Skip to main content

​
How ACH debits work

ACH debits pull payment directly from a US customer’s bank account. Fees are a fraction of card fees, which matters at B2B invoice sizes — the trade-off is that ACH settles asynchronously (typically ~4 business days) and a debit can occasionally be returned by the bank days after it appeared to succeed. Recurso handles the whole lifecycle: instant bank verification, in-flight tracking while a debit settles, and automatic clean-up when a return arrives.
ACH requires a United States Stripe account. A Stripe account registered in another country (e.g. India) will reject us_bank_account payment methods — see payment gateways for connecting Stripe.

​
Prerequisites

  • A US-registered Stripe account connected — payment gateway; non-US Stripe accounts reject us_bank_account.
  • The customer portal set up — customers add their bank account there.
  • A customer with invoices to collect.

​
Step 1: Connect a US Stripe account

Set your Stripe secret key, publishable key, and webhook secret from a US-registered Stripe account. ACH uses Stripe Financial Connections for bank verification, which is only available on US accounts.
Test first with sk_test_... keys. Stripe test mode includes test bank accounts that let you exercise the full flow — including simulated returns — without moving real money.

​
Step 2: Customers add a bank account in the portal

In the customer portal, the payment-method page offers Card or US bank account (ACH). Choosing the bank option launches Stripe Financial Connections: the customer logs into their bank and the account is verified instantly — no micro-deposit waiting period. The verified account is saved for off-session charges, like a saved card.

​
Step 3: Invoices collect by bank debit

Once a bank account is the customer’s saved payment method, invoices charge it automatically. Because ACH is asynchronous, the lifecycle differs from cards:
  1. The debit is initiated and the payment attempt is tracked as processing. The invoice stays open — nothing is booked until the money is real.
  2. While an attempt is in flight, dunning leaves the invoice alone: no retry charges, no “payment failed” emails for a debit that is simply still settling.
  3. When the bank confirms (typically ~4 business days), the invoice settles: it’s marked paid and the cash is posted to the ledger.
  4. If the debit fails (e.g. insufficient funds), the attempt records the ACH failure code and normal dunning takes over.

​
Late returns — handled automatically

An ACH debit can clear, settle the invoice, and then be returned by the bank days later (account closed, debit disputed, funds reversed). When that happens, Recurso automatically:
  • marks the payment attempt returned with its ACH return code,
  • reopens the invoice (paid → past_due) so it’s collectible again,
  • reverses the settlement in the ledger — the books never show cash the bank clawed back,
  • lets dunning re-collect on its normal schedule. A re-collection posts its own fresh ledger entries; the accounting stays balanced through any number of return/retry cycles.
Refunds you issue through Recurso are never mistaken for bank returns — they carry a credit note. If you refund an ACH payment directly in the Stripe Dashboard, always set a refund reason there; Recurso uses it to tell your refund apart from an involuntary bank return. Best practice: issue refunds through Recurso so the credit note and ledger entries are created for you.

​
Monitoring collection

The Collections page shows every invoice mid-recovery, including ACH state: a settling chip while a debit is in flight and a returned chip when a bank claw-back reopened the invoice, with the ACH failure code (e.g. R01 insufficient funds) as the failure reason.

​
Verify your setup

1

A bank account connects

In the portal (test mode), choose “US bank account”, pick Stripe’s test bank, and confirm the account appears as the saved payment method with its bank name and last-4.
2

An invoice settles asynchronously

Charge an invoice against the bank account: it stays open while processing, then flips to paid when the test debit clears.
3

A simulated return reopens the invoice

Use Stripe’s test return flow: the paid invoice returns to past_due, the Collections page shows the returned chip, and dunning resumes.

​
Next steps