Accepting ACH Direct Debit Bank Payments on Customer Invoices

Background

Patriot Software has partnered with Stripe to offer payment services to Accounting software customers so that your customers can pay their invoices by credit card or ACH bank payments. See Setting Up Credit Card Payments in Patriot’s Accounting Software.

Using Stripe for Payment Processing

If you don’t yet have an account with Stripe, your first step will be to apply for an account. Otherwise, you can connect your Stripe account to your accounting software. To apply with Stripe, you will need to log in to your Patriot Software account.

Go to Settings > Transaction Settings. Under the “Payment Processor” section, follow the instructions.

You’ll need some basic information to apply. Stripe has stated that account approvals are nearly instantaneous if no additional information is needed. Stripe will send you an email if more information is needed.

Once Stripe approves you, Patriot will automatically connect your Stripe accounting to your accounting software. You’ll do this by clicking a checkbox to have the Stripe payment link when creating new customer invoices.

ACH Direct Debit Payment Option on Customer Invoices

After you have created a customer invoice, you can now email the invoice to the customer.

On the Email Invoice to Your Customer page, the “Accepted payment types” setting willl be pre-set to whatever you have chosen in your Settings > Accounting Settings > Transaction Settings page. You can change this anytime if needed.

Customer Payments Paid by ACH Direct Debit Through an Email Link

When you have set the “Include Stripe payment link” option checked, you can choose which payment types you want to accept for this invoice, ACH Direct Debit and/or Credit Card. Once the invoice is emailed, your customer will see a button at the bottom of the email “Pay Invoice.” This will open a new browser tab with a screen for the customer to enter their payment information.

Your customer will see a secure payment form where they can select their payment method, depending on which options you select when emailing the invoice. If your customer selects “US bank account”, they will be able to instantly and securely link their bank account.

(Stripe charges you $1.50 per instant verification) or manually enter their bank details, which takes 1-2 business days to verify.

ACH Direct Debit Processing Timeline

Once your customer has verified their bank account, which can take 1-2 business days if they opt to manually verify the account, it can take a few days for the funds to be deposited into your bank account. While the payment is processing, you can log in to your Stripe dashboard to check on the status.

Customer Payment Notification

If you have elected in your Transactions Settings page to receive email notifications when a customer has successfully made an ACH Direct Debit card payment to your invoice, you will receive a “Payment Received” email.

If you have elected in your Transactions Settings page to receive email notifications when a customer ACH Direct Debit payment has failed, you will receive an email. You can check your Stripe dashboard for more information regarding why the payment failed.

Why isn’t the amount deposited by Stripe the same as the invoiced amount?

Remember that Stripe will deduct their processing fees from the customer payment before depositing the balance to your account. Stipe ACH Direct Debit fees are 0.8%, with a maximum of $5.00 per transaction, plus $1.50 if the customer did the instant bank account verification.

You should always check with your accountant if you have any questions about setting up your chart of accounts or allocating Stripe ACH payments in your accounting software.

Also check out our help article, “Accepting Credit Card Payments on Invoices.”