Glossary

Payment rails

What is ACH?

ACH is the batch based Automated Clearing House network used in the United States for direct deposits, vendor payments, and recurring debits, governed by the Nacha operating rules.

Also called Automated Clearing House · ACH credit · ACH debit · direct deposit

ACH moves payments in batches rather than individually, which makes it inexpensive and well suited to payroll and recurring supplier payments. It supports both credits, where the originator pushes funds, and debits, where the originator pulls funds with authorization.

Unlike a wire, an ACH entry can be returned under defined circumstances and within defined windows set by the Nacha rules, though returns for business credits are limited and depend on the receiving bank's cooperation rather than an automatic right.

Nacha rules require account validation for the first use of an account in a WEB debit entry, which has pushed account verification tooling into much wider use.

Common questions

Only in limited circumstances defined by the Nacha rules, such as duplicate or erroneous entries, and within short windows. Fraudulently redirected business credits are not automatically returnable.

Standard entries settle in one to two business days, and same day ACH settles within defined processing windows on the same business day.

Sources and further reading

Citing this entry? Cite as Coffr, LLC and link to https://getcoffr.com/glossary/ach.

Read the longer research behind this in Blog, or browse the full glossary.

Disclosures

  1. Coffr, LLC carries insurance for its own benefit. That insurance does not cover you, your payments or your funds, and Coffr does not guarantee any payment. Coffr does not hold or transmit customer funds. See the Terms of Service.
  2. "Verified" means the identity, business and bank account checks shown passed on the date shown. A verification confirms who you're paying at that time. It doesn't guarantee that a payment will reach the intended recipient.
  3. Coffr records a cryptographic fingerprint of each verification on a public ledger run by independent organizations. Fingerprints contain no names, bank account numbers or tax IDs, and they can't be changed or deleted.
  4. Sources: ACH volume, Nacha 2025 ACH Network volume; online crime losses, FBI IC3 2025 Internet Crime Report.