Same Day ACH: Windows, Deadlines and Dollar Limits

The three windows, in full

Nacha's ACH Schedules and Funds Availability chart sets out four rows. First Same Day ACH window: originating bank deadline 10:30 a.m. ET, receiving bank receipt time 12 noon ET, settlement 1:00 p.m. ET, credit funds availability 1:30 p.m. receiving bank local time. Second window: 2:45 p.m. ET, 4:00 p.m. ET, 5:00 p.m. ET, and 5:00 p.m. local time. Third window: 4:45 p.m. ET, 5:30 p.m. ET, 6:00 p.m. ET, and end of processing day. Next Day ACH sits below them: originating bank deadline 2:15 a.m. ET, files delivered throughout the banking day according to the ACH operator's schedule with the last file at 6:00 a.m. ET, settlement at 8:30 a.m. ET on the settlement date, and credit funds availability at 9:00 a.m. receiving bank local time. Read those local-time columns carefully if you or your customer bank outside Eastern time: the deadline is Eastern, the availability is local.

Your bank's deadline is not Nacha's deadline

The times above are when a file must reach the ACH operator. Your bank has to assemble, screen and submit that file, so its own cut-off for you sits earlier, sometimes by hours. This is the single most common reason a payment described as same day lands the next business day. Ask your bank, in writing, for three numbers: the customer-facing cut-off for each Same Day window, the per-payment and per-day limits on your account, and whether Same Day origination carries a separate fee. Put the answers next to your invoicing schedule rather than the network times.

The dollar limit, and what changes in 2027

The Same Day ACH per-payment limit is $1 million. Nacha has approved an increase to $10 million effective September 17, 2027, noting the comparable moves elsewhere: RTP raised its limit from $1 million to $10 million in June 2025 and FedNow did the same in November 2025. One detail matters for planning. The rule does not oblige originating banks to offer the higher ceiling; Nacha's own description says originating banks will need to determine whether to offer higher dollar limits to their Same Day ACH originators, and may need software updates for dollar threshold edits and a reassessment of customer credit limits. So September 2027 is the date the network ceiling moves, not the date your account limit moves. Ask your bank again nearer the time.

Credits, debits and the difference that bites

A Same Day ACH credit you send is money leaving on a known schedule. A debit you pull from a customer's account is not the same thing. Debits can be returned after settlement for insufficient funds, a closed account or an unauthorised entry, and the return arrives days later. Treating a settled debit as a cleared payment is how a business ships goods against money it will not keep. Build the same lag into fulfilment that you would for a cheque, and decide in advance what happens when a return lands after despatch. Same day changes the speed of the credit, not the certainty of the debit.

Authorisation and record-keeping

ACH debits run on an authorisation you obtain from the customer and retain. Collect it as a signed or clearly captured electronic agreement that names the payer, the account, the amount or how the amount will be determined, and the timing, and keep it where support staff can retrieve it when a customer queries a charge. Where a payment is recurring, the authorisation should describe the schedule rather than a single amount. Your bank will have its own required wording and retention period as the originating institution, so ask for its template instead of writing one.

You cannot make card acceptance conditional on the amount

Businesses often want to steer large invoices to ACH by refusing cards above a threshold. Visa's Core Rules do not allow it: a merchant must not establish a minimum or maximum transaction amount as a condition for honoring a card, with a narrow exception for a minimum on credit cards issued in the US region or a US territory and used at a US merchant outlet. Offering ACH is fine, presenting it first is fine, and a lawful surcharge on credit cards where your state permits it is a separate question covered in our surcharge guides. A hard cap on card payments is not. Illustrative example only, with made-up round numbers: on a $40,000 invoice, a blended 2.9% card price is $1,160 against a flat per-payment ACH fee in the low tens of dollars. That gap will move most business buyers on its own, without a rule you are not allowed to make.

Canadian EFT is a different network

Everything above is US ACH under Nacha's rules. Canadian EFT runs on its own rails with its own cut-off times, limits and return windows, and none of the Nacha times in this guide apply to it. If you collect in both countries, get the Canadian schedule from your Canadian bank in writing and keep the two sets of deadlines apart in your billing calendar. Assuming a US cut-off applies north of the border is an easy way to miss a settlement date.