ACH

ACH stands for Automated Clearing House, the network through which most electronic bank-to-bank payments in the United States move: direct deposit of payroll, vendor payments, customer payments and automatic debits. An ACH credit pushes money from the payer's account; an ACH debit pulls it with the account holder's authorization.

For cash flow, ACH matters in two directions. Customers and government payment offices generally pay by ACH to the account on file, so a wrong or outdated account number stalls payment. Many funding products are repaid by ACH debit on a fixed schedule, which means the money leaves on the funder's calendar whether or not your receivables arrived that week.