- Where to keep business cash depends on its job: float in checking, reserve in a HYSA or T-bills, surplus in long-term assets.
- Size the float at about one month of outflows and the reserve at three months of fixed costs plus one machine replacement.
- Top HYSAs paid roughly 3.5-4.2% APY and the 3-month T-bill about 4.1% in late September 2026; T-bill interest is exempt from state income tax.
- Bitcoin is a long-term thesis with real drawdown risk (70%+ declines more than once); it never belongs in the float or the reserve.
- Not financial advice: rates change constantly, so check current yields before moving money.
Where to keep business cash depends on the job each dollar has: operating float belongs in business checking, the emergency and repair reserve belongs in a high-yield savings account or short Treasury bills (both paying roughly 3.5–4.2% in late September 2026), and only true surplus, money you will not need for years, belongs in long-term assets like index funds or a small Bitcoin position. Treasuries, HYSA and Bitcoin are not competitors. They are different drawers.
Part of our complete guide: best cash flow businesses.
Nothing here is financial advice. It is how we would organize the cash a vending, ATM or other route business throws off, so the money that has to be there on Tuesday is there, the money for a dead compressor is there, and the rest is working. Rates move; the ones below were checked on September 22–24, 2026 and will be different when you read this.
The three jobs your cash is doing
Most small operators keep everything in one checking account and look at the balance to decide if they are doing well. That balance mixes three different kinds of money:
- Operating float. Next month’s product, location commissions, card-processing and software fees, fuel, loan payments. This money is spoken for. It needs to be instant, not clever.
- Reserve. The compressor that dies in July, the bill validator that gets pried open, the location that closes and leaves a machine with nowhere to go, the slow month after a big account moves. This money has to be safe and reachable within days. It should also earn something.
- Long-term surplus. What is left after the first two are full. This is the only money that can take risk, because nothing in the business depends on it next year.
The mistake runs in both directions. Operators who put reserve money into something volatile get forced to sell at the worst time. Operators who keep surplus in checking at 0.01% quietly lose to inflation for a decade.
How big each bucket should be
Here is a worked example for an illustrative eight-machine route grossing about $10,000 a month. Swap in your own numbers.
| Bucket | Sizing rule | Example amount | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating float | ~1 month of outflows | ~$7,000 (product $4,500, commissions $1,000, fees and fuel $900, loan $600) | Business checking |
| Reserve | 3 months of fixed costs + one machine replacement | ~$12,000 | HYSA, T-bills, or split |
| Tax set-aside | A fixed % of net each deposit | Varies | Separate HYSA |
| Long-term surplus | Everything above the first three | Whatever is left | New machines, index funds, a small Bitcoin slice |
If you already run Profit First for vending, these map cleanly: operating expenses is the float, the tax and profit accounts are set-asides, and the reserve is a dedicated account you do not touch for inventory. The point of separate accounts is that you never have to remember which dollars are which.
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Start building free →The reserve, option one: a high-yield savings account
A high-yield savings account is the simplest home for reserve money. As of late September 2026, leading online HYSAs were paying roughly 3.5% to 4.2% APY depending on the bank and its conditions; rates are variable and have been drifting as the Fed adjusts. Deposits are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category, and a transfer back to checking usually lands in one to two business days.
On a $12,000 reserve, 4% is about $480 a year. That is not going to change your life. It pays for a card reader, and it is $480 more than the reserve earns sitting in checking. Marcus by Goldman Sachs is one widely used online HYSA with no fees and no minimum; check its current rate against the others before you move money, because the spread between banks can be half a point or more. Note that many HYSAs, Marcus included, are personal accounts; if your business is an LLC with its own EIN, look for a business savings product or keep the reserve at a business bank.
The reserve, option two: Treasury bills
Treasury bills are short-term loans to the US government, sold in maturities from 4 weeks to 52 weeks. The 3-month bill yielded about 4.1% on September 22, 2026. Two things make them interesting for a business reserve:
- Credit risk is as low as it gets in dollar terms, backed by the US government rather than a deposit insurance fund.
- The interest is exempt from state and local income tax. In a high-tax state, that can make a 4.1% bill worth more after tax than a 4.2% savings account.
You can buy them at auction through TreasuryDirect or, more conveniently, through a brokerage account; a business brokerage account at Charles Schwab lets you buy new-issue bills without a commission. A simple structure is a ladder: split the reserve into three slices and buy a 13-week bill each month, so one matures roughly every four weeks. If you need money before a bill matures, you can sell it, but the price moves with rates, so you might get slightly more or less than you paid.
