Can we cash a check under business name?
All banks in the US that I have ever worked with will allow you to deposit checks if: In your case, you have 3 options:
59 It’s gone viral = Someone sent a tweet about this   60 I know you’ve been burning the candle on both ends = Get ready to do some more   61 It’s scalable = We can sell a lot of it in theory   62 It’s best-of-breed = We hired a market research firm to say that   63 We’re all about value-add = Unlike our competitors who seek to add no value   64 What’s our go-to-market? = Has anyone planned this out, because I’ve been too busy?   65 I’m drinking from a fire hose right now = I want a little sympathy over here, because I’m tired of carrying this company on my back  66 We’re getting some push back = They’re not buying it  67 We need to do a level-set = I’ve never been inside a Home Depot, but this phrase makes me sound handy  68 It’s basic blocking and tackling = How could you screw this up? I also played high school football and those were the best days of my life.  69 Let’s put our game faces on = Get serious, guys  70 We’ve got it covered from soup to nuts = I have no idea what that means, but don’t you dare question my prep work on it  71 We don’t want to get thrown under the bus = So let’s throw someone else first  72 But to close the loop on this… = Always the more theoretical Business Development/Strategy guys who say this, so they can sound thorough  73  What are “next steps”? = Did anyone take notes during the last 90 minutes of this meeting?  74 This is low-hanging fruit = Get this done quickly  75 We need a few quick wins = We’ve got to trick people into thinking we know what we’re doing by some successes we can point to and claim as ours  76 It’s a [Insert Company Name] killer = Did I get your attention yet with the Freddy Kreuger imagery associated with the company who’s currently eating our lunch?  77 I want to address the elephant in the room = I know you think I’m trying to cover up/gloss over something, so I might as well talk about it  78 This is the next big thing/new thing = Some of our 20-somethings have told me this is really cool  79 This time it’s different because… = Don’t wait for the explanation… simply run for the hills.  80 What are the best practices on this? = How can I cover my behind that we’re just doing stuff the way other good people have supposedly done this?  81 This is our deliverable = I know this sounds like something that comes in a body bag, but it makes our PowerPoint sound tougher than it actually is  82 We’ll loop you in when we need to = You’re not that important to know about all the details on this  83 We want this to move up and to the right = I failed high school algebra but someone said this means we’ll be making a lot of money if this happens  84 We’re going through a re-org = No one knows what the heck is going on at the moment  85 We’ve got to increase our mind-share with the customer = I think I would have been happier as a doctor doing lobotomies than in marketing as a career path  86 I don’t think you’re comparing apples to apples = Let me tell you how you should really think about this issue  87 Let’s peel back the onion on this = I want to sound thorough so this is a better way of telling you that than simply clearing my throat  88 You phoned it in = I was too busy checking my email during your presentation that I didn’t listen  89 I want you to run with this = I just threw you into the deep end of the pool and you’re on your own to figure it out "If you sign the check ""For Deposit Only"", the bank will put it in your account. You may need to set up a ""payable name"" on the account matching your DBA alias. However, having counted offerings for a church on several occasions, I know that banks simply have no choice but to be lax about the ""Pay to the Order Of"" line on checks. Say the church's ""legal name"" for which the operating funds account was opened is ""Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church of Red Bluff"". You'll get offering checks made out to ""Saint Barnabas"", ""Saint B's"", ""Episcopal Church of Red Bluff"", ""Red Bluff Episcopal"", ""Youth Group Fund"", ""Pastor Frank"", etc. The bank will take em all; just gotta stamp em with the endorsement for the church. Sometimes the money will be ""earmarked"" based on the payable line; any attempt to pay the pastor directly will go into his ""discretionary fund"", and anything payable to a specific subgroup of the church will go into their asset account line, but really all the cash goes directly to the same bank account anyway. For-profit operations are similar; an apartment complex may get checks payable to the apartment name, the management company name, even the landlord. I expect that your freelance work will be no different." "To answer length validity and security implications of draft checks issued and negotiated within the United States, I am heavily addressing the common erroneous assumptions of where the funds sit while they're ""in"" a draft check and how to get them out. Tl;Dr The existing answers are incomplete and in some ways dangerously misleading. Jerry can still be potentially defrauded by Tom, and even if the check is legitimately drawn and negotiable, Jerry may still experience delayed access to the funds. The funds sit in an account held by the issuing bank. As long as the bank has sufficient funds, the check does. However, there are significantly more factors that go into whether a check will be returned unpaid (""bounce""). If I hand you $5000 in cash, will you give me $5000 in cash? Probably, and you'd probably be pretty safe. How about I give you a $5000 draft check, will you give me $5000 in cash without doing anything except looking at it to verify the check? I hope not (Cash America sure wouldn't) but people sell expensive goods with the ""same as cash"" attitude. Remember: The only non-cash form of payment which cannot somehow be held, reversed or returned unpaid in the U.S. without consent of the receiving party is a payment order (a.k.a wire transfer)! The draft check is ""as good as cash"" in the sense that the money for a draft check is withdrawn from your account before the check is negotiated (deposited). This does NOT mean that a draft check will not bounce, so Jerry is NOT as secure in handing the goods to Tom as if Tom had handed him cash, as it is still a check. Jerry's bank will not receive the funds for Tom's draft check for an average 3 to 5 business days, same as a personal check. Jerry will probably have access to the first $5000 within two business days... provided that he deposits the draft check in person at his bank's branch or in a bank-owned ATM. In the United States, Regulation CC governs funds availability. Regarding official, draft, or tellers checks: ""If the customer desires next-day availability of funds from these checks, [your bank] may require use of a special deposit slip.""  