Forty-six percent of paper checks written in the U.S., not including government checks, involve a small business, according to a new research brief.

NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association and FIS, a leading provider of banking and payments technologies, said 24% of check transactions are small business B2B payments and 10% are consumer to small business payments.

The research also showed that 12% are for small business payroll, which represents 2.7 billion paper checks per year.

Currently, two-thirds of small businesses do not offer direct deposit via ACH to their employees, according to the research brief. Forty-six percent of small businesses said they felt they had too few employees to justify offering the services while 28% indicated their employees preferred checks or cash.

Another 26% said their business had never been approached by anyone about using direct deposit and 21% believed direct deposit is too expensive.

The research brief, “Still Paying With Paper: Small Businesses Continue to Write and Receive Checks,” is based on the findings of a survey jointly conducted by FIS and NACHA in November 2010 to understand payment behavior among small businesses in the U.S.

Respondents included 2,249 small businesses owners, chief executive officers or presidents, chief financial officers, controllers or treasurers, office managers, accountants, or bookkeepers.