Bank Setup and Authorization

Bank & checks is the third of the five stages on the Company Setup checklist. It's where you add the account payroll actually funds from, who signs the checks we mail when mailing is enabled, and the number your physical checks start from. The account has to be on file before you can submit your setup for review, and our tax partner, which funds and files your payroll, has to verify it before your first payroll.

Only an Admin can manage the funding account, the printed-check account, the starting check number, and the signatures on the checks we mail. Payroll and Approver teammates do not see the banking forms and must ask an Admin to change them.

Accessing Bank & checks

Open Company setup in the left nav, then choose Bank & checks in the stepper at the top. After Greenroom approves your company, the same stage is Settings → Banking & payment.

What's on the stage

The stage shows your funding account, any other accounts your company holds with our tax partner, Account for printed checks when check mailing is enabled or a separate account has already been saved, your starting check number, and last Signatures on checks when check mailing is enabled or a signature is on file. Until a funding account is on file, the stage also offers both ways to add one: Link with Plaid and the form for entering it by hand. Once one is on file, the funding account is a single line with Replace account, which opens those ways when you need them. Funding-account document requests appear under the line.

Funding account status

At the top, Funding account shows where our tax partner stands with your account. Once an account is on file, that's one line: the bank and its last four digits, the status, and Replace account, for example First National ••6789 · Verified · Replace account. Until the account is verified, a sentence under the line says why and what to do next. Before any account is on file, the status is a badge beside the heading instead.

Refresh status reads it again. It's there until the account is verified.

When our tax partner requests ownership documents, a notice under the line says what that means for payroll, for example Our tax partner needs documents to confirm this account and "Payroll can't run until they're accepted.", with Upload documents when the upload is available. Under the notice, each bank account with requests is one line, for example 2 document requests about First National ••6789 · Needs documents · View details. An account linked more than once, with the same bank and last four digits, is one line. View details opens Document requests about that account: why our tax partner is asking, each requested document with what it must show and whose it must be, and its status, with Upload documents at the bottom while that account still needs documents. Upload documents opens our tax partner's upload over the page: "The upload opens over this page. PDF, JPG or PNG, up to 2.5 MB each." After you submit, the lines stay while our tax partner reviews the documents. If uploading is unavailable, the stage says Greenroom will contact you to collect them. Requests about another account say whether they hold up payroll. Once the funding account is verified and no request is waiting on you or on our tax partner's review, the requests leave the stage.

Other accounts with our tax partner

Your company can hold more than one account with our tax partner. Linking a bank when your company already has an account there adds another one beside it, and a replacement can keep the previous account. An account added this way doesn't become the one payroll is paid from by itself. Under Other accounts with our tax partner, the Funding account card lists each of them with a status badge: Verified, Validation pending, Ownership review pending or Disabled.

• A verified account asks "Make [account] the account payroll is paid from?", with "Payroll stays on [funding account] until you choose." Pay payroll from this account switches. The previous account stays with our tax partner and is listed here, and funding-account numbers you entered here by hand are cleared, as linking clears them. While a payroll is approved and not paid yet, the switch is refused: "Payroll [run code] is approved and not paid yet. Switch the account payroll is paid from after it is paid."
• A pending account says "It can become the account payroll is paid from once our tax partner verifies it."
• Remove asks first: "Remove [account] from your company with our tax partner? Payroll keeps being paid from [funding account]." Choose Remove account, or Cancel. An account in ownership review has no Remove: "Our tax partner is reviewing this account, so it can't be removed here. Contact Greenroom to have it removed." While a payroll is approved and not paid yet, a removal keeps the account: "Payroll [run code] is approved and not paid yet and may draw on [account], so it was kept. Remove it after that payroll is paid."

When mailed checks print from the funding account's own numbers, a switch stops them, and the offer says so: "Mailed checks then stop until an account for printed checks is added under Settings → Banking & payment." Only one change to your company's bank accounts runs at a time. If someone else is making one, yours is refused: "Someone else is changing this company's bank accounts right now. Wait a minute, select Refresh status, and try again if it is still needed."

