TreasuryDirect Alternatives: Investment Options Explained

Is TreasuryDirect Right for Your Business? Discover Its Alternatives

Cash your business won't need for a few months doesn't have to sit in a checking account, where it typically earns little or nothing. Short-term Treasury securities are one of the simplest ways to earn more from the idle cash your business can invest for a while. Treasury securities are low-risk, backed by the U.S. government, and a solid choice for earning yield that’s usually higher than what a standard checking account pays.

TreasuryDirect is where a lot of business owners start. It's the U.S. Treasury Department’s own website, it doesn't charge commissions, and you can purchase treasury securities without a broker. But TreasuryDirect was designed for individuals who buy a bond and hold it, not for businesses that need a bit more flexibility for their cash. Its rigid reinvestment rules and 45-day wait before you can sell make it a tough fit, and it's far from the only way to invest in Treasuries.

In this guide, we’re covering some of the alternatives to TreasuryDirect your business can use to start investing your extra cash, including Slash. It's a business banking platform where your treasury account sits right next to your checking accounts and corporate cards.¹, ⁶ Cash you move into Slash Treasury is invested in money market funds managed by BlackRock and Morgan Stanley and can earn up to 4.01% annualized yield. There's no minimum balance, and when you need the money back, withdrawals typically settle in one business day.

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What is TreasuryDirect?

TreasuryDirect is the U.S. Department of the Treasury's website for buying government securities directly from the government, with no broker in the middle.

It sells two kinds of products. Marketable securities (Treasury bills, notes, bonds, TIPS, and floating rate notes) can be traded on the open market after they're issued. Savings bonds (Series EE and Series I) are registered to their owner and can't be traded.

Every marketable security on TreasuryDirect is bought at auction through a noncompetitive bid. That means you accept whatever yield the auction sets, and in exchange Treasury guarantees you receive the full amount you bid for, up to $10 million per auction. TreasuryDirect charges no commissions.

Businesses use TreasuryDirect through an entity account. Corporations, partnerships, LLCs, and trusts can open one with:

An Employer Identification Number
A U.S. address
A linked checking or savings account
An "entity account manager" who certifies they can act alone on the entity's behalf

The most common business use is parking cash in short-term T-bills. A T-bill sells at a discount and pays full face value at maturity: buy a 26-week bill for $9,800, and you get $10,000 six months later. Some businesses build a "ladder" of bills that mature on staggered dates, timed to known expenses like quarterly taxes. That works well if you're sure you'll hold each bill to maturity. It gets harder when plans change.

Limitations of TreasuryDirect

Though TreasuryDirect is reliable, its interface is dated, complicated, and missing certain key features of other modern investment tools and financial dashboards. Additionally, businesses may benefit from using an integrated treasury account provider, which lets you invest in the same place you manage your business accounts, cards, and financing so you have a better picture of your cash on hand.

Here are some of the most common criticisms of TreasuryDirect you should know about:

No mobile app: Users often find the site hard to navigate, and there's no official mobile app. Third-party apps exist but aren't affiliated with the Treasury.
Limited product range: TreasuryDirect only sells securities the Treasury issues. No money market funds, ETFs, or CDs, and your holdings sit apart from your operating accounts.
Rigid reinvestment windows: You can schedule T-bill reinvestments, but only into the same type and term, and only up to four business days before maturity. Changes must happen more than four business days before the new auction. Miss the window and the proceeds go back to your bank.
No way to sell inside the platform: To sell early, you must transfer the security to a broker. Securities bought in TreasuryDirect carry a 45-day hold first, so a 4-week bill can't be sold at all. The transfer also requires a form signed by an authorized official at a financial institution.
Customer service issues: Users report long hold times and trouble reaching support, especially for locked accounts.
Single-manager setup: Entity accounts run through one manager who acts alone, which may not suit teams that want multiple users or approval steps.

TreasuryDirect Alternatives: 5 options for treasury investment

1. Using Slash's integrated treasury account

Slash is a business banking platform that offers a treasury account alongside its checking accounts and corporate cards. Cash in Slash Treasury is invested in money market funds managed by BlackRock (TSTXX) and Morgan Stanley (MULSX). A money market fund pools investor cash into short-term, high-quality debt like T-bills. It aims to keep a stable share price while paying a yield that moves with short-term rates.

