Q. What is an unbalanced ACH file?
An unbalanced file is created when a financial institution allows its customer to create ACH files that do not have an offsetting entry that automatically credits/debits the customer’s offset account for the debit and/or credit transactions on the file.
It could be all credits, all debits or a mixture of debits and credits that probably do not balance. The financial institution makes manual entries to credit/debit the customer’s account for the activity.
If your FI has required that you prefund ACH Activity, you will be required to submit unbalanced batches via Initiate Batch and Send ACH File.
Q. What is the difference between a balanced and an unbalanced ACH file?
Balanced files contain an offsetting entry that automatically credits/debits the customer’s offset account for the debit and/or credit transactions on the file.
financial institutions who allow unbalanced files may not get offsetting transactions in their ACH files, and may have to makes manual entries to credit/debit the customer’s account for the activity.
Most financial institutions require balanced files since the files are self-posting, manual entry mistakes are eliminated and, if the file is in balance, no transactions are missing
If the Allow Unbalanced Files option is selected in Customer Maintenance, when the user creates a template The template contains the essential characteristics of the ACH batch, such as the name of the template, the type (class code) of ACH transmission (CCD The ACH payment format used for concentration of funds between or within companies. A single 94-character record contains the standard entry class indicating the type of transaction, routing and transit numbers of the ODFI and RDFI and the originator and receiver account numbers. CCD is the only corporate ACH format that does not have space for additional addenda information, but it does contain space for a reference number. or PPD Prearranged Payment or Deposit, the ACH payment format by which consumers may authorize credits or debits to their accounts by a company or financial institution. These are normally recurring payments in fixed amounts.), and the offset account. Although AXIS Cash Management only lists CCD & PPD, the application will create the appropriate CCD+/PPD+ ACH Batch if a participant The participant is the individual or organization that will be affected by the ACH transaction (payee or draftee). An ACH transaction may debit or credit a participant's account, e.g., a payroll deposit or a payment for services rendered. The participant information is referenced by the ACH transaction. with an addendum is associated with this batch. they will have the option to bypass selecting an account. If one is not selected, the Batch An ACH batch consists of a template (see below) and a collection of transactions having the same purpose and effective date to be performed, and may also include addenda information. will be listed without an offset throughout the Business Banking/ACH module. If this option is NOT selected, the user MUST select an account from the list when creating a Batch Template The template contains the essential characteristics of the ACH batch, such as the name of the template, the type (class code) of ACH transmission (CCD or PPD), and the offset account. Although AXIS Cash Management only lists CCD & PPD, the application will create the appropriate CCD+/PPD+ ACH Batch if a participant with an addendum is associated with this batch..
Note: It is not the relationship of credit and debit transactions that has anything to do with a balanced file. If there are one or more credit transactions in the file, an offset debit is created to charge the customer’s offset account for them. If there are one or more debit transactions in the file, an offset credit is created to credit the customer’s offset account for them.
In a balanced file the offset is not a single net entry. If there are debits, there is a credit offset. If there are credits, there is a debit offset. They are mutually exclusive.
Q. What is the difference between Send a file and Importing a file?
Importing and Send ACH File both involve customers who use financial software to create batch information. When a customer Uploads an ACH file, they are actually “giving” Business Banking a file in NACHA format that the financial institution can then download and process. If a customer Imports a file, they are simply importing the participant information from their PC. Business Banking will actually create the NACHA formatted file when/if transactions are initiated and they will be based on the Imported information
Q. Does the financial institution have to approve all batches?
If the financial institution has Online Processing, all wire and ACH batches must be approved in order to be processed. If the financial institution has batch processing, the financial institution only needs to approve the batch if they are downloading the files and processing them themselves. Note: Uploaded batches are automatically considered “Approved.”
Q. What if the end user an employee of the customer that is given access to application by the company administrator the customer, or a person assigned by the customer, who will have administration responsibilities in the Commercial Customer Platform of the application. or a user administrator. doesn’t see any accounts in the “Offset Account” Field?
