Deposit Slip

A deposit slip is a small paper form that a bank customer includes when depositing funds into a bank account. A deposit slip contains the date, the name of the depositor, the depositor's account number, and the amounts being deposited.

Upon entering a bank, a customer can typically find a stack of deposit slips with designated spaces to fill in the required information to complete the deposit. The customer is required to fill out the deposit slip before approaching the bank teller to deposit funds.

If the customer uses a deposit slip in the bank, the account number will need to be written at the bottom of the slip where indicated. The deposit slip informs the teller which bank account number to which the funds should be credited.

The slip also breaks down whether the deposit is comprised of checks, cash, or if the depositor wants a specific amount of cash back from a check deposit. The bank clerk typically verifies the funds received for the deposit against the amounts listed on the deposit slip to ensure they match. The teller processes the slip along with the items in the deposit and prints a receipt for the customer.

Additionally, deposit slips are often included in the back of checkbooks, which have the customer's account number and the bank routing number pre-printed on them.

Deposit slips offer protection to both the bank and the customer. Banks use them to help maintain a written ledger of funds deposited throughout the day and to ensure that no deposits are unaccounted for at the end of the business day.

For bank customers, a deposit slip serves as a de facto receipt that the bank properly accounted for the funds and deposited the correct amount and into the correct account. If the customer later checks the account balance and discovers the deposit was not counted correctly, the deposit slip serves as proof that the bank acknowledged receiving the funds from the customer.

Although the deposit receipt proves the deposit was made, the receipt only shows the total of the deposit. If there's a dispute with the bank, customers can request a copy of their deposit including the deposit slip to show the itemized amounts that made up the total deposit.

Deposit slips are becoming a thing of the past as banks have begun removing deposit slips from their branches in favor of new technology. Most banks do not require deposits slips for ATM deposits since the computer can read the check or count the cash and electronically credit the account associated with the ATM card.

ATM deposit receipts are available before completing the deposit including receipts that contain images of the checks being deposited. Smartphone technology has advanced whereby banks are offering apps that enable customers to scan paper checks instead of depositing them via a bank teller or ATM.