ACH Batch

An ACH batch is a set of individual payment entries, grouped together inside an ACH file, that share the same company or originator identification, Standard Entry Class code, entry description and effective entry date. Under the Nacha file format, each batch opens with a batch header record and closes with a batch control record, which carries the number of entries, the total debit and credit amounts and a hash of the receiving bank routing numbers so that errors can be caught. Between them sit the entry detail records, each one an ACH entry, plus any addenda records. A payroll run, for example, might be one batch of credits, while a utility's monthly collections form a batch of debits. Batching is what makes the ACH network cheap to run, and it underlies the wider idea of batch settlement used by many payment systems.