ACH Bank Debit Setup Overview of ACH Bank Debit

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1 ACH Bank Debit Setup Overview of ACH Bank Debit Automated Clearing House (ACH) is a system of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank that that provides electronic funds transfer (EFT) between banks and participating financial institutions. to distribute electronic credit and debit entries to bank accounts and to settle such entries. It is used for all kinds of fund transfer transactions, including direct deposit of paychecks and monthly debits for routine payments to vendors. The ACH is separate and distinct from the various bank card networks that process credit card transactions. ACH operations are done in a batch mode, which can take up to 72 hours before the money is actually transmitted. A return notification is sent if there are insufficient funds in the account. NOTE: SiteLink Web Edition does NOT support walk-in ACH Payments. Requirements 1. You must establish a merchant account with an ACH Merchant Service Provider. Contact SMD Software, Inc. for a list of supported providers. 2. For reliable operation, you should also purchase a MICR check reader for reading account and routing numbers from your tenants checks. 3. You must be connected to the internet in order to process ACH transactions. Overview SiteLink provides the means for paying tenants account by 1. Submitting ACH debit transactions to your ACH Merchant Service Provider for debiting the tenants savings or checking accounts. The service provider will hold these transactions until they are committed ( batched out ). 2. Committing previously submitted ACH transactions. 3. Retrieving returned transactions. A return may be due to insufficient funds, in which case it can be resubmitted up to 2 times after the original submission. A return may also be a notification for a needed correction, such as if a tenant s bank routing number has changed. Corrections do not have to be resubmitted, but corrections do have to be made to the tenant s billing information. When transactions are submitted they are recorded as paid in SiteLink. Returns are recorded as NSF payments, and are flagged on SiteLink reports to distinguish them from normal NSF s. Returns occur for many reasons, including non-sufficient funds, and can be resubmitted up to 2 additional times. It is normal practice to request return responses at least once / day. Corrections are a special type of return message. Corrections are assumed paid, but the tenant s account information might require a change for future submitted transactions. 75

2 The SiteLink reminder list (shown below) informs the user when transactions need to be submitted, committed, if the provider needs to be polled for returns, or if corrections are pending. None of these actions are entirely automatic in SiteLink. From the SiteLink ACH Bank Debit screen you will have to click on the Submit, Commit or Request Returns buttons to make any of these actions occur. In SiteLink, ACH transactions are made by ACH Batch number, which associates a group of charges in a submitted transaction, like a move-in or a merchandise purchase. Hence, in any month a tenant could have several ACH transactions for the same unit. This grouping of charges is necessary in case the tenant disputes an ACH Debit to help isolate the disputed charges. Historical information like previously submitted transactions and returns can be found in SiteLink reports run from the ACH Bank Debit screen, or from reports run from your service provider s web site. A quick-link button on ACH Bank Debit screen will take you to your service provider s web site. ACH Credits, such as for returned merchandise, must be made through your service provider s website. If the ACH Batch is closed out after 3:00 PM EST, the close will be dated the next day. 76

3 Setting up ACH Bank Debit Processing in SiteLink Web Edition 1. Open SiteLink Web Edition 2. Go to Company/Setup Checklist and choose ACH Bank Debit. 3. Before continuing to the next step, make sure you have the following information: a) ACH Service Provider name b) ACH Merchant Name c) ACH User ID d) ACH Password 77

4 4. If you have a Check Scanner, connect the scanner to the computer now. The driver should be installed automatically. 5. On the Setup ACH screen, enter the information listed below. a) ACH Service Provider: Select your Provider s name from the pull-down list. b) User Interface URL: Contact your ACH Service Provider for this information. a) Transaction Interface - Transaction Service URL: Contact ACH Provider. b) Merchant Name / User ID / Password: Contact ACH Provider. c) Check Scanner Check Scanning Device: If you have a check scanner, and the device was not automatically set up when you installed it, see Appendix C for more information on setting up the Check Scanner. Click OK to continue. See Appendix C for more information on setting up the Check Scanner and troubleshooting. 78

5 6. In order to enable an existing Tenant for ACH, go to Adjustments/Ledger Settings, check ACH Bank Debit and click on the Edit button to set up the account information 7. Enter the ACH Bank Information under ACH Bank Debit 79

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