Release Activity for Merchants with a Negative Reserve Balance

You can perform one-time releases and transfers of funds on negative balances.

When a negative amount is released, the system applies the amount to all departments that are configured to allow negative reserves. You need to select the merchant's Send Debit check box to ensure the merchant is debited for the negative amount being released (assuming it is not applied to any departments' reserve balances).

For example:

1. You select a merchant's Send Debit check box and release a negative reserve balance of minus $700.
2. The first department (according to the Department Priority setting) that is configured to allow negative reserves has an existing reserve balance of $1,000.

   A priority number to determine the order in which the department will collect reserve funds relative to other departments.

   For example, a department with a priority of 1 will collect the designated amount first before any other departments collect. A priority 2 department will collect the designated amount from the remaining balance after the priority 1 department has collected. A priority 3 department will then collect the designated amount from the remaining balance after the departments of priority 1 and 2 have collected, and so on.

   Changing the priority of one department will reorder the other department priority numbers accordingly.

   Note: If the ACH Deposit Cap is selected when setting a reserve, the ACH Deposit Cap field can only be populated for a department set with a priority of 1.

3. The minus $700 is applied to that department's $1,000 reserve balance, making the new reserve balance $300.

When a department that is configured to allow negative reserves has a positive reserve balance, any negative release amount is applied to that department's reserve balance.

Note: After the system has applied a positive release amount to the last department (according to the Department Priority setting), any remaining amount is applied to the first department and then any subsequent departments (according to the Department Priority setting).

This chart outlines the release activity workflow for merchants with a negative reserve balance: