In this article, you will learn about the benefits of offering bank transfers (ACH) to your clients.
What is a bank transfer?
A bank transfer — often referred to as ACH (automated house clearing) — is an electronic fund transfer made between banks and credit unions. The transfer is made without the use of a paper check, credit card network, wire transfer, or cash.
Bank transfers are fairly common, often used as the payment method for processing direct deposit paychecks and automatic billing for utilities and other monthly expenses.
In Workiz, bank transfers are available for all estimate deposits or invoice subtotals of $20 or more. Bank transfers can be used to make full or partial payments.
Bank transfer (ACH) payments are only available in the US.
Why use a bank transfer?
While bank transfers take a bit longer to process than traditional credit card payments with Workiz Pay, they do come with a lower processing fee of 1%. This is ideal for field service businesses that perform larger jobs with more substantial totals.
Rather than incurring the standard processing fee associated with a speedier credit card transaction, you may determine that the benefits of paying a lower fee outweigh the drawbacks of waiting longer to receive your money.
The processing fees associated with bank transfers are not in addition to credit card processing fees. For a single transaction in Workiz, you will either pay the credit card processing fee or the bank transfer processing fee, but never both.
Bank transfer processing times
As mentioned, bank transfers take more time to process and finalize than credit card transactions.
It’s important to be aware of the processing times and statuses when collecting bank transfer payments. In general, it may take up to 6-8 business days to receive the funds in your bank account after the payment was made. That’s compared to the 3-4 business days it takes to receive your money when using credit cards.
Workiz will provide you with status updates for your bank transfers.
Status | Definition | Notes |
---|---|---|
Payment initiated (pending) | Your client has submitted a bank transfer payment, but it has not been processed. It will take approximately 4 business days for the payment to be processed. | |
Payment completed (succeeded) | The bank transfer payment has been processed and added to your Workiz Pay balance. | After the payment has been completed and added to your Workiz Pay balance, it will be another 2 business days before the funds are paid out to your bank account. |
Payment failed | The bank transfer failed to process. |
If you receive this message, it is important for you to contact your client to collect the payment owed. Receiving this message is the result of a very rare case in which Plaid validates your client's bank account to ensure it has sufficient funds at the time of the transaction, only for the funds to no longer be available before the payment could finish processing. In this case, your business would be charged a non-refundable $5 fee. If the funds were not sufficient at the time of the transaction, the payment would never begin processing and you would not be charged a late fee. You would be notified of the circumstances almost immediately. |
How to collect bank transfer payments
To learn more about collecting payments via bank transfer, please see this article.
Bank transfer refunds
In order to refund bank transfer payments, you will need to wait for the payment to be completed. You cannot refund a pending payment.
Refunds for bank transfer payments can only be issued for payments made within the last 90 days.
In order to avoid potential disputes, please notify your client of the circumstances and your intent to refund the payment once it has been completed.
Bank transfer disputes
Unlike credit card transactions, disputes involving bank transfer transactions are final and cannot be appealed.
In the event of a dispute, your business will be charged a non-refundable $25 fee.
If you sense a client may file a dispute against your business, we strongly recommend you contact them to try and resolve the matter privately.