If the account our tax partner pays payroll from isn't the one saved in Greenroom, for example after a switch Greenroom couldn't finish recording, the card reads "The saved account differs from our tax partner's default funding account." and lists no other accounts. When our tax partner's account is a verified account of your company, the card offers to record it: "Our tax partner pays payroll from [account], but Greenroom has a different account saved." "Record it here so payroll can be submitted. This doesn't change which account our tax partner pays from." Record this account in Greenroom does that. Until it's recorded, submitting a payroll is refused with a message that names this button (see What can block submitting).

Linking your bank with Plaid

While no funding account is on file, Link your bank with Plaid under the status connects the account through our tax partner's bank connection flow instead of typing the numbers in. It only works once Greenroom has approved your setup, because it links the account to your company's account with our tax partner, which approval creates. Until then the Link with Plaid button is greyed out with "Available after Greenroom approves your setup", and the stage asks you to enter your account details below to continue setup. Once an account is on file, Link with Plaid is one of the two ways behind Replace account (see Replacing your bank account).

After approval, Link with Plaid first asks Who will sign in to the bank? Choose the person who will sign in to your bank in the Plaid window: your saved signer ("[name], the authorized signer"), or Someone else ("For example a general or company manager who uses their own online banking."). It matters because of what our tax partner checks: "Use your name exactly as your bank shows it on your online banking login. Our tax partner compares the account owner your bank reports with the signers on its record. If they don't match, our tax partner may ask for a bank statement and a photo ID before the account can fund payroll."

For Someone else, enter their first name, last name, title and email, and tick "I'm authorized to sign for [legal name]'s bank account and to authorize payroll debits." Continue to Plaid stays greyed out until you have. With no signer saved, Someone else is the only choice. Before bank linking opens, Greenroom looks them up among our tax partner's signers by email and adds them if they aren't there, as the step says: "Before the bank window opens, we'll make sure you're a signer on our tax partner's record, adding you if you aren't there yet. [name] stays the authorized signer in Greenroom. Greenroom can't remove a signer there once added." If that can't be done, bank linking doesn't open; see Bank linking didn't open after "Someone else".

When no funding account is on file with our tax partner yet, a notice above Link with Plaid asks you to "Sign in to the bank as [name], your authorized signer", and says what to do if that isn't you: "Not [name]? Have them sign in to the bank in the Plaid window. Or, if you are authorized to act for [legal name], choose “Someone else” when you link, and we'll make sure you're a signer on our tax partner's record first."

Continue to Plaid then opens bank linking over the whole screen, under a Greenroom bar titled Link your bank with a Close button, and Plaid opens inside it. When you finish linking, it closes by itself and the stage reads the linked account back. Close, or Escape, returns you to the stage as it was. An account linked this way keeps its full numbers with our tax partner, and Greenroom only holds the bank name, the last four digits, and whether it's checking or savings. When it's your company's first account with our tax partner, it becomes the funding account, and linking clears funding-account and routing numbers you entered here by hand. If your company already has an account there, the new one is added beside it instead, under Other accounts with our tax partner, and payroll stays on the account it's paid from until you choose.

Mail checks needs full account and routing numbers to print on checks. It uses the separate Account for printed checks when one is saved; otherwise, it can use manually entered checking-account details from your funding account. A Plaid link that becomes the funding account, or Pay payroll from this account, clears those funding-account numbers but leaves a separate printed-check account in place. A linked checking account can still be the account checks print from: Account for printed checks asks whether to print from it (see Account for printed checks).

When mailing is enabled and no separate printed-check account is saved, a warning headed Check mailing is on for this production sits above Link with Plaid, on the stage or in the Replace account dialog: "Linking with Plaid replaces the account and routing numbers stored here. Mailed checks then stop until an account for printed checks is added under Settings → Banking & payment." Print checks isn't affected. See Physical Checks for what else mailing needs.

If bank linking is switched off, the stage says "Bank linking is unavailable here. Use manual entry to add your account." while no account is on file, and once one is, Replace account opens the form directly.

Entering the account by hand

Until a funding account is on file, this form is on the stage. Once one is, the form opens from Replace account, headed Enter the new account's details (see Replacing your bank account).

