R68 return code: Untimely Return

R68 is the return reason code Untimely Return. The ODFI dishonors a return that arrived after the return deadline.

It is a dishonored return: the ODFI refuses a return it received and sends it back to the RDFI with R68 as the reason.

• The ODFI dishonors a return that arrived after the return deadline for its code.

The ODFI transmits the dishonored return within 5 banking days after the settlement date of the return.

Banking days are the Federal Reserve’s business days: weekends and Fed holidays don’t count, so a holiday in the window pushes the deadline out by a day.

• The RDFI reviews the dishonored return. If it disagrees, it can contest it with one of R71–R77 within 2 banking days after the dishonored return settles.
• Dishonored and contested returns pass between the ODFI and the RDFI; an Originator sees them only when its ODFI passes them on.

A dishonored return is an entry detail record followed by one addenda record of type 99. The addenda carries R68 in positions 4–6 and the original entry’s trace number in positions 7–21, then the details of the return being dishonored (their trace numbers, settlement dates and reason codes). The layout differs from a plain return’s; the Rules give it field by field.

To read a dishonored return record by record, open the file in NACHA Navigator, a free sister site that parses NACHA files in your browser without uploading them.

The code table on this page is the one behind the REST API and the MCP server, so a script or an AI agent gets the same answer as JSON. No key and no account.

curl -s 'https://payopskit.com/api/v1/codes/R68?set=ach-return'

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "lookup_payment_code",
    "arguments": {
      "code": "R68",
      "set": "ach-return"
    }
  }
}

{
  "code": "R68",
  "set": "ach-return",
  "found": true,
  "matches": [
    {
      "set": "ach-return",
      "code": "R68",
      "name": "Untimely Return",
      "description": "The ODFI dishonors a return that arrived after the return deadline.",
      "details": {
        "category": "dishonored",
        "timeframe": "The ODFI transmits the dishonored return within 5 banking days after the settlement date of the return",
        "timeframeKind": "banking-days",
        "timeframeDays": 5,
        "timeframeFrom": "return-settlement",
        "account": "any",
        "accountNote": null,
        "writtenStatement": false,
        "initiatedBy": "ODFI",
        "note": null,
        "effectiveFrom": null,
        "upcomingChange": null,
        "caveat": null
      }
    }
  ]
}

The deadline for a settlement date: GET /api/v1/ach/return-deadline?settlement_date=2026-11-25&code=R68 or the MCP tool ach_return_deadline.

• R73Timely Original Return
• R72Untimely Dishonored Return
• R67Duplicate Return

All ACH return codes, R01 to R85