Toast Payroll: Get Help With Direct Deposit Accounts

In this Article:

• What's New With Direct Deposits in 2026
  • What HR+, Manager, and Employee Security Roles Can and Cannot Do
• Use Plaid to Verify Direct Deposit Accounts
  • Add a Direct Deposit Account With Plaid
  • Add a Second Direct Deposit Account
  • Substitute Account Numbers With Plaid
  • Troubleshoot Plaid
• Add a Direct Deposit Account Manually (Without Plaid)
• Remove a Direct Deposit Account
• Audit Direct Deposit Accounts
• FAQ

What's New With Direct Deposits in 2026

• We've updated how all users access an employee's Payment Method page. In almost all cases, once a user takes an action on this page, Toast will text a six-digit code to the phone number on file in your Toast account for identity verification purposes. This will need to be entered into Toast Payroll to continue with your action.
• We've updated how you can add direct deposit accounts. There are two methods:
  • Plaid is a third-party system to help validate direct deposit account information and prevent incorrect information from being entered. All users can access Plaid to add their own direct deposit account information.
  • Manual entry is only available to HR+ users only when adding direct deposit account information on behalf of someone else. This method has a new workflow.

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What HR+, Manager, and Employee Security Roles Can and Cannot Do

Some access and some direct deposit actions have changed, so use this table for a quick rundown of the updates.

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Use Plaid to Verify Direct Deposit Accounts

Plaid is an industry leader in validating employee bank accounts and it helps Toast and its customers reduce instances of a Return of Funds (ROF) caused by incorrect routing and/or account numbers for direct deposit.
 

When choosing a payment preference, paying employees through direct deposit allows for faster and more efficient payments and contributes to reduced shipping costs for your business. Employees also have the option to be paid with a paper check or the Toast Pay Card.

Employee direct deposit accounts can only be added in Toast Payroll and not by using the MyToast app.

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Add a Direct Deposit Account With Plaid

1. Employees should navigate to My Profile > Employment > Payment Method. If you're an HR+ user setting up direct deposit on behalf of an employee, follow these steps instead.
2. Select Direct deposit, then + Add bank account to begin the Plaid direct deposit setup.
   
    
   
   
3. Select Verify when you're asked to confirm your identity. A six-digit code will then be texted to your phone number on-file with your Toast account. Enter this six-digit code into the pop-up in Toast Payroll. Note: Toast representatives will never ask you for this code, so do not provide this code to anyone.
   1. If you do not see the pop-up, you may need to disable your ad blocker and retry this action. You can re-enable it once you're done with these instructions.
4. In the Plaid window, enter your phone number and select Continue.
   
    
   
   
5. Locate and select your banking institution. You may need to use the search bar to find the correct bank. Once you select it, Plaid will ask you to enter the login credentials of your online banking account, either in the Plaid pop-up or a separate pop up.
   1. If your bank does not appear in the list, your employer (an HR+ user) can add your direct deposit information manually. For security purposes, employees and managers cannot enter direct deposit bank accounts manually. HR+ users can enter direct deposit information manually for any user besides themselves.
      
      
      
      
6. Continuing with Plaid, it will then list the accounts associated with the login information you entered. Select the account you would like to be your primary direct deposit account and choose Continue.
   1. Some banks will use substitute account numbers to "mask" your true account numbers. See the Substitute Account Numbers With Plaid section for more details.
      
      
      
      
7. You will know you're all set once you see this Success message. Select Continue to save your work.
   
   

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Add a Second Direct Deposit Account

Note: Toast Payroll does not allow more than two direct deposit bank accounts per employee.

1. If you'd like to add a second account, navigate to My Profile > Employment > Payment Method and select Add split deposit. If this button does not appear, you must first enter a primary direct deposit account.
2. Select Verify when you're asked to confirm your identity. A six-digit code will then be texted to your phone number on-file with your Toast account. Enter this six-digit code into the pop-up in Toast Payroll. Note: Toast representatives will never ask you for this code, so do not provide this code to anyone.
   1. If you do not see the pop-up, you may need to disable your ad blocker and retry this action. You can re-enable it once you're done with these instructions.
3. Enter your phone number into the Plaid pop-up and select Continue. If you do not see a Plaid pop-up, disable your ad blocker and retry.
4. Plaid will text you a six-digit code. Enter the code into the Plaid pop-up to continue.
5. You will now see a list of all banks you have connected to with Plaid. You can select a bank from this list if your new account is part of that institution or you can select + Add new account.
   
