The Kotapay Direct Deposit Authorization Form is the one-page document you give your employer’s payroll office so your paycheck can be sent electronically to your bank through the ACH network. You fill it out, sign it, attach a voided check, and hand it to payroll or HR. Kotapay processes the ACH payments on the employer’s behalf and does not accept the form directly from employees.1Kotapay. Kotapay – ACH Payments, Credit Card Processing, Payroll Direct Deposit
What to Have in Front of You
Before you start writing, pull together:
- A voided personal check for the account you want your pay deposited into.
- Your bank’s nine-digit routing number, printed on the bottom-left of your checks.2Wikipedia. Routing Transit Number
- Your full account number. For savings, look on your statement or in online banking.
- Your employer’s company name, street address, city, state, zip code, and phone number. Payroll may have pre-filled this.
- Your employee ID, if your employer assigns one. It’s optional but helps payroll match the form to your file.
Filling Out the Form Section by Section
The form is short. The one detail that trips people up is that it has room for two accounts, so you can split your paycheck if you want to.
Employer and Date
Enter your employer’s name, full street address, city, state, zip, and phone at the top. Write the date in the day/month/year fields. If your employer already printed their information, just add the date.
Account Information
There are two account blocks. For each account you want to use, enter:
- The routing (ABA) number. Check every digit. A single transposed number will bounce the deposit back.
- Your full account number.
- The account type, by checking either checking or savings.
- The designation: either a flat dollar amount or a percentage of your paycheck for that account.
If you want your entire paycheck in one account, write “100%” in the first designation field and leave the second block blank. If you’re splitting, say $500 to savings and the rest to checking, fill in both blocks so the dollar amounts or percentages together cover your full net pay.
Financial Institution Details
Below the account fields, write your bank’s name, the branch name if you have one, the branch city, and the branch phone number. Payroll uses this if they need to contact the bank about a problem deposit.
Signature
Print your full name, then sign and date the bottom. The signature is what makes the authorization binding. NACHA rules technically allow verbal authorization for direct deposit credits, but most employers require the signed written form for their records.
If You Don’t Have a Voided Check
Plenty of people don’t keep paper checks anymore. Any of these usually works in place of a voided check:
- A bank-issued direct deposit form. Most banks provide one through online banking or at a branch, pre-printed with your name and account details.
- A letter on bank letterhead confirming your routing and account numbers. Some employers want it signed by a bank representative.
- A deposit slip or a recent account statement. You can redact transaction details on a statement for privacy.
Ask your payroll department first. Some employers accept only specific formats.
Turning It In and When Deposits Actually Start
Give the completed form and your voided check to your employer’s payroll or HR office. That’s the only place it goes. Payroll enters your account data into the company’s payment software to begin setup.
Before real money moves, payroll typically sends a prenote, a zero-dollar test transaction, through ACH to confirm the account exists and can receive deposits. Under NACHA operating rules, the employer must wait at least three banking days after the prenote before sending a live deposit. If the prenote clears, live deposits can start.
In practice, this means activation usually takes one to two pay cycles from the day you submit the form. Expect a paper check for that first cycle or two, and watch your account around the second or third payday after you turn in the form.
If the Prenote or First Deposit Fails
When something bounces back, the bank returns an ACH code that tells payroll what happened. The three you’re most likely to see during setup:
- R03, No Account or Unable to Locate Account. The account number looks valid but doesn’t match an open account at that bank, often from a typo or a name mismatch.
- R04, Invalid Account Number. The number itself is structurally wrong: too few digits, too many, or a failed check-digit.
- R02, Account Closed. The account existed but has been closed.
Payroll will contact you to correct it. You’ll fill out a new form with the right numbers, and the prenote cycle starts over, which adds a few more business days before deposits begin.
Changing Your Account Later
If you switch banks, close an account, or want to change how your pay is split, you fill out a new Kotapay form. The new one replaces whatever authorization was on file. Get it to payroll well before your next payday, because the prenote verification runs again and processing takes several business days plus the three-day waiting period.
Don’t close the old account before the new deposit is confirmed. If payroll sends a deposit to a closed account, it bounces back with R02 and your pay gets delayed while everything is untangled. Keep the old account open until you see the first deposit land in the new one.
Canceling Your Direct Deposit
The authorization stays in effect until your employer receives written notice that you want to cancel, with enough lead time to act on it. Closing your bank account by itself does not cancel the authorization in payroll’s system. If you close the account without telling payroll, the next deposit attempt fails and your pay gets held up.
To cancel cleanly, send a written request to payroll or HR and ask them to confirm the effective date. Payroll will typically switch you to a paper check starting with the next pay cycle after they process the request.
What Your Employer Can and Can’t Require
Your employer cannot require you to open an account at a specific bank as a condition of employment.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code Chapter 96 – Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce You pick your own financial institution, and your employer has to honor that choice.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Electronic Fund Transfers FAQs
Whether direct deposit itself can be mandatory depends on your state. Under federal rules, an employer can use direct deposit as long as employees have the option to receive wages by check or cash instead. Some states go further and prohibit employers from requiring electronic payment outright. If you’d prefer a paper check and your employer says direct deposit is mandatory, check your state labor department’s guidance for the rule that applies to you.