What this article helps with: Completing the one bank-side step that has to happen before your firm's first disbursement can go out, which is getting Confido's ACH company IDs onto your bank's authorized debit list.

Who this is for: Your Disbursements Admin, plus whoever at your firm talks to your bank. If you use an outside bookkeeper or have a treasury contact at the bank, they may be the one who makes the call.

How long it takes: Usually one phone call, or a few minutes in online banking if your bank lets you manage it yourself.

Key Terms

What do you mean when you say...

Positive Pay = a service most banks put on business accounts that blocks any ACH debit the bank does not recognize. Your bank may call it an ACH debit filter, an ACH block, or ACH Positive Pay.
Authorized debit list (allow list) = the list of companies your bank will let debit your account without stopping to ask you.
ACH company ID = the identifier your bank uses to recognize who is debiting the account. Adding it to your allow list is what tells your bank that debits from Confido are authorized.
Confido Legal = Hona's payments partner. Confido runs the banking rails that move the money.

Why this step exists

When you send a disbursement, Confido debits your trust account for the payout and your operating account for the per-disbursement fee. If your accounts have Positive Pay, your bank blocks both of those debits unless Confido is already on your allow list.

Skip it and one of two things happens:

Your disbursement fails at the bank after it was approved, and has to be recreated
Or you end up approving every single debit at your bank by hand, one payout at a time

This is the one part of setup only your firm can do. Banks accept allow list changes from the account holder, so neither Hona nor Confido can do it for you.

What to do

1. Ask your bank whether your accounts have Positive Pay

Call your bank's treasury or business banking contact and ask whether your trust account and your operating account have Positive Pay or an ACH debit filter. If you are not sure who to ask, the business banking line gets you to the right team.

2. Give your bank both ACH company IDs

Ask them to add both of these to the authorized debit list on your trust account and your operating account:

1923161746
Your firm's federal tax ID with a 1 in front of it. If your tax ID is 123456789, the second ID is 1123456789.

Both accounts matter. The payout is debited from trust and the fee is debited from operating, so a filter on either account can stop a payment.

3. Confirm it is active, then send your first payout

Ask your bank to confirm both IDs are live on both accounts. Once they are, draft your first disbursement in Hona.

What to say to your bank

If it helps, read this to them or paste it into a secure message:

"We use a payment processor called Confido Legal to send electronic settlement payments to our clients. I need to authorize their ACH debits on our trust account and our operating account. Please add these two ACH company IDs to the authorized debit list, or Positive Pay allow list, on both accounts: 1923161746, and the number 1 followed by our federal tax ID. Can you confirm once they are active?"

How to tell if this step was missed

The usual sign is a disbursement that fails after it was approved, with the money never leaving your trust account. If that happens, ask your bank whether the debit was blocked or returned, complete the steps above, then recreate the disbursement.

If your bank wants documentation from Confido before they will add the IDs, email [email protected] and we will get it for you.

FAQs

Does every firm have to do this?

Only firms whose bank has Positive Pay or an ACH debit filter on the account, which is most firms with business and trust accounts. If your accounts have no filter, there is nothing to add. Asking your bank is the only way to know for sure, and it is a much better conversation to have now than after a payment fails.

Can Hona or Confido do this for us?

No. Banks only accept allow list changes from the account holder, so this has to come from your firm.

Who at our firm should make the call?

Whoever your bank recognizes as authorized on the account. At most firms that is a partner, the office manager, or the bookkeeper. It does not have to be your Disbursements Admin, though it is worth telling them once it is done.

We are adding another trust account. Do we redo this?

Yes. Any new trust or operating account you connect needs the same two IDs added to its allow list.

We already use Confido directly. Do we still need to do this?

If you have already sent disbursements through Confido successfully, the IDs are on your allow list and there is nothing to do. If you have connected a new bank account since then, add the IDs to that account.

How do we know it worked?

Your first disbursement settling without a returned debit is the confirmation. There is no separate check to run, which is why it is worth asking your bank to confirm the IDs are active before you send a real payout.

Still stuck? Chat with our support team or email [email protected].

Positive Pay: Authorizing Confido With Your Bank Before Your First Payout