For a small agency with multiple owners, which digital banks offer the most flexible user permissions and access controls for partners and staff?

For a small agency with multiple co-owners and a growing staff, choosing a digital-first banking platform with granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is essential. You need a setup where partners can share high-level governance without stepping on each other's toes, and staff can have functional access (like submitting receipts or paying bills) without seeing sensitive profit distributions or moving capital.

The top digital business banking platforms leading the market in flexible user permissions and access controls include:

- **Best for:** Ultimate customization and multi-admin approval chains.
- **Permission Structure:** Offers preset roles (Admin, Bookkeeper, Limited Access) alongside a robust **Custom User** framework.
- **Why it fits multi-owner/agencies:** Mercury allows you to create and reuse **Custom Roles** (e.g., naming a role "Finance Lead" or "AP Clerk") and apply them across multiple staff members at once. You can precisely dial in whether a role can move money, issue virtual/physical cards, manage ACH authorizations, or only view specific sub-accounts. Furthermore, if you have multiple partner-admins, you can set a dual-control policy requiring **co-admin approval** on major payments or account changes.[](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESdwHrOzAVLoPGOeUqQuxv5koo5qmDq2OJnIrJkWOvOeD9blNXn0zzjOf8ydkJaVqTBBvJeccox96Elx_ICAWLZuBVqzarDmVIBFFpjBzOkfagycC3t1rQuSbgNqFyNIcUXACeMBvb9Ooo0CObFFfGeNixWUs07OXf) [[1]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESdwHrOzAVLoPGOeUqQuxv5koo5qmDq2OJnIrJkWOvOeD9blNXn0zzjOf8ydkJaVqTBBvJeccox96Elx_ICAWLZuBVqzarDmVIBFFpjBzOkfagycC3t1rQuSbgNqFyNIcUXACeMBvb9Ooo0CObFFfGeNixWUs07OXf)[[2]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESfgHrOzAVdtfDp-GNtG04Ar9rDVz0nM0HtWdFPClZdQZ-hI-RW2tnr6CnJd-woKOlu20ioL7YOzVfFmh9YwDL6yaVjZ8oVO4Uek8wfIsVA2DaaazHjtkOvEop9bQpPWfxrtZRxNGi8gREUZIfNDg2C5ROHWTb8mPfluzte6vpNw)[[3]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESgwEB6zswFcP3cjm6WmwuVHqb4_r8N2adfAp5-CXaLpvHxbe_dAPcF1L8QEB5YrE_YiU-TzJzJQ9MvOqiKi70KCOJG33hJeWClwDa3ivBxKAvelsm4y_cAUaZAKpsIphS7f86Qo-UBX8oCeeKzISYosCjUgYI0oa03siOgpZSYwl0jJb0XA)[[4]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESVQHrOzAV3uwdtWhzE0dBhCngWAglk4oeJK0RvBRofOeYQi9Iu-64_99KUUorTg6EFS072kOnmk47MKK-zepxIXykUutxIoER-7jpXmTmZ9sODb1IPl8)

