Overview

The following guide outlines how to initiate Real-Time and / or ACH Same Day T+0, account-to-account payouts and disbursements. For standard ACH (T+1, T+2, T+4), please see Astra's Guide to Accelerated ACH

Prerequisite: FBO Settlement Account

In order to leverage Astra’s Real-Time or ACH Same Day (T+0) Account-to-Account Payment Flows, Astra must first set up an FBO Settlement Account for your Client / Tenant. This specific account will be designated as a “Payment Instrument”.

Once Astra creates this account, your team can obtain details about this Payment Instrument, such as the Account ID, Account Number, and Routing Number through the following endpoints:

Client Configuration

In addition to creating an FBO Settlement Account, Astra will also need to configure your Sandbox and Production Astra clients accordingly for Real-Time and ACH Same Day (T+0) settlement speeds.

Account-to-Account | Real-Time & T+0

Core Documentation link: https://docs.astra.finance/reference/post_v1-routines

To create an Account-to-Account Routine with a specified settlement speed of real-time (RTP/FedNow) or T+0 (ACH Same Day), please use the Routine request above and specify the FBO Settlement Account (Payment Instrument) as the source_id.

Additional notes below:

source_id needs to be the ID of your FBO Settlement Account Payment Instrument
- To locate your Payment Instrument ID, please reference the following chapter:
  Payment Instruments
preferred_settlement_speed now accepts two new values: real-time and T+0
- real-time = Real-Time Payment (RTP) and FedNow
- T+0 = Same Day ACH
The parameter disable_alternative_routing indicates whether to use an ACH T+0 fallback. By default this parameter is set to false meaning that ACH T+0 fallback will be used if there is an issue with RTP/FedNow. Set this parameter to true if you do not want the ACH T+0 fallback and would like the transfer to fail instead.

Account RTP/FedNow “Real-Time” Capability Check

Core Documentation Link: https://docs.astra.finance/reference/get_v1-accounts-id

To check the eligibility of an account for real-time payments (RTP/FedNow), please use the
endpoint above and provide the Astra account_id.

Additional notes below:

There is a new boolean field returned called real_time_enabled
- true = The account is eligible for real-time account-to-account transfers.
- false = The account is not eligible for real-time account-to-account transfers.