Testing Transfers #

The Sandbox environment does not replicate any bank transfer processes, so a pending transfer will not clear or fail automatically after a few business days as it would in production. The transfer will simply remain in the pending state indefinitely.

Simulate bank transfer processing #

There are two options available for processing or failing bank transfers in the Sandbox environment.

• Option 1: your application will call the "sandbox-simulations" endpoint (referenced below) which will process or fail the last 500 bank transfers that occurred on the authorized application or Sandbox account.
• Option 2: you'll use the "Process bank transfers button" in the Sandbox Dashboard, which will process or fail the last 500 bank transfers that occurred on your Sandbox account or any API Customers you manage.

Sandbox simulations request and response

POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/sandbox-simulations
Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json
Content-Type: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json
Authorization: Bearer {Your access token}

...

{
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/sandbox-simulations",
      "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
      "resource-type": "sandbox-simulation"
    }
  },
  "total": 8
}

Process bank transfers button #

The Dwolla Sandbox Dashboard provides a convenient way to simulate bank transfer processing. In the left-side navigation, locate and click the "Process bank transfers" button.

This button offers the same functionality as the "sandbox-simulations" endpoint (mentioned earlier) and allows you to simulate the processing of bank transfers within the Sandbox environment.

By clicking the button, Dwolla will process or fail the last 500 bank transfers associated with your Sandbox account or any API Customer accounts you manage.

Test RTP transfers #

To create a Real-time payment (RTP) transfer, you need to attach a funding-source that is RTP enabled to your Customer. The Clearing House maintains lists of all financial institutions in the RTP® Network and all RTP-enabled Routing/Transit Numbers. Use one of the routing numbers from the list to create an RTP-enabled funding-source in your Sandbox account. The account number can be any random number of 4-17 digits.

Use our concept article for a more in-depth overview of Dwolla’s Real-Time Payments product (RTP).

Test bank transfer failures #

Transfers to or from a bank account can fail for a number of reasons (e.g. insufficient funds, invalid account number, etc.). When a bank transfer fails, the associated financial institution that rejected the transaction assigns an ACH return code and a transfer failure event is then triggered in Dwolla. Dwolla allows you to trigger various bank transfer failures by specifying an “R” code in the funding source name parameter when creating or updating a funding source for a Dwolla Account or API Customer. When a transfer is initiated using a funding source that has an “R” code assigned to its name, a transfer failure event will trigger and the status will update to failed when you simulate bank transfer processing (as mentioned above).

Dwolla allows you to pass in a few different sentinel values that are used to test different bank transfer failure scenarios. The list of available sentinel values cover the most common uses cases where ACH return codes can be triggered in production.

List of codes for testing bank transfer failures

Our concept article has more information on bank transfer failures, and a list of common return codes and actions.

Example of using a sentinel value for testing bank transfer failures

This example assumes that a funding source has already been attached to an account. Once the funding source name has been updated to reflect the ACH failure scenario you want to test, then you can initiate a transfer to or from that funding source via the API.

POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/692486f8-29f6-4516-a6a5-c69fd2ce854c
Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json
Content-Type: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json
Authorization: Bearer pBA9fVDBEyYZCEsLf/wKehyh1RTpzjUj5KzIRfDi0wKTii7DqY

...

{
  "name": "R03"
}