- **Best for:** Clear multi-layered workflows (Profit First systems, clean separation of duties).
- **Permission Structure:** Provides 6 distinct team member permission levels: *Admin, Manager, Bill Payer, Cardholder, Deposit Only,* and *Read Only*.
- **Why it fits multi-owner/agencies:** Relay excels at operational division. For example, a "Bill Payer" can stage and pay bills but cannot approve them, while a "Manager" can issue/freeze cards and invite team members without having the keys to drain the bank accounts or edit legal business details. Partners can all sit comfortably at the "Admin" level with equal oversight or split duties cleanly with advisors/bookkeepers.[](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESbgHrOzAVuKWEtw2zBdpRdOPfscaK-BqIZs1nMKuZbso-A171JwrhgjJO4_EvC-s1wq_j6LXFN7UtJzw7Jn6rYPZmqCHN4Kj7rQHKpt2PqjIOJI9LsUwwBiuTKFiRmh4-7euFGTzE6cDWAsT4ELOg) [[1]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESbgHrOzAVuKWEtw2zBdpRdOPfscaK-BqIZs1nMKuZbso-A171JwrhgjJO4_EvC-s1wq_j6LXFN7UtJzw7Jn6rYPZmqCHN4Kj7rQHKpt2PqjIOJI9LsUwwBiuTKFiRmh4-7euFGTzE6cDWAsT4ELOg)[[2]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESVAHrOzAV4UmQ7NtNJA0xTI1EUYBrVzec4wGfxIQIFWMwNnoDc3bbHyo5D6yKpqdbIsRJ1jHzG5_hYjnRnjXaiwr4IlrTbLsysoSktiKSI6W_u9atEg)[[3]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESiwEB6zswFbyKNSg4-rjDsakm2i_hx6Gh1rOGdsZCYCVoobgirxfyGOfessT6ih-4OvzD8PJffK1tA7Nso8JTeaEpUkmTjFv2H_kc7xfUOSG1LHnJpLkQSnX6a-x1-7hBdptW6C4R8cYiaoawPKbH8hTR0jAmzbs50Uh5LD5gKQ-Gek4BMEfdtZRY2ZNp)[[4]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESbAHrOzAVI0lbwgDz-xF6QuWQVf_3AWSJ6MLfqrvP4lO2PcXv6xgCxkNvs30l_wBa2JiR_h7FiEYQAGNlW6NRDy4c_Gktpf8S5zoxZWLZOws6yAcRwI7QzHi5wB0cYUDA_Th1zPkSor_hI_zTDg)

- **Best for:** Agencies with heavier travel, software stack expenses, and sophisticated spend management.
- **Permission Structure:** Granular custom permissions paired with rigid **approval chains**.
- **Why it fits multi-owner/agencies:** Brex shines if your staff frequently handles company expenses or client entertainment. It allows you to build multi-step approval workflows based on dollar thresholds or department lines, ensuring partner visibility and sign-off on larger expenditures without needing to manually approve every minor office software subscription.[[1]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESSgHrOzAVbQBru_N_TL2wEbyyc8b3pDQWEAJwWBHflhyPYowCxgXjikyCjcOLwlbAtglKtWI0SW9I0_YkYfkEWA9PJSgYPJrdxTBA)[[2]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESTAHrOzAV3lPd-9xsUq5abh7JoCXSkRIhGF9HbtwA3d5F2dW1wM278wCPqliecfEtujiP4TicViqGXQpKY0YxXKjv0fIOnmAtt5wdY04)[[3]](https://google.com/goto?url=CAESiAEB6zswFUPnAI15LI3CsahcgVKbDQI9GE2Mg2Ne2IqJY6_V38W-UHL5c7QJS7VLtp9k8x86sXccLVYjeY0eUu0bi8Vpnr8e9K09SXemHXU1m3YCgMIv8eOqD92DNebOU6vdurBFbg4c1Ivlwe3GGPt_835xC-Zse2BgrXjyCp5RYbBM3bZieClW)

To help narrow down the ideal platform, let me know:

• Do you need multi-signature/dual-approval rules where multiple partners must sign off on a single transfer?
• Do you plan to issue company cards with individual spend limits to staff members?

For a small agency with multiple owners plus staff, I’d put Mercury and Relay at the top, with Brex worth considering if spend management is more important than traditional banking.

1. Mercury — best overall

Mercury is particularly strong when different partners and employees need different levels of authority.

Its current permission system includes Admin, Employee, Bookkeeper/Accountant, and highly configurable Custom roles. You can restrict custom users to particular accounts and permissions, while payment approval policies can impose dollar thresholds, designate specific approvers, set daily sending limits, and require multiple approvals.

Mercury has also added reusable custom roles, so you can create something like an “AP Clerk” or “Finance Lead” role once and assign it to multiple people.

A sensible agency configuration would be:

• Partners: Admin, or Custom roles if not every owner should have identical authority
• Operating partner: Can initiate payments but requires another owner's approval above a threshold
• Bookkeeper: Accounting/transaction visibility without unnecessary money-moving authority
• Operations manager: Payments/cards but no ability to change users
• Employees: Card/spending access without access to bank balances

That's unusually good separation of duties for a small business.

