When configuring your instance to accept and process bank transfers from customer accounts to you in Sonar, there are three options available: ACH, eCheck, or Wire. Each option is discussed further below, including diagrams of how the money flows in each situation and what you can expect when interacting with them.

ACH

ACH is a cheaper but more manual method, as when you process bank transfers as ACH, you must generate the batch file from within Sonar and provide it to your bank for processing. You also must manually reconcile all failures, since Sonar assumes the ACH transaction is valid, unless otherwise told.

How the Money Moves

Considerations

Since Sonar assumes the ACH transaction is valid, if it is not (i.e. a customer had insufficient funds), you will need to manually reconcile this within Sonar. This can be manually reconciled by reversing the customer's payment from within the Transactions sub-tab of their account (available from within the Billing tab); you will not need to perform a refund, since the funds were never actually debited from the customer's bank account.

eCheck

eCheck is a convenient and simple method that allows you to directly debit a customer bank account, similar to when charging a credit card. You can also typically query the merchant gateway for the status of a transaction and reverse any failures, however, this method is generally only supported in the USA and may incur higher fees by your merchant gateway for the service.

How the Money Moves

Considerations

Usually, you are able to query the merchant gateway to confirm a transaction's status and reverse any payments that have failed; however, if this option is not supported or feasible, the reversals will need to happen manually. Customer payments can be manually reversed by using the "Reverse" option for the payment, available through the Transactions sub-tab (within the account's Billing tab). For example, if an eCheck payment initially succeeds, but fails a day or so later as a result of insufficient funds, a reversal would need to be performed for that customer within Sonar; but they will not need to be refunded any money since the payment was not actually made.

Wire

Wire payments are another option that allow you to receive payments from customers into Sonar, and are received almost instantly because there is usually no hold on the received funds, as they are processed by the bank.

How the Money Moves

Considerations

Once the payment has been made, it will need to be manually recorded in Sonar for that customer's account. Due to the nature of wire transfers, you will not run into a situation where insufficient funds cause the payment to fail. However, you could still end up in a situation where a payment was made and received successfully but was not recorded, as a result of human error.

To record a wire payment in Sonar, navigate into the Transactions sub-tab (under the main Billing tab) of a customer's account, click the "Cash/Check/Wire Payment" button, and complete the corresponding fields that appear in the Create Cash/Check/Wire Payment window.