Glossary of Check-initiated Payments
For each approved payroll, Check will initiate one debit payment from the employer's bank account that encompasses the amount for employee pay (excluding manual payments), post-tax deductions managed by Check, and all payroll taxes.
Outside of debit payments to fund payrolls, employers may see other types of collections and refunds.
Bank codes related to payments initiated by Check
For each payment type, employers will see the Partner name followed by the three-letter code.
| Code | Payment Type |
|---|---|
| PCR | Cash requirements debited from employers to fund payrolls |
| PAY | Payments sent to employees for earnings |
| CON | Payments sent to contractors for earnings |
| PTD | Payments sent for post-tax deductions |
| TRM | Refunds sent to employers for termination of payroll services |
| TAX | Taxes collected from employers at Quarter-end when the amount owed is greater |
| TAX | Taxes refunded to employers at Quarter-end when the amount owed is lesser |
| MQC | Taxes collected from employers who switch payroll providers mid-year |
| AFR | Taxes refunded to employers when filings are not successful due to incomplete tax IDs |
| VPR | Taxes refunded to employers due to voided payrolls |
| RFD | Refunds sent to employers for overpayment |
| COL | Collection debited from employers for underpayment |
| PRENOTE | Prenote for validating bank account information |
Which employer bank account is used?
Companies may have multiple bank accounts on file: a default bank account, plus optional payroll-level bank accounts specified via the bank_account field on an individual payroll.
Only two payment types use the bank account specified on the payroll:
- PCR (payroll funding debits): debited from the payroll's bank account if one is specified, otherwise from the company's default bank account.
- Net pay refunds: if an individual employee or contractor payment is refunded, the refund is credited to the bank account that funded the parent payroll. If that bank account has since been deleted, the refund falls back to the company's default bank account.
All other Check-initiated payments to and from employers use the company's default bank account, regardless of which account originally funded the related payroll. This includes:
- TAX: Quarter-end tax collections and refunds
- MQC: Mid-year tax collections
- TRM: Refunds for termination of payroll services
- AFR: Tax refunds due to unsuccessful filings
- VPR: Tax refunds due to voided payrolls
- RFD / COL: Refunds for overpayment and collections for underpayment
Note that this applies even when a refund relates to a specific payroll (for example, a VPR refund for a voided payroll): once taxes are collected, they are held as company-level liabilities, so tax refunds are always sent to the company's default bank account rather than the account they were originally debited from.