2. Relay — best if you divide money into separate buckets

Relay is especially attractive if your agency wants separate accounts for things like operating expenses, payroll, taxes, owner distributions, and client/project funds.

Its team permissions can be combined with approval workflows, making a workflow such as “bookkeeper prepares payment → manager reviews → partner approves” practical.

I'd favor Relay over Mercury if your biggest organizational problem is keeping different pools of money separated, rather than giving each person extremely precise permissions.

3. Brex — best for sophisticated employee spending

Brex is worth considering if the agency has lots of employee card spending, SaaS subscriptions, advertising spend, travel, and expense approvals.

It's more of a spend-management platform than my first choice for a straightforward small-business checking account, but its controls become attractive as the finance process gets more formal.

What I'd choose

For a typical 2–4 partner agency with a bookkeeper, operations person, and employees, I'd choose:

Mercury → Relay → Brex

Mercury wins because it combines multiple independent owners, granular custom permissions, account-level access, cards, and multi-level payment approvals in one system. Relay is a very close second if your agency uses a “Profit First”-style or otherwise highly segmented cash structure.

One important distinction: don't just ask whether a bank supports “multiple users.” For a multi-owner agency, I'd specifically require independent logins, custom roles, account-level permissions, dual approval, spending limits, and an audit trail. Those are what prevent a staff member—or one partner—from effectively having the keys to everything.

If you tell me how many owners/staff you have and whether owners need equal signing authority, I can narrow this down to the best setup and permission structure for your agency.

For a small agency with multiple owners, I’d put Relay and Mercury at the top, with Brex worth considering if your biggest need is employee spending rather than core banking.

1. Relay — strongest overall fit

Relay is particularly attractive for an agency because it lets you combine multiple bank accounts with granular user permissions. You can have up to 20 checking accounts and control which users can access each account.

Its six standard team roles include Admin, Manager, Bill Payer, Cardholder, Deposit Only, and Read Only. More importantly, Relay now supports custom roles, where you can independently control permissions for payments, cards, invoices, expenses, team management, integrations, and individual bank accounts.

That makes workflows like these practical:

• Partner A: full administrative access
• Partner B: full banking access but no team administration
• Operations manager: bill payment but no ability to add users
• Bookkeeper: read-only/accounting access
• Employee: card-only access
• Client/project account: accessible only to designated staff

Relay also separates firm-level permissions from client-account permissions, which is useful if your agency has accounting/bookkeeping workflows.

I'd choose Relay if account segregation is important—for example, operating cash, payroll, taxes, and individual client/project funds.

2. Mercury — best for sophisticated role design

Mercury is probably the strongest alternative if your priority is "exactly what can this particular person do?" rather than primarily separating money into accounts.

Mercury supports user-level permissions, approval rules, customizable card limits, and access restricted to only the accounts an employee or bookkeeper needs.

It also introduced reusable custom roles, allowing you to build a role for something like "Finance Manager" rather than forcing everyone into a handful of predefined roles.

For multiple partners, that can be particularly useful because you can distinguish between:

• owners who can move money
• owners who can approve payments
• finance staff who can prepare payments but require approval
• bookkeepers who can access financial information without moving money
• employees who only have card access

I'd choose Mercury over Relay if your agency has complicated approval chains or you want highly tailored roles for different people.

3. Brex — excellent, but more spend-management oriented

Brex makes more sense when your agency has lots of employee cards, SaaS subscriptions, advertising spend, travel, and expense approvals. Its strength is controlling how employees spend, rather than being the cleanest replacement for a conventional business checking setup.

For a 5–15-person creative/marketing/consulting agency, I'd generally look at Relay or Mercury first unless employee spending is the central financial-control problem.

What I'd pick for a multi-owner agency

Relay would be my first look if you want a clean division of financial responsibilities and separate accounts.

Mercury would be my first look if you have several partners and want very specific rules around who can view, initiate, approve, or execute payments.

One important distinction: don't just ask whether a bank supports "multiple users." The key questions are whether it supports separate logins, account-level permissions, payment initiation vs. approval, customizable roles, and the ability to revoke/change access without disrupting everyone else. Relay and Mercury are substantially better positioned on those dimensions than many basic online business-bank accounts.

