Reconcile ACH History

The Reconcile ACH History function posts recurring ACH payments to Billing Tree, posts in Collect! any Billing Tree transactions not yet posted, and posts reversals in Collect! for any previous payments that have gone NSF.\Running the Reconcile sends to Billing Tree any recurring ACH payments that have come due since your last reconcile date. The reconcile also queries Billing Tree for any ACH payments that may have been made through the Billing Tree web site instead of through Billing Tree Service in Collect!.

It is recommended that you only use Collect! for your Billing Tree ACH payments, but if this is not always possible, then Reconcile ACH History will also bring in any ACH payments posted externally and not yet entered into Collect!.

When you run the Reconcile ACH History function, Collect! displays a summary screen to let you know what actions were taken. If payments cannot be matched, Collect! also saves all pertinent information to a file that you can use for processing payments that do not match your account information in Collect!.

When you post recurring ACH payments for processing through Billing Tree Service, you must run Reconcile ACH History to process the transactions. Although they are already posted in Collect!, they do not get sent to Billing Tree until they actually come due and you run Reconcile ACH History. Reconcile ACH History also posts any NSF reversals from Billing Tree and any payments not yet posted in Collect!.

Please refer to ACH Step by Step - Part 4 - Reconcile for a complete example of the process.

Per Session Logins

If you intend to use more than one ACHNow Web Service account to post your transactions, please be aware that you must run a reconcile for EACH Userid. Currently transactions are stored by ACHNow according to the Userid that posts them.

NSF Payments

When you reconcile ACH history, Collect! posts a reversal for any payments that are returned as NSF. The convenience fee payment is also reverserd. If you switched ON "NSF cancels recurring payments" in the ACH Payments Setup form, Collect! also removes all details of the recurring ACH payment schedule from the account, including post-dated transactions and EFT notices.

Unmatched Returns

When you reconcile ACH history, Collect! logs all returns that cannot be matched to accounts in your database. You can find these unmatched returns in the CV11\bin folder in a subfolder named Billing Tree\ACH. Each reconcile with unmatched returns has its own CSV log file with a unique name composed of the date and time. For example, "UnmatchedReturns-091029-145009.csv."

Unmatched returns may be caused by changing a File Number in Collect!, for example. Then the reconcile would not be able to find the right debtor. Another cause may be an NSF return without a matching ACH Payment posting, then reconcile would not be able to find the right ACH Payment to reverse.

In any case, you can examine the results in the Unmatched Returns CSV to resolve any issues.

Billing Tree also returns any corrections the bank may report after a successful submission. An example would be if the account number was not correct, but the payment was processed successfully. Corrections that cannot be matched to an account in your database may also be found in the UnmatchedReturns CSV.

Unmatched Externals

When you reconcile ACH history, Collect! logs all externally posted ACH payments that cannot be matched to accounts in your database. You can find these unmatched externals in the CV11\bin folder in a subfolder named Billing Tree\ACH. Each reconcile with unmatched externals has its own CSV log file with a unique name composed of the date and time. For example, "UnmatchedExternals-091029-145903.csv."

Unmatched externals are ACH payments posted at the Billing Tree site but not matched in Collect!. Perhaps they were posted without the proper File Number. Perhaps the Debtor simply does not exist in your database.

In any case, you can examine the results in the unmatched externals CSV to resolve any issues, doing whatever is necessary to process these payments in Collect!.

Billing Tree Service also ships with import maps that you can use to process the unmatched externals using Collect!'s Import/Export module. This still requires that you make whatever additions or corrections are necessary to match the externally posted payments to the correct Debtor.

Billing Tree Corrections

Billing Tree also returns any corrections the bank may report after a successful submission. For instance, if the account number was not correct, but the payment was processed successfully. Corrections that cannot be matched to an account in your database may also be found in the UnmatchedReturns CSV.

When you reconcile ACH history, and a correction matches a File Number in Collect!, then a Review contact is created on the Debtor. The Description says "Billing Tree Correction" with the Code and the short explanation of the correction reported by Billing Tree.

As mentioned above, corrections that cannot be matched to accounts in your database are logged to the UnmatchedReturns CSV.

Processing Summary

When you reconcile ACH history, Collect! creates a ProcessingSummary PDF containing the number of transactions successfully processed during the reconcile. You can find these files in the subfolder named Billing Tree\ACH. Each reconcile has its own uniquely named PDF summary file. For example, "ProcessingSummary-091029-153312.csv." This file contains the number of transactions successfully processed and the total dollar value. The Debit is the total number of ACH payments withdrawn and the Credit is the amount deposited to your agency's account. There is also a Batch ID, Date and Time for your reference.