   
   
   
6. Enter your banking login information (if necessary) and select the account you'd like to use for your direct deposit account.
7. With two bank accounts added, the Split deposit settings button will become available. Select this to adjust each account's portion of your deposits.
8. First, select the %/$ toggle at the top to pick how you want to split your deposits.
9. Then enter an amount or percentages.
   1. If you choose %, both fields must add up to 100%.
   2. If you choose $, enter the amount you want deposited into the first account and the rest will be deposited into the second account. If the accounts should be switched, click and hold on the six dots to the left of the account and drag it above or below the other account.
10. Select Save to finalize your work.
    
     

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Substitute Account Numbers With Plaid

To help protect its members from fraud, some financial institutions (including, but not limited to Chase Bank, US Bank, and PNC Bank) use substitute account numbers when providing your bank account information to some authorized third parties, such as Plaid. These substitute account numbers only work with a single designated third party.

When linking with Plaid, these banks will return tokenized/encrypted routing and account numbers (also known as tokenized account numbers or TANs) which can be uses for ACH transactions, but are not your actual account and routing numbers. The mask in Plaid, however, will continue to be based on the actual account number. In other words, it is expected that your routing and/or account numbers on the Payment Method page may not match what you have on record.

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Troubleshoot Plaid 

• When you are entering your online bank account credentials, you are allowed three tries before Plaid and your banking institution lock you out. If you are locked out, you will see a Too many attempts error screen. You'll need to contact your financial institution and work with them to unlock your account. You might not need to reset your online username and/or password; this is dependent on the policies set forth by your institution. If you cannot unlock your account, ask an HR+ user to enter your direct deposit account information manually.

 

• Users may also see the No available accounts error screen. This commonly appears in two scenarios: Plaid was unable to retrieve open or connected accounts upon a successful login OR a user has closed their account connected to the credentials they entered. In either case, this will be the screen the user sees:

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1. Note: Adding a direct deposit account manually in Toast Payroll (without using Plaid) is available to HR+ users adding or updating another user's account information only.
2. Navigate to the applicable employee's profile and select Payment Method.
3. Select the Direct deposit option if necessary. Then select + Add bank account.
4. At this point, you have two options. You can email the user with a note to add their direct deposit account, but you're probably here to manually enter their info, so select I'll fill in their banking information myself and then select Continue.
   1. Sending an employee a nudge email to add their direct deposit account only works for employees who have a Toast account (different than a profile). Check if an employee has an account by opening Toast Web, navigating to Employees > Employee management > Employees, locating their name and ensuring there's a checkmark in the Account Created column.
      
       
      
      
5. Select Verify when you're asked to confirm your identity. A six-digit code will then be texted to your phone number on-file with your Toast account. Enter this six-digit code into the pop-up in Toast Payroll. Note: Toast representatives will never ask you for this code, so do not provide this code to anyone.
   1. If you do not see the pop-up, you may need to disable your ad blocker and retry this action. You can re-enable it once you're done with these instructions.
6. You can now begin adding the intended bank information. Choose Checking or Savings and add an account nickname (for identification purposes).
7. Then enter the routing and account numbers for the intended direct deposit account. Use the help info on the right side of the page if you need assistance locating these numbers.
8. An end date is optional. If one is entered, direct deposits will only take place up to this end date. Select Save.

Remove a Direct Deposit Account

1. From an employee's profile, select the Payment Method tab.
2. Select the Trash icon next to the designated account. Confirm your choice on the pop-up by selecting Yes, delete account.
3. Select Verify when you're asked to confirm your identity. A six-digit code will then be texted to your phone number on-file with your Toast account. Enter this six-digit code into the pop-up in Toast Payroll. Note: Toast representatives will never ask you for this code, so do not provide this code to anyone.
   1. If you do not see the pop-up, you may need to disable your ad blocker and retry this action. You can re-enable it once you're done with these instructions.

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Audit Direct Deposit Accounts

Auditing an employee's direct deposit account(s) may help to determine why an employee did not receive electronic pay. If payroll has been started before a direct deposit account was added, the system will not see the account and the employe will be paid via paper check.

1. Employees should navigate to My Profile > Employment > Payment Method. Managers and HR+ users will navigate to the employee's profile and select Payment Method right away.
2. Select History toward the bottom.
3. This page contains all the additions and changes made to this employee's direct deposit account(s). The names of the users who made changes to this page are not visible to customers, but HR+ users can contact Toast Payroll to identify who made a change.
   
    
    

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FAQ

If I don't use Toast Payroll, how can I set up or add direct deposit accounts for my employees?

The standalone version of Toast does not have options for your employees to receive wages through paychecks, direct deposit, or the Toast Pay Card. In order to pay out your employees using Toast, you will need to purchase Toast Payroll. For restaurants outside of the US, Toast Payroll is not available at this time.

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This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for advice.