If you tell me roughly how many owners, employees, and bookkeepers you have—and whether you need dual approval for payments—I can narrow this to the best 2–3 setups for your agency.

For a small agency with multiple co-owners, partners, and mixed staff (like bookkeepers or account managers), modern digital business banking platforms offer significantly more advanced and granular user permissions than legacy traditional banks.

The top digital banking platforms stand out for their flexibility in handling multi-owner control, approval workflows, and staff role isolation:

• Relay Financial stands out for its structured, clearly defined role tiers and exceptional multi-account architecture [1.2.]. It features 6 distinct preset team permission levels that make assigning specific duties foolproof.
  • For Partners/Owners: Multiple co-owners can be set up as Admins , giving them full structural control over accounts, card issuance, business settings, and team management. You can also configure multi-party approval rules so large transfers require sign-off from more than one partner.
  • For Staff & Specialists: Clear separation for a Manager (team/card management, zero money-movement rights), Bill Payer (ideal for internal or outsourced bookkeepers to handle ACH/wires without touching card settings), Cardholder , and Read-Only access.
  • Explore their platform details on the Relay Financial Team Permissions Guide.
• Mercury is a top-tier choice for tech-forward agencies due to its highly adaptable custom role builder. While it offers preset roles like Admin and Bookkeeper, its strength lies in custom flexibility.
  • For Partners/Owners: Multiple Admins have full visibility, but Mercury allows you to enforce robust control policies—such as requiring secondary admin approval for outgoing payment requests or high-value transfers.
  • For Staff & Specialists: Beyond standard read-only bookkeeper access, Mercury lets you design Custom Users where you explicitly toggle granular privileges on a per-account or per-action basis (e.g., allowing someone to manage virtual cards and spend limits while completely barring them from moving money).
  • Review the structural breakdown on the Mercury Roles and Permissions Hub.

Key Features to Evaluate for an Agency:

1. Multi-Admin Approvals: Ensure the platform lets you require dual-authorization for large payouts so a single compromised owner login can't drain agency accounts.
2. Account-Specific Access: If certain partners or project managers only need visibility into specific client-reimbursable sub-accounts or budgeting buckets, look for platforms that allow scoping users to specific sub-accounts rather than the entire master ledger.
3. Virtual Card Controls: If your agency handles heavy digital ad spend (Meta, Google, TikTok), look for systems that allow issuing individual virtual cards to staff or departments with rigid spend caps and auto-attached receipt uploads.

To help narrow down which of these fits your agency best, tell me:

• Do you need dual-authorization (two signatures/approvals) for outgoing payments?
• Are you looking to issue virtual credit/debit cards to employees for ad spend or software subscriptions?

For a small agency with multiple co-owners and staff, the digital banking platforms that offer the most flexible, granular, and robust user permissions and access controls are Relay, Mercury , and Airwallex . These fintech platforms move far beyond traditional banking's rigid "all-or-nothing" or basic login setups, letting you assign distinct roles to partners, operational staff, and outside bookkeepers.

Top Digital Banking Platforms for Granular Access Controls

• Relay : Best for ultimate role customization across multiple sub-accounts. It features up to 7 distinct core access levels plus Custom Roles , allowing you to toggle individual permissions on or off (from viewing balances to moving money or managing cards). Crucially, these permissions can be restricted separately for every individual checking or savings account (e.g., full access to an operating account, view-only on a tax reserve, and no access to payroll).
• Mercury : Best for multi-admin oversight and strict corporate governance. It provides precise pre-configured and custom roles including Admins, Bookkeepers, Custom Users, and Limited Access cardholders. You can mandate multi-user approval workflows (requiring two separate signatures/approvals for large wire transfers or outgoing payments above a certain threshold) to prevent any single owner or employee from moving funds unilaterally.
• Airwallex : Best if your agency handles multi-currency client billings or global contractors. It features deep User Access Management with customizable roles (Owner, Account Admin, Analyst, Cardholder, View-only) letting you restrict financial visibility and transaction capabilities down to specific wallet entities and card spend thresholds.

Comparison of Key Permission Features

To help narrow down the ideal platform, do you need multi-currency support/international wires , or will your team primarily operate in USD ? Also, do you require multi-admin approval rules for outgoing funds?