The honest tradeoff: T-bills take a little more setup and are slightly less instant than a savings transfer. For a reserve under $10,000, the extra yield rarely justifies the hassle. Above that, especially in a state with income tax, it often does. Many operators split: two weeks of expenses in the HYSA for true emergencies, the rest in a ladder.
Long-term surplus: the Bitcoin thesis, and its risks, stated plainly
Some operators hold part of their long-term surplus in Bitcoin. The case they make runs like this: the supply is capped at 21 million coins, new issuance is cut in half roughly every four years, no government can print more, and over long periods that scarcity has made it one of the best-performing major assets of the last decade. The book most of them read first is The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, which argues it is sound money in the tradition of gold.
Operators who run this play usually set it up on Coinbase, because you can buy and borrow against the same balance without a credit check. Rates are variable and pledged collateral can be liquidated, and none of this is financial advice. Affiliate link, so we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
The case against is just as real:
- Volatility. Bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from peak to trough several times, including in 2018 and 2022. A reserve that can lose three quarters of its value in a year is not a reserve.
- No yield. It pays nothing while you hold it. All of the return is price change.
- Custody and error risk. Exchanges fail and get hacked; self-custody puts the burden of not losing the keys entirely on you.
- Tax and accounting complexity. Every sale is a taxable event, and holding it inside a business adds bookkeeping questions for your CPA.
- The thesis could be wrong. Past performance is exactly that.
So the rule we would use: Bitcoin never touches the float or the reserve. It only comes from surplus, in an amount you could watch fall by 75% without changing a single business decision. If you do it, recurring small buys beat trying to time an entry; River is built around automatic recurring purchases, and Coinbase and Kraken are the large US exchanges. Operators holding meaningful amounts for years often move them to a hardware wallet such as a Ledger for self-custody. Some go further and borrow against it; read our bitcoin-backed loans breakdown and the cash-flow flywheel post before you consider that, because leverage on a volatile asset is where people get hurt.
What it looks like in practice (illustrative)
An illustrative example: Andre runs six machines and used to keep everything in one checking account. In one bad August, a compressor failed ($1,400), a gym closed and he paid movers to relocate the machine ($350), and a card-reader swap cost another $300. None of it was a disaster. All of it came out of the product budget, so he under-stocked his best site for three weeks and lost sales on top of the repair.
He rebuilt it into four accounts. Checking holds about one month of outflows. A savings account holds two weeks of expenses. A three-rung T-bill ladder holds the rest of the reserve, about $9,000. Once all of that is full, 10% of each month’s surplus goes to an index fund and a small fixed amount goes to a weekly Bitcoin buy; the rest funds machine seven. The next bad month was just a bad month.
The monthly routine
- On deposit day, move the tax percentage and the profit percentage out first.
- Top up checking to one month of outflows. Nothing more.
- If the reserve is below target, fill it before anything else.
- Only then decide between another machine and long-term assets. For most growing routes, the next well-placed machine is the highest-return use of surplus; our comparison of vending, index funds and rentals covers how the risks differ.
That next machine still needs a site. VendBuddy pulls apartment communities, offices, gyms and hotels in any ZIP code, with contacts for the person who decides, so the surplus has somewhere productive to go.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a high-yield savings account or Treasury bills better for a business emergency fund?
Both are reasonable homes for a reserve. A HYSA is simpler and a transfer usually lands in one or two business days, while T-bills can pay a similar or slightly higher yield with interest exempt from state and local income tax. For reserves under about $10,000 the HYSA is usually easier; above that, a short T-bill ladder often earns more after tax. Many operators split the reserve between the two.
How much cash should a small vending business keep in reserve?
A practical target is three months of fixed costs plus the price of replacing one machine. For a small route that often lands somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000. Keep that separate from the one month of operating float in checking, so a repair never comes out of the inventory budget.
Should a small business keep its cash reserves in Bitcoin?
No, not the reserve. Bitcoin has fallen more than 70% from peak to trough more than once, so it cannot be relied on for money you might need within a year or two. Some owners hold a small amount from long-term surplus as a store-of-value thesis, sized so a large drop would not change any business decision. This is not financial advice.
How do you buy Treasury bills for a business account?
You can open a TreasuryDirect account for an entity, or open a business brokerage account and buy new-issue bills at auction through it. Brokerages such as Schwab list upcoming auctions and let you set bills to roll over automatically at maturity. A simple approach is to buy a 13-week bill each month so one matures roughly every four weeks.
Is the interest my business earns on savings taxable?
Yes. Interest on a business savings account is business income for federal and usually state tax. Treasury bill interest is federally taxable but exempt from state and local income tax. Ask your CPA how it flows through your entity type.