Understanding your check payments: debit date and delivery date

How our check payment process works

When you schedule a check payment, there are two important dates to understand:

1- Debit Date

  • This is the date when funds are withdrawn from your account.
  • The check will be delivered 5-7 business days after the funds are debited. By changing the delivery date, you can choose when the funds will be debited, avoiding surprises from unpredictable vendor deposits.

2- Delivery Date

  • This is the estimated date when the check is physically received by your vendor.
  • Typically, this occurs 5-7 business days after the debit date. Based on standard shipping times with USPS, checks will be delivered 5-7 business days after the funds are debited. 
  • The vendor receives the check on the delivery date. You'll receive an email when the check has been deposited. You can also track your payment to see whether the check has been deposited.
  • Check forgery or alteration is not a problem, as checks don’t have your banking details on them.

Why we secure funds in advance

  • Securing funds in advance allows us to issue a protected check on your behalf and reduce your exposure to fraud.
  • When you schedule a check payment, funds are debited from your account, and your check is delivered to the vendor 5-7 business days after the funds are debited.
      • When setting up a check payment, you can change the delivery and debit dates, avoiding surprises from unpredictable vendor deposits.
      • This gives you more control over your cash flow.
  • Securing funds in advance helps prevent payment failures that could inconvenience you and your business.

Example Scenario

Payment Scheduling

  • You choose the delivery date of Dec 3, 2024
  • The funds will be debited on Nov 25, 2024.
  • Check delivery by USPS may take 5-7 business days.

Things that may affect payment delivery time

  • Federal Holidays may lead to potential USPS delivery delays when sending checks. When choosing your check delivery date, Federal Holiday dates will be blocked on the Pay Business Bills calendar. We recommend scheduling payments sooner so they get to your vendor on time during the holidays.
  • When submitting a payment to a vendor for the first time, we may need a little extra time to review the payment. Schedule these in advance to avoid any delays.
  • We recommend attaching an invoice whenever possible to prevent compliance delays.
  • Bank account to ACH payments exceeding $100,000 are delivered within 4 business days.

Delivery timelines

Below, you can find a comparison of the delivery timelines of checks and ACH Bank Transfers. Should you need your payment to arrive faster, consider using ACH Bank Transfer:

Payment Method Delivery Method Delivery time
Capital One Business Bank Account Paper Check (USPS)
(Free)
5-7 business days

ACH Bank Transfer

Fastest Option

(Free)

3 business days

Payments scheduled until 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT are processed that day.*

Credit Card

Paper Check (USPS)

(Free)

5-7 business days

ACH Bank Transfer

Fastest Option

(Free)

Same business day 

Payments scheduled until 2 pm ET / 11 am PT are processed that day.*

 

* Any payments submitted after this time will only start processing the following business day.

Need to keep track of your payments?

Check out our Payment Tracking Guide to learn how to use the payment progress bar and payment summary features. These tools make it easy to monitor your payment status in real time. 

 

Please see the following article to learn more about what your vendors receive when you send a check.