What is ACH payment?
 What is Holding Reserve?
 What is Risk Reserve?
 What or Who is the ODFI?
 What or Who is the RDFI?
 What is a Return?
 The Flow of Funds
 How does ACH payment work within the Netbilling Gateway?
 How to Apply for ACH payment
 How does the ACH payment application approval process work?
 How long does the ACH payment application process take?
 What are my ACH payment processing limits and who sets them?
 Testing Check Processing
 How to Process a Check through the Virtual Terminal
 Messages for ACH payment transactions
 How can I check whether an ACH transaction has gone through?
 How to Read Your ACH Reserves Report
 How long does it take for an ACH transaction to process and settle?
 How often do ACH transactions settle?
 What is the holding period for ACH batch settlement funds?
 Does the principal name on my service application have to match the principle name on my account?
 Can an ACH credit or refund be processed?
 Do I have to receive an authorization from the customer to debit their bank account?
 How do I find a listing of returned transactions?
 Are Recurring Billing and Membership options available for ACH transactions?
 How do I request ACH processing limits increase?
 How is my billing statement descriptor established?
 How do I cancel my ACH payment service?


A Return is an ACH transaction that cannot be completely processed. There are three types of returns:

• Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) - occurs when the customer's bank account does not have sufficient funds to cover a particular transaction.
• Chargebacks - occurs when the customer claims he or she did not authorize the ACH transaction or had revoked his or her authorization (this may also happen when the 'customer' and the actual account holder are not the same person, i.e., identity theft); or if the transaction was for a different dollar amount than was originally authorized; or if the transaction was settled prior to the date of the customer's authorization. The National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) grants a sixty (60) calendar day window during which a customer may challenge and return a charge item.
• Administrative Returns or Returned Items - includes all other reasons for a return: account closed, account number invalid, non-transaction account, account frozen, etc.

The following represents a partial list of typical message definitions as may apply to ACH transactions.

• ACH/ISSUED : The transaction has gone through Fraud Defense for Checks and is waiting to be submitted to the bank in the daily settlement.
• ACH/PENDING : The transaction has been submitted to the bank and is waiting to be processed after a series of checks.
• ACH/OK : The transaction has gone through the appropriate channels and has settled.
• ACH/FAIL : The transaction has failed through the bank.
• ACH/RETURN : The transaction has been returned from the bank for any number of reasons including: cannot locate the account, non-sufficient funds, invalid account number, etc.
• ?/DECLINED : The transaction has been declined through Fraud Defense. You can view the specific authorization messages by viewing the Help Files, Authorization Messages.
• ?/QUOTA EXCEEDED : The transaction was declined for exceeding some form of traffic limits. Also refer to the Help Files, Authorization Messages for further information.

How can I check whether an ACH transaction has gone through?

To search for a specific transaction click on Browse/Find > Find > Transactions and do a search for ACH Transactions. All ACH transactions will appear in a list. Alternately, a search can be made by Customer Name, Email Address, Account Number, etc.

Do I have to receive an authorization from the customer to debit their bank account?

Yes, you must have proper authorization from your customer prior to initiating an ACH transaction. Customer authorization is required by NACHA, as well as Federal Regulation
How long will it take to get the funds?
- Standard funding time is 4 days. ACH Processing is very different from credit cards in this respect. The ACH transaction proceeds as if the customer has the funds in their bank account but the customer bank has to "report" to us the money was actually in the account and that is has officially been transferred. This can take 3 days.

How to Send Money Online With an ACH Transfer
What is a ACH account transfer?
What is the difference between EFT and ACH money transfers??
What is a bank ach transfer?
What does the ACH stand for in money transfers?
What does ACH TRANSFER mean?
Why does it take so long for ACH transfers??

Why does it take so long for ACH transfers?

Presumably the transactions are all electronic and should be instant, so why does it take 3-5 days for a bank to bank ACH transfer to go through? Do the banks purposely delay it to avoid paying interest for those 3-5 days?

 

It should only take 2 business days. For instance, if a payroll company runs your payroll - 1 day to go from payroll to the feds and 1 day to go from the feds to the receiving bank