When adding an account, the form says what happens next: "A manually entered funding account is checked with an ACH prenote. The result typically takes about 3 banking days, and payroll can’t use the account until verification finishes."

Institution name autofill

Start typing your bank's name and a list of known banks appears — picking one fills in the ACH (and where available, wire) routing numbers Greenroom can already vouch for, though every field stays editable afterward. A few banks use a different ACH routing number depending on the state where the account was opened; pick one of those and Greenroom tells you so rather than guessing (the number is on the bottom-left of a check, or on your statement). If your bank isn't in the list, just type its name; nothing blocks saving a bank that isn't recognized.

Routing number validation

Both the ACH routing number and the optional wire routing number are checked against the standard bank routing checksum (the same math your bank's own systems use to catch a mistyped number) before saving. A routing number that fails the checksum is rejected immediately with a clear message, rather than being accepted and failing later.

Account number confirmation

You'll type the account number twice — Account number and Confirm account number — and the two must match exactly before the form saves.

Account for printed checks

This section appears when check mailing is enabled or a separate account is already saved.

When your funding account is a checking account linked through Plaid, so our tax partner holds its full numbers, and no separate account is saved, the section first asks whether to print from it, for example Print checks from First National ••6789?, with "It's your funding account. Our tax partner holds its full numbers, so you'll enter its routing and account numbers once."

• Yes, print from this account asks only for what Greenroom doesn't hold: the Routing number, the Checking account number and Confirm checking account number, and the Institution name only when our tax partner lists none. The form says where to find them: "To print from First National ••6789, enter its routing number and its full account number. Both are along the bottom of its checks and in your bank's online banking." The account number has to be the whole number, ending in the last four digits shown ("The whole number, ending in 6789."). A number that ends in anything else isn't saved ("That account number doesn't end in 6789, so it isn't First National ••6789. Enter its full account number, or use a different account."), and neither are the last four digits alone ("Enter the whole account number, not only its last four."). Save account saves it as your account for printed checks, and Cancel goes back to the question.
• Use a different account opens the form for any other checking account.

The question isn't asked while our tax partner reports the funding account disabled. If the funding account changes after you open the page, the save is refused: "Your funding account changed since this page loaded, so nothing was saved. Reload the page to see which account checks can be printed from."

Without the question, choose Add an account if the form is not already open. Enter the institution name, routing number, checking account number, and confirmation, then choose Save account. Use Change account to replace it later.

Saving here, either way, changes the account printed on checks we mail through Mail checks. It does not change the account our tax partner debits for payroll and does not start funding-account verification. Until you save a separate account, mailing can use your funding account only when its full checking-account numbers are stored in Greenroom. A Plaid-linked funding account doesn't supply those numbers by itself; answering Yes, print from this account does.

Starting check number

Below the account forms, Starting check number sets where your physical checks start numbering (it starts at 5001). Numbers already issued are kept. It saves with its own Save check number button, separately from the bank details, so changing it never re-sends your account. After approval it's on Settings → Banking & payment instead.

Signatures on checks

Signatures on checks holds who signs the checks we mail, and each signer's signature image: "What we print on the signature line of the checks we mail for you." It comes after the starting check number when check mailing is enabled or a signature is already on file. A sample check shows what will print: the default signer's image or, with no signer on file, the authorized signer's name in a script font.

A company can keep several signers. The first is the default, badged Signs every check, and every check we mail prints their image. Add a signature (or Add a signer, once someone is on file) asks for the signer's name, a PNG or JPEG of their signature up to 100 KB — "A PNG with a transparent background, about 750 × 300 pixels and cropped close to the signature, prints best." — and a tick confirming they're authorized to sign checks for your company. A new first signer's image is previewed on the sample check above, marked Preview, not saved yet, before you choose Save signer or Cancel. A signer's row offers Replace image, Rename and Remove, and Make default on anyone who isn't the default. Remove asks first, Remove [name]?, and Remove signer confirms it; removing the last signer means checks we mail print the authorized signer's name again, while checks already sent keep the signature they were sent with.

