Accounts Payable
Debts owed to your business’s creditors.

Accounts Receivable
Debts other individuals or businesses owe to your business.

Acquiring bank
A bank that provides credit card merchant accounts and is responsible for submitting credit card purchase information to the credit card associations.

Address Verification Service (AVS)
A chargeback and fraud-reduction service, which verifies the billing address provided by the cardholder with the credit card company before approving a transaction.

Audit
An inspection of financial accounts, records, and accounting procedures, which can be performed either internally, or by an independent auditing organization.

Authorization
Approval from the credit card issuer which allows you to process a transaction for the specified amount.

Authorization Code
This code verifies that you have received authorization from the credit card issuer to process a specific transaction. This number should be recorded and saved for future reference.

Automatic Bill Payment
Recurring, automatic charges to a credit or debit account for a specified service. Automatic payments must be arranged and authorized by the customer.

Automatic Check Handling (ACH)
A form of electronic payment, designed to be a sort of e-check or electronic check payment. ACH is usually used to process higher volumes or small-dollar payments for settlement issues within 1 to 2 business days. These transactions are handled much the same way that written checks are handled. The clearinghouse divides all ACH files received from member banks for the day and divides them according to originating bank and paying bank, totals the accounts, and credits or debits all accounts accordingly. ACH can also mean Automatic Clearinghouse.