For business account holders there are four different types of nudges:
- Date
- Reserves for tax and more
- Excess balance
- Low balance alert
Each type is designed for specific reasons, and can be used in isolation or together.
Note, if you want to use the reserves for tax, excess balance or low balance alerts, these all require linking your external business current account(s) to the Marygold app, as the trigger events are based on activity in your business current account(s).
If you just want a regular reminder based on dates (i.e. the date nudge), then there is no need to link your current account(s).
Date Nudge
A date nudge is a really simple date-based scheduled reminder, just like a recurring appointment in your calendar (e.g. remind me on the 1st of the month to save). These are good for businesses that want a regular gentle nudge, know how much they want to typically set aside, and don't feel comfortable linking external accounts to the Marygold app.
Date nudges are great, but the other nudges are really good.
Reserves for Tax and more
A 'reserves for tax and more' nudge is designed to help businesses subject to VAT, Corporate Tax, or have other requirements, to set aside reserves.
Note, these nudges cannot and must not be relied upon for tax planning. They are a tool that offers a simplified representation of obligations, which can help businesses better manage their reserves. For more detailed guidance please see the FAQ for this specific nudge.
When properly used they can help business set aside approximate reserves for VAT and Corporation Tax based on their inbound receipts into their business current account. Helping to ensure the business always has enough to pay HMRC, and helping to bring clarity to the businesses true cash position.
It requires an actively linked external current account to work.
Excess Balance
Excess balance nudges are designed to help businesses 'sweep' unwanted funds away from the business current account. An excess balance nudge alerts you to a receipt into your external business current account over an amount specified by you, it then looks at the balance of your external business current account just prior to receiving the payment. It then allows you to specify how much of the 'excess balance' (excess because you didn't spend it), you would like to transfer.
It requires an actively linked external current account to work.
Low Balance Alert
Try to guess what this nudge does! Yep, alerts you if the balance on your external account(s) dips below a level you specify. There are a few extra things to be aware of with these nudges though:
- You can create alerts against multiple external current accounts, so these can be helpful in monitoring business bank accounts you use less frequently
- You specify what you think is 'low'. What is low for one business, might be high for another. Do what makes sense for your business.
- You can specify multiple alerts against the same external account. For example, you might want an 'early warning' if a particular business current accounts dips below £10,000, but another more urgent warning if it dips below £3,000. It is totally up to you.
Combinations
If you want you can use multiple nudges at the same time.
For example you may decide to create a tax reserve nudge to set aside funds for future tax obligations, but you may also want to specify a fixed amount to move on the 1st day of every month to cover a future known business goal (e.g. a date nudge to cover future capital spend).
Were you to set these up, then on the 1st of the month you will be sent a notification which includes a suggested saving amount which comprises the total of these nudges.
You retain control each month whether you move the money or not (i.e. you can dismiss any future notification), or whether you change the amount each month (e.g. owing to a new expense you know you the business has coming up). It is up to you.