Managing multiple businesses with one Lopay account
Can we manage multiple businesses from one Lopay account?
Yes, you can run more than one business under a single login, and switch between them inside our app. That means your “proper business” and your side hustle don’t have to share the same transactions, bank account, or settings (unless you want them to).
If you’ve ever found yourself scrolling through a mixed-up list of card payments thinking, “Wait… was that the salon or the pop-up?” you’re not alone. The good news is: it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Why does running two businesses feel twice as hard?
Because payments don’t just “happen”, they create admin. The moment you run two revenue streams, you also create two sets of questions: Which account did that land in? Which bank did that payout go to? Which sales report belongs to which business?
The main risk isn’t that you’ll do something wrong. It’s that everything gets fuzzy, and fuzziness is what makes bookkeeping stressful.
Do we actually need separate merchant accounts?
If the businesses are meaningfully different, different names, different bank accounts, different reporting needs, or even just different “mental buckets”, then separate merchant accounts are usually the cleanest way to stay sane.
Even when it’s the same person running both, separation helps you answer simple questions quickly: How did the market stall do last weekend? Is the online store growing? Which business can afford a new staff member?
And if you’re running distinct legal entities, keeping payment activity clearly separated is often the practical choice.
How multiple businesses work under one login
Lopay lets you create multiple merchant accounts under one login (one email address), then move between them in the app. Each business profile can have its own setup, including identity checks, business details, bank account details, and a payout schedule.
In other words: one login for you, separate “containers” for each business.
And because you can switch between businesses, you don’t need to log out and back in, or juggle separate emails just to take a payment.
How to add a new business and switch between them
You can do this directly in the Lopay app, and it’s designed to be straightforward.
To create an additional business, we currently guide you to: open Account and Settings (via the ☰ icon), choose Add a new business, enter the new business details, and continue through setup.
To switch between businesses, we guide you back to Account and Settings, then you tap Switch business and select the account you want.
A small but helpful habit: before you take your first payment of the day, glance at the merchant name shown in the app. It’s the quickest way to avoid that “wrong business” moment.
How to add a new business and switch between them
You can do this directly in the app, and it’s designed to be straightforward.
To create an additional business, we currently guide you to: open Account and Settings (via the ☰ icon), choose Add a new business, enter the new business details, and continue through setup.
To switch between businesses, we guide you back to Account and Settings, then you tap Switch business and select the account you want.
A small but helpful habit: before you take your first payment of the day, glance at the merchant name shown in the app. It’s the quickest way to avoid that “wrong business” moment.
How to keep payouts and bookkeeping clean
If you’re running multiple businesses, the goal is simple: every pound should land where you expect, and every report should make sense at first glance.
Here’s what matters most:
Each business profile can be set up with its own bank account details, and it’s explicitly intended to help you receive payouts into different bank accounts for different businesses.
That separation makes the rest easier:
- Your day-to-day “what’s in the bank?” checks are clearer.
- Your reports don’t become a detective story.
- Refunds and queries are easier to trace back to the right business.
If you’re using staff (or even just occasionally handing a phone to someone else), separation becomes even more valuable, because it reduces the chance of someone taking a payment in the wrong place.
What about staff, permissions, and not sharing logins?
If more than one person takes payments, we’d strongly nudge you away from sharing a single login. It’s risky, it’s messy, and it makes it harder to track who did what.
Instead, we offer team accounts where you can invite team members to take payments on your behalf, control permissions, and remove access whenever you need to. Team members accept an email invite and download the app they don’t need to provide identity or bank details.
We also let you set granular permissions, including things like refunds, access to reports, and whether someone can view all transactions so you can match access to responsibility.
One detail that’s easy to miss: reports and statements in team accounts are only available for the past 12 months.
So if you rely on longer look-backs for year-on-year comparisons, it’s worth building a routine for exporting reports periodically.
Why choose Lopay?
If you’re juggling multiple businesses (or even just testing a new idea on the side), we’re built for that reality: we support multiple merchant accounts under one login and let you switch between them in the app.
And if your challenge is less “multiple businesses” and more “multiple people”, our team accounts are designed to help you give staff the access they need — without handing over the keys to everything.
