DepositNow is a check-scanning service that lets merchants deposit checks into their bank account without leaving their office. Online sellers will find it particularly convenient as it cuts down trips to the bank. They simply scan checks they receive from customers, and the checks are deposited into their bank account immediately.
DepositNow works with personal and business checks, money orders, traveler's checks, cashier's checks, government checks, warrants and more. While checks do not clear any faster using remote deposit, the service eliminates the "desk float" - the delay that sellers would normally experience if they had to periodically drive the checks to their local bank to make the deposit in person. DepositNow works with any U.S. bank account, and it also integrates with QuickBooks and Peachtree accounting software programs.
Brad Kvederis, Director of Marketing and Publications for DepositNow, said there is a standard price of $39 a month (slightly more if there are multiple accounts to deposit into, multiple locations to deposit from, or other such factors).
DepositNow requires that merchants supply their tax ID or social security number so it can run a credit check. The service is only for businesses, not to individuals for personal use. However, online stores count as a business - sellers simply need to demonstrate that they're legitimately running it like a business and that they are creditworthy, according to Kvederis.
In order to use the service, merchants need a check scanner that is certified to work with the DepositNow system (most ordinary scanners will not work). The company is currently running a promotion in which it is giving away scanners for merchants who sign up for a 6-month trial of the service. It's a time-limited offer while supplies last, but Kvederis said readers who respond in the next few months will likely find the scanners still being offered for free. (He said the DepositNow scanners can also be used as regular scanners for other scanning tasks.) DepositNow is only designed to work with Windows, not with Macintosh computers.
As for software, Kvederis said the actual check processing is always done on the DepositNow servers, but it has three different interfaces for getting the scanned check images to them. There is a Web-only version of DepositNow that doesn't require much more than installing the scanner driver and controls; you just log in to the server and do the processing there. Or you can download a "fat client" version of the software that you install on your hard drive - that can be useful if you want to work offline and then do a "batch upload" to submit all the checks you've scanned at once. And there is a QuickBooks version that also installs itself on your hard drive, but launches as an option from within QuickBooks itself.
He also said the company has a separate system that offers the ability to accept e-checks and credit card payments through a merchant's website. Soon, they will have a combined version that lets merchants use that service along with the check-scanning service under one umbrella.
With the high cost of gas, and time at a premium, online sellers may find DepositNow's check-scanning service something worth looking into.
