To get a direct deposit slip from your bank, log into online banking or your bank’s mobile app and look for a prefilled direct deposit form you can download as a PDF, or stop by a branch and ask a teller to print one for you. The slip is simply a document on your bank’s letterhead that lists the routing number, account number, and account holder name your employer needs to send your pay electronically.1Nacha. Direct Deposit Without a Voided Check? Absolutely! Most people can have one in hand in a few minutes.
Get It Through Online Banking or the App
This is the fastest route and the one most banks steer you toward. Sign in, then look for a tab labeled “Account Details,” “Direct Deposit,” or “Documents.” If your bank offers a prefilled form, it will appear there as a downloadable PDF with the bank’s letterhead and your account information already filled in. Save the file and send it to your employer, or print it if payroll wants a physical copy.
Not every bank calls it the same thing. Some label the download “Direct Deposit Authorization,” some tuck it inside an account summary screen, and some let you email the PDF to yourself from within the app. If you can’t find it in a minute or two, use the in-app chat or the bank’s help search. The feature is common enough that the support staff will know exactly where to point you.
Get One at a Branch
If you’d rather have a stamped paper document, walk into any branch of your bank and ask a teller for a direct deposit slip. Bring a government-issued ID. The teller prints the slip on the spot, stamps it, and hands it over ready to give to your employer. This is a good option if your employer specifically wants something with a bank stamp on it, or if you don’t use online banking.
If Your Bank Doesn’t Offer a Prefilled Slip
A handful of banks don’t produce a formal “direct deposit slip” at all. That’s fine. Employers accept several substitutes, and payroll departments are used to seeing all of them.
- A bank verification letter on official letterhead listing your name, routing number, account number, and the date the account was opened. Request it through online banking or by calling the bank.
- A voided personal check. The routing number is the first string of nine digits printed along the bottom left, followed by your account number.
- Your routing and account numbers read to you over the phone after the bank verifies your identity, which you then type into your employer’s payroll portal.
Whichever substitute you use, copy the numbers from an official source rather than from memory, and check every digit before you submit. A single wrong digit in the routing number can send your paycheck to a different bank entirely, and recovering those funds takes days of coordination between your employer, your bank, and the receiving institution.
What the Slip Needs to Contain
Any document you hand your employer needs three pieces of information: your bank’s nine-digit routing number (sometimes called a routing transit number or ABA number), your personal account number, and whether the account is checking or savings.2American Bankers Association. ABA Routing Number The routing number tells the payroll system which financial institution to send the money to. The account number tells that institution which account to credit. The account type matters because payroll systems process checking and savings deposits through slightly different channels, and picking the wrong one causes the deposit to bounce back to your employer and delay your pay.
If you have a checkbook, both numbers are printed in magnetic ink along the bottom of every check. If you don’t, pull them from the account details screen in online banking or request them from a teller or phone banker.
Handing It to Your Employer
Your employer will give you an authorization form, usually inside an employee self-service portal, sometimes as a paper form or a PDF they want returned by secure email. The form asks for your name, bank name, routing number, account number, account type, and your signature. Some employers also ask for your Social Security number or employee ID so they can match the deposit to your payroll record. If your bank gave you a prefilled slip, you may still need to complete the employer’s own form; attach the slip as proof of the account.
Ask payroll about the cutoff for changes. Most employers finalize their payroll file several days before payday, so a form turned in close to a pay date often doesn’t take effect until the next cycle. One employer form noted a ten-day deadline before the next scheduled payday for banking changes. That’s a reasonable rule of thumb.
Once your form is in, most payroll systems send a prenote: a zero-dollar test transaction that confirms the routing and account numbers are valid before real money moves.3First Bank. ACH Prenotes Explained: How to Verify Account Information Before Sending Payments ACH rules require the employer to wait at least three banking days after the prenote before sending a live deposit, and many wait a full pay cycle to be safe.4Nacha. Definition of Banking Day and Related Operational Topics During that window, expect a paper check or a deposit to your old account. Once the prenote clears, federal rules require your bank to make the funds available no later than the business day after the deposit posts, and many banks release them the same morning.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If I Get Paid Through Direct Deposit, When Can I Withdraw the Funds?
If You’re Switching Banks
Getting a new direct deposit slip is only half the job when you’re moving accounts. Submit the new authorization form, then leave your old account open until you’ve confirmed that a paycheck has actually landed in the new one. Closing the old account too early is a common mistake: if a deposit hits a closed account, the bank usually rejects it and sends the funds back to your employer, a round trip that can take five to ten days. Overlap both accounts for one full pay cycle and the switch costs you nothing.
Your Employer Can’t Pick the Bank for You
One point worth knowing before you start: no employer can require you to open an account at a specific bank in order to receive direct deposit. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act prohibits any person from requiring “a consumer to establish an account for receipt of electronic fund transfers with a particular financial institution as a condition of employment.”6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693k – Compulsory Use of Electronic Fund Transfers Your employer can require direct deposit as the payment method in many states, but the bank is your choice, and the slip you bring them can come from any institution where you hold an account.