Input Deadlines for ACH Direct Payments & Deposits

Input deadlines ensure that your payments are received in sufficient time to be credited or debited to your customer’s account on the payment due date. Input deadlines depend on the destination of the financial institution and the currency being used. Please note that if the payment date falls on a non-business day, then the item is processed to your customers' account on the next business day.

Effective September 17th, 2018, RBC’s Automated Clearing House (ACH) service will be extending our deadline for credit payments that are due next business day (or passed due) and for debits due today or in the past. Please refer below to the Input Deadlines for Next Day Payments, for the new processing times.

Effective October 15th, 2018, clients can now process Canadian dollar credit payments with same day funds availability. Please refer below to the Input Deadlines for Same Day Payments schedule for the various deadlines and funds availability.

Input Deadlines for Next Day Payments

Input Deadlines for Same Day Payments


Payments Canada is the governing body of the Canadian Clearing System. Payments Canada established the guidelines for the processing of electronic payments and RBC follows dictating how financial institutions must accept and return electronic transactions.

CAD and USD payments made to Canadian banks have different submission deadlines. USD payments destined to Canada are only exchanged once a day. All USD payments are settled in the United States, not Canada. Therefore payments can only be exchanged when it is a business day in both Canada and the United States.

More information about input deadlines:

Receiving a Confirmation Report

How Deadlines Affect Past Due Transactions

Special Considerations for Payments Destined to United States

When to Submit Your Input Files

The times indicated below are the absolute deadline times when RBC Royal Bank starts processing payments for distribution. To ensure your payments are processed correctly, you must ensure that your input files are transmitted, processed with no errors, and balanced by those times. Consideration must also be given to allow for sufficient time to screen your payments if you are sending payments to the United States or are designated as a Foreign Client. You will need to check the Screening Times.

To allow for correction of errors, we recommend that you send your input file at least one hour before the minimum input deadline times.

Contact your Cash Management Client Support Centre for more information on daily cut-off times in your area.

Some indirect clearers in Canada may still require an extra day to process your ACH Direct Deposits transactions. You will need to check the Financial Institution File (FIF) of the receiving institution to determine if this is the case. The times indicated above for ACH Direct Deposits destined to Canada are based on the serviceability Code of 1 for payments due next business day and serviceability Code of 0 for Same Day Canadian credits processing.