Transfers
A transfer is a method for moving money from one financial account to another account. Transfers can be made to and from both internal and external accounts, as long as the customer requesting the transfer has the entitlements to move money into or out of the accounts.
Account Types
Internal accounts exist within the customer’s financial institution. External accounts exist outside of the customer’s financial institution (FI), and are located within a bank or credit union that participates in the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network.
Outside accounts are a third category of account that includes brokerage accounts, loyalty programs, or other banking options that do not use the ACH network. Outside accounts cannot be used for transfers.
Transfers can be made from an internal account to an internal account, from an external account to an internal account, or from an internal account to an external account. However, transfers cannot be made from an external account to an external account; at least one account in a transfer must be within the FI.
Credits and Debits
Every transfer requires money to be removed from one account and moved into another account. Accounts that have funds moved into them are called credited an amount of money. The account that is credited money is called the target account.
Accounts that have money removed from them are debited an amount of money. The account that is debited money is called the source account. When the transfer happens, money moves from the source account to the target account.
A transfer must have both a credit and a debit transaction associated with it; however, the credit and the debit do not have to happen on the same day. During an external transfer, an account is typically debited a day or two before the other account is credited to help ensure the funds are available.
Scheduling
Transfers can occur only one time or can be scheduled to occur multiple times. When transfers are created, they are scheduled for a specific date and for the frequency of recurrence. Only one transfer in the recurrence is scheduled at any time. The next upcoming transfer in a series of recurring transfers is scheduled after the most recent occurrence has been processed. Updates to the recurring transfer will be carried over onto future transfers in the recurrence.
If a transfer is set to occur on a day that financial transactions do not take place (such as the weekend or bank holiday), Apiture Digital Banking will automatically re-schedule them for an appropriate date.
Account Entitlements
Not every account can be debited or credited during a transfer. A customer must have the correct entitlement for the account in order to credit or debit money to the account. More information on Entitlements is explained here.
Transfer States
Transfers have a state property that is updated as the transfer is processed. The potential states are:
unscheduled: The transfer has been created, but is not ready to be scheduled. The transfer will stay in an unscheduled state until it is manually scheduled.pendingApproval: The transfer must be approved before it can be scheduled. If a transfer does not require approval, this step is skipped. This is typically only for business banking.scheduled: The transfer is scheduled to be processed on the requested date. The transfer can still be edited or canceled.processing: The transfer is currently being processed. The transfer cannot be edited or canceled in this state.processed: The transfer has been processed and is completed. This does not indicate whether the transfer succeeded; while the transfer itself completed, money may have not arrived in the source account. If a transfer could not complete, it may be automatically rescheduled and re-enter theprocessingorscheduledstate again.failed: The transfer was scheduled and processed, but failed. For example, an account may have not had the requested funds available during multiple automated processing attempts. The transfer should be created again.other: There are other transfer states that Apiture’s API does not track. The transaction is in one of these states.
Once a transfer has been successfully processed, the credit or debit is recorded in the respective account’s history as a transaction. The transactions API can be used to list an account’s transaction history.