ACH Payments - Overview

With innRoad Payments, you can accept ACH bank transfers as a payment method, in addition to credit and debit cards. 

ACH payments offer a lower processing rate, but have a multi-day clearing process. In other words, ACH payments are not instant and take longer than cards to settle.

ACH Payments are only available on the innRoad Payments Gateway. Contact support@innroad.com to learn more.

This guide explains how ACH payments work, what to expect during processing, and how refunds are handled.

• What is ACH
• Where can guests pay using ACH
• How to enable ACH for your property
• What happens after a guest pays with ACH
• Where do ACH payments appear
• Issuing a refund for an ACH payment

What is ACH

ACH (Automated Clearing House) is a bank-to-bank transfer network that lets guests pay directly from their bank account. The payment is not instantly confirmed and includes a settlement timeline, however, the processing fee is typically lower than for card payments.

ACH is commonly used by business or group bookings. 

• ACH payments are processed on business days only, so weekends and bank holidays make the settlement timeline longer.
• A settled ACH payment can still be returned or disputed by the guest's bank in rare cases, for up to several weeks after settlement.

Where can guests pay with ACH

Once ACH is enabled for your property, guests will see it as a payment option on:

• Booking Engine, if the check-in date is more than 14 days from today.
• Payment Links, if the guest is paying 14 days before expiration date

ACH is only an allowed payment method if the reservation check-in date or the Payment Link expiration date is at least 14 days from today.

This condition ensures that the payment has enough time to settle, and your property has enough time to react if the payment fails.

You can also initiate a payment via a saved ACH payment method directly from innCenter for future payments.

What happens after a guest pays with ACH

ACH payments are not instant. 

Unlike credit cards, ACH payments go through a multi-day clearing process. 

A reservation's deposit is only considered fully paid once the ACH payment has settled (Captured status). 

Treat a Pending ACH payment as a payment that could still fail before the settlement date, and in rare cases, shortly after settlement.

Where do ACH payments appear

You will see ACH payments in:

• Payments Dashboard:
  • Transactions: Visible in Payments Dashboard under Transactions
  • Deposits: Appears as a line item once paid out to your account
• Folio: Shows as a folio line item with the settlement date once captured.
• Reports:Amounts show up in Ledger Balances, Transactions.

Issuing a refund for an ACH payment

You can refund an ACH payment in full or partially. 

There are important differences to card refunds that you should keep in mind.

Refunds can only be issued for payments that have fully settled. 

The refund window is up to 180 days from the original payment date.

Check the detailed steps on processing an ACH refund here.

Here's a list of detailed differences for ACH refunds compared to card refunds:

• Refunds must be initiated within 180 days from the date of the original payment.
• A refund can only be processed after the payment has settled.
• When issuing a refund, you should inform your customer immediately that the refund typically takes 3 business days to arrive in their bank account.
• ACH refunds are processed as a credit and will include a reference to the payment descriptor for the original payment.

The full process takes a minimum of 3 business days from when the refund is initiated.

When a guest asks about their refund, let them know it will appear as a generic bank credit. 

It may not be explicitly labelled as a "refund" on their bank statement, but will reference the original payment descriptor.