ACH Payment Processing

ACH payment processing lets a business pull or receive payments directly between bank accounts over the ACH network, the US system that moves direct deposits, bill payments, and bank transfers. Instead of a card, the customer authorizes a debit from their checking account (or pushes a credit to yours). For businesses it's the low-cost rail: no interchange, so the fee is a flat or capped amount per transaction rather than a percentage of the sale, which is why it dominates B2B invoices and large tickets.

Three common ways, all supported on one GivePayments account. One: put a bank-payment option on your invoice's pay-by-link, the customer enters their routing and account number (or connects their bank) on a hosted page. Two: recurring ACH, collect a signed authorization once and debit on a schedule, the standard for memberships, rent, and installment plans. Three: keyed entry through the virtual terminal for phone-in payments. Every method settles into your account with the transaction data in your portal, and syncs to accounting tools like QuickBooks.

With GivePayments, ACH runs on a flat or capped per-transaction fee rather than a percentage, so a $50,000 invoice costs the same to collect as a $500 one. That's the structural advantage over percentage-priced ACH (QuickBooks Payments, for example, charges 1% of the transfer with no cap, $500 on that same $50,000 invoice) and over cards, where interchange scales with the amount. Your exact fee is set in underwriting alongside your card pricing, published as a range up front.

Functionally they're the same rail: an eCheck is an electronic debit of a checking account processed over the ACH network, the digital version of a paper check. The term eCheck usually shows up in keyed or virtual-terminal contexts (you enter the routing and account number from a check), while ACH describes the network itself and API-driven debits. GivePayments supports both patterns on the same account.

Standard ACH settles in one to three business days, faster than a mailed check by weeks, slower than a card authorization by days. For invoice collection that trade is usually easy: the money is cheaper to receive and the timeline is predictable. Returns (the ACH version of a decline or dispute) can come back for a few days after settlement, insufficient funds, closed account, or revoked authorization, which is why return-rate monitoring matters (NACHA caps overall returns at 15%, administrative at 3%, and unauthorized at 0.5%).

Yes, and you should. The highest-converting B2B setup is one pay-by-link carrying both options: ACH presented as the low-cost default for large invoices, card for customers who want speed or points. Customers pay the way they prefer, you steer volume toward the cheaper rail without forcing anyone, and everything reconciles from one account, one portal, one export into your books.