Setting Up Direct Deposit in Payroll

How to Apply for Direct Deposit

To pay employees via direct deposit all customers must ‘apply’ and be approved by our risk assessment team. This is in compliance with the Patriot Act, “KYC” (Know Your Customer).

If you are a new customer, setting up your account in the payroll wizard, you will be asked how you want to pay your employees:

With handwritten or printed checks
With direct deposit
With a combination of paychecks and direct deposit

After you have completed the setup wizard, you can sign up for direct deposit by going to Settings > Payment Settings > Direct Deposit Settings.

Here’s a closer look at the signup process:

Step 1: Verify the Business Owner Personal Identity

Enter your own personal information as the business owner or officer.

You will need to enter:

Business owner’s name
Business owner’s current home address
Business owner’s Social Security Number,
Business owner’s date of birth
Business owner’s government-issued ID information, such a driver’s license

We use this information to confirm “you are who you say you are.” If you have already been approved for Full-Service Payroll Tax Service, you have already completed this step, and won’t see it again. Please read our help article, “Failed Identity Verification.“

Step 2: Additional Company Information

Enter the business NAICS code. This is a 6-digit number that identifies your business industry. You can search for your code on the NAICS website. You can also enter a description of the nature of your business in addition to or instead of your NAICS code.
Enter your business website address, if you have one.
Confirm the contact information is correct.
Enter additional contact information if there are others at your business who are authorized to discuss direct deposit issues with Patriot Software.

Step 3: Verify the Business Bank Account

Important! You will need a business or commercial bank account to use direct deposit.

Patriot uses Plaid to instantly verify the bank account you want to use for direct deposit ACH withdrawals. If you have already completed this step as a Full-Service Payroll customer for tax payments, you will skip this step.

You will use the same bank account for both direct deposit and tax payments. If you choose to manually verify your bank account by having Patriot deposit and withdraw a small amount of pennies, you will need to enter the penny amount to continue your direct deposit application.

Step 4: Upload Documents

Upload Bank Statement: You will need to upload a copy of your commercial/business bank account statement. You may not use a personal bank account for direct deposit.

If you do not have a bank statement showing that the bank account is a commercial bank account, you can submit a letter from your bank. The letter should be on bank letterhead and contain the following:

Bank name
Company name/owner’s name
Account type and account number
Date
Name and phone number of banker signing the letter

2. Occasionally you will need to upload a proof of Federal EIN: If our team is not finding your information or finding conflicting information using our third-party identification tools, you may be asked to upload documentation confirming your 9-digit business federal employee identification number.

Step 5: Application Acknowledgement

Check the box to affirm you have the authority to submit your business direct deposit application.

Once you have submitted your direct deposit application, our underwriting team will review the information you have submitted within 10 business days. Realistically, you will hear from us sooner to confirm your approval for direct deposit. If you have questions, please email directdeposit@patriotsoftware.com.

After You Have Been Approved for Direct Deposit

To use direct deposit for payroll, make sure you have completed these necessary steps before running payroll:

Turn on Direct Deposit.
The next time you log in to your Patriot Software account after your direct deposit application has been approved, you can turn on your direct deposit by clicking “Yes” to the question, “Would you like to turn the direct deposit on?” Then, you will be able to change your method of paying employees from “Paper Checks” to “Direct Deposit.”
Add employee or contractor bank account information.
Add any employee direct deposit information or contractor direct deposit information before running payroll. If your employee or contractor has registered for their employee portal or contractor portal, they can enter their own bank account information as long as your method of paying employees is “Direct Deposit.”

💡 It is important to note that payrolls run BEFORE the necessary direct deposit information is entered will not have direct deposit added retroactively. If any payrolls have been run without direct deposit in error, you will need to void those payrolls and reprocess them with a future pay date.