Do you use ACH payments?
ACH payments allow you to pay your agents electronically. They’re faster and more convenient than paper checks. And, ACH payments can help you boost agent satisfaction and retention. Paying agents with ACH payments is also less work for your team.
But, what exactly are ACH payments? And, how can you implement ACH payments at your brokerage? We’ll answer those questions and more in this post on everything you need to know about ACH payments. To start, let’s take a look at what ACH payments are.
Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments are electronic bank to bank payments. Instead of moving money with a credit card, wire transfer, paper check, or cash, ACH payments move money between banks using the ACH network.
With ACH payments, you can do direct deposits to pay agents or bill payments to pay your expenses. You have the option to do same-day, next-day, or two-day ACH payments. If ACH direct deposits are scheduled for the weekend, they will usually be deposited the Friday before. For bill payments, they’ll be withdrawn the next business day after the weekend.
To start an ACH payment, you first need to authorize the payment with your bank. You or your team need to let your bank know the exact amount you want to send.
Once you tell your bank how much you want to send as an ACH payment, they withdraw the payment. This payment is then sent electronically to the bank of the agent you’re paying. After the agent’s bank receives the ACH payment, it will show up in the agent’s bank account.
Unlike wire transfers, ACH payments can be stopped or reversed. If you send the wrong amount or send it to the wrong account, you can revoke your ACH authorization to stop or cancel the payment.
While you can manually handle this ACH authorization process with your bank, some back office software has built-in ACH payments. With this software, you can make ACH payments, request agent bank info, set up reoccurring payments, and more from one, easy-to-use dashboard.
ACH payments offer a lot of benefits to you and your agents. Here are the top benefits you could see with ACH payments:
One of the top benefits of ACH payments is the ability to pay agents faster. With traditional payment methods, your team has to fill out checks, print the checks, and either mail or hand the checks to agents. This whole process can delay agent payment by weeks – leading to unhappy agents.
With ACH payments built into back office software, you can pay your agents the next day. Your team simply has to authorize an ACH payment. Then, the payment will be in the agent’s account the next day. Faster agent payments can help you attract and retain top talent.
Another benefit of ACH payments is that they reduce your team’s workload. To pay agents with checks, your team has to manually fill in the check and print it out. Then, your team has to track down agents to give them the check. Or, they have to mail it. With so many steps, your team has to spend hours a week paying agents – instead of focusing on high-value tasks.
ACH payments eliminate many of the steps of traditional check
payment. To pay agents with back office software with ACH payments, your team simply has to go t
o the ACH payment gateway, select the agent, and enter the amount. Your team can pay agents with a few clicks in minutes – freeing them up to manage more transactions to help your brokerage
grow.
Along with requiring less work, ACH payments are also less error-prone. For traditional payments, your team has to manually find the right accounting or commission data and enter it in the right place on the check. Manual data transfer and entry are error-prone. This creates more work for your team and slows down agent payments.
With ACH payments, your team doesn’t have to worry about manual data transfer and entry. Back office software with ACH payments can automatically find the right data from accounting/commissions and enter it in the right place. This reduces errors and speeds up agent payments.
With all the benefits ACH payments have, it’s no wonder more brokerages are using ACH payments. But, how can you implement ACH payments at your brokerage? Here are your options:
One option you have to implement ACH payments is standalone ACH payment software. All this software does is manage ACH payments. With this software, your team still has to manually find and enter payment data. This not only wastes your team’s time but also increases the chance of errors.
Another option for ACH payments is accounting software with ACH payments. With this software, you can manage your brokerage accounting and agent ACH payments in the same place. While this option makes it easier to find and enter accounting data, your team still has to manually find and enter other back office data (like transaction data).
The last option for implementing ACH payments is a complete back office platform with ACH payments. With a complete back office platform, you have everything you need to manage your back office in one place (like transaction management, accounting, and commissions).
A complete back office platform can automatically pull any info needed for ACH payments from any back office system. This can eliminate manual data entry to speed up payments to keep agents happy, reduce work, and limit errors – helping you maximize the benefits of ACH payments.
ACH payments can help you pay agents faster to attract and retain top talent. It can also reduce your team’s workload and minimize errors – helping your team focus on high-value tasks (like managing more transactions).
While you could use a standalone ACH payment system or accounting software with ACH payments, a better option is a complete back office platform with ACH payments. With a complete back office platform, you can eliminate manual data entry, reduce errors, and pay agents faster.
If you’re looking for the best complete back office platform with ACH payments, Brokermint is the way to go. Brokermint’s ACH payment gateway makes it easy and quick to pay agents electronically. Plus, Brokermint’s next-day ACH payment helps you pay agents even faster.
Along with ACH payments, Brokermint also has five back office modules (transaction management, commission automation, accounting, agent management, and reporting/analytics). Brokermint’s modules have everything you need to streamline your back office.
Whether you’re looking just for an ACH payment solution or a complete back office platform, Brokermint has what you need.
Book your Brokermint demo today to see how you can pay your agents faster with less work.
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