The name that prints is the authorized signer saved on the Payroll signer and history stage (Settings → Company after approval). With no signer saved, the section says "No authorized signer is on file yet, so there is nothing to print. Save the signer under Payroll signer and history first."

To require two signatures, add a second signer, then choose Require two signatures (or Change who signs second). The section reads "Two: [first] signs every check, and [second] signs second." and "Both [first] and [second] sign each printed check." Require one signature goes back to one.

While mailed checks carry one signature, a company that requires two can't mail its checks: the section says "Mailed checks carry one signature, and this company requires two, so these checks can't be mailed. Print them, and have both signers sign each one." Print the checks with Print checks and have both signers sign each by hand. A company that requires one signature again can mail as before. Print checks always prints our tax partner's own check PDFs, which take no signature image and are signed by hand.

What happens when you save

Save bank details stores the account in Greenroom, closes the form, and shows the account as one line under Funding account: its bank and last four digits, its status, and Replace account, for example First National ••6789 · Validation pending · Replace account. With a starting check number also on file, the stage counts as done for submitting your setup. The line then tracks verification: before approval it reads Validation pending, with "Our tax partner sends a $0 test payment once your setup is approved." under it, and once our tax partner has verified the account it reads Verified, the sentence under it goes, and the stage's status line reads "Account verified · checks from #5001".

Before approval, nothing is sent to our tax partner yet. You'll see "Saved. We send the account to our tax partner after Greenroom approves your setup." Approval sends the account to our tax partner, which then sends its $0 test payment.

After approval, saving sends the account to our tax partner straight away. If it doesn't confirm the account, you'll see "Your bank details were saved, but our tax partner has not confirmed them. Payroll funding is not ready. Save the funding account again to retry, or contact Greenroom for help." In the rare case an approved company was never connected to our tax partner, the message says so instead: "Saved, but this company isn't connected to our tax partner yet, so the account hasn't been sent. Contact Greenroom to finish connecting it." If someone is changing your company's bank accounts at that moment, for example switching the account payroll is paid from, the details are saved but not sent: "Your bank details were saved, but they were not sent to our tax partner: someone else is changing this company's bank accounts right now. Payroll funding is not ready. Wait a minute, then save the funding account again."

Security

On the bank screens, the bank name, the account number's last four digits, and whether it's a checking or savings account are all that's ever displayed again. For an account you enter by hand, the full account number and both routing numbers are encrypted before they're stored, and no setup or Settings screen shows them in full, to you or to Greenroom staff. A check we mail shows the full account and routing numbers from your separate Account for printed checks, or from the eligible funding-account fallback when no separate account is saved. Its image in the check register is shown only to your production's own Admin and Payroll teammates, never to Approvers or Greenroom staff. Greenroom does not receive full funding-account numbers from Plaid. A separate printed-check account is entered and stored in Greenroom, and supplies the numbers on mailed checks when one is saved. Printing from a Plaid-linked funding account works the same way: you type its routing number and whole account number once, Greenroom checks that the number ends in the last four digits it holds, and stores both encrypted as your account for printed checks. Nothing is fetched from Plaid or our tax partner.

Replacing your bank account

Choose Replace account on the funding account's line. Replace the funding account opens and says what changing it means, for example "Payroll can't be paid from a new account until our tax partner verifies it. A payroll that's already processing or paying out may still draw on First National ••6789." Then choose how to add the new account:

• Link with Plaid opens bank linking, as in Linking your bank with Plaid.
• Enter details manually opens the form on the stage, headed Enter the new account's details. Fill in the new institution name, subtype, routing number(s), and account number (with confirmation), and save. Cancel closes the form without changing anything.

Before approval, while bank linking is switched off, or when the account is disabled for good, Plaid isn't offered, and Replace account opens the form directly.

When mailing is enabled and no separate account for printed checks is saved, the dialog repeats the Check mailing is on for this production warning. When a separate account for printed checks is saved, the dialog and the open form say Mailed checks don't follow the funding account: "They are drawn on your account for printed checks, [bank] ···[last four]. Linking or replacing the funding account doesn't change that. To mail checks from a new account, change the account for printed checks below."