If the financial institution is allowing unbalanced files, this would cause the absence of the offset account in the Offset Account field. If the financial institution requires balanced files and accounts still are not listed in the "Offset Account" field, the financial institution should try selecting Refresh Account in Maintenance>>Customer Maintenance. This will request a new listing of accounts available from the host. If the accounts are still not visible, contact Digital Insight Customer Service.
Q. Does the ACH function check funds availability?
No, it does not check for funds availability.
Q. Do ACH and Wire debits memo post to the account at the time of initiation?
Business Banking does not memo post the offsetting transactions upon initiation. The accounts do not reflect the transactions until they have been posted to the account by the host. Unlike ACH, Wires offsetting transactions need to be manually posted by the financial institution. Business Banking does not automatically create the offsetting transaction.
When processing files on the financial institution Admin Platform, why is there a status field that shows "Approved". Obviously the file was approved by the customer to able get to the Administrative Platform.
Wires, ACH, and Tax Payment files can have five statuses: "Pending", "Denied", "Deleted", "Approved", and "Downloaded". To remain consistent throughout the application the status is always displayed.
Q. How long will files and transactions appear in “Show Backup”?
The Show Backup area of File Processing for ACH, Wires, Tax Payments and Uploaded ACH files will show the last 10 days worth of transactions.
Q. Does a file display in the Customer Platform indefinitely until it is approved or denied by the financial institution?
Unprocessed batches remain in the system indefinitely. Processed batches roll off after 10 days.
Q. How do effective dates for ACH credit and debits work?
Business Banking does not allow same day effective dates because you cannot create a same day ACH. According to NACHA rules, debits can be effective one day and credits two days in the future.
Q. How many days does it take for an ACH to post?
This is dependent on how the financial institution processes their ACH transactions. If a financial institution wants to exceed the NACHA limits on effective dates (one day for debits, two days for credits) they would need to have a system that could warehouse those items on their behalf. This is accomplished either through their DATA PROCESSING VENDOR or a third party software package.
Q. Can a batch contain files with different effective dates?
Yes.
Q. How does the ACH import function affect participants and batch templates?
Import ACH files allows companies to create participant data based on any already existing NACHA formatted file. It prevents them from having to re-key information if they already have a file from either their previous Business Banking system or any existing accounts payable/payroll system.
Q. When a customer submits ACHs, Wires, and EFTPSs, does the financial institution have to debit the account themselves or does our software send this directly to the Data Processing Vendor?
As long as the financial institution requires balanced files, then for ACH/EFTPS Electronic Federal Tax Payment System is a government program to pay federal tax obligations electronically. the application creates offsetting transactions. Wire transfers currently do not have the option of creating offset transactions unless the financial institution has a product called MTS which is middleware between Business Banking/their DATA PROCESSING VENDOR and FedLine.
Q. Why are PPD and CCD options in the dropdown menu in Batch template Maintenance but not PPD+ and CCD+? Does Business Banking support these class codes?
Yes. The “plus” in PPD and CCD refers to the addenda record and when the user enters information in the Addenda field, the class code will become CCD+ or PPD+.
Q. Does Business Banking support the CTX class code?
No. CTX is a class code that accommodates 9999 lines of addenda and is used by large corporate customers. The Business Banking system does not support it at this time.
Q. Where does the batch ID come from?
The batch ID is generated by Business Banking.
Q. Does the ACH reversal function automatically reverse an ACH?
No, it merely sends an e-mail to the financial institution and the financial institution must perform the reversal.
Q. Where does the financial institution establish cutoff times for ACH and Wire Transfers?
The financial institution sets the time under the ACH and Wire transfer sections of Policies. Remember that these times are currently set to Pacific Standard Time so financial institutions in time zones other than PST must enter the cutoffs accordingly.
If you are required to prefund your ACH activity, your cutoff time may be earlier than the standard ACH cutoff time. If you are unsure, please contact your FI Administrator.