ACH Reject handling is an important consideration for any SAAS or billing solution provider.
Unlike credit cards when an ACH payment is processed there is no authorization meaning there is no way of knowing with certainty the customer being debited has enough money in their account to cover the debit. There are many other reasons for ACH rejects but the most common are NSF | Closed Account | Invalid Account #. For a list of return codes ACH Return Codes. You can also find more information on returns at NACHA.org
The ACH reject information is typically not available for 24-48 hours depending on the customers bank. In rare cases you may see a late 72 hour notice.
This presents a challenge for the SAAS provider integrating an ACH solution as most integration partners also provide some kind of accounting/reconciliation report. There are
two options for handling the returns. Which one is used typically depends on the end business users needs.
1-Record the ACH payment as “good” as soon as the transaction is sent to the payment gateway. In this case ACH returns are reported to the end user typically via email notification or Virtual Terminal reporting.
2-Integrate ACH reject reporting into the SAAS: This requires more front development time but the end user is made aware of returns in their application. For larger businesses this is typically a must. This feature can also provide a competitive advantage to your SAAS application.
There are payment gateway | processors that also provide automated resubmission of NSF items that can be optimally timed.
Agile Payments is one of these partners–Contact us for more information.