Mobile deposit availability in the U.S. is NOT regulated in this way and will likely be subject to a longer hold on more, if not all, of the check! Draft checks, don't, as a habit, ""bounce"" in the colloquial sense of ""returned for insufficient funds."" This is because they are prepaid and drawn upon a financial institution's account. Banks are insolvent far less frequently than other businesses or individuals. Draft checks, tellers checks, official checks, bank checks, etc CAN, however, be returned unpaid if one of the following is true: As an aside: an institution is not obligated to honor a stale dated check, but may do so at its discretion. If you have a personal check outstanding for over 6 months, it may still clear and potentially overdraw your account. In this case, contact your bank ASAP to process a reversal. The depositing bank mis-scans the check and the issuing bank refuses the resulting data. I have seen systems mis-read which data field is which, or its contents. Also, there is the possibility the image if the check will be illegible to the issuing bank. The draft check has been cancelled (stop paid). This can happen if:  a) The check was fraudulently bought from the issuing bank using Tom's account  b) Tom has completed an indemnification agreement that the check was lost or otherwise not used for its intended purpose, without fraud having occurred against Tom c) The draft check is escheated (paid to the state as unclaimed property). This case is a subset of case 1, but will lead to a different return reason stamped on the (image replacement document of) the check. The draft check was never any good in the first place. Because of the perception that draft checks are as good as cash (they're not but are a lot better than personal checks), forgery and attempted fraud is shockingly common. These aren't actually underwritten by a real bank, even if they appear to be. The only money ""in"" them is what the fraudster can get out of you. Jerry did not properly endorse the check before presenting it for deposit or otherwise negotiating it. In my time in banking, I most commonly saw cases 3 and 4. Unlike most counterfeit cash, case 3 will fool Jerry and Jerry's teller. Tom gets an immediate payout (a car, a wire transfer, a payday loan, etc) and Jerry's bank doesn't know the check isn't valid until they call the alleged issuing bank to verify its negotiability, or in the case of smaller checks into lower-risk accounts, it is simply returned unpaid as fraudulently drawn. To conclude: Call the alleged issuing bank's verification line before handing over the goods, always properly endorse your deposits, and address what happens if one does not receive or collect on prompt payment in your contracts." "&gt; What's their benchmark for considering the deal ""done""? Getting out employee checks with the name of the new company?   Well, there's usually about an 18-month consolidation window after the deal closes to combine operations before the market really starts wondering why you're burning through cash supporting a closed M&amp;A. That's going to include the removal and/or consolidation of redundant business units from HR, to marketing, etc.   From an IT perspective though, the business *usually* completely ignores the fact that modern white-collar businesses are essentially different formulations of businesses leveraging IT or severely underestimates how reliant they are on technology. That is, the consolidation of business units needs to include the consolidation of IT for economies of scale to be realized. It's fine and dandy to say your direct reports are being consolidated under business unit X but what if your HR program PeopleSoft and theirs is successfactors? How much time and money is that going to take to select the best system and get all of your shit in one place? Rule of thumb? 4x whatever the buisness thinks and 1.5x what the IT guy says. What about your identity platforms? What if, god forbid, you are an entirely IBM shop and the acquired company is entirely Microsoft? What about those old fuckin mainframes plenty of insurance companies and banks are keeping around? All that data needs to get moved/consolidated/etc.   I'm there to annoy the shit out of the business so when the board says ""did this ever come up"" our VPs and CIO can say ""yeah, here are the documents"" and then they start firing management. :D" "Yes, it is possible.  Although there may be red tape for a business account, Alliant Credit Union offers completely online signup and their representatives are reachable by email. You'll probably need to send in the LLC articles this way http://www.alliantcu.com/checking-accounts.html (as pointed out by @littleadv this site defaults to ""personal checking"" accounts, there is a business checking tab which doesn't generate a direct link, some might miss that) And even if there are a ton of regulations that some pencil pushers at larger banks anecdotally cite (without citing), there will be enough banks that don't care. Good Luck" Sure you can.  You can fill in whatever you want in the From section of a money order, so your business name and address would be fine. The price only includes the money order itself.  You can hand deliver it yourself if you want, but if you want to mail it, you'll have to provide an envelope and a stamp. Note that, since you won't have a bank record of this payment, you'll want to make sure you keep other records, such as the stub of the money order.  You should probably also ask the contractor to give you a receipt. In the united states, they may request a check written by the bank to the other party. I have had to make large payments for home settlements, or buying a car. If the transaction was over a specified limit, they wanted a cashiers check. They wanted to make sure it wouldn't bounce.  I have had companies rebate me money, and say the maximum value of the check was some small value. I guess that was to prevent people from altering the check. One thing that has happened to me is that a large check I wanted to deposit was held for a few extra days to make sure it cleared. I wouldn't have access to the funds until the deadline passed. No. An employer is legally obliged to deduct taxes from your pay cheque and send them to the IRS. The only way round that is to either provide evidence of deductions that would reduce your tax bill to nothing, or to become self-employed.