What Is Premium ACH?

There is nothing novel about Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, which have been the bedrock of business and personal payments since they debuted in the United States back in 1972. But there are ways to elevate ACH payments so that they’re more secure, more efficient, and even profitable in some cases.

Take, for example, Bottomline’s proprietary Premium ACH payments. When customers automate their vendor payments through Bottomline, one of the ways they can pay their vendors is through Premium ACH. This payment type works just like “regular” ACH payments in that once a payer approves a payment, the funds are transferred from their own bank account to their vendor’s bank account. A few important differentiators stand out, however.

In this article, we’ll review those key differences, as well as why Bottomline offers Premium ACH.

What makes Premium ACH different?

While it’s true that both regular and Premium ACH payments are bank transfers, there are a few things that stand out with Premium ACH. First, these payments are sent over Bottomline’s Paymode network, where 600,000+ businesses exchange $500 billion annually with zero fraud incidents. Let’s look at some of the benefits beyond heightened security when using Premium ACH.

Efficiency

Payers seek out payables automation to digitize their vendor payments and issue electronic payment types like Premium ACH. By doing so, they can often cut payment processing time in half since they don’t have to issue paper checks to vendors and can make payments online in a few clicks instead. Once the payer approves their payments, funds arrive in a vendor’s account and the vendor receives all the remittance data they need to quickly apply the payment, saving time and reducing headaches on the vendor side of the transaction as well.

Visibility

Both payers and vendors get access to reporting with Premium ACH payments, but it’s the real-time visibility that separates this payment type from traditional ACH, to say nothing of check.

Vendors get 24-hour notice before a payment arrives and can track Premium ACH payments via their Paymode portal, allowing for real-time, on demand insights into their payments. Robust reporting is also available in the portal or mobile app to track-and-trend customers over time.

For payers, the ability to see all vendors and payments in one centralized hub that can be accessed via mobile allows for efficiency and convenience. Payers can also tap into customizable reporting to see Premium ACH payment volumes, trends, and vendors in a format that makes sense for them.

Rebate potential

For every Premium ACH payment a business makes, they receive a cash back rebate. While “rebate” may conjure an image of a modest payment you need to jump through hoops to actually receive, these rebates are much more rewarding and can add up to thousands of dollars per year and are sent right back to the accounts payable team automatically on a regular cadence – no hoops or extra steps.

In surveys, customers report using these rebates to offset the cost of implementing not just Paymode but also ERP systems, adding new staff, and other business-building initiatives, making them a potentially valuable and versatile new source of revenue.

Suppliers benefit from Premium ACH, too

Just as payers achieve better visibility and efficiency with Premium ACH, so do suppliers. By accepting Premium ACH, they also can receive improved remittance information with each payment—up to and including CTX, which can fully automate the cash application process. They can also tap into the Paymode mobile app to keep track of their payments, and submit invoices electronically to customers.

While every payment type Paymode offers is protected by multiple layers of security, including validating businesses using over 300 data points to prevent account takeovers and Business Email Compromise, vendors who accept Premium ACH can enjoy the benefits above and better fraud prevention.

Why does Paymode offer Premium ACH?

For too long, checks were the standard not because they offered advantages to payers or suppliers, but because they were familiar, relatively simple, and inexpensive by the standards of the day. Fresh and ever-changing payments challenges, ranging from shifting regulations to a rapid rise in fraud incidents, have made the check almost obsolete.

To encourage a shift to more secure ACH payments through the Paymode network, Bottomline prioritized the rollout of Premium ACH, given that it has tangible benefits in terms of efficiency, security, and speed that are easy to understand and exist for both payers and their suppliers. For Bottomline, this provides the benefit of increased adoption and the ability to protect more payments being exchanged between Paymode-enrolled businesses.

This creates a virtuous cycle where payers, vendors, and Bottomline all realize the benefits of making ACH payments in a closed environment that comes with baked-in process improvements for accounts payable and accounts receivable teams alike. In essence, Premium ACH has helped shepherd businesses into a better payments future over the past decade. While technology is changing rapidly, that will be as true in 2035 as it is in 2025.

Learn more about Premium ACH and Paymode