Unlike TreasuryDirect, there's no auction calendar, reinvestment window, or 45-day hold. You move cash between checking and treasury in one dashboard, and withdrawals typically settle in one business day.

Minimum balance: None
Management fees: None on balances over $500,000 invested
Protection: SIPC coverage up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash claims. Not FDIC-insured, and fund investments can lose value.

2. Buying treasury securities through brokers

A brokerage account is the closest substitute for TreasuryDirect if you want to own specific bills, notes, or bonds. Many major online brokers let business accounts buy new-issue Treasuries at auction, often commission-free online, at the same yield TreasuryDirect would award. Brokers also offer the secondary market, where existing Treasuries trade, so you can pick a security that matures on the date you need cash.

The main advantage: you can sell before maturity, usually within a day or two, with no 45-day hold. The tradeoffs are a possible bid/ask spread when selling and managing maturities yourself.

3. Investing in ETFs or mutual funds yourself

Treasury ETFs and government money market funds give you Treasury exposure without holding individual securities. A short-term Treasury ETF holds a basket of bills and trades like a stock. A government money market fund invests mostly in Treasuries and typically lets you redeem within a business day.

Watch the expense ratio, the annual fee a fund takes out of its returns. ETF prices also move during the day, so you may sell for slightly more or less than you paid.

4. Using a bank's treasury management or sweep account

Many commercial banks offer sweep accounts that move excess checking cash into a money market fund at the end of each day, then move it back when needed. Your cash earns yield without anyone moving it by hand.

The catch for smaller companies is cost. Bank treasury products often come with higher minimums, monthly fees, and yields set after the bank takes its spread. They fit best for businesses with seven-figure balances at a large bank.

5. Holding cash in high-yield business savings accounts or CDs

For cash you may need soon, a high-yield business savings account or certificate of deposit (CD) is the simplest option. Both are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category.

A CD locks your money for a set term at a fixed rate, with a penalty for early withdrawal. A savings account stays liquid but pays a variable rate the bank can change anytime.Neither carries market risk, but their rates have historically been lower than short-term Treasury yields.

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How to choose the best treasury account for your business

The right choice of treasury account isn’t all about picking today's top yield. These five questions can help your business determine which type of account and investment product is best for you:

When will your business need the cash?

Cash you'll need within weeks belongs somewhere you can reach the same or next day, like a money market fund or savings account. Cash earmarked for a date six months out can go into a T-bill that matures just before it. If timing is uncertain, avoid anything that's hard to sell early.

It can help to sort your balance into buckets: operating cash for the next one to three months, a reserve for known expenses like taxes or annual contracts, and long-term reserves you don't expect to touch.

What kind of protection does your cash need?

Bank deposits have FDIC insurance against bank failure. Treasuries are backed by the U.S. government. Money market funds at a brokerage carry SIPC coverage, which protects you if the brokerage fails but not if the fund loses value.

Coverage limits matter too. FDIC insurance covers up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category, so a business with $2 million in a single savings account may have most of it uninsured unless the bank spreads deposits across a sweep network. Slash checking accounts, for example, can be FDIC-insured up to $150 million through partner bank Column N.A.'s sweep network, so a business doesn't have to split large balances across banks by hand. SIPC covers up to $500,000 per brokerage customer, including $250,000 for cash.

What will it cost after fees?

The yield a treasury provider advertises doesn’t always tell you the full story for how much you’ll earn from your investments. Several kinds of costs and fees can come out first, so compare yields net of fees, meaning the yield after known costs are subtracted:

Management fees: What a provider charges to manage your money, usually a percentage of your balance per year. A 0.25% fee on $500,000 costs $1,250 annually.
Expense ratios: The annual cost of running a fund, such as an ETF or money market fund. It's deducted from the fund's returns before you see them, so it never shows up as a separate charge and is easy to overlook.
Account fees: Flat charges for keeping the account open, like a monthly service fee or a penalty for dipping below a minimum balance.
Trading spreads: The difference between what buyers will pay for a security (the bid) and what sellers are asking (the ask). If you sell a Treasury or ETF before maturity, you'll usually get the lower bid price, and that difference comes out of your return.

A provider quoting 4.2% annualized with 0.5% taken out in fees leaves you with about 3.7%, less than a provider quoting 4.0% with no fees.

It also helps to know what kind of yield you're looking at. A current yield reflects what the account earns now; money market funds often report a 7-day yield, which annualizes the past week's earnings. A historical yield is an average over a past period and may not match what you'll earn going forward. A promotional yield is a temporary teaser rate that drops after an introductory period.

