How much time do you spend every week writing checks and processing bank transfers? It's not uncommon for this to be one of the most tedious and unproductive parts of accepting consignment inventory.

In partnership with Checkbook, ConsignCloud's one-click settlements let you process payouts instantly via ACH, without losing control of the process. Note that payouts are billed via your regular subscription at a rate of $1.79 each, and are only available in the US and Canada.

To get started, visit Settings » Operations » Payouts and click Get Started at the bottom of the page, which will send you to Checkbook for the account linking process.

If you already have an account, you can simply log in — if not, you can click "Don't have an account" to create one. In either case, Checkbook will ask you to authorize ConsignCloud to make payments on your behalf — click "Authorize".

Congratulations, your account is now linked! However, there is one final important step to do before you start processing payments — in order for ConsignCloud to display information about your payouts, you'll need to set up "webhooks". This sounds technical, but is just a way for Checkbook to tell ConsignCloud what the status of a payout is.

To do that, click on the link in the warning notification on your payout settings page to copy your webhook URL.

Then, navigate within checkbook.io to Settings > Developer, paste into the Webhook URL field, and click Update. Once you start processing payouts, the warning on your settings page will go away.

While you're in Checkbook, it's worth running through your settings to make sure your business info is correct, your limits are acceptable (you can request increased limits at any time), and you have a signature on file (this allows you to process payouts greater than $2,000).

To process payouts, there's nothing new you need to learn. If you've integrated checkbook, you'll simply be given a new payout type on the balance settlement form (available both on individual settlements, and on bulk settlements).

When a settlement is finalized, one payout for each account will be created in "Draft" status, then synchronized to Checkbook in the background. You can find a list of payouts and their current status at Settings » Operations » Payouts. You can also find this list in your Checkbook dashboard.

When you process a payout, an email will be sent to the recipient with a "digital check", which is simply an official record of the payout, with options provided for how to receive it.

When your consignor clicks on the "View deposit options" they'll be presented with a screen asking whether they would like to print the check, or receive the payment via ACH. If they choose to receive the payment directly, Checkbook will collect their bank account information, send the payment, and keep them up to date without you having to do a thing.

Back in ConsignCloud, you should begin to see updates come through on your payouts as your consignors begin to receive their money.

Payouts can fail for a few different reasons, few of which are truly final. The most common are:

For your convenience, ConsignCloud provides a notification on the dashboard for recent failed or expired payments which allows you to click through to get more details.

Once you have corrected the issue, you can always try sending the payout again by clicking the refresh icon on the right-hand side of the payouts table. This will create a new payout associated with the original balance settlement.

Once a payout has been accepted by a recipient, you'll generally see a "Pending" status. When the payout has finally arrived in the recipient's bank account, you'll see a "Paid" status. For more information on payout statuses, see Checkbook's documentation.