SME Finance Forum member Xero, announced the next phase of its partnership with Stripe, enabling Xero customers to accept Automated Clearing House (ACH) bank transfers via its integration with Stripe. With the availability of ACH payments, Xero’s more than 1.2 million subscribers have yet another way to get paid quickly, safely and securely.

“Our ultimate goal at Xero is to make sure small businesses are getting paid as quickly as possible, while making the experience from set up to reconciliation seamless,” said Craig Walker, Chief Technology Officer at Xero. “Building on our partnership with Stripe, this new feature gives our customers even more ways to get paid efficiently while keeping sensitive information safe.”

Enabling ACH in Xero is easy: from within Payment Services settings, Xero customers can login to their Stripe account to connect Stripe ACH bank transfers as a payment gateway. They can then connect this to an invoice theme, which will enable the “Pay Now” button on the invoices they send to their customers.

When the recipient of that invoice makes a payment with ACH, Stripe will generate and display unique bank account details for that specific invoice, keeping the sender's bank details private. The recipient will then log into the bank of their choice, where they can initiate ACH payment using the bank details provided on the invoice.

Once the ACH payment has cleared, the money will be received into the Xero customer’s Stripe account, and the invoice will be automatically marked as paid. When Stripe transfers the money into the Xero customer’s bank account, Xero will match the payment and processing fee to the statement line for easy reconciliation.

“While ACH is one of the most efficient payment methods for businesses, it has been a traditionally cumbersome option to set up,” said Cristina Cordova, Head of Business Development at Stripe. “We’re thrilled to partner with Xero to make this payment method easily available to the millions of subscribers that rely on its software.”

Today’s news follows an announcement from Xero and Stripe last year, introducing an expanded online payment solution with automated reconciliation. Added Walker, “With the introduction of Stripe ACH, we are extending the ways a business can get paid into their Stripe account while maintaining the integrity of the first-class experience we've built between Stripe and Xero.”