How to run an ACH Batch Processing on Open Edge

ACH or e-Check transactions can be submitted through Shape in a Batch or individually as a POS transaction.

E-Check transactions typically settle 2 – 4 business days after transmission. When submitting an e-Check transaction through Shape, the transactions will display as ‘Processed’. The Scheduled Payment will display in green as paid. However, the transaction can still be returned as a failure after the 4^th business day. If the payment fails, the Administrator must go into the membership to ‘Reverse’ the payment back to the original Payment Type with the ‘Bypass the Gateway’ enabled. This ensures no monies are actually reversed through the Gateway and an Open Balance is created on the Member’s account.

Section 1:  Creating the batch

Functions -> EFT -> Create EFT

1. SchedPay Date:  Enter a date range using the BTWN or a specific date using =.

Entering a date range is best practice.  This will ensure you pull in all Scheduled Pay dates that may have been created with a pay date that is not the 1^st or 15^th, etc.

2. Batch Type:  Normal or Re-Run.

The first batch you run for the date range will always be normal.  When you run a batch for your failures, a Re-run batch will be created for you for the date range of that batch.

3. Items per page:   Number of Transactions you can view per page.

     Number of transactions viewable per page.

4. User Status: All, Active, Inactive, Frozen and Active and Frozen.      

**User Status refers to the Member Status.  If the Membership status is Inactive, but the Member status is Active, it is most likely because there are Service Packages still associated to the Membership.  It is important to close those packages if they should be closed.  It is also important to clear any remaining balance on a Membership before closing the Membership – if the open balance is not owed.**  If you bill your Members while they are in Frozen status, select Active and Frozen.

5. Category: Memberships, Services, Counter and Combined.

You can run separate batches based on Category or select combined to run them all at the same time.  We suggest running separate batches for each category.

6. Payment Method: Bank Draft..

For ACH processing, select Bank Draft.  Open Edge will submit all your Bank Drafts when they are run and the Status column will read 'Processed'.  You will need to log into the Open Edge ACH Portal in 4 - 5 days to retrieve any Bank Drafts that failed.  Log into the Member’s membership or Service Package and reverse the charges back to the same payment type but check the box for 'Bypass the Gateway'.  This will create an open balance for that payment so that you can collect on it.  Reverse Payments

7. EFT Group: This defaults to All unless you have created EFT Groups.

An example for how you can use an EFT Group:  You can create an EFT Group for Members whose dues are paid for by their company.  This will allow you to better manage their billing

8. Optional: Last name starts with (or between)

You can draft specific members if necessary.  These fields are usually left blank during a Normal batch run.  This is not typical.

Section 2:  Processing the batch

The top grid shows you:

• The Batch number
• The Batch Type
• The total amount of money expected in the draft
• The total amount that will be submitted in the draft. This number may be less than expected if you are missing any account numbers or if the credit card is expired.

The bottom grid columns explained:

• Actions (History leads to Member’s payment history and Scheduled Payments lead to the Member’s Scheduled Payments)
• Include (This allows you to Include or Exclude someone from the batch). Example, if you know of a Member who does not want to be drafted this month but will pay in the club the next day when they come in, can be excluded from the draft while leaving the payment unpaid
• Member name (clicking on the Member Name will take you to their billing page)
• Member Status
• EFT Payment Preference (set in Member’s billing page). If Primary Credit Card, Secondary Credit Card or Bank Account is not selected in the Member’s billing page, the payment will not pull into the draft.
• Account Number (displays last 4 in account number)
• Cycle Rate (what their monthly payment amount is)
• Open Balance (will display if there is any open balance)
• Charge Amount is what the Member will be charged this draft. This field is editable.  You can edit this field to include the open balance if you like
• Tax (if there is tax included, it will be displayed here)
• Debit/Credit. This field defaults to Debit.  You can apply a refund through your draft by changing the drop down to Credit.  Typically, refunds are not handled through draft
• SchedPay Date. This is the date of the scheduled payment
• SchedPay Id. This is the number scheduled payment.  For example, the 4^th scheduled payment in a 12 month membership.
• SchedPay Type. This will be Membership, Service or Counter
• Membership or Service Status. Active, Inactive or Frozen

Blue lines are good transactions and WILL be included in your draft.  Red lines are not good and WILL NOT be included in your draft.  This is most likely because you are missing the account number in the Member’s billing page or because the card is expired.

The Color Chart below explains in detail what each color means.

• Save Changes on THIS page. If you Include/Exclude any Members from your batch, make the correction and click Save Changes on THIS Page. 

**Remember, if you have more than one page in your batch, remember to save your changes on each page.

• Exclude All. You can Exclude All, then go back and Include any Members into your batch;
• Include All. You can Include All, then go back and Exclude any Members from your batch;
• Process EFT. When you are satisfied with your batch, click ‘Process EFT’.  

• Click ‘SUBMIT’.  This will submit your batch to Open Edge for processing

• You can still View, Modify or Cancel your batch before Submitting
• When you click ‘Submit’, you will be asked ‘Are you sure you want to Submit this batch’.  Click ‘Yes’.

Section 3:  Viewing the batch

Functions -> EFT ->  Batches

• When the batch is complete, the transaction Status displays ‘Processed’.  The member's scheduled payment will be green as if paid.

**Remember, ACH transactions can still fail.  Please log into the ACH Portal 4 - 5 business days after the batch has been submitted to see if any transactions failed.

Section 4:  Creating Batch from Failures

If you add late or failure fees to your failed transactions, you can perform this action in bulk.

Functions -> EFT ->  Batches

1. You can Create a Batch from your Failures. Go to Functions -> EFT -> View Batches and click the ‘View’ link next to the batch you are re-running.  The batch details will auto-populate from the current batch.
2. Or you can Add Fees to your Failures first, then create your failure batch. If you charge your Members a late fee or failure fee, you can bulk add these charges before running the Re-run batch.

Adding fees to Fails

1. Click the link ‘Add Fees to Fails’. All the Members who failed in this batch will display. 
2. The first column allows you to remove any Members that you do not want to receive a failure/late fee. UNCHECK the box in the first column to remove them.
3. The data in the remaining columns comes from your batch and has the basic payment information for the Member.
4. In the yellow section, enter the Payment date. This is typically the same day as the Scheduled Payment.
5. Enter the Payment Amount.
6. Enter a reason i.e., late, payment failed etc.
7. Select a Charge Type (Charge Types are defined under the Membership Type).
8. Click the ‘Add Payment’ button.

Please Note**

ACH payments will all be processed by Open Edge.  You must log into the ACH portal 4 - 5 business days after the batch was submitted to get the failures.  You must log into the Member’s membership (Quick Functions -> Memberships and/or Services) and reverse the payment using the same Payment Type (check the box to Bypass the Gateway).   When the Member corrects their payment, you can take the payment from the Open Balances report as a Quick Pay.

EFT Analyzer Report (Reports -> Financial -> EFT Analyzer).  You can use a pre-written query or perform a Custom Query.  This report will add up all of the payments submitted, settled, declined and auto- corrected for a certain date range.

EFT Failed Transactions (Reports -> Financial -> EFT Failed Transactions).  From this report, you can 'Generate a Mass Email' to send to the failures or 'Generate Invoices' that you can print or email to the failures.