Verification Settings Explained

Every SeamlessChex account includes basic verification. This feature enables you to pre-screen checks for potential risks, and helps reduce the potential for bounced payments that result in unwanted bank fees.

When utilized correctly, basic verification can help save business sizable amounts of money and time. That's where verification settings come in. This page will help you understand the factors that result in particular verification responses, as well as give you complete control over filtering what payments get deposited. Skip below to read about Changing Verification Settings.

Basic Verification Responses

On your dashboard you will notice a column that reads 'Risk.' This column populates with 4 different verification responses, typically within 10-15 minutes of entering a payment. It takes a few minutes because Basic Verification sends out a ping to your client's bank, which, when returned, carries information about the account that results in a verification response.

Here are the 4 Verification Responses briefly explained:

• - Pass typically means that there is an active account on the other end, safe enough to run a deposit. It does not guarantee that there are sufficient funds, but acknowledges the account itself.
• - Risky indicates history of negative information on the account, which raises the risk of a bounced payment. These payments could still deposit successfully, but it may be better to check in with the client.
• - There are various reasons for why a payment may show as fail, with the most likely being that it's an incompatible account for payment debits (such as a savings, or a brokerage account). Occasionally, these payments may succeed, however more often than not, they Fail. It's up to the merchant to determine whether to proceed.
• - Unable to Verify, simply means that no information was returned. This could either mean that the routing or account information was mistyped (this would result in a bounced/rejected payment), or that the client's bank simply does not participate in this verification ping technology (which means that this could potentially still be a successful deposit). Merchant should reach out to client to confirm information.

Changing Verification Settings

To get to the Verification Settings page, click on the 'Risk' header on the View My Checks dashboard. Alternatively, you can click 'My Account' on the top right corner, then 'Account' and then selecting the Verification Settings tab.

Here you should see a page that looks like this:

The Description column explains each possible Basic Verification scenario, and the Verification Reponse column shows the relevant response you would see for each description.  Finally, the Status column defines the current action for each scenario. This drop down menu allows you to alter the action.

There are 3 different Status options:

• In Process - This is the default option, which means that payments that falls under this scenario/response will be automatically-deposited no matter what.
• In Review - This option means that the payment will be set aside, allowing you to review the payment and decide whether you would like to void or approve on a case-by-case basis.
• Void - This option means that the payment will be automatically voided and will not be processed at all. (You can always manually bring a payment back to life by duplicating it).

Our Recommendation

Every business operates differently, and that's why verification settings provides the parameters to allow you to flexibly choose what's best for you. Certain businesses may be more conservative and want only 'Pass' to be in process, and the rest to void. Other business might want more control, and leave everything for 'In Review'. And a less conservative business may want everything to be 'In Process' regardless of outcome. 

For a balanced approach, we recommend the following:

• Pass = 'In Process'
• Risky = 'In Review'
• Unable to Verify = 'In Review'
• Fail = 'Void'

This approach would allow you to automatically deposit most payments, review any that may raise questions, and void any checks that are likely to fail.

Once again, the choices are yours, and depend on knowing your business, your customers, and your bank.