Documentation

Going live

This page provides details about steps you must take to get a live Column environment enabled (and start moving real money).

Compliance

Depending on your intended use case, you may have to provide us with additional details about your business before you are able to go to production and process real money.

Create a root entity

After you switch your account to Live, you will be prompted to create a Root Entity. Fill out your personal or business information when prompted (this can also be done via our API).

  • Once submitted, Column will run a KYC / KYB check on the information supplied. If verified your, entity will be approved. Otherwise it will need to be manually reviewed by our team.
  • Once your root entity is verified, Column will automatically create 2 accounts.
    • Program reserve account
    • Overdraft reserve account

Fund your program reserve

Funding your program reserve account is required before you are able to originate ACH Debits. Your program reserve account is a special account with Column. Once funds are moved to this account they will be locked, and you will be unable to move them during your evaluation. When you want these funds returned to you, you must contact us and we will return them to you as long as you have do not have any outstanding ACH debits which need to be collateralized.

Generally, these funds are used cover returned ACH debits originated by you as the ODFI, which is often an indication of fraud. Consider the following scenario:

  • You initiate an ACH debit to pull $100 dollars from an external bank account.
  • You get access to those funds 2 business days after the ACH request has settled.
  • You move those funds to another account.
  • ACH Debits can be returned by the ODFI up to 60 days after settlement. The funds in program reserve will be used to fund those returns in case there are not enough funds in the account from which the ACH Debit was originated.

ACH debit limits

We limit your transaction volume for outgoing ACH debits. The volume limit correlates directly to the balance of your program reserve account. Because of the 60 day return window on ACH Debits, we require your Program Reserve to have a balance greater than your rolling 60 day ACH Debit volume. If you exceed this ratio, outgoing ACH debits will fail until you add funds to your program reserve, or your rolling 60 day volume decreases below the program reserve balance.