Setup of U.S. ACH Payment Processing

ACH payments are electronic payments made through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network in the United States. In MYOB Acumatica, you can automate payments to vendors by making ACH payments. To do this, you export a batch of payments to a file that is then processed in the ACH system. For each vendor, the specified amount is automatically credited from one of your company's bank accounts and transferred to the payment recipient electronically.

The National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) has developed the rules and standards about ACH transactions, including the following:

• To set up ACH payments, you need an agreement and an account with the ACH operator—that is, the financial institution providing ACH services.
• You need agreements with your vendors covering ACH transaction authorization, and information about their accounts in the ACH network. Accounts are identified by the financial institution's routing number and the account number within that institution.

By using ACH payments, you reduce errors, while eliminating the hassles of check preparation, printing, and emailing. Because you can pay promptly, you also can usually get available cash discounts.

Setup of Payment Processing by Using Export Scenarios

To start paying your vendors through the ACH network, you should perform the following steps:

1. You sign up for the ACH service with the ACH operator. As part of the sign-up process, you receive the credentials with which your company is registered in the ACH network, such as account number, bank routing number, and company identification.
2. You set up agreements with your vendors covering ACH transaction authorization, and you get information about their accounts in the ACH network.
3. You set up the payment method to be used for ACH payments. The payment method includes elements that need to be filled with the vendor's custom information, file export details, and details that need to be filled in with your ACH credentials. For details, see To Add a Payment Method for ACH Payments (Export Scenarios).
4. You specify remittance information (ACH credentials) for each cash account you are going to use as a source for paying your vendors. For details, see To Add Remittance Information to a Cash Account.
5. You assign the payment method intended for ACH payments to each vendor that will accept ACH payments. By using the ACH-related information you collected from each vendor in Step 2, fill in the settings of the payment method on the Payment tab of the Vendors (AP303000) form.

Implementation Details of Export Scenarios

The ACH system supports the processing of balanced and unbalanced files. A balanced file contains an offsetting entry that automatically credits or debits the specified offset account for the debit or credit transactions in the file. An unbalanced file contains only the transactions you specify and does not include an offsetting entry.

MYOB Acumatica provides functionality that you can use to export payments to get an unbalanced file or a balanced file. The export scenarios Export AP Payments to ACH v2 and Export AP Payments to ACH Balanced v2 (for unbalanced and balanced files, respectively) are provided with MYOB Acumatica and are available on the Export Scenarios (SM207025) form. These scenarios were developed for the Corporate Credit or Debit (CCD) application of the ACH system, and they fully comply with the file format specifications for ACH. These scenarios create files that are then processed in the ACH system.

Also, you can modify the scenario if another ACH application will be used or if your financial institution uses another format for electronic funds transfer.

The export scenario is configured to use exact identifiers of payment method details as those defined for payment method details in the ACH and ACHBA demo payment methods. If you add details to your payment method manually, either copy identifiers from the demo payment method or adjust the scenario accordingly. For details, see To Add a Payment Method for ACH Payments (Export Scenarios).

Implementation Details of the U.S. ACH Plug-In

In MYOB Acumatica, instead of using the predefined export scenarios, you can use the flexible U.S. ACH plug-in, which can be adjusted to meet customers' and banks' requirements.

The plug-in is more user-friendly and easier to configure than the predefined export scenarios are. The plug-in provides the flexibility to adjust ACH export settings according to known variations in customers' and banks' requirements for exported US ACH files. This flexibility includes the following capabilities:

• An offset record can be added to an ACH file.
• Addenda records can be added to an ACH file, and rules can be configured to generate the addenda description.
• The mapping of ACH fields can be changed. For example, the Company Identification remittance detail can be configured to be exported to the Immediate Origin field of the ACH file.
• The format of the File ID Modifier field of the ACH file can be adjusted (that is, it can be set to either 0-9, A-Z or A-Z, 0-9).
• The value in the Service Class Code field of the ACH file can be set to 200 (mixed debits and credits) or 220 (credits only). Also, the value in the Standard Entry Class Code field can be set to CCD (Corporate Credit or Debit) or PPD (Prearranged Payment or Deposit).
• The type of a vendor's account (savings or checking) can be specified. The system considers this type when it generates the transaction code for records of type 6 in the ACH file.

The use of the ACH plug-in provides enhanced validations, including control of the ACH export settings and verification of data validity.

Setup of Payment Processing by Using the U.S. ACH Plug-In

To start paying your vendors by using the U.S. ACH plug-in, you should perform the following steps:

1. You sign up for the ACH service with the ACH operator. As part of the sign-up process, you receive the credentials with which your company is registered in the ACH network, such as the account number, bank routing number, and company identification.
2. You set up agreements with your vendors covering ACH transaction authorization, and you get information about their accounts in the ACH network.
3. You set up the payment method to be used for ACH payments. For details, see To Add a Payment Method for the U.S. ACH Plug-In.
4. You specify remittance information (ACH credentials) for each cash account that you are going to use as a source for paying your vendors. For details, see To Add Remittance Information to a Cash Account.
5. You assign the payment method intended for ACH payments to each vendor that will accept ACH payments. By using the ACH-related information that you collected from each vendor in Step 2, you fill in the settings of the payment method on the Payment tab of the Vendors (AP303000) form. For details, see To Add a Payment Method for the U.S. ACH Plug-In.