Finom Review 2024: What You Need to Know

If you're a European freelancer or small business manager looking for a business account, you might have encountered Finom and wondered whether it's right for you. 

If you're on the fence, stick with us. In this Finom review, I'm exploring everything Finom offers, including its pros, cons, and pricing, so that by the end of this blog post, you'll have a better idea of whether this service could benefit your business.  

Disclaimer: Although Finom operates in Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Poland, and other EEA countries, my review will focus on what Finom offers German business owners. 

If that sounds good to you, let's dive in!

My Bottom Line Upfront

If you don't have time to read my full Finom review, here's a quick summary:

In short, Finom is a fintech company offering an app that “pools accounting, financial management, and banking functions into a single mobile-first platform.” 

One of Finom's standout features is its free business account, tailored specifically for the needs of freelancers.

Even with Finom's freemium account, users can access a range of benefits, including Finom's business platform, accounting integrations, and real-time notifications. 

For all these reasons, I believe Finom is an excellent option for busy German freelancers and small business owners.

Finom is not only a cost-effective business account and financial management platform accessible from the convenience of your smartphone, but it's also a platform you can scale with if you begin to form a small team. So, there's a bit of room for growth if you plan to expand your operations!

Finom's Core Products

Finom's core offering is split into five products:

1. Business account
2. International payments
3. Expense management
4. Launch your business
5. Multi-banking

Let's explore each of these in turn:

Business Account

As previously mentioned, Finom makes it easy for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and registered companies to create business accounts. 

Users can open a Finom business account entirely online. The Finom team will then work to verify your data, and you'll then be able to access it within five days. 

You and your team will benefit from multiple free physical Visa debit and virtual cards with no commission fees. When managing your team's cards, you can issue, limit, top up, or block cards with just a click on one centralized and customizable interface. 

With Finom's virtual cards, you can make secure online and in-store payments from your smartphone using Apple Pay and Google Pay. 

You can withdraw up to €10,000 a month from an ATM with the physical cards.

Users can earn up to 3% cashback (depending on their plan). However, the maximum amount of monthly cashback you can accumulate varies depending on your subscription. For instance, a Start user can earn up to €10 of cashback, and a Premium user can earn up to €20.

Another neat Finom feature is that you can set up ‘wallets' for specific expense items to help manage your spending and that of your team. You can create a wallet within seconds, transfer funds between wallets, and track each wallet's expenses.

Other business account features worth noting include:

• You can provide your accountant with limited or unlimited access to your Finom business account.
• Finom makes it easy to collect, store, and digitalize receipts.
• Invoices are automatically linked with your bank account, so you don't need to reconcile your invoices manually.
• You can create invoices in minutes, send them to clients via email, Facebook, or WhatsApp, and allow customers to pay you with just a click via a link or QR code. 
• You can send automatic invoice payment reminders when necessary.
• Invoice creation is quick because many fields boast auto-completion features. You can also customize and use invoice templates to streamline charging regular customers.
• You can translate invoices into EN / IT / DE / FR / NL / PL / ES.
• Finom integrates with Lexoffice, DATEV Online, sevDesk, FastBill, Sorted, and more, making it easy to incorporate your business account into your existing tech stack. 

International Payments

If your business operates internationally, you'll be pleased to know that Finom simplifies the process of saving, exchanging, spending, and receiving funds from over 150 countries and 20+ currencies using a single IBAN account.

All of this can be managed conveniently from your smartphone or desktop.

Other international payment features worth highlighting include:

• A low exchange rate (0.5%)
• You can receive incoming international transactions for free.
• You only pay when you send money overseas; this is a fixed, low, real-time rate. This allows you to execute the transaction when it's the best value for money. 
• There's one markup for all currencies, regardless of the value of your transfer. 
• All fees are transparent before any transaction, allowing you to make an informed choice.
• You can make an infinite number of worldwide transfers worldwide.
• You can keep cash in any currency with no restrictions or fees.
• You should receive up to 75% of transfers within the same day.

Expense Management

We've already touched on a few of Finom's ket expense management features above. However, Finom's expense management tools form a crucial part of its offering, so I thought it would make sense to give this functionality its own section:

Helpfully, Finom describes its expense management process in five easy steps:

1. Order as many physical and virtual cards as you and your team need via the Finom app.
2. Should you wish, you can set custom spending policies and limits on these cards. 
3. You can then track expenses. Finom provides an exhaustive transaction log, and you can search transactions using filters and sorting. Plus, you can set custom real-time notifications to ensure you never miss a transaction!
4. Upload receipts, invoices, and contracts in multiple currencies and digitize these documents using Finom's auto-recognition feature.
5. Export accounting-ready data in bulk. You can export reconciled or raw data, sort data by time period or wallet, and export your data in multiple formats, including PDF, MT940, CSV, and others.

