Solo lawyers and those in small firms need to save time as well as money. And going to the bank to make a deposit is usually a time-consuming venture. If your firm has money coming in steadily (and if it doesn’t you have a collection problem) then you naturally want to deposit it as quickly as possible.
Is there a better alternative to traipsing down to the bank and waiting in line?
Yes, there is. Many banks offer the option of self-deposit using a scanner. The workflow is dead-simple and quite convenient. Just scan the checks and they show up as a pending transaction right away. Real Estate lawyers who do lots of closings would certainly benefit from this option. However, any lawyers who make more than one visit per week to the bank would probably find digital depositing to be a major boon.
Now, here are the caveats: Not every bank offers this system, and you typically have to use a special scanner provided to you by the bank (none that I know of allow you to use the Fujitsu ScanSnap for example). This is a relatively new service so it’s hard to say exactly how it will work at your bank. The best thing to do is ask to see if the service is available and how much extra it might cost. In Louisiana the following banks are reported to offer this service: CapitalOne, Chase, Whitney, and Gulf Coast Bank & Trust. And for those who are military veterans there is the USAA which allows online bank deposits via an iPhone application.