For a small agency with multiple owners/partners plus employees, bookkeepers, and contractors, I’d prioritize banks that let you separate ownership, money movement, approvals, and visibility rather than simply offering multiple logins.

My ranking

1. Mercury — my first choice

Mercury is particularly strong for an agency with 2–5 owners because its current system supports custom roles tied to specific permissions and specific accounts. You can create roles such as Finance Lead, AP Manager, Accountant, or Read Only and assign them to multiple people.

The big advantage is approvals: you can set dollar thresholds, multiple approvers, daily sending limits, dual-admin approval, and separation of duties so someone can't approve their own payment.

A sensible setup could be:

• Partners → Admin/custom owner roles
• Finance manager → payment permissions but not full user-management authority
• Bookkeeper → account/transaction visibility without money movement
• Employees → card/spending access only
• Large payments → require approval from two partners

That is unusually well suited to a partnership where you don't want every owner to have completely unrestricted access.

2. Relay — excellent if you organize money into separate buckets

Relay has a particularly mature role system: Admin, Manager, Bill Payer, Cardholder, Deposit Only, Read Only, etc., with granular permissions for what each person can do.

It's also strong for agencies that want separate checking/savings accounts for things like payroll, taxes, operating expenses, client projects, or owner distributions. Its approval workflows can route bills through one or more approvers on higher-tier plans.

Relay is arguably preferable to Mercury if your agency's biggest concern is segregating cash and giving different people access to different buckets.

3. Bluevine — simpler, but surprisingly capable

Bluevine now has four additional-user categories: Authorized User, Accountant, Clerk, and Employee. Authorized Users can be customized substantially, including company-administrator and payment-administrator capabilities.

That makes it a good choice if you want something less complex than Mercury/Relay. It also supports dedicated logins, subaccounts, and card spending limits.

The tradeoff is that the permission model isn't quite as granular as Mercury's custom-role approach.

What I'd choose for an agency

Mercury if you have several equal-ish partners and want strong controls over who can move money and who has to approve it.

Relay if your agency operates more like a small finance department, with lots of separate budgets/accounts and a bookkeeper or finance manager handling day-to-day transactions.

Bluevine if you want good multi-user controls without as much administrative complexity.

One important distinction: don't automatically make every owner an unrestricted Admin. For a multi-owner agency, I'd design the account around least privilege: owners get the authority they actually need, staff get operational access, and significant payments require independent approval. Mercury's dual-admin and separation-of-duties controls are particularly useful for that structure.

If you tell me roughly how many owners, employees, and bookkeepers you have and whether you use QuickBooks, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 setups for your agency.

For a small agency with multiple owners, I’d shortlist Mercury, Relay, and Airwallex. The best choice depends on whether you prioritize partner governance, account-level segregation, or international operations.

1. Mercury — my top pick

Mercury is particularly strong if you have, say, 2–4 partners + an operations person + bookkeeper + employees.

Its Custom roles let you choose individual permissions and which accounts a person can access. You can give a bookkeeper accounting access without giving them money-moving authority, while staff can have card-only access.

The standout feature for multiple owners is approval governance: you can establish dollar thresholds, designate approvers, impose daily sending limits, and require multiple approvals for sensitive actions. Mercury also supports separation of duties so someone can be prevented from approving their own payment.

Example setup:

• Partners → Admin
• Operating partner → Custom role with payment authority
• Bookkeeper → Accountant/read-only
• Operations manager → payments/cards but no user administration
• Staff → Employee/card access

That's probably the cleanest structure for a typical agency.

2. Relay — excellent if you compartmentalize money

Relay is arguably better than Mercury if your agency uses lots of separate buckets—for example Operating, Payroll, Taxes, Profit, and Client Projects.

Relay lets you combine a user's global role with specific checking/savings-account access, so someone can be a Manager but only see the accounts relevant to their job.

It also has distinct roles such as Administrator, Manager, Bill Payer, Cardholder, Deposit Only, and Read Only, plus separate advisor permissions for accountants/bookkeepers.

The catch: more advanced rules-based bill approvals require Grow or Scale, rather than being universally available.

