MIPS ACH Payments

Effective June 1, 2026

This policy applies to electronic check payments by ACH in Virginia ABC’s Management of Inventory and Product Sales Portal (MIPS Portal) application.

By using MIPS Portal for ACH payments, account owners acknowledge and accept the following:
Participation Eligibility

• Mixed beverage licensee order contacts must have an active account with MIPS access to authorize ACH payments for licensee orders.
• Only payment methods created through MIPS by the account owner may be used for payment of licensee orders from that account.
• Pre-authorization of ACH payments requires the account owner to set a maximum allowable charge for the order and an order payment PIN to verify payment at pickup.
• Final purchase amount for the ACH payment is determined by the finalized order detail at pickup (based on the products, quantity and purchase price).
• Verification of valid photo identification of the account owner/agent and affiliated order payment PIN must be confirmed at pickup before purchased product(s) will be released.
• For any agent assigned as an alternate pick-up person:
1. The agent must be authorized by name per order in MIPS by the account owner and in so doing, the agent is authorized to determine the final purchase amount and products purchased.
2. The order payment PIN must be provided to the agent prior to pick up as required for verification of payment.

Account & Payment Method Management

• Sole responsibility for the creation, activation and deactivation of all payment methods affiliated with the account owners’ name and license.
• Sole responsibility for the accuracy of all bank account(s) and payment amounts authorized on their payment method(s) for all ACH transactions.
• Responsibility to secure account payment methods and order payment PINs that are connected to the account by safeguarding the account and affiliated email access and by reviewing affiliated account transactions.
• Responsibility to ensure ACH payments authorized for MIPS licensee orders are authorized using bank accounts associated with the business trade name or parent corporation affiliated with the licensee in the VAL system as per Virginia ABC Regulations 3VAC5-30-30 and are authorized by the account holder as per National Automated Clearing House Association (Nacha). Payments rejected by the bank may result in suspension of the licensee’s ability to use ACH (and other non-certified payment methods) as a payment method for at least one year, based on manual review.
• Virginia ABC payment policy applies to all licensee payments. The licensee is liable for unsuccessful payments on affiliated accounts, regardless of the reason (including NSF or other rejection of initiated transaction by the affiliated banking institution).
• For any returns associated with an order paid with ACH payment, refunds less than $500 may be refunded to a gift card unless otherwise determined by the account owner. All other refunds will be distributed directly to the licensee's payment method on file with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Cardinal Program. Disbursement amounts refunded through Cardinal may be subject to debt setoff and/or reduced to satisfy monies owed to the Commonwealth or the U.S. federal government in accordance with applicable law.
• Bank account and routing information are securely stored by a third-party bank and provided to Virginia ABC as an encrypted token for use with future payment requests.  Tokens with no activity will expire after 15 months.
• Virginia ABC may send email notifications related to order status, payment status or payment activity to the email address authorized for the associated MIPS account. Account owners are responsible for monitoring their email for notifications, including spam, junk and promotional folders and taking timely and appropriate action related to their orders and payments as notified.

By accepting this policy, account owners authorize Virginia ABC to initiate electronic debits against the bank account of record for all payment requests. Account owners further acknowledge that this authorization will remain in full force unless the account owner revokes the payment authorization by deactivating all tokens.