Using business check to pay at retail
You can just buy the items personally and then submit an expense report to the company to get reimbursed. Keep all the receipts. Paying with a company check is also fine, but you might run into problems with stores not accepting checks.
For an individual its not automatic. One needs to ask the Bank, return the check.   For Corporate Customer depending on how big the relationship is, many a times this is given as a service and there is an automatic return "To put a positive spin on the whole thing, maybe it's a small family shop, and having the check made out to ""cash"" means that your barber can hand it to someone else without the need to countersign. Or maybe his last name is ""Cash"" - there was a pretty famous singer who fit that description. Either way, it's not your place to nanny his finances." They sure can. They are two different legal entities, so why not? You can even write a check to yourself, and then deposit it back into your own account. (Not very useful, but you can). The tax implications are a very different question, as this might constitute taking money out of the company. Edit: In some countries, when the business hires someone to work for them, it is forbidden by law to do that, unless he/she is explicitly allowed to do it in his contract. The business owner himself however, can always 'allow' himself to do that. According to the TN DOL FAQ, the employer can choose how to pay wages.  Other options include checks and cash. However, it is the employer's choice, not the employees, on how to pay the wages. In case of direct deposit, the employee can choose the bank at which to receive the money. Why would opening an account be unpractical is beyond me. You can also use services like AMEX Serve, NetSpend, or even Walmart's MoneyCard. Generally it goes by when they receive the check, not when they cash the check. Though if the check was received prior to midnight on December 31st, but after the bank closes, they would probably let the tax payer decide to count it for the next year. Of course if the check is from person A to person B then the only issue is gift tax, or annual limit calculations.  If it is company to person then income tax could be involved.  The IRS calls this Constructive receipt Income   Under the cash method, include in your gross income all items of   income you actually or constructively receive during your tax year. If   you receive property or services, you must include their fair market   value in income. Example.   On December 30, 2011, Mrs. Sycamore sent you a check for interior   decorating services you provided to her. You received the check on   January 2, 2012. You must include the amount of the check in income   for 2012.  Constructive receipt.   You have constructive receipt of   income when an amount is credited to your account or made available to   you without restriction. You do not need to have possession of it. If   you authorize someone to be your agent and receive income for you, you   are treated as having received it when your agent received it. Example.    Interest is credited to your bank account in December 2012. You do not   withdraw it or enter it into your passbook until 2013. You must   include it in your gross income for 2012.  Delaying receipt of income.    You cannot hold checks or postpone taking possession of similar   property from one tax year to another to avoid paying tax on the   income. You must report the income in the year the property is   received or made available to you without restriction. Example.   Frances Jones, a service contractor, was entitled to receive a $10,000   payment on a contract in December 2012. She was told in December that   her payment was available. At her request, she was not paid until   January 2013. She must include this payment in her 2012 income because   it was constructively received in 2012.  Checks.   Receipt of a valid   check by the end of the tax year is constructive receipt of income in   that year, even if you cannot cash or deposit the check until the   following year. Example. Dr. Redd received a check for $500 on December 31, 2012, from a   patient. She could not deposit the check in her business account until   January 2, 2013. She must include this fee in her income for 2012. In general it is best not to cut it close. If the check is to be counted as an January event it is best to send it in January. If it is to be December event it is best to send it early enough to be able to say with confidence that the check arrived at the destination before the end of the year. "I know this an old thread, but one that caught my interest as I just moved to the USA from Australia. As per the OP I had never written a check in my whole life, and upon arriving in the US I was surprised as to their proliference. In Australia pretty much all bills you receive can be paid in a number of ways:  For small amounts between friends cash is probably used most, but for larger amounts direct transfer is popular. Your friend/landlord will give you their bank account number and BSB number, which identifies their bank, and then you transfer the money in. We don't have a SSN like some other countries. Cheques are still used by some however, esp by the older generations. Now that I'm in the US initially I had tried to set up direct transfer to pay my rent however the bank has a $1000 daily transfer limit. I contacted the bank to get this increased however I was informed that this limit applies to ALL accounts at the bank. I asked how do people pay their rents with this low limit and was told that most people used cheques. (This explains the strange look I got from my landlord when I asked for their bank account details so I could pay the rent!) I now have some bills to pay here and I use online banking. You enter the biller's name and address and then the bank actually prints off a cheque and posts it to the biller on your behalf! My first couple of pays here were also cheques, which were the first actual ""paychecks"" I had ever received." "There are benefits associated with a cash only business (the link states a few). However checks made out to ""cash"" don't reap those benefits listed. For anyone on SE to say your barber hides revenue from the IRS would just be speculation.  