Unclaimed money for small businesses: Where to look and what to do next

Your small business might have money that's literally sitting around waiting for you to come get it. No, seriously. Also known as "unclaimed funds," this is money that's rightfully yours but you've never been able to deposit or claim it for whatever reason.

It can sometimes be hard to keep track of all your finances, especially if your business operates in multiple states. Below, CNBC Select breaks down what you need to know about finding unclaimed funds for your business.

Unclaimed funds are money or assets that are rightfully yours that you haven't collected, so the government holds onto it. There are many ways you can end up with unclaimed funds in your name — for instance, maybe there's a tax refund you never deposited or an old business retirement account you forgot about and haven't contributed to for years.

Unclaimed funds fall into a dormancy period, usually consisting of up to five years in some states. The dormancy period is the time between a financial institution, i.e. a bank, reporting the unclaimed money or other assets, to when the government officially decides that you've "abandoned" the asset. The dormancy period can depend on your state as well as the type of asset that is unclaimed.

Once the dormancy period is over and the government has decided that you've abandoned the asset, the state claims ownership of the asset and you'll have to submit an application to claim your funds from the state.

You can conduct a search by state to locate any unclaimed money you have in your business' name or just type your name or business name into online databases. MissingMoney.com is one site you can use and it's run by the National Association of State Treasurers.

Your state comptroller's office may also have its own search tool online that you can use. For instance, New Yorkers can use New York's Office of Unclaimed Funds.

While these sites allow you to search for unclaimed money from personal accounts, if you input your business name, then you can search for anything that may be lurking around from old business accounts.

Everyone loves finding what feels like "free" money, and there are a few ways you can use unclaimed funds to benefit yourself and your business.

Consider using it to cover a normal, regular business expenses or to make an investment in your business, like upgrading equipment or covering the entrance fee for an industry conference.

You can also just put the windfall of cash into your business savings account (or a personal savings account) to save for a rainy day if you don't have an immediate use for it. The LiveOak Business Savings and Axos Bank Business Premium Savings are two that we recommend because they offer strong APYs and don't have minimum deposits required to open the accounts.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every small business article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of small business products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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