Launch Your Business

Finom's ‘Launch Your Business' service differs slightly from the abovementioned account features. 

From €99,* Finom will set up your business. This tailored solution varies depending on your preferred business formation (GmbH, UG, gGmbH, gUG, Freelancer, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) 

*Please note that Finom's ‘Launch Your Business' service is a separate cost from the pricing packages listed below. 

However, below, I've listed some of the key features included in this service:

• Finom will conduct a company name check with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
• Finom organizes a notary appointment in the city of your choice.
• Finom opens a company business account for you.
• Finom handles your company's entry onto the commercial register (Handelsregister)
• Finom prepares your trade registration (Gewerbeanmeldung)
• Finom prepares your tax office questionnaire (Finanzamtfragebogen) for your VAT ID (USt.-ID) application.

Multi-banking

Lastly, Finom allows you to manage all your business finances from one place. You can link any bank account to your Finom account within minutes, allowing you to access all your account balances, transactions, and contractor data from one place.  

Finom Pricing

Finom offers four account types, each with its own pricing: 

1. Solo
2. Start
3. Premium
4. Custom

Let's take a quick peak at each below:

Solo

The Solo plan is Finom's free business account for freelancers; it includes the following features:

• Access for one user
• 0% cashback
• Access to the business platform
• Accounting integrations
• All transaction history is available to view in smart dashboards
• You can receive real-time transaction notifications
• Multi-companies
• You can connect with as many banks and payment service providers as you want
• Access to Finom's mobile app (iOS and Android)
• A 99% guaranteed uptime 
• Dark theme

Start

The Start account costs €9 a month (excl. VAT). However, you'll receive 20% off this price if you opt for annual billing. 

Users also benefit from one month free, and you can cancel anytime.

Start customers benefit from all of the above features, plus:

• Access for two users
• 2% cashback
• Role and user management
• You can grant your accountant access to your Finom account
• Team members can access wallets manually 
• Access to visual income and expense analytics

Premium

The Premium account costs €28 a month (excl. VAT). Again, if you opt for yearly billing, you'll enjoy 20% off. Like the Start plan, you get one month free and can cancel anytime.

Where features are concerned, you get everything in the previous plans, plus access for five users and 3% cashback.

Custom

Last but not least, there's the Custom plan. Prices for this account start from €99. 

The Custom account is tailored to meet your business's needs, including special terms on international payments and currency exchange rates. You also get access to a dedicated account manager.

Finom's Customer Support

Finom offers an array of customer support channels, including live chat, WhatsApp, and email. According to Finom's website, you can expect to receive a response via live chat or WhatsApp within two minutes; for email, this is ten minutes, which is still pretty impressive! 

There's also a Facebook community you can join. From here, you can keep abreast of Finom's latest news, discuss your experiences with Finom's products, and post requests to Finom's development team.

Alternatively, if you would prefer to consult self-help materials, Finom has an FAQs section and online help center where you'll find useful articles organized into topics like ‘About Finom,' ‘Opening an account,' ‘Account settings,' and more. 

Finom's Pros and Cons

We've covered a lot of ground, so let's condense some of what we've learned in this Finom review with a quick pro-cons list:

Finom's Pros

• Customer support is reportedly excellent, with an average response time of less than five minutes.
• According to Finom, they boast five-star ratings from 92% of their customers.
• Finom is GDPR compliant
• Data is encrypted, which prevents data from being stolen or intercepted
• For extra security, you can confirm each online card transaction with a unique one-time password
• The one-month free trial is incredibly generous 
• You can open your IBAN account fully online
• Users get access to multiple free physical and virtual cards
• Although capped, you can earn up to 3% cashback
• Finom offers a simple yet powerful invoicing system and expense management solutions.
• Finom integrates with several popular accounting platforms.

Finom's Cons

• Currently, you can't make outgoing SWIFT transfers
• A few online reviews complain about occasional technical problems processing transactions.

Finom Review: My Final Thoughts

That brings us to the end of my Finom review. After reading this blog post, I hope you have a better idea of whether this finance platform is the right fit for your business. 

To summarize, I think Finom is a good option for European freelancers looking for a cost-effective business account that also comes with various invoicing and accounting tools and the possibility of scaling their account as their business grows. 

That's all from me! Over to you. Will you be registering for a Finom account? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments box below!