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Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Payment Gateway

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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).

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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.

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Worked example

“Heartland Hardware Co.”, Elavon-acquired, 30 days ending 02 May 26. Notes:
  1. 1.9 days for cards is normal. Elavon funds Mon-Fri at T+1 with same-day cut-off at 16:00 PT.
  2. 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.
  3. eCheck.Net at 4.1 days reflects NACHA standard. No way to speed this up without paying for “Same Day ACH” service.
  4. Holiday impact: 28 May 26 (Memorial Day). A Friday-before-Memorial-Day capture funds on Tuesday, an extra day delay.
  5. 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.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

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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: Cross-connector reconciliation:

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Why is settlement so slow compared to Stripe? Stripe is a payment-facilitator with its own settlement layer; you get T+2 to T+7 default with options for Instant Payouts. Authorize.Net is a gateway only; the acquirer (your bank’s relationship) controls funding. T+1 to T+2 is acquirer-standard. To go faster: ask the acquirer for “Next Day Funding” service (often USD 5 to USD 25/month). Same Day Funding, available on Authorize.Net? Some acquirers (Elavon, Vantiv) offer same-day funding as a paid service for a flat or per-transaction fee. Authorize.Net itself doesn’t gate this; ask the acquirer. Reserve hold, when do they apply? Common for: newer merchants (less than 6 months processing history), high-risk verticals (CBD, supplements, travel-bookings far in advance), seasonal businesses. Typical 5 to 10% rolling reserve for 90 days. Discuss reserve release with the acquirer’s risk team. eCheck.Net is slow, can I speed it up? NACHA “Same Day ACH” is available; Authorize.Net supports it on Elavon and some other acquirers as a paid feature. Otherwise standard ACH is 3 to 5 business days. Holiday impact, can I plan around it? US Federal Reserve holidays (~10 per year) suspend acquirer funding. End-of-year (Christmas, New Year) and Thanksgiving create the longest lags (3 to 5 business day funding). Plan working capital accordingly. Visa ownership of Authorize.Net, settlement faster? No. Visa parent ownership is corporate; settlement speed is acquirer-driven, not gateway-driven.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Avg Settlement Time (days) is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Authorize.net and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.