# About Independent Collectives

#### **An Independent Collective holds money for itself in its own bank account (instead of joining a** [**Fiscal Host**](https://docs.opencollective.com/help/fiscal-hosts/fiscal-hosts) **to hold money on its behalf).**

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Open Collective does not hold money for Independent Collectives—the funds stay in your own bank account and it's up to you to manage them.** 

While OC offers some bookkeeping tools and useful ways to process payments, It's not fully-fledged accounting software and does not automatically sync all activity with your bank account. It's up to you to handle your own accounting, banking, and money movements. Open Collective is a virtual ledger, not an actual bank account.
{% endhint %}

## FAQ

### Should I be an Independent Collective?

Being an Independent Collective is a good option if:

* You have a personal or company bank account you can use to hold your Collective's money.
* You only intend to have a single Collective associated with this bank account (if you'd like to manage multiple Collectives using your own entity, [create a Fiscal Host](https://docs.opencollective.com/help/fiscal-hosts/create-a-fiscal-host) instead).
* You can take responsibility for accounting, taxes, liability, payments, and financial admin for your Collective.
* You can set up a Stripe, Paypal, and/or Wise account connected to this bank account (not required but highly recommended so you can use Open Collective's financial automation features).

If the above doesn't describe your situation, [join a Fiscal Host](https://docs.opencollective.com/help/collectives/add-fiscal-host) instead.

### What are the benefits?

* You hold the money in your own bank account and have complete control of it.
* You can set your own policies about the activities of your Collective.
* You do not need to pay any fees to use the platform.

### What are the challenges?

* You have to manage more admin tasks.
* You hold legal liability.
* You are responsible for accounting and taxes.