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How Do I Process eCheck Payments?

IN THIS ARTICLE:
Learn how to process eCheck payments, including saving eCheck information to families, viewing payment details in your iClassPro Merchant Portal, and how to handle returned or declined eCheck payments.

Saving eCheck information

If eCheck is enabled as a payment method on your iClassPro account, you will be able to store bank account information for use when running either individual payments or bulk payment tasks.

  1. Go to the FAMILIES page and locate the family you wish to save eCheck information for.
  2. Click the pencil/edit icon next to the family to access the family details page.
  3. Click the “Billing” tab.
  4. A family can only have one saved form of payment on file. If the “Billing” tab already shows that one is saved, you will need to click the DELETE PAYMENT INFORMATION button to remove it in order to enter a new form of payment.
  5. Once the form is blank, choose “Echeck” as the Payment Method, then click the LOAD FROM PRIMARY GUARDIAN button to copy the primary guardian name and address details from the “Details” tab.
  6. Enter the Bank Name and choose an Account Type.
  7. Enter the Routing Number and Account Number. Be sure to double-check these numbers to be sure they are correct and that they are in the correct fields.
  8. Click SUBMIT AUTOPAY INFORMATION to save the payment method to the gateway.

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If the information was submitted successfully, you should see that the “Billing” tab now looks similar to this:

“This Payment Method is Authorized for Recurring Billing” will be checked by default and therefore the saved payment information will be used whenever you run payments using this method (either by choosing Payment Type 1 when running manual payments or “Charge From Merchant Account” when running the payments task under TRANSACTIONS>PAYMENTS).  If the saved payment information should not be used for collecting recurring monthly charges and should only be used for occasional one-time payments made directly at the family ledger, you can uncheck this option. 

For information about using stored information to run a payment, see our document: "How Do I Process Payments from Stored Payment Information?"

Viewing eCheck information in your Merchant Portal

You can view information about eCheck payments and run reports by accessing your Merchant Portal. 

To access your Merchant Portal:

  1. Access the Merchant Portal at https://merchantportal.iclasspro.com.
  2. Log into the Merchant Portal using your login credentials.
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After logging in, you have several options to view eCheck payments:

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  1. Searching Transactions will list individual payment transactions.  The best option to locate specific payments is to search by the last four digits of the checking account number along with the date the payment was made.

  2. Click the eCheck Returns option to view information about returned eCheck transactions.

  3. Searching Transfers will allow you to view deposits made to/debits from your account. There is a filter option to limit results only to transfers related to eCheck transactions.

All of these screens provide the option to download filtered results in CSV format.

Handling returned/declined eCheck payments

Since eCheck transactions are just like check payments, there is always a chance of the check payment being returned due to reasons such as “Account Closed” or “Insufficient Funds”.  All eCheck payments are recorded with a status of pending at the time they are created.  Usually there is a 3-5 day settlement period for eChecks, at which time the checks will either be settled or rejected by the account holder’s bank.

NOTE: Depending on when the notice is received, it is possible that there could be a 1-3 day delay from the notification of the returned payment before the status is updated in the gateway and on the family ledger.

No later than 6:30am America/Chicago every day, an automated task will run in the background and check records for returned eCheck payments. If an eCheck payment fails, the following steps will be automatically taken by the system:

  1. The payment will be voided and marked with a status of "Returned" on the ledger. The payment will then be unapplied from the corresponding charge(s) which will result in the charge(s) showing as due again. Financial reports will also reflect the returned eCheck on the date it was marked "Returned."
  2. The system will automatically send an email to the family to let them know the payment was returned.
    • You can customize the email families receive for returned payments by editing the email template under SETTINGS>SETUP>GENERAL SETTINGS>EMAIL TEMPLATE>ICLASSPRO>"Payment Returned." 
  3. If the option to "Charge Returned Check Fee" is enabled under SETTINGS>TRANSACTIONS>CONFIGURE PAYMENT OPTIONS, then the system will automatically create a "Returned Check Fee" charge on the family ledger if an eCheck is marked as "Returned."

Enabling/Configuring the "Returned Check Fee"

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  1. Navigate to SETTINGS>TRANSACTIONS.
  2. Click the "Configure Payment Options" button.
  3. Enable "Charge Returned Check Fee" and configure the following options:
    • Amount to Charge - specifies the amount of the Returned Check Fee. (Note that this is a "whole dollar" amount and not a percentage.)
    • Program - the financial Program that will be assigned to the created charge.
    • Charge Category - the financial Charge Category that will be assigned to the created charge.
  4. Click "SAVE" or "SAVE & CLOSE" to update your settings.

Need more assistance?

Customer support is available at 1-877-554-6776 Mon - Fri, 9 am to 9 pm (CT) and Sat, 9 am to 6 pm (CT).