ACH Payments
Q&A related to making ACH Payments - Domestic and International (IAT).
Payments are processed Monday – Friday, excluding bank holidays. The processing cut-off times for ACH payments are listed below.
Payment Type | Cutoff Time - ET |
|---|---|
Domestic ACH – Same Day | 2:45 PM |
Domestic ACH – Next Day | 9:00 PM |
International ACH – Same Day | 9:00 AM |
International ACH – Next Day | 11:00 PM |
The current date will be considered the Effective/Value date for a payment received by the bank on a banking day prior to the payment cutoff time. Please see the table below for more information.
Payment Type | Debit Date (Settlement Date) | Credit Date (Receiving Date) | If payment is received after the cutoff… |
|---|---|---|---|
Domestic ACH | Same day - Your account will be debited when Citizens receives the payment. |
NOTE: If you are not set up for same day payments, your payments will be created as next-day payments regardless of same-day cutoff. | Payments received by the bank after the same day cutoff (2:45 PM ET) or on a non-business day will be created with an effective date of the next business day. |
International ACH (IAT) | Same day – your account will be debited when Citizens receives the payment. | Most beneficiaries will be credited same day or next- day, but some beneficiaries will receive the credit in 2+ days. | Payments received by the bank after the same day cutoff (9 AM ET) or on a non-business day will be created with an effective date of the next business day. Some receiving banks will be +2 days. |
You are able to select “ACH” or “Intl. ACH” as the Payment Method regardless of the Source Account when you are paying a bill. After you confirm the payment, a message will display on screen stating the payment was successfully received and is being processed.
The payment will reject and display on the Failed Bills (NetSuite, Intacct, Business Central) or Payment History (Xero, QuickBooks) page. The payment will reopen on the Open Bills page.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We recommend you check the Failed Bills page daily to determine if any payments were rejected and manage the reopened invoices accordingly. (Contact your Treasury Relationship Manager to add a payment type(s) to an account.)
Please see below for the processing steps of ACH payments.
ACH Payment Processing State | ERPConnect Payment Status | accessOPTIMA® Payment Status / Timing |
|---|---|---|
Payment is submitted | Status: Sent for processing Timing: Within a minute of submitting the payment | Status: Released Timing: At scheduled ACH extraction time after approval |
Citizens receives the payment instructions | Status: Processing by provider Timing: Usually within 1 hour | N/A |
A validation error with the payment is discovered | Status: Validation issue Timing: If caught by ERPConnect, it will be almost immediate. If it's at the bank side, it could take a bit longer but generally within 30 minutes after Processing by provider status. | Status: N/A Timing: General payment validation performed by the system prior to approval. If the payment is rejected by the bank after release (e.g., funding fails), the status will not change in the system. |
No reject received from ACH Clearing House | Status: Succeeded Timing: 3 days after payment submitted | N/A |
Rejection is received from ACH Clearing House | Status: Failed Timing: Typically within 3 days after payment submitted | N/A |