What Is a Night Cycle?
A night cycle, created in 1979, is used to process Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers (debits and credits) at night—generally between 10:00 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The ACH is a nationwide system for transferring money electronically that is sometimes referred to as the "nighttime window."
Key Takeaways
- The night cycle processes ACH transfers, which are electronic money transfers made at night.
- While the day cycle for processing ACH transfers is 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST, the night cycle usually runs from 10:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
- The network is set up to process a large number of payments, from payroll and vendor payments to utility bills.
The Basics of Night Cycles
Corporations use night-cycle processing to move funds into concentration accounts, which are centralized deposit accounts used by institutions to aggregate funds, process and settle internal bank transactions. It stands in contrast to the day cycle, which allows processing of ACH transfers between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. EST.
Compared to a wire transfer, ACH payments take longer but are less expensive and more secure.
The Automated Clearing House specializes in processing high-volume, low-value payments. The relatively low fees charged encourage businesses to use the service. Its infrastructure was created to facilitate large payment batches so that large numbers of payments may be made simultaneously.
$100,000
This is the new same-day ACH per-transaction dollar limit as of March 25, 2020. The past limit was $25,000.
Examples of Night Cycles
The credit transfers that the ACH facilitates vary widely in nature and may include payroll, direct deposit, vendor payments, and retail payments. It also accommodates direct debit collections, which include consumer payments such as insurance premiums, utility bills, and mortgage loans. Because ACHs are net settlement systems, any given settlement may experience a delay of up to several days, which can trigger a degree of settlement risk.
FAQs
A night cycle, created in 1979, is used to process Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers (debits and credits) at night—generally between 10:00 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). The ACH is a nationwide system for transferring money electronically that is sometimes referred to as the "nighttime window."
What is nightly processing? ›
Definition. The “nightly process” (as CircuiTree refers to it) is shorthand for a set of automated processes run for a particular company. These processes typically begin around 12:30 am Central US time and usually operate over the next two to three hour period.
Do ACH transfers go through at midnight? ›
The ACH network submits transactions at 6 a.m., 12 p.m., 4 p.m., 5:30 p.m., and 10 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).
How fast do ACH payments clear? ›
ACH debits, such as bill pay or withdrawals, generally take 1-3 days to process, while ACH credits, such as direct deposits or vendor payments, generally take just one day to process. Same-day ACH, which typically requires an additional fee, processes the same business day.
What causes the day night cycle? ›
The Earth orbits the sun once every 365 days and rotates about its axis once every 24 hours. Day and night are due to the Earth rotating on its axis, not its orbiting around the sun. The term 'one day' is determined by the time the Earth takes to rotate once on its axis and includes both day time and night time.
How many hours is one whole day night cycle? ›
Day and Night Cycle Due to Rotation
One rotation takes about 24 hours to complete. Similarly, it means that at every 24 hours the earth reaches the same place in the sky where the sun appears in the sky.
How does a night deposit work? ›
A night depository is a secured drop box on the exterior of a bank where accountholders can deposit their daily cash, checks, and credit card slips outside of normal banking hours.
What is nightly program? ›
A daily build or nightly build is the practice of completing a software build of the latest version of a program, on a daily basis. This is so it can first be compiled to ensure that all required dependencies are present, and possibly tested to show no bugs have been introduced.
What time do payments go in overnight? ›
BACS payments will usually go into an account between 1am and 7am. This is the standard BACS payment time, so if a payment doesn't arrive by 7am, it may be processed the next working day.
Can I transfer money at night? ›
However, from 2020, NEFT transactions can be performed 24*7. This was done to promote digital transactions and global integration of financial markets. It must be noted that NEFT uses quite a simple mechanism to perform the transfer of funds from one bank account to another.
Usually, you'll have access to your direct deposit at the opening of business on your payday — by 9 a.m. In many cases, direct deposits hit accounts even earlier, often between midnight and 6 a.m. on payday morning. But there are factors that can affect how long it takes your direct deposit to become available.
Do banks process transactions at night? ›
Business days for banks are typically Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding federal holidays. Transactions received outside of these hours are typically posted on the next business day.
How do I know if my ACH transfer went through? ›
Tracking an ACH transaction
- Find the ACH transaction trace number. Every ACH transaction has two Trace IDs, including one for the source and one for the destination. ...
- Contact the bank. If you are the one waiting to receive a payment, you should contact your own bank with the ACH trace number. ...
- Track the payment.
How to make ACH transfers more quickly. Nearly every financial institution has a cutoff time for transfer requests; respecting those will help your money arrive on time. If you submit a transfer request after the cutoff — around the end of the business day — it generally won't be processed until the next business day.
How do I accept ACH payments instantly? ›
How to Accept ACH Payments
- Open a business account.
- Select a provider and enable ACH payments for your Point of Sale (POS). ...
- Request customer authorization. ...
- If your customer will initiate the payment, send them your routing and account number. ...
- If you'll initiate the payment, collect your customer's bank information.
What Are Circadian Rhythms? Circadian rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them.
What is the 24 hour day night cycle? ›
A diurnal cycle (or diel cycle) is any pattern that recurs every 24 hours as a result of one full rotation of the planet Earth around its axis. Earth's rotation causes surface temperature fluctuations throughout the day and night, as well as weather changes throughout the year.
What is the night time period? ›
Night's duration varies least near the equator. The difference between the shortest and longest night increases approaching the poles. At the equator, night lasts roughly 12 hours throughout the year. The tropics have little difference in the length of day and night.
What is the day night cycle that occurs? ›
The day-night cycle that occurs approximately every 24 hours is called the circadian rhythm.
