Inbound check deposits

When someone deposits a check drawn on one of your accounts, Increase creates an Inbound Check Deposit and sends an inbound_check_deposit.created webhook. This covers Check Transfers, Checkbooks, and checks you print yourself.

Lifecycle


`pending`	The deposit has been received and is awaiting evaluation.
`accepted`	The deposit was accepted and funds were removed from the Account.
`declined`	The deposit was declined and a return was sent to the depositing bank.
`returned`	The deposit was accepted but later returned to the depositing bank.
`requires_attention`	A rare status set when the deposit needs manual intervention from the Increase team. More about requires_attention.

Evaluating deposit attempts

When a recipient deposits a check, the depositing bank sends us the account number, check number, and amount. Increase creates an Inbound Check Deposit and inbound_check_deposit.created event.

The check number and account number are used to match the deposit to a pre-registered check: either a Check Transfer, populating check_transfer_id, or a Checkbook Check, populating checkbook_check_id.

The Inbound Check Deposit starts in pending status and is evaluated at its automatically_resolves_at timestamp (by default, 1 hour after created_at). Increase evaluates the deposit for positive pay conditions and additional Account conditions:

Is the Account or Account Number closed or inactive?
Does the Account have an insufficient current balance to cover the deposit?
Would the deposit breach a limit configured on the Account Number?

If any of these checks fail, we decline the deposit attempt:

The Inbound Check Deposit transitions to status declined.
A Declined Transaction with a source.category of check_decline is created.
Increase sends a return to the depositing bank. The recipient will see a returned check and not receive funds.

Otherwise, the deposit is accepted:

The Inbound Check Deposit transitions to status accepted.
A Transaction with a source.category of check_transfer_deposit is created.
For a Check Transfer, its status is updated to deposited and its associated Pending Transaction is completed.
For a Checkbook Check, its status is updated to deposited.

Custom evaluation logic

Use the delay between the Inbound Check Deposit’s created_at and automatically_resolves_at to preempt failing conditions for the deposit. For example, if the Account has insufficient balance, fund the Account just-in-time with an Account Transfer.

You can also use your own application logic to evaluate the deposit attempt during the window. All of the information Increase receives about the check from the depositing bank, including deposit scan images, is included on the Inbound Check Deposit. To approve the deposit, take no action. To decline the deposit, call POST /inbound_check_deposits/:id/decline.

Returns

After a deposit has been accepted, you can return it to the depositing bank by calling POST /inbound_check_deposits/:id/return. The Inbound Check Deposit transitions to status returned and a new Transaction is created to reverse the funds.

If the Inbound Check Deposit is related to a Check Transfer, the Check Transfer’s status transitions to returned.

Checks without positive pay

If you don’t want to use Check Transfers or Checkbooks, you can print your own checks. For example:

You already have a check printer or a third-party check fulfillment provider.
Your customers print their own checks or order checkbooks from their own printer.
Your customers write checks from accounting or payroll software that prints on blank check stock.

To support these flows, set the Account Number’s unregistered_inbound_checks property to allowed.

Increase has no record of these checks, so positive pay does not apply. By default, any check presented with your account number is accepted as long as the Account is open, has sufficient balance, and the deposit is within its limits. It is recommended to implement custom evaluation logic to ensure deposits are what you expect.