How to sign a direct deposit form on iPhone
A direct deposit form tells payroll which account to pay you into — signed once when you start, and again whenever you change banks.
You don’t need a printer, a scanner or an account for this. Below are both ways to do it on the phone in your hand — the free one built into iOS first, then Signed if you sign paperwork often enough that saving a signature and initials is worth it.
Option A · free · already on your iPhone
Sign a direct deposit form with Apple’s built-in Markup
Markup ships with iOS. If this is a one-off, stop reading after this section — it does the job at no cost.
- Open the file on your iPhone. Start from wherever the file already is — usually a one-page PDF from HR or payroll, sometimes needing a bank letter attached. Tap it in Mail, Files or Photos so it opens in the full-screen preview.
- Tap the Markup button. In that preview, tap the Markup icon — the pen tip inside a circle, top right. A drawing toolbar slides up from the bottom of the screen.
- Create your signature once. Tap the + at the bottom right, choose Signature, then Add or Remove Signature. Sign with your fingertip in the box, tap Done, and it drops onto the page.
- Drag it onto the signature line. Move the signature over the signature line and pull the blue handles until it sits on the line rather than through the text underneath it.
- Add the rest of the fields as text boxes. Tap + → Text once for each remaining field on a direct deposit form: account and routing numbers, account type and bank name, a split-deposit percentage, if offered, signature and date. Every box has to be typed, dragged and resized by hand.
- Save it and send it straight back. Tap Done, then use the share button to send the marked-up copy back by email or message from the same screen.
Where Markup gets slow. It holds one signature and no initials, so a document wanting initials on every page means drawing them again each time. Text boxes don’t snap to the form’s lines, there is no date shortcut, and nothing you place is flattened into the page — which is why a form with 4 fields to complete takes longer in Markup than the signature part suggests.
Option B · with Signed
Sign a direct deposit form with Signed
Same document, fewer taps — because the signature, the initials and the date are already saved and the fields are placed as objects rather than dragged text boxes.
- Import the direct deposit form. Share the file into Signed from Mail, Files or Photos, or import it from inside the app. It stays on your iPhone — nothing is uploaded and there is no cloud copy.
- Place the signature you already saved. Tap the signature line and drop in the signature you made once — drawn with a fingertip, typed in a real handwriting style, or generated with AI. You never redraw it per document.
- Fill in every other field on the form. Add account and routing numbers, account type and bank name, a split-deposit percentage, if offered, signature and date with the text, date, initials and checkmark tools. Today’s date fills itself in and saved initials are a single tap per page.
- Export a flattened PDF and reply with it. Export the signed copy flattened, so the signature and every field become part of the page, then share it back to whoever asked for it.
What else you have to fill in on a direct deposit form
A signature on its own is rarely enough. On this one, expect to fill in:
- account and routing numbers
- account type and bank name
- a split-deposit percentage, if offered
- signature and date
The bit people get wrong. This form carries your account numbers, so it is the one to keep off shared drives and out of group email threads. Fill it in on your own device and send it once.
It normally reaches you as a one-page PDF from HR or payroll, sometimes needing a bank letter attached — so the whole job can happen on the phone without the file ever touching a computer.
Related reading
More work & hr paperwork
Signing it in the app it arrived in
Direct Deposit Form paperwork usually turns up as an attachment in something. These walk through getting the file out of that app, signed, and back again — most of them using Markup, which Apple ships free on every iPhone.
Sign something else on your iPhone
See all 73 document types → · looking for a different app instead? Compare the e-sign services →
Signed is a signing tool, not legal advice. Whether an electronically signed copy is accepted depends on the document, the counterparty and where you are — for anything high-stakes, check what your jurisdiction requires. Apple, Markup, iPhone and iOS are trademarks of Apple Inc.; this page describes how to use features Apple ships and is not endorsed by Apple.