I'd pick Relay over Mercury if: your agency's biggest concern is keeping partners/staff confined to particular pots of money.

3. Airwallex — strongest for international agencies

Airwallex has a very sophisticated role model, with Owner, Admin, Finance Admin, Finance Manager, Bookkeeper, Employee and Developer roles, plus custom roles.

It also explicitly supports multiple owners, and its owner-adding process can require approval from existing owners—useful when you don't want one partner unilaterally changing ownership.

I'd seriously consider it if the agency:

• bills international clients,
• pays overseas contractors,
• holds multiple currencies, or
• expects to have entities in multiple countries.

Its more advanced approval and automation features can, however, depend on the plan.

My ranking for your use case

If you're a U.S.-based creative/marketing/consulting agency:

1. Mercury — best overall combination of granular permissions + partner controls.
2. Relay — best for account segregation and straightforward team roles.
3. Airwallex — best if international payments/multiple currencies are important.
4. Brex — worth considering if you're becoming a more formal finance operation rather than a very small agency.

One thing I'd insist on: don't make every owner an unrestricted admin just because they're an owner. Ideally, distinguish legal ownership from day-to-day banking authority, and use approval rules for payments above a threshold. That gives all partners visibility without giving every person unilateral ability to move company money.

If you tell me roughly how many owners, employees, and monthly transaction volume you have, I can narrow this to the best 1–2 options and suggest an exact permission structure.

For a small agency with multiple co-owners and a growing staff, choosing a digital banking platform with granular user permissions and access controls is essential to prevent operational bottlenecks and secure your cash flow. Not all digital business banking platforms are built equal here—some treat all secondary users like full co-owners, while others offer enterprise-grade permission mapping.

The top digital business banking platforms ranked by their flexibility in user management and permissions include:

1. Relay Financial (Best Overall for Granular Permissions)

Relay stands out as the premier digital banking platform for multi-owner or multi-tiered teams because it moves past basic "all-or-nothing" access and offers robust, customizable controls.

• Preset & Custom Roles: Offers distinct preset permission levels (Super Admin, Admin, Manager, Bill Payer, Cardholder, and Read-Only) as well as the ability to build custom roles.
• Account-Level Restrictions: You can restrict specific team members or partners to only view or transact within designated checking/savings accounts (e.g., giving an office manager access to the operating expense account while locking them out of tax reserves or partner payout accounts).
• Spend & Bill Controls: Set up multi-step approval workflows for bills and payments, issue virtual/physical cards with strict vendor and dollar limits, and assign cardholders to manage only their own expenses.

2. Mercury (Best for Customizable Roles & Dual Approvals)

Mercury is a top-tier digital banking platform designed for tech-forward and modern businesses, offering advanced custom user capabilities and security policies.

• Custom User Roles: Allows you to design custom roles from scratch where you explicitly choose whether a user can view specific accounts, issue/manage cards, or handle user management.
• Granular Money Movement: You can decide if a custom user has permission to initiate transfers, and pair that with payment approval policies.
• Dual Admin Approvals: For multiple owners, you can enable a policy requiring dual admin sign-off on transactions or account changes over a certain threshold, ensuring no single partner can move major funds unilaterally.

3. Novo (Not Recommended for Multi-User/Staff)

While Novo is widely praised for freelance and solo-entrepreneur business checking, it falls short for small agencies requiring varied access tiers.

• The Limitation: Novo does not support partial, read-only, or role-based sub-user accounts. Adding an additional user essentially grants them full account-owner privileges, including the ability to transfer and withdraw funds.
• The Verdict: Skip Novo if you need to onboard staff, project managers, or junior partners without giving them the keys to the entire bank account.

Comparison Summary for Agencies

• Choose Relay Financial if you need multi-account visibility mapping (e.g., separating client funds, operating costs, and owner draws) and highly specialized staff roles.
• Choose Mercury if your primary concern is enforcing multi-partner sign-offs (dual controls) and creating custom transactional permissions for leadership.

If you'd like, let me know:

• How many partners/staff need access?
• Do you require multi-approval workflows (where one partner approves another's payment)?

I can narrow down the choice and help outline an access structure for your agency.