Before approval, the new account replaces the old one in Greenroom. Once our tax partner holds a funding account, replacing it shows This replaces your funding account with our tax partner and requires you to tick I understand this replaces the account our tax partner debits for payroll before Save bank details is enabled. The new account must be verified, usually in about three banking days, before payroll can use it. The warning tells you not to switch when a payroll is due sooner. For a permanently disabled account, it explains that payroll can resume once the replacement is verified.

If you only want to mail checks from another account, use Account for printed checks instead. That leaves payroll funding in place.

The replacement normally removes the previous account from our tax partner. If removal fails, or an existing payroll may still draw on it, Greenroom keeps it and shows a warning. A warning about an existing payroll names that run. The warning says to contact Greenroom to have it removed. You can also remove it yourself under Other accounts with our tax partner; while a payroll may still draw on it, the removal is refused and says why. If our tax partner hasn't confirmed the new bank details, payroll funding stays blocked until that is resolved.

Troubleshooting

"That routing number doesn't pass the bank checksum"

The number you entered doesn't pass the standard bank checksum — that almost always means a typo. Double check it against a voided check or your bank's online portal, particularly if you're using a routing number your bank gave you verbally. (The wire routing number gets the same check, with its own message.)

"Account numbers don't match"

The Account number and Confirm account number fields have to be identical, character for character. Retype both rather than copy-pasting — a stray space or a copy from the wrong field is the usual cause.

"Enter the institution name."

The institution name needs at least two characters — a blank or single-character entry won't save.

"Bank linking could not open"

The bank-linking screens didn't load. Choose Link with Plaid again, or enter the account by hand. If our tax partner couldn't start the session at all, the message reads "Our tax partner could not open bank linking. Try again or enter the account manually." instead.

"The linked account is not confirmed yet"

You finished linking, but our tax partner hadn't reported the account as your funding account when Greenroom read it back. Use Refresh status after a moment, and if nothing changes, ask Greenroom to check it. If your funding account was entered by hand, linking adds the new account beside it rather than in its place, and this message follows: find the new account under Other accounts with our tax partner, and once it's verified, choose Pay payroll from this account.

Bank linking didn't open after "Someone else"

Greenroom finds or adds the person you named as a signer with our tax partner before bank linking opens, and opens nothing if that fails. The message says which:

• Nothing was added, for example "Our tax partner didn't accept [name]'s details, so nothing was added and bank linking didn't open. Review their name, title and email, then choose Link with Plaid again." Do what it says.
• They may have been added: "[name] may have been added as a signer on our tax partner's record, but we couldn't confirm it, so bank linking didn't open." Try again only if the message goes on "Try again in a moment with the same email: we look them up by email first, so they won't be added a second time." If it says "Please don't try again yet: email Greenroom so we can check our tax partner's record, so they aren't added twice.", email Greenroom, because a signer can't be removed from our tax partner's record. A later try can say Greenroom won't add them again from here, and ask you to email hello@greenroompayroll.com.
• "A signer is already being added for this company. Try again in a moment." means another attempt is still running, perhaps yours in another tab.

The account says "Validation pending" for days

Our tax partner's $0 test payment usually takes about three banking days after approval for a manually entered account. Use Refresh status to re-read it, and contact Greenroom if payroll is due sooner.

What's required for payroll

Bank & checks is required to submit setup for review: save a funding account and starting check number along with the other required stages. Running payroll also requires Greenroom's approval, a verified funding account, and clearance of any blocking tasks our tax partner reports. A separate printed-check account supports mailing; it does not replace the payroll funding requirement.

Greenroom automatically sends your company for our tax partner's final review once its setup is ready. This is separate from Greenroom's approval. While only that final review is pending, you can prepare payroll, send it for approval, and record approvals; submitting payroll to our tax partner waits until the review is done. See the Our tax partner's final review line in the first-payroll checklist for its status.

Next steps

Continue with Tax Configuration for the State tax registrations stage, then the Payroll signer and history stage (see Company Setup Introduction) to name your authorized signer. Or return to Union Setup.