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ACH Processing Massachusetts

In today's hectic world, there is a lot of pressure to do things quickly, which means that electronic payments really do come in handy. Most people love to pay for things electronically, using debit or credit cards, money transfers, or e-cash systems like PayPal. Writing paper checks for payment is seen as old and archaic by many, and too time consuming and costly. Why leave such a paper trail when everything can just be tracked electronically? Despite the resistance, some people still prefer checks, so there are now ways that you can pay for things with a check electronically, called an e-check. The system used to process electronic payments is called ACH.

1. Local Companies

2. What is ACH?

3. Advantages of ACH

4. ACH Bounced Checks

5. Featured Local Company

1 . Local Companies

Tonneson & Company
(781) 245-9999
401 Edgewater Place, Suite 300
Wakefield, MA

Wolf & Company, P.C.
617-439-9700
99 High Street
Boston, MA

Carlin, Charron & Rosen LLP
(617) 226-7000
1400 Computer Drive
Westborough, MA

KPMG LLP
(617) 988-1000
99 High Street, 23rd Floor
Boston, MA

Pannell Kerr Forster, P.C.
(617) 753-9985
265 Franklin Street, 17th Floor
Boston, MA

Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP
(617) 530-5000
125 High Street Tower, 9th Floor
Boston, MA

Century Bank
(617) 423-1490
24 Federal Street
Boston, MA

Eastern Bank
(617) 897-1010
265 Franklin Street
Boston, MA

Salem Five Bank
(978) 745-5555
210 Essex Street
Salem, MA

Wainwright Bank and Trust Company
(617) 526-0170
63 Franklin Street
Boston, MA

2 . What is ACH?

As already noted, ACH is the system used to process electronic payments such as electronic checks and bank account debits. The initials ACH stand for Automated Clearing House. The ACH system is only used in the United States and Puerto Rico. All other countries have similar systems, but they are named something different and are of course on different servers. Though the ultimate goal is to have the whole world on one uniform system (or at least ones that can interact well together), there are a lot of logistics problems with this.

ACH has a lot of advantages for certain businesses. Not only does it secure a payment much faster than a paper check, it does so with far less fees as well. Though credit cards and debit cards (or of course cold hard cash) are truly the quickest ways to pay, there are quite a few advantages to using ACH over them as well. We will get into those advantages in the next section.

It is also noteworthy, before we move on, to say that ACH is often used interchangeably with EFT, or Electronic Funds Transfer. Though they are similar in that money changes hands electronically, an EFT is generally done with a machine such as an ATM machine, or with the debit card payment machines you swipe your card through at a retail register.

3 . Advantages of ACH

ACH check processing is much easier than a paper check, which is perhaps the biggest advantage of one over the other. Not only does it take less time to process, but you also need far less manpower to process an ACH electronic check. Imagine if your business took nothing but paper checks – you would need either extra employees to sift through and account for them, or keep those employees longer (and risk costly overtime payments) in order for them to handle the paper checks in addition to whatever their regular duties may be.

There is also the cost of postage and/or mileage when dealing with paper checks. You will need to pay an employee to go and deposit the checks into your bank account, then wait for them to clear, or pay for them to be mailed to your financial institution. Both of these can be costly when added up.

There is also the cost and time it takes when a check is returned. If a check is returned, it could mean that you would overdraw your account and end up costing you more money than expected. Another great advantage of ACH electronic check processing is that you don't have to worry about counterfeit checks or forged signatures like you would with a traditional paper check.

4 . ACH Bounced Checks

Even though ACH electronic checks are processed electronically, it does not mean that some of the same risks involved with traditional paper checks don't still remain. The biggest of these risks is the possibility of bounced checks. Even if you run a check or payment electronically, this does not mean the money comes out automatically, like with an EFT (which is another reason the two acronyms are not always interchangeable).

With an ACH transaction, the money can still be in the account for 2-3 days, with the fourth or sometimes even fifth day being the one where the money will actually transfer from the customer's account to yours. Of course, the money will transfer from one account to the other as long as there are sufficient funds. If there are not sufficient funds after the processing period takes place, your ACH electronic check will promptly become a bounced check.

5 . Featured Local Company

Tonneson & Company

(781) 245-9999
401 Edgewater Place, Suite 300
Wakefield, MA
http://www.tonneson.com/

Tonneson & Company CPAs PC is committed to service excellence and with our team of professionals, we will take a proactive approach in understanding our client's personal goals and objectives.

Read more about ACH Processing

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