2009

Payflow ACH Payment Service Guide 29
How Payflow ACH Payment Works
ACH Payment Types
4
Day 2
The ODFI submits the payment to the ACH Network operator (Federal Reserve). Your bank
account is debited. This is the first day of the three posting days before depositing into
customer bank account.
Day 3
This is a wait day.
Day 4
This is the third day of the three posting days. PayPal initiates the customer side of the
payment. The payment is batched at the end of each banking day at 7 p.m. See “Payment
Batch Settlement Time” on page 25.
Day 5
The ODFI submits the payment to the ACH Network operator (Federal Reserve). The
customer bank account is credited.
Day 6
PayPal receives a return for the customer debit from ODFI. Returns occur for a number of
reasons. See “NACHA Return Status Codes” on page 50. Since the merchant side of the
payment has settled, PayPal initiates an offset payment to credit your bank account.
Day 7
The ODFI submits the payment to the ACH Network operator (Federal Reserve). Your bank
account is credited.
ACH Payment Types
Payments are collected daily until the merchant-specified settlement time is reached, at which
time all payments are submitted to the ODFI for settlement.
Debit/Sale
A Debit/Sale payment transfers funds from the customer’s bank account into your (the
merchant’s) bank account.
Credit
A Credit payment transfers funds from your bank account into the customer’s bank account. A
Credit payment requires the Original Payment ID of an earlier Debit/Sale payment, and the
submitted Amount must be empty or the exact amount of the original Debit/Sale payment.
Inquiry
The Inquiry function returns the consumer-side result. You can run an Inquiry against a Debit,
Credit, or Void payment type. You can look up the information either by submitting a PNREF
in the ORIGID field or by submitting the CUSTREF with the value that you created while
submitting the payment.