Payment expedition policy
Expedite payroll processing with clear guidelines on deadlines, reasons, and required steps.
Overview
There are some cases in which a company may need to expedite (or shorten) the payment processing period for a given payroll. However, there are both risk and ACH network considerations that must be taken into consideration when looking at expediting a payment. Therefore, the below matrix outlines what Check can, and cannot, do for a given payroll when expedition is requested.
Here’s how to use the matrix to determine if the request will be approved:
- Processing Period: Is the company approved for accelerated processing periods? This will determine what options are available for what timeframes.
- Time: As of the time you’re submitting the request, how far out is payday? If payday is Friday, then 4 days before would be Monday before 8pm ET.
- Reason for Expedition: Primarily, we will only accept expedition requests for Missed Approval Deadlines or if the company debit fails. Otherwise, we will not change the processing period.
- Expedition Possible: Can we actually support this request? Here, a “No” is non-negotiable. We simply cannot help.
- Employer/Partner Steps Required: In some cases, there will be steps that the company must take to successfully expedite. Additionally, in cases where we cannot expedite but the company still wants to payout via ACH, there may be steps to run payroll but with a different payday.
- Cost: Some expedition options will incur fees.
Processing Period | Time | Reason for expedition | Can be expedited? | Employer/Partner steps Required | Cost |
3-day | 3 days before payday before 3pm ET | N/A | N/A | None | None |
3-day | 3 days before payday after 3pm ET → 12:30pm ET on payday | Missed Approval Deadline or NSF | Yes | The employer can wire the funds to Check in order to pay on payday | Yes |
2-day | 2 days before payday before 8pm ET | N/A | N/A | None | None |
2-day | 2 days before payday after 8pm ET → 1 day before payday before 8PM ET | Missed Approval Deadline | Yes | The employer or partner can update the payroll to a 1-day processing period, enabling it to be approved until 8pm ET the day before payday | Yes |
2-day | After 8pm ET on the day before payday → 12:30pm ET on payday | Missed Approval Deadline or NSF | Yes | The employer can wire the funds to Check in order to pay on payday. | Yes |
1-day | After 8pm ET on the day before payday → 12:30pm ET on payday | Missed Approval Deadline | Yes | The employer can wire the funds to Check in order to pay on payday. | Yes |
Any | After 12:30pm ET on payday | Any | No | Payments must be made manually, and taxes will be debited via ACH. Alternatively payday can be pushed to a later date. | None |
Examples
Example 1: A company is on two-day processing with a Friday payday. They miss their 8pm ET approval deadline on Wednesday. They can simply change the processing period for this payroll to 1-day, which will give them until 8pm ET on Thursday to approve the payroll. Employees and contractors will then be paid on Friday morning as usual. There is no need to reach out to Check Support in this case. Note: 1-day processing will result in an extra fee.
Example 2: A company is on three-day processing with a Friday payday. They miss their 3pm ET approval deadline on Tuesday. Because they are not approved for accelerated processing, they can't change their payroll to two-day or next-day processing. The company has two options:
- Switch to manual payments (paper check, Zelle, etc.) for this payroll, with taxes still debited via ACH
- Fund by wire. If they wire funds by 5pm ET on the Thursday, their employees will still be paid on Friday morning as usual. If they miss the 5pm ET deadline on Thursday, they can still wire funds as late as 12:30pm ET on Friday. In this case, employees will not be paid until 6pm ET on Friday. For more details, see our "funding payroll via wire" guide.
Last updated on February 28, 2025