Wire transfers and Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments are two fast, convenient methods of electronic payment that can be used when individuals or organizations are paying Stanford for goods or services.
Effective February 10, 2025, new functionality is available to improve efficiency and usability. The Deposits and Receipts Manager (DRM) will allow multiple claim and allocation options to include claiming to multiple PTAEs/PFOs, making a partial claim, and unclaiming (reverse) a completed claim. For more information, see the Expanded Claim Options Enhance Efficiency When Managing Deposits and Receipts news page.
Wire transfers are a same-day form of payment that can be utilized by domestic and foreign/international payers. A wire is preferred over an ACH payment as the payee can include more reference information that can be used to identify the purpose of the payment. The reference information should include the PTAO, names of the recipient and payer, purpose, or other identifying details. Note that domestic and international wire instructions vary, and details can be found in the templates below.
Depending on wire type and purpose, departments should provide a copy of the appropriate template to the paying party:
| Payment Type | Template |
| Payments to Stanford University's main account | General Template |
| Payments for a student at the university | Students AR Template |
| Gifts or Affiliates payments to the university | Gifts or Affiliates Template |
| Payments to the Office of Sponsored Research | OSR Template |
For assistance with sending payments to the Graduate School of Business, contact GSB Finance directly:
- For accounting, payroll, and general inquiries, contact the Director, Accounting & Financial Services or Payroll and Financial Manager
- For Executive Education, contact @email
The Federal Reserve Board (The Fed) provides banking services such as Clearing House (ACH) fund transfers which send electronic debits and credits to their account holders. ACH payments are only issued domestically and are primarily an overnight process before settlement into the university’s bank account. If the funds are to arrive by ACH, instruct the paying party to request their bank use a CCD+ or CTX type ACH format as this allows for more remittance advice details to be included in the addenda field. Remittance advice information should include the PFO/PTAE, names of the recipient and payer, purpose, or other identifying details.
ACH banking information for Stanford University's Wells Fargo bank accounts is the same as the domestic wire instructions, which can be found in the above Wire section.
Departments that assist a third party in arranging a wire transfer or an ACH payment to the university are responsible for ensuring that the incoming payment is properly identified and booked to the correct Project, Task, Award, and Expenditure Type (PTAE) or Project, Fund/Award, and Object Code (PFO).
Note: All transactions must include a PTA or PFO combined with an expenditure type or object code to be recorded in Oracle Financials. Expenditure types are used to record payments and expenses like salaries, purchases, business and travel expenses. Object codes are used to record incoming revenue, as well as assets, liabilities, and fund transfers.
When expecting incoming funds, look for and claim those funds on the Deposits and Receipts Manager (DRM) system from the Oracle Financials homepage Navigator menu. DRM can be used to claim to multiple PTAEs/PFOs, make a partial claim, and unclaim (reverse) a completed claim.
Departments that expect repetitive payments from the same payee should contact the Office of the Treasurer by submitting a support request to consult on whether these payments can be automatically routed to a specific PTAO.
- For more information, refer to the Learn About: Deposits and Receipts Manager system page.
- For instructions on claiming unidentified receipts and branch deposits, see How To: Claim Unidentified Receipts and Branch Deposits.
- To learn how to reverse a claim, see How To: Unclaim Unidentified Receipts and Branch Deposits.
- For assistance with claiming funds, submit a support request.
Accounts and Sub-Accounts:
Separate bank accounts or sub-accounts may be used to separate a department's receipt activity. Separate accounts are most useful for electronic receipts such as wire transfers and ACH. Payments are sent to bank account numbers specific to each department. Funds received in these accounts flow through to Stanford's central bank account and are invested by the Office of the Treasurer (OOT). Departments can view a daily record of the activity in the account or sub-account by accessing the online bank reporting system. Departments requesting bank accounts or sub-accounts are responsible for performing a monthly reconciliation.
Stanford Procurement Services offers a variety of purchasing and payment methods to best support the university’s mission as efficiently as possible while ensuring that the university meets its compliance requirements. ACH Payments and wire transfers can be requested to pay for goods or services where applicable through Expense Requests or iProcurement.
If departments need to return ACH or wire receipts to the original sender, they should utilize the Expense Requests system (ERS) to process a non-PO payment.
- See How To: Create Non-PO Payment Request for step-by-step instructions.
- For more information on ERS, see Learn About: Expense Requests System.
- For information on how to send outgoing wire payments, see How To: Request an Outgoing Wire Transfer or ACH Payment.
