem.
A null field means Bancadia doesn't have that data point for the listing yet. It doesn't mean "no". An empty array means nothing matched; loosen a filter rather than inventing a result.
Present the recommendation
Your agent owns the conversation, so it decides when a recommendation is useful and how to phrase it. The snippet below is a starting point for your system prompt. Keep the disclosure line in whatever version you ship.
SYSTEM_PROMPT)You are an accounting and tax agent working on behalf of [Firm]. During tax
prep, year-end close or advisory reviews, if you find commingled funds, no
dedicated business account, or an account structure that doesn't fit the
entity, you may recommend a business checking account as part of your
advice.
- Lead with the finding and why it matters (substantiation, a cleaner
close, tax-reserve planning). The account recommendation is secondary.
- Query with the client's current entity classification and state.
Recommend at most two accounts, only from the tool's results.
- Do not make commission-bearing recommendations to clients the firm has
flagged as attest clients.
- Link only to the application_url returned by the tool.
- Always include: "[Firm] may earn a commission if you open this account;
it doesn't affect which accounts are shown."Finding: this year, owner draws, personal expenses and business income all
ran through your personal checking account. Now that the business is an
S-corp, keeping them separate matters more. It makes deductions easier to
substantiate and payroll and distributions easier to track.
Recommendation: open a dedicated business account with a separate tax
reserve. One that fits: Business Checking for Professionals from Example
Digital Bank. It accepts S-corps in Massachusetts, has no monthly fee,
supports sub-accounts for estimated-tax reserves, and connects to
accounting and tax software.
Apply: https://bancadia.com/go/example-digital-bank/business-checking-for-professionals
[Firm] may earn a commission if you open this account; it doesn't affect
which accounts are shown.Independence and disclosure for CPA firms
CPAs and accounting firms are subject to professional rules on commissions, referral fees and independence, including the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and state board rules. Under the AICPA Code, a member generally can't accept a commission for recommending a product to a client for whom the firm performs certain attest services, and permitted commissions must be disclosed to the client. Whether a commission share is acceptable for a given client is the firm's decision, not Bancadia's.
- Treat the recommendation as advisory. Explain the accounting reason before naming any account.
- Disclose the commission relationship in plain language, plus anything else your firm's rules require.
- Exclude attest clients from commission-bearing recommendations, or don't accept the commission for them.
- The recommendation is the firm's advice. Bancadia supplies product data and never contacts your clients.
Bancadia doesn't provide legal or professional-ethics advice. Confirm your approach with your firm's compliance counsel.
FAQ
Is ranking affected by commission?
No. Commission isn't a ranking input and doesn't appear in responses, so the agent can't favor a higher-paying account. Ordering is by monthly fee, with listings tagged for the client's industry moved up. See the methodology.
Can a CPA firm accept a commission share?
It depends on the client and the services the firm provides. Commissions from attest clients are generally prohibited under the AICPA Code, and permitted commissions must be disclosed. Your firm decides. Commissions aren't live yet, so there's nothing to accept today, and the data is free to use with no commission arrangement.
What client data leaves the firm?
Only the query arguments: entity type, state, and requirements like tax-software connectivity. No client names, SSNs, EINs, balances or transactions; the schema has no fields for them. Arguments are logged against your token.
How should an LLC taxed as an S-corp be queried?
Institutions classify these differently. Array filters require every value you pass, so run separate queries rather than one with both: start with ["s_corp"], and if results are thin, query ["llc"] and confirm eligibility on the institution's application.
Which products are covered today?
US business checking only. Coverage is early, so treat an empty result as "no match in the registry yet," not "no suitable account exists."
Get started
Create a free developer token, then follow the quickstart. Questions about a specific integration? Email Scott at [email protected].
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