All You Need to Know about ACH Rent Collection Process

ACH rent collection is not a wire-transfer. The payment process requires multiple steps and takes approximately five business days to complete.

Benefits:

Affordable ACH payment collection through LeaseRunner allows for faster access to available funds compared to checks, faster notification of non-sufficient funds compared to checks, and no bounced payment/check fees for landlords. Please note: There is a $5 ACH fee per transaction. See also: Who Pays the $5 ACH fee?

Here is how it works:

All tenant payments are processed at 10:50 AM Mountain Time. If the tenant makes the payment on a business day after 10:50 AM Mountain Time, the payment will be processed the next business day. Below is a summary of the daily transaction activity.

Business Day 1:  Tenant payment is processed by LeaseRunner at 10:50 AM Mountain Time. 

Business Day 2:  LeaseRunner receives tenant’s payment.

Business Day 3:  LeaseRunner’s bank verifies if the tenant’s payment is good funds.

Business Day 4:  Tenant’s payment clears the non-sufficient funds return window, and LeaseRunner forwards the payment to the landlord’s bank.

Business Day 5: Landlord’s bank posts the tenant’s payment in the landlord’s bank account.

The payment settles in the landlord’s bank account one day later. Weekends and holidays extend the timeline because ACH banking activity is closed.

What is ACH?

ACH - (Automated Clearing House) is a nationwide mechanism that processes electronically originated batches of high-volume, low-value credit and debit transfers (vs. wire transfers, which are utilized when the individual dollar amounts are larger; wire transfer is typically done in 24 hours; not done in batches).

ACH payments are electronic payments made through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network.  Rather than sending each payment separately, ACH transactions are accumulated and sorted by destination for transmission during a predetermined time period. This provides significant economies of scale and faster processing than paper checks.  ACH payments can be electronic from start-to-finish, or they can happen when a paper check is converted and processed electronically.

While all national banks are subject to the same maximum hold periods established by law, each bank may make deposits available sooner. A bank can make the deposit available immediately or delay availability up to the maximum.