Invoicing and ACH Direct Debit (2024)

To reduce costs, many merchants make card payment methods unavailable above a certain invoice total amount, and prefer payment from bank methods like ACH Direct Debit.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to configure, create, and process invoices to use the ACH Direct Debit payment method. Stripe users in the United States can accept ACH Direct Debit from end customers with US bank accounts using the Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments system operated by Nacha. A Connect platform that integrates ACH Direct Debit has more advanced options available. To begin, determine whether:

• Your customers enter bank account information to pay their invoices.
• You collect and verify bank account information upfront and automatically process invoices.

Set up ACH Direct Debit

Your customers can pay an invoice by using the Hosted Invoice Page to enter their bank account information. You must either set ACH Direct Debit as a default payment method, or add it when you create an invoice.

Pre-collected bank information

You can collect bank account information for future payments with ACH Direct Debit. After you add a customer’s ACH details, they must verify their payment information with microdeposits, which can take up to two days.

Payment completions

For any invoice with ACH Direct Debit enabled as a payment method, your customer can enter their bank account information through the Hosted Invoice Page to start a debit payment. Your customer must complete the following steps to complete payment:

1. Select US bank account, search for their bank, and select it.

2. Click Pay and agree to the terms of service.

3. Initiate a link with their bank, and add their bank login credentials.

4. Select their desired bank account and click Link account.

Enhanced fee splitting Connect

Payment methods—such as credit and debit cards—have a fixed percentage charged over the whole amount. But low cost payment methods like ACH Direct Debit are usually capped. For platforms looking to dynamically reflect this fee arrangement to their merchants, Stripe recommends that you separate your charges and transfers (as opposed to using the basic application_fee_amount parameter). With separate charges and transfers, your platform can transfer the merchant’s share of funds minus the appropriate fee amount based on the payment method type.

Test the integration

You can test customer bank account entry through instant verification and microdeposits.

Instant verification

To instantly verify a bank account in test mode:

1. Select US bank account, then Test Institution.

2. Agree to the terms of service, select Success, then link the account.

After you successfully link the test account and click Done, the invoice states that the payment is processing.

Microdeposits

You can manually verify bank accounts through microdeposits. In the case of a real customer interaction, the microdeposits aren’t visible for several days.

1. Create an invoice in test mode and select ACH Direct Debit as a payment method.

2. Go to the Hosted Invoice Page, choose US bank account, and pay.

3. Click Manually verify instead to verify the bank account with microdeposits. Enter the test routing number and bank account using the ACH test account numbers (for example, 1100000000 and 000123456789).

4. After the dialog closes, click Verify bank account to go to the Microdeposits page.

5. Enter the test amounts (for example, 0.32 and 0.45) and click Verify account. Returning to the Hosted Invoice Page shows the payment as processing.

In live mode, it takes several days for the transaction to complete. But in test mode, the transaction clears immediately and the invoice is paid.