ACH is a trust-then-verify network. A payment can be reported settled and funded, and then bounce up to 60 days later under the banking network's return rules, for reasons like a closed account or a customer-disputed debit. When that happens, the bank pulls the money straight back out of your bank account. The ACH reject feature in Automatic Batch Reconciliation (ABR) records that clawback correctly in QuickBooks and, if you want, rebills your customer.
Bookkeeping only. Recording an ACH reject in Biller Genie keeps your ledger in agreement with your bank; no money moves, and nothing is sent to your gateway. Any follow-up on the return itself happens with your payment processor or bank.
This feature covers payments returned after they settled and funded. It is separate from pre-funding rejects, payments that rejected before ever being marked paid, which the Rejected Transactions report has always listed. For the reject codes themselves, see ACH and Credit Card Reject Codes.
How rejects reach you
What you experience depends on your gateway:
- Automatically, on almost every gateway. Biller Genie learns of post-settlement returns from your gateway and surfaces them for you, usually within about a day of your gateway learning of it. The reject appears in the Post-Funding ACH Rejects panel on its own; you only choose the outcome. Automatic detection looks back about 60 days, matching the banking network's return window.
- Or from the transaction page. When your processor or bank statement tells you a payment came back, open the transaction in Biller Genie. Once the payment has settled, the ACH Reject button is there to record it, and Biller Genie confirms the return with your gateway when you click.
- If no button appears. A small number of gateways cannot confirm a return reliably enough for Biller Genie to act on it. If your processor notifies you of a return and no button appears on the settled transaction, record the adjustment directly in your accounting software. Your Biller Genie contact can tell you whether your gateway is one of them.
However a reject reaches you, the accounting that follows is identical.
The Post-Funding ACH Rejects panel
When batch reconciliation for ACH is active, a Post-Funding ACH Rejects panel appears at the top of the Rejected Transactions report. The panel is a work queue of post-funding rejects that still need action: each row shows the detected date, customer, amount, transaction ID, and invoice, with a Resolve action. A reject on a bulk payment shows as a single row for the full amount of that payment, and the regular rejected-transactions grid sits below the panel.
Choosing Resolve opens the same Write Off and Rebill Invoice choices described below. Once a reject is resolved, it leaves the list and cannot be actioned again; the export to CSV keeps the full history. If your required accounts and items are not mapped and synced yet, the action buttons are disabled, with a link to your accounting settings so you can finish the setup.
The Post-Funding ACH Rejects panel at the top of the Rejected Transactions report
The panel's Resolve window with the Write Off and Rebill Invoice options
The ACH Reject button
On supported gateways, every settled ACH transaction's detail page shows the Record ACH Reject button, and it stays there until the reject is resolved. ABR's ACH module must be active with all required accounts mapped.
If your gateway has not yet reported the payment as returned, clicking the button shows a warning and the button is disabled until you refresh the page; try again once your gateway reflects the return. If the button never appears on a settled transaction, your gateway is one of the few that cannot confirm a return reliably, and you should record the adjustment directly in your accounting software.
Before: the payment has not been reported returned, so no reject button is shown
After: the gateway shows the payment as returned and the Record ACH Reject button appears
Choosing the outcome: Write Off vs Rebill Invoice
The reject modal gives you two options. Both ask "Are you sure?" before continuing, and the decision is final.
- Write Off. Accept the loss and close it out. A journal entry moves the amount to your Returned Payments account.
- Rebill Invoice. Collect again. The returned payment is reversed and a new invoice is created so you can collect the amount again. Both entries sync to your accounting software on the next sync.
The Write Off option in the reject modal
The Rebill Invoice option in the reject modal
Confirming a Write Off
What appears in QuickBooks
ACH rejects never touch your sweep account; the clawback comes straight out of your bank account, and the entries mirror that.
- Write Off: one journal entry debits Returned Payments and credits your ACH settlement (bank) account, so your books match the bank's withdrawal.
- Rebill Invoice: the same journal entry posts, followed by a rebill invoice using your Returned Payment item. The invoice syncs back into Biller Genie as a normal open invoice, connected to the same customer, ready for them to pay again.
The entry in your bank (checking) account removing the original funds
The corresponding entry in the Returned Payments account
The journal entry memo noting the invoice was returned due to an ACH reject
The rebill invoice synced back to Biller Genie for the customer to pay
If your returned payment was taken out of a later deposit
Some processors do not withdraw a returned ACH payment from your bank account separately. Instead, they deduct it from a future deposit, the same netting pattern described in Reconciling When Chargebacks Are Netted From Your Deposit. If that is how your processor works, the entries posted when you record a reject assume a separate withdrawal, so after you record the reject your books are off in a predictable way: your sweep account holds a leftover balance equal to the returned amount, and your bank account in QuickBooks shows a withdrawal that never separately occurred at your bank.
The fix is one journal entry that moves the returned amount from your sweep account to your settlement (bank) account:
| Account | Debit / Credit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement Account (your bank account) | Debit | Returned amount |
| Settlement Sweep Account | Credit | Returned amount |
QuickBooks Online steps
- Click + New > Journal entry.
- Line 1: choose your settlement (bank) account and enter the returned amount in the Debits column.
- Line 2: choose your sweep account and enter the same amount in the Credits column.
- Add a memo like "ACH return netted from deposit", then click Save.
QuickBooks Desktop note
In QuickBooks Desktop, make the same entry from the Company menu > Make General Journal Entries: debit your settlement (bank) account, credit your sweep account, same amount and memo.
How to tell this applies to you: after you record an ACH reject, your sweep account is off by exactly the rejected amount. That is the signature of a return netted from a deposit. Once the journal entry posts, your sweep returns to zero and both accounts match your bank statement again.