A larger company likely has been served with a large number of court orders, requiring it to deduct child support payments from the pay of those employees who have been unable or unwilling to make these payments on their own. Though most states still allow these payments to be made by check, an increasing number are requiring electronic payments. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services maintains a web page at the following address that itemizes the child support payment status for each state: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/newhire/employer/contacts/eftedi_statecontacts.htm
Currently, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, and Massachusetts require that electronic payments be made, though the trigger point depends on either the size of the business or the number of remittances that it makes each month. The use of electronic payments is expanding, so rather than viewing this requirement as yet another payment exception that will increase the amount of work in the payroll department, consider attempting to install it for all states (except South Carolina, which does not yet accept electronic payments). By going fully electronic, it is much easier to make automated, recurring support payments in a timely manner.
To learn more about the process of setting up recurring electronic child support payments, the National Automated Clearing House Association has posted an excellent “User Guide for Electronic Child Support Payments” online, which is located at http://ecsp.nacha.org/resources.html. The guide provides an overview of how these payments work and why they are required, as well as explaining exactly how to set up the data contents of the Payment Order/Remittance Advice Transaction Set (820) for an electronic data interchange payment.