Banking with Ambient
Items marked Coming soon are being rolled out and will be available soon. See What's new for 2027.
About Ambient banking Coming soon
Ambient is Abra's banking partner for ICHRA groups. It holds the employer's ICHRA funds, and each employee has their own Ambient account, which is used to pay premiums. Open it from the group's Banking section.
Coming soon Employees see their Ambient card inside Ambient's secure window; card details never pass through Abra. Bank account numbers show only their last four digits.
Ambient Setup Coming soon
Follow the Ambient account setup checklist:
- Employer on Ambient: Abra creates the employer at Ambient from the group's name, tax ID (EIN) and address. If any of these are missing, Abra lists them first so you can fix them in Group Information. If the employer is already on Ambient, Abra links to it. The checklist also shows whether Ambient's record matches Group Information.
- Employer admin: the person at the employer who approves funding. Ambient emails them an invitation.
- Funding: the employer admin sets up funding in Ambient's own funding screen (see Funding).
A group set up directly in Ambient's own portal is recognised as already set up. Ambient allows only one employer per tax ID. If another group with the same tax ID already has the Ambient account, the checklist says so; ask Abra support to move the account, for example from a terminated group to its renewal. Group Information warns you when a tax ID is already used by another group.
Account Information Coming soon
The employer's bank account, read from Ambient: the bank name and the last four digits. To link or change the bank, use Ambient's funding screen.
Funding Coming soon
Ambient pays each covered employee's whole premium. The employer funds it, and the employees' share is collected back through payroll.
- First funding: next to Ambient's funding form, Abra suggests an amount: every enrolled employee's monthly premium plus a 10% buffer. It's only a suggestion; the employer admin can enter any amount.
- Monthly funding check: from the second month, the card shows the amount Abra recommends for the month, the Ambient balance, the next pay-out and any shortfall, and what changed since last month (new hires, waivers, terminations and so on) with the dollar effect of each. Staff confirm each month's amount. Confirming doesn't change anything in Ambient; the employer admin changes the amount in Ambient's form.
- What Ambient pays for: choose whether to include exchange (on-exchange) plan premiums (on by default) and Medicare premiums employees recorded (off by default).
- Monthly reminder: from the 20th of the month, while funding is scheduled, the group's brokers and admins get a funding reminder in the notification bell, up to three times a month.
- Funding log: each scheduled deposit, one-time or monthly, is checked against Ambient's records automatically during business hours and listed with its status, the date it was received and the balance after.
The funding check also warns on Applications if the balance looks short. Money that's scheduled but not yet received is never counted toward the balance.
Payment Methods Coming soon
Each employee's payment method at Ambient, read-only, showing the bank name and last four digits. Open a row to refresh it from Ambient.
Allowances
Monthly allowance runs and corrections aren't switched on yet. Ask Abra support about allowance pay-outs for your group.
Transactions
Press Get Transactions to see every movement at Ambient, with its time, memo and status.