How much hands-on management can your team handle?

If you buy T-bills yourself, through TreasuryDirect or a broker, each one has a maturity date, and someone has to decide what to do with the money when it comes due. With 13-week bills, that's a decision every three months: buy another bill before the next auction, or move the cash back to checking. Automatic rollover will buy the next bill for you, but it can't tell when the business needs the money back.

Alternatively, a treasury account that invests in money market funds has no maturity dates. Your cash stays invested until you withdraw it, and many providers offer same-day or next-day liquidity.

Does it fit how your finance team operates?

Think about how often cash moves between your treasury account and the account you pay bills from. If treasury sits at a different institution, every top-up of checking is a transfer between two companies, which can take a business day or more and has to be recorded on both sides.

Keeping treasury on the same platform as your checking account turns that into a transfer within one dashboard, and there's less to match up at month-end when you reconcile your bank records against your books. And if the platform syncs with accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero, yield and transfers show up in your records automatically instead of being entered by hand.

Put Your Idle Cash to Work with Slash

TreasuryDirect asks you to buy at auction, hold for at least 45 days, and transfer to a broker if you need to sell early. Slash Treasury has none of those steps: there are no maturity dates or reinvestment windows to track, and you can move cash back to checking whenever the business needs it. Your funds are invested in BlackRock's TSTXX and Morgan Stanley's MULSX money market funds, and securities are protected by SIPC up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash claims.

Because treasury sits next to your Slash checking accounts and corporate cards, topping up checking is a transfer inside one dashboard instead of a transfer between institutions. Slash syncs with QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct, so yield and transfers flow into your books. With no minimum balance, you can start earning on idle cash whether you've set aside $10,000 or $10 million.

Here’s what else you get with Slash:

Modern business banking: Open unlimited virtual checking accounts from the dashboard, with FDIC insurance up to $200M through Column N.A.'s insured cash sweep network.²
Slash Visa Platinum Card: Corporate charge card that earns up to 2% cash back on eligible spending. Spin up unlimited virtual cards for your team, set granular spend limits per card or team, and get powerful insights into your expenses with real-time tracking and alerts.
Multiple payment methods: Send money via same-day ACH, RTP, FedNow, or international wire to 180+ countries. No domestic transaction fees for outbound payments with Slash Pro.
Accounting integrations: Sync transactions with QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and more. Automatically categorize your transactions in Slash, attach receipts, and manage your bills to get rid of the accounting busywork.
Payment processing: Use Slash to embed a custom checkout into your site or collect card payments from your customer’s invoices without setting up a separate merchant account (subject to eligibility).
Stablecoin payments: Send and receive USDC and USDT using built-in on/off ramps, with near-instant transfers across 15 different blockchains.⁴

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the safest alternatives to TreasuryDirect?

T-bills bought through a brokerage are backed by the U.S. government, just like T-bills bought on TreasuryDirect; the only difference is where they're held. Government money market funds, which hold mostly T-bills, are also considered low-risk, but their value isn't guaranteed and they aren't FDIC-insured. If you want the balance itself insured, treasury account providers like Slash offer SIPC protection up to $500K.

How do I decide which alternative is best for me?

Start with when you'll spend the money. If you'll need it on a known date, like an April tax payment, a T-bill bought through a broker that matures just before then can work well. If you don't know when you'll need it, a treasury account that invests in money market funds lets you withdraw on any business day, with funds usually arriving within one business day.

Can an LLC open a TreasuryDirect account?

Yes. An LLC can open a TreasuryDirect entity account if it has an EIN, a U.S. address, and a bank account to link for purchases and payouts. One person has to be named as the account manager and certify they can act for the LLC without anyone else's sign-off.

Is interest from Treasury bills taxed?

Interest on T-bills, notes, and bonds is taxed by the federal government but generally not by states or cities. Funds that hold Treasuries may pass part of that exemption on to you, depending on how much of the fund is invested in them. Some states tax businesses differently than individuals, so check with your accountant before counting on it.

How long does it take to get money out of TreasuryDirect?

If you hold a security until it matures, TreasuryDirect deposits the money in your linked bank account on the maturity date. If you need it sooner, the security has to sit in your account for 45 days before you can transfer it to a broker to sell, and the transfer paperwork adds more time.