At a glance
Average days from successful capture to acquirer-funded bank deposit. Measures the cash-flow lag between customer-paid and merchant-cash-in-bank. Acquirer-driven, not Authorize.Net-driven (Authorize.Net hands the batch off; the acquirer funds).
| What it counts | AVG(deposit_date - capture_date) for settled card transactions. eCheck.Net (ACH) tracked separately due to structurally longer lag. |
| Typical card baseline | T+1 to T+2 business days for major US acquirers (Elavon, Vantiv / Worldpay / Fiserv, TSYS). Same-day funding available for some accounts at premium fee. |
| eCheck.Net (ACH) | T+3 to T+5 business days. NACHA-rule-driven, not negotiable. |
| Holiday impact | Federal Reserve holidays push funding by 1 day. |
| Reserve effect | Acquirers may withhold a rolling reserve (typically 5 to 10% for 90 days) on newer or higher-risk merchants; this card excludes reserved funds from the deposit calc. |
| Currency | USD-dominant. |
| Time window | 30D. |
| Alert trigger | >5 days flags acquirer-side settlement issue. |
| Roles | owner, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Authorize.net data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
“Heartland Hardware Co.”, Elavon-acquired, 30 days ending 02 May 26.| Method | Avg days | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Visa / Mastercard | 1.8 | Standard T+1 to T+2 |
| Amex | 2.3 | Amex direct, slightly slower |
| Discover | 2.0 | Direct |
| eCheck.Net (ACH) | 4.1 | NACHA rules |
| Card-only blended | 1.9 | |
| Including ACH | 2.4 |
- 1.9 days for cards is normal. Elavon funds Mon-Fri at T+1 with same-day cut-off at 16:00 PT.
- A capture on Friday 14:00 PT settles Monday morning. That’s 3 days clock time, T+1 in business days. The card averages T+1 to T+2 over the month due to weekends.
- eCheck.Net at 4.1 days reflects NACHA standard. No way to speed this up without paying for “Same Day ACH” service.
- Holiday impact: 28 May 26 (Memorial Day). A Friday-before-Memorial-Day capture funds on Tuesday, an extra day delay.
- Reserve-held funds excluded. Heartland is on a no-reserve account (10+ years processing history); newer merchants may see headline number lower because reserved funds aren’t counted in deposits.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it |
|---|---|
aut_payouts_pending | Captured-but-not-yet-deposited balance. |
aut_payout_age_days | Oldest pending payout. |
aut_total_volume | Gross volume; this card shows lag to bank. |
Stripe stripe_avg_settlement_days / PayPal pp_avg_payout_days | Cross-PSP comparison. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look: Authorize.Net Dashboard does not show settlement-lag directly; refer to the acquirer (Elavon / Vantiv / Fiserv) statement and the merchant business-bank account deposit dates. Why our number may differ:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Pacific batch cut-off vs UTC. |
| Reserve withholding | Either | Acquirer reserves not counted as deposits. |
| Holiday calendar | Either | US Federal Reserve holiday alignment. |
| Comparison | Expected | Why |
|---|---|---|
aut_avg_settlement_days ↔ acquirer statement | Same | Source data. |