Is your institution a receiving or originating depository financial institution? Do you need to report on your Automated Clearing House (ACH) activity internally or share directly with your customers? Then the FedPayments^® Reporter Service for FedACH^® Services is right for you! We’re breaking down a few common misconceptions we hear from customers about why they think they cannot take advantage of the service.

1. I cannot use the service because my files go to a correspondent.
   This misconception is one of the most common. The truth is that even if you do not process your own ACH payments, the service can still send you reports via a FedLine Web^® Plus connection because we capture all ACH activity that comes through the Federal Reserve – even when it comes from third parties. For example, the ACH Received Entries Detail Report (XLSX) paired with the ACH Originated Entries Detail Report (XLSX)  shows many fields of your received and originated ACH entries.
2. I need a FedLine Advantage^® connection to receive reports.
   False! If you have a FedLine Web Plus connection, you can receive on-demand and scheduled reports with the service. You only need a FedLine Advantage connection if your institution wishes to use FedACH file-processing services.
3. We are a very small financial institution and we do not have a FedLine^® connection. A third party can’t set up reports for us.
   If a direct connection with the Federal Reserve Banks is not an option for your institution, then third parties that process ACH files on your behalf through the Fed can sign up for the FedPayments Reporter Service. They can receive reports for your institution and can even set them up to come directly to your inbox or online banking system.
4. We do not originate ACH transactions, so the reports will not be helpful for us.
   Do you receive ACH transactions? A number of the reports are designed especially for receiving depository financial institutions (RDFIs). The FedPayments Reporter for ACH Sample Reports (PDF) document summarizes which reports are ideal for RDFIs, originating depository financial institutions (ODFIs), receivers and originators. A few of the favorite RDFI and receiver-level reports include the ACH Remittance Advice Detail Report, ACH Routing Number Activity Report and the ACH Volume Summary by SEC Code Report.
5. If we do not set up reports to be automatically generated, there’s no way we can go back and get reports from previous months.
   While it is certainly easier to set it and forget it with scheduled reports, the truth is that you can also pull most reports on-demand for the previous 60-90 days.
6. I only need the reports now and then – not every month, so FedPayments Reporter wouldn’t work for me.
   The FedPayments Reporter Service is designed to give you flexibility in how often you receive reports. You can schedule report delivery, but you also have the option to generate reports on-demand at whatever frequency you need them. Additionally, we made some additional enhancements earlier this year to allow you to schedule the same report on multiple frequencies (daily, weekly and monthly) with the same or varying advanced setup options.