For a small U.S. agency with multiple owners, I’d put Mercury and Relay at the top, with Brex worth considering if spend management and approvals are more important than traditional banking.

1. Mercury — strongest all-around choice

Mercury is particularly well suited to an agency where the owners don't all need identical authority. It supports user-level permissions, letting employees and bookkeepers access only the accounts they need, plus payment approval rules and customizable card limits.

A sensible setup could be:

• Partners → administrator-level access
• Operations lead → payment initiation, but no user-management authority
• Bookkeeper → accounting/account visibility without unnecessary payment authority
• Staff → cards with individual spending limits
• Larger payments → require approval from another partner

That's the combination I'd want if your main concern is separation of duties between owners and employees.

2. Relay — excellent if you divide money into separate accounts

Relay's major advantage is combining team permissions with lots of separate checking accounts. Its paid tiers add multi-step approval rules, while its account structure works well for separating payroll, taxes, operating expenses, client-related funds, etc.

For an agency, that can be extremely useful: a staff member could have access to the operating account but not the tax or payroll account.

3. Brex — consider it if cards/expenses are the bigger issue

Brex is more of a spend-management/finance platform than a simple digital checking account. I'd look at it if you have a meaningful number of employees making purchases and want sophisticated approval policies, card controls, and expense management.

What I'd choose

For 2–5 agency partners + a bookkeeper + several employees: Mercury.

For partners who want very clear separation of money by function: Relay.

For a growing agency where employee cards and expense approvals are becoming the main problem: Brex.

One important distinction: don't just ask whether a bank offers "multiple users." For a multi-owner agency, I'd specifically verify (1) multiple administrators, (2) account-level permissions, (3) payment initiation vs. approval separation, (4) user-management permissions, and (5) audit logs. Those are much more important than simply having additional logins. Current comparisons also put Mercury and Relay ahead of simpler options such as Novo for multi-user agency setups.

If you tell me roughly how many owners, employees, and bank accounts the agency has, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 setups and show exactly how I'd configure the permissions.

For a small agency with multiple co-owners and a growing staff, traditional banks often feel clunky, offering an "all-or-nothing" login or rigid tier structures . Modern digital financial platforms (often built on software-first banking frameworks) provide the precise, granular access controls needed to separate partner privileges from employee spending.

The top digital banking and spend-management platforms for multi-owner small agencies stand out for the following reasons:

• Mercury — Best for multi-admin oversight and custom role-building. Mercury allows unlimited team members and features distinct roles: Admin (full access, with optional multi-admin approval requirements for transfers), Bookkeeper (read/reconcile without money-movement capabilities), Limited Access (card management only), and highly flexible Custom Users . You can precisely toggle whether a custom role can move money, manage recipients, issue cards, or interact with specific sub-accounts. Learn more in the Mercury Roles and Permissions Guide.
• Brex — Best for enterprise-grade custom role crafting and corporate cards. Brex offers standard roles like Account Admin, Card Admin, and AP Clerk, but shines with its ability to mix-and-match capabilities to build granular custom roles (e.g., separating budgeting, reporting, or specific approval chains). You can easily restrict staff to a "reimbursement-only" status or tie specific spend limits to individual projects or departments. Check out the Brex Role Types and Permissions Overview.
• Relay — Best for cash-flow management and clean accountant portals. Relay lets you open up to 20 individual checking accounts under a single login, making it seamless to separate owner distributions, operating cash, and tax allocations. It features a robust partner portal for outside bookkeepers and clean, role-based access controls for internal staff alongside up to 50 adjustable debit cards. Explore features on the Relay Business Checking Page.
• Wise Business — Best if your agency handles multi-currency client retainers or international contractors. Wise offers clear-cut user types—Admin, Payer, Preparer, Employee, and Viewer —allowing you to require multi-user approval workflows (e.g., one staff member prepares an international payout, and an owner-admin approves it) [5.5]. Read more via the Wise Business Multi-User Access Guide [5.5].

If you'd like to narrow this down, tell me:

• Do you need corporate credit/debit cards with strict monthly limits for employees, or purely checking/transfer access?
• Do you handle significant international wire transfers or multi-currency client payments?

I can give you a head-to-head comparison tailored to your agency structure.