With that said there are a great number of disadvantages for a cash only business. And from my experience, a business that goes out of their way to take cash only can be a little suspicious. Luckily you are not committing any crimes or fraud by paying her cash." "If you wish to lend them the money, make the check payable to the order of  ""loan"", not directly to your son or daughter." "If you sign the check ""For Deposit Only"", the bank will put it in your account. You may need to set up a ""payable name"" on the account matching your DBA alias. However, having counted offerings for a church on several occasions, I know that banks simply have no choice but to be lax about the ""Pay to the Order Of"" line on checks. Say the church's ""legal name"" for which the operating funds account was opened is ""Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church of Red Bluff"". You'll get offering checks made out to ""Saint Barnabas"", ""Saint B's"", ""Episcopal Church of Red Bluff"", ""Red Bluff Episcopal"", ""Youth Group Fund"", ""Pastor Frank"", etc. The bank will take em all; just gotta stamp em with the endorsement for the church. Sometimes the money will be ""earmarked"" based on the payable line; any attempt to pay the pastor directly will go into his ""discretionary fund"", and anything payable to a specific subgroup of the church will go into their asset account line, but really all the cash goes directly to the same bank account anyway. For-profit operations are similar; an apartment complex may get checks payable to the apartment name, the management company name, even the landlord. I expect that your freelance work will be no different." "It's a scam. The cashier's check will be forged. Craigslist has a warning about it here (item #3). What kind of payment do you think is not fakable? Or at least not   likely to be used in scams? When on craigslist - deal only locally and in person. You can ask to see the person's ID if you're being paid by check When being paid by check, how can seeing his/her ID help? In case the   check isn't cashable, I can find that person by keeping record of   his/her ID?  If you're paid by check, the payers details should be printed on the check. By checking the ID you can verify that the details match (name/address), so you can find the payer later. Of course the ID can be faked too, but there's so much you can do to protect yourself. You'll get better protection (including verified escrow service) by selling on eBay. Is being paid by cash the safest way currently,   although cash can be faked too, but it is the least common thing that   is faked currently? Do you recommend to first deposit the cash into a   bank (so that let the bank verify if the cash is faked), before   delivering the good?  For Craigslist, use cash and meet locally. That rules out most scams as a seller. What payment methods do you think are relatively safe currently?   Then getting checks must be the least favorite way of being paid. Do   you think cash is better than money order or cashier order?  You should only accept cash. If it is a large transaction, you can meet them at your bank, have them get cash, and you receive the cash from the bank. Back to the quoted scam, how will they later manipulate me? Are they interested in   my stuffs on moving sale, or in my money? They will probably ""accidentally"" overpay you and ask for a refund of some portion of the overpayment. In that case you will be out the entire amount that you send back to them and possibly some fees from your bank for cashing a bad check." "I really have to use the business card for personal expenses, please assume that in your answer. This is very hard to believe. You must do that? Why not just have the company pay you $1600 each month? Then you can use that money for whatever you want. Why can't you do this? (I cannot think of a legitimate reason...) How to integrate the personal expenses in company? Anyway, to answer your question, what I've done when I accidentally used my corporate card for a personal expense is to code the expense as a payment to me similar to if a check had been written to me. If you aren't ever paying yourself, then you should just pay the company back the $1600 every month. As a side note, I highly recommend you don't do this. By doing this on a regular basis you are opening the door for piercing the corporate veil. This means that the financial protections provided by the LLC could potentially be stripped away since personal and corporate funds are being mixed. The unfortunate end result is that personal assets could end up being fair game too in a judgement against the company. Even if you aren't an owner, your relative could be considered to be ""using business money for personal expenses"", namely, letting a relative spend business funds for personal use. How to show more expenses and lessen the profit? If you're referring to the personal expenses, then you absolutely do not want to do this! That's illegal and worthy of stiff penalties, which possibly include jail time for tax evasion. Better to just have the company pay you and then the entire payment is deductible and reduces the profit of the company." "What they are doing is wrong. The IRS and the state might not be happy with what they are doing.  One thing you can ask for them to do is to give you a credit card for business and travel expenses. You will still have to submit receipts for expenses, but it will also make it clear to the IRS that these checks are not income. Keep the pay stubs for the year, or the pdf files if they don't give you a physical stub. Pay attention to the YTD numbers on each stub to make sure they aren't sneaking in the expenses as income. If they continue to do this, ask about ownership of the items purchased, since you will be paying the tax shouldn't you own it?  You can in the future tell them ""I was going to buy X like the customer wanted, but I just bought a new washer at home and their wasn't enough room on the credit card. Maybe next month""" There is no bank that I know of offering such a feature and I'm not sure what the point of it would be (other than to annoy their customers). If you've been subjected to a fraudulent check your best bet is to either choose to write checks only to trusted parties and/or use your banks BillPay service (they usually issue checks on another account while transferring the money from your account). The drawbacks of your current plan, bounced legitimate checks and high maintenance nature, outweigh the potential benefits of catching a fraudulent check since you're not legally obligated to pay checks you haven't written. "Technically it doesn't matter what size the check is. In fact, it doesn't even have to be written on paper. While writing it on a cow may not always fly, almost any object actually will. That said, more to the question asked - you can definitely use the smaller ""personal""-sized checks for a business account. The larger checks formatted to the ""letter"" page size: if you cut it into three equal pieces with a tiny bit left for the binder holes - you'll get exactly three check-sized pieces. This is convenient for those printing checks, keeping carbon-copy records etc. Regarding the MICR line: I just checked my business check book, which is of a smaller ""personal"" size (that I got for free from the bank) - the check number is at the end." "If you want to deposit checks or conduct business at a window, you should look at a local savings bank or credit union. Generally, you can find one that will offer ""free"" checking in exchange for direct deposit or a minimum balance. Some are totally free, but those banks pay zippo for interest. If you don't care about location, I would look at Charles Schwab Bank. I've been using them for a couple of years and have been really satisfied with them. They provide free checking, ATM fee reimbursement, free checks and pre-paid deposit envelopes. You also can easily move money between Schwab brokerage or savings accounts. Other brokers offer similar services as well."