Transfer Processing Times #

Bank-to-bank transfers #

When utilizing Dwolla to facilitate bank-to-bank transfers, you can see that there are two steps involved in the movement of funds between banks:

• ACH Payment In (Debit) - Funds moving from the source bank account into the Dwolla Network.
• ACH Payment Out (Credit) - Funds moving into a destination bank account from the Dwolla Network.

Let's illustrate the movement of funds for a bank-to-bank transfer in the diagram below.

Bank Into Dwolla Network (ACH Payment In) #

Transfers into the Dwolla Network from a bank, including transfers that pass through the network (balance) to another Customer’s bank account, can be canceled up until the transfer is exported out of the Dwolla Network. To determine if a transfer is eligible for cancellation, Dwolla will return a cancel link on the transfer resource. The export cut off time for Standard and Next-Day ACH transfers is 4 p.m. Central Time. The export cut off time for Same Day ACH is 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. Central Time every business day.

Note: This is not a hard cut off. Occasionally, the export out of the Dwolla Network may be delayed or could take time to process, causing transfers created some time after the cut off to be exported in the same batch. We recommend that you use the cancel link returned on the transfer resource to determine if a transfer is cancellable rather than relying on the export timing.

ACH payment in (Debit)- Standard ACH clearing

Standard ACH transfers from a bank to the Dwolla Network will take 3-4 business days to settle. ACH is known as a next-business day settlement system, however, to account for ACH returns and processing delays by financial institutions the processing timeline is extended. With this ACH processing, funds can be held for 3-4 days to allow for checks on common return codes; including insufficient funds and basic checks for valid bank accounts. If during ACH processing a failure is discovered as funds are held, the transfer will fail and be marked with a return code. To learn more about the various ACH return codes that can be returned systematically on a transfer failures, take a look at our transfer failures developer resource article.

ACH payment in (Debit) - Next Day ACH clearing

Dwolla offers expedited clearing into the Dwolla Network from a bank account. Using next-day ACH transfers, funds will be made available in the Dwolla Network 1-2 business days after the transfer is created. Next-Day ACH transfers are an account setting that can be enabled on an account-level basis for you and users that send funds on your application. After receiving proper approval from Dwolla, we will enable transfers into the Dwolla network as next-day. In the case where you would want to slow down the availability of incoming funds to standard ACH, you will need to specify this in the API transfer request. To learn more on how to set transfers to the default standard processing, refer to the clearing object in our API Reference Docs.

ACH payment in (Debit) - Same Day ACH clearing

Dwolla offers expedited clearing into the Dwolla Network from a bank account. Using same-day ACH Debit transfers, funds will be made available in the Dwolla Network on the same business day. For instance, if a Same Day Debit transfer is created prior to 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. Central Time, the funds will be available in the Dwolla Network by the end of that business day. Same Day Debit transfers are an account setting that can be enabled on an account-level basis for debit transfers. After receiving proper approval from Dwolla, you can create a Same Day Debit on a per-transfer basis by specifying this in the clearing object of an API transfer request.

Refer to the clearing object in our API Reference Docs for more information.

Dwolla Network Out To Bank Account (ACH Payment Out) #

Transfers out of the Dwolla Network can be canceled at any point until 4 p.m. Central Time on that same business day if the transfer was initiated prior to 4 p.m. Central Time. If a transfer was initiated after 4 p.m. Central Time, it can usually be canceled anytime before 4 p.m. Central Time on the following business day. To determine if a transfer is eligible for cancellation, Dwolla will return a cancel link on the transfer resource.

ACH payment out (Credit) - Standard ACH clearing

Standard clearing time out of the Dwolla Network to a bank takes 1-2 business days to settle. If a transfer is created prior to our 4 p.m. cutoff time, the funds will be sent through the ACH Network for processing. Transfers created after our 4 p.m. cutoff time will result in the funds being processed out of the Dwolla Network the following day.

ACH payment out (Credit) - Same-Day ACH clearing

Upgrading exports out of the Dwolla Network to a bank using same-day ACH clearing will push funds to the destination bank on the same day. For instance, funds moving out of the Dwolla Network prior to 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. Central Time will be available in the recipient’s bank account by the end of the day.

For more information on Same Day ACH, reference our Concept article which explains Same Day Debits and Credits in full detail.

Clearing example #

In this bank-to-bank transfer request example we have next-day ACH enabled, but we want to slow the transfer clearing into the Dwolla Network back to standard ACH. However, we feel comfortable letting this transfer export out of the Dwolla Network with same-day ACH clearing to the destination bank.

{
  "_links": {
    "source": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/9615fc1d-8855-4ac2-ab11-e5469c66c8e8"
    },
    "destination": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/b2d83ee5-5834-4cb7-9820-98149aff5063"
    }
  },
  "amount": {
    "currency": "USD",
    "value": "10.00"
  },
  "clearing": {
    "source": "standard",
    "destination": "next-available"
  }
}

For more information on Same Day ACH, reference our Concept article which explains Same Day Debits and Credits in full detail.

Total time to Processed #

The scenarios in the table below outline the total processing time for a given bank-to-bank transfer.

Customer to Customer Bank Transfers