Stripe Enables ACH Payments For Xero

Xero, an accounting platform for small businesses (SMBs) around the world, announced news on Tuesday (Feb. 6) that it is expanding its partnership with Stripe to enable Xero customers to accept ACH bank transfers via Stripe’s platform.

According to a press release, Xero said by including ACH payment acceptance, its more than 1.2 million subscribers now have another way to get paid quickly in a secure manner.

“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, in a press release announcing the news. “Building on our partnership with Stripe, this new feature gives our customers even more ways to get paid efficiently while keeping sensitive information safe.”

In order to enable ACH payments via Xero, customers just have to log in to Stripe from within the Payment Services setting to enable Stripe ACH bank transfers as a payment gateway. After that, they can connect it to an invoice and even create a “Pay Now” button on invoices that are sent to customers. When a payment is made with ACH, Stripe will generate and display the bank account details for that invoice but keep the bank details of the payee secret. The invoice recipient logs into their bank and initiates the ACH payment using the bank details that were provided on the invoice. Upon the ACH payment clearing, the money will show up in the Xero customer’s Stripe account. The invoice is automatically marked as paid at that point, Xero explained.

“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 & Partnerships at Stripe, in the same press release. “We’re thrilled to partner with Xero to make this payment method easily available to the millions of subscribers that rely on its software.”

Last year, Xero and Stripe announced an expanded online payment offering that included automated reconciliation, the companies noted in the press release.