ACH

The Automated Clearing House (ACH) network is an electronic funds transfer system that allows US customers to move money between bank accounts in a fast, secure and paperless way.

Start accepting ACH payments to collect funds directly from individuals or businesses in the US.

📘

To start accepting ACH, please contact your customer success manager.

Process an ACH payment

ACH payments follow a three-step process:

1. Collect customer's consent
2. Create a new ACH payment source
3. Request an ACH payment

Step 1: Collect customer's consent

Before processing an ACH payment, you need to get consent from the owner of the bank account to make ACH debits to their account. This is necessary to comply with the National Automated Clearing House Association's (NACHA) rules.

This consent should set out the terms of the authorization, clearly state that you are obtaining consent to debit your customer's bank account for a specific transaction or set of recurring transactions, and explain the method by which your customer can revoke their authorization.

We recommend that you gather the information below and store it for two years. (This list is not exhaustive.)

Step 2: Create a new ACH payment source

Once you've got the customer's consent, you can create a new ACH payment source that can be used to process one or more payments.

📘

Payment sources are linked to a specific customer and cannot be shared between customers.

The request

Use the details below to set up a new ACH payment source.

Endpoints

Live

POSThttps://api.checkout.com/sources

Sandbox

POSThttps://api.sandbox.checkout.com/sources

Header parameters

Body parameters

Request example

{
  "type": "ach",
  "billing_address": {
    "address_line1": "Wayne Plaza 1",
    "address_line2": null,
    "city": "Gotham City",
    "state": null,
    "zip": "12345",
    "country":"US"
  },
  "source_data": {
    "account_holder_name": "Bruce Wayne",
    "account_type": "Checking",
    "account_number": "0123456789",
    "routing_number": "211370545",
    "billing_descriptor": "ACH Demo",
    "company_name": null
  }
}

The response

If you receive a 201 Created response, your request was successful.

Response example

{
  "id": "src_c2gwvk66jpjenn665xuu77vawy",
  "type": "ACH",
  "response_code": "10000",
  "response_data": {},
  "customer": {
  "id": "cus_tvndgx3ig4cetadofprfh2sxla"
  }
}

Step 3: Request an ACH payment

The request

Use the details below to set up your payment request.

🚧

ACH does not support separate authorization and capture. The payment is authorized and captured at the same time.

Endpoints

Live

POSThttps://api.checkout.com/payments

Sandbox

POSThttps://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments

Header parameters

Body parameters

📘

The table below describes the minimum recommended fields. You can find the full list, as well as complete request and response examples, in our API reference.

Request example

{
  "source": {
    "type": "id",
    "id": "src_c2gwvk66jpjenn665xuu77vawy"
  },
  "amount": 154,
  "currency": "USD"
}

The response

If you receive a 202 Accepted response with a status field set to Pending, your request was successful.

Response example

{
  "id": "pay_zyhhgywqsowuvcbilkcfqyf5by",
  "status": "Pending",
  "customer": {
    "id": "cus_tvndgx3ig4cetadofprfh2sxla"
  },
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_zyhhgywqsowuvcbilkcfqyf5by"
    }
  }
}

ACH payment flow

It typically takes two to five business days to receive confirmation of whether or not an ACH payment was successful:

1. When you make your ACH payment request, we set the payment status to Pending.
2. After we receive confirmation that your request has been accepted, we update the payment status from Pending to Deferred.
3. On the next business day, the payment is processed.
4. The payment’s status then changes to Succeeded or Declined. We’ll send you a success or failure notification when this happens. Note that it can take up to four business days for the payment status to change, depending on your customer’s bank.

• If the payment was successful, we’ll transfer the funds to your account on the next business day.
• If the payment failed, the customer will not be charged.

Get details about an ACH payment

You can use the payment_id found in the payment response, or the cko-session-id from the success/failure URL (e.g., https://www.checkout.com/order/succeeded?cko-session-id=**sid_vii64oquze5u3h2x6hh4rurc4y**) to retrieve details about the payment.

The request

Use the details below to set up your request.

Endpoint

Live

GEThttps://api.checkout.com/payments/{payment_id}

Sandbox

GEThttps://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/{payment_id}

Header and path parameters

The response

Response example

{
  "id": "pay_zyhhgywqsowuvcbilkcfqyf5by",
  "requested_on": "2019-08-19T07:37:56Z",
  "source": {
    "type": "ach",
    "id": "src_c2gwvk66jpjenn665xuu77vawy"
  },
  "amount": 154,
  "currency": "USD",
  "payment_type": "Regular",
  "status": "Pending",
  "risk": {
    "flagged": false
  },
  "customer": {
    "id": "cus_tvndgx3ig4cetadofprfh2sxla"
  },
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_zyhhgywqsowuvcbilkcfqyf5by"
    }
  }
}

Refund an ACH payment

An ACH payment can be refunded using our refund API. Once refunded, the payment status updates to refunded, and you will receive a payment_refunded webhook notification.

🚧

Risk of double crediting
If you issue a refund for an ACH payment, you must immediately notify your customer of this to prevent them simultaneously canceling the payment with their bank and being credited twice for the same transaction. If your customer does get credited twice, you will need to contact them directly to resolve the situation.

ACH chargebacks

Customers can reverse an ACH payment and have it refunded up to 60 days after settlement by submitting a claim to their bank either revoking their authorization or stating that they never gave it for the transaction in question.

If your customer initiates a chargeback, we will let you know through a payment_chargeback webhook notification.

🚧

Unlike card payment disputes, you cannot defend against ACH chargebacks; the payment will always be reversed. You will need to contact your customer directly to resolve the situation.

ACH webhooks

When using ACH, you may receive any of the following webhooks. Note that other webhook types, such as payment_canceled will not be raised for ACH.

📘

Learn more about webhooks and how to subscribe to them.

Testing ACH payments

🚧

To start testing, you'll need to:

• create a test account, and
• contact your customer success manager or integrations engineer to activate ACH payments in the sandbox environment.

Use the values contained in the tables below to test various scenarios:

• outright declines
• approved payments
• refunds

Outright declines

Invalid account number

Payment was declined because of an invalid account number.

Approved payments

No chargeback nor Notification Of Change (NOC)

Payment was successfully approved (captured). No chargebacks or notifications of change were received later on.

Recon payment failure

Payment was successfully initiated, but later on was declined by account holder's bank e.g., due to insufficient funds.

Chargeback but no Notification Of Change (NOC)

After a successful payment capture, the customer has initiated a chargeback with their bank. No notifications of change were sent.

No chargeback with Notification Of Change (NOC), next payment failure

Payment was successfully initiated and captured. Later on, a notification of change was received. The next payment failed.

Refunds

Payment successfully refunded or payment refund failed.

Initiating a refund with one of amounts below will reconcile the payment either successfully or unsuccessfully depending on the amount provided. Any other amount will produce a successful reconciliation.

Can we help?

Thanks for using Checkout.com. If you need help or have a question, message our support team at [email protected].