GuidesAug 13, 20263 min read
Same-day ACH has a deadline, and it is earlier than you think
Same-day ACH means same day only if the file makes a window. The windows are set in Eastern time, and the last one closes at an hour that surprises teams on the West Coast.
Maren Holt
Head of Payments Operations
“Same day” is one of the more misleading phrases in US payments. A same-day ACH payment arrives the day it is sent only if it reaches the network before one of its daily cutoffs. Miss the last one and it becomes a next-day payment, no matter what the product page said.
The windows
The ACH network exchanges same-day files three times each business day. The submission deadlines, in Eastern time, are roughly late morning, early afternoon, and 4:45 PM. Banks and providers set their own internal cutoffs earlier than those, because a file has to be built, checked and transmitted before the network's deadline.
At Pinnacle, a run has to be approved by 2:30 PM ET to go out in the afternoon window and land the same day. That is 11:30 AM in Los Angeles and 12:30 PM in Denver. For teams on the West Coast, the practical deadline for same-day pay is before lunch.
What happens after the cutoff
A run approved after 2:30 PM ET is not rejected. Its instant payments go out immediately, because RTP and FedNow have no windows. Its ACH payments are queued for the first window of the next business day, at 8:30 AM ET, and settle that day.
In other words, the same run can be partly paid today and partly paid tomorrow, depending on which network each contractor's bank is on. Pinnacle shows that split on the approval screen before you approve, so the decision is yours to make with the facts in front of you.
- Approved by 2:30 PM ET on a business day: everyone is paid today.
- Approved later: instant recipients are paid today, ACH recipients tomorrow morning.
- Approved on a weekend or holiday: instant recipients are paid now, ACH recipients on the next business day.
Holidays are business days you do not have
The ACH network follows the Federal Reserve's holiday calendar. Columbus Day and Veterans Day catch more teams than any others, because many companies are open on them and the network is not. A run approved on the Friday before a Monday holiday after the cutoff will not settle its ACH payments until Tuesday.
Pinnacle's schedule view shows each upcoming network holiday and moves recurring runs a day earlier when one falls on their date, if you turn that on.
If a contractor is counting on Friday, the run needs to be approved by Friday at 2:30 PM ET, or by Thursday if Friday is a holiday.
The fix is mostly habit
Teams that never think about this have usually done one of two things: moved their regular approval earlier in the day, or moved most of their contractors onto instant rails by asking them to use a bank that supports one. The first costs nothing. The second happens on its own over time, as more banks join FedNow.
Until then, the cutoff is worth putting on the calendar of whoever approves your runs. It is the single most common reason a same-day payment arrives the next day.
