How do I get the file format for electronic funds transfer (EFT) from my bank? I have been told I need this to set up ACH payment transfers in Business Central?

Problem:

We want to start paying vendors using ACH payments through Business Central. We currently send checks or log into the bank to process ACH payments. I have been told I need to get documentation from the bank to make sure we can generate the file properly from BC. How do I get the information from the bank?

A history lesson (of sorts):

What is ACH and is it any different from EFT? ACH (Automated Clearing House) files are EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) files. In the United States, The National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) is a not-for-profit organization that defines the rules, guidelines, and standards for the US’s EFT network. It is said that over 25 billion transactions a year are processed through this network using these guidelines and standards.

The file format defined by the NACHA guidelines used to execute domestic payment transactions is a fixed width ASCII file. Each line in the file is a record. Records include File Header, Batch Header, Detail, Batch Footer, and File Footer. The CCD (Cash Concentration or Disbursement) file format is the format we use to export payments from Business Central (BC).

Answer:

Call the banker you work with regularly. They may not be able to provide you with the information you need, but they should be able to direct you to someone that can. Often you will be referred to commercial banking services to get this information. Every bank should have a document containing the required information whether an Excel file or formal written document.

Request the EFT File Format Specifications Guide for the CCD format for electronic payments. Some banks may refer to this document as ACH or NACHA rather than EFT. You will also want to request a sample file (if not included in the document).

In addition to the specification document and a file sample, get one person’s contact information at the bank for testing and any questions. You do not want to be calling into a general support line as you work through the testing of your files.

Document Sample 1

Document Sample 2

Exported file sample

A Data Exchange Definition (DED) example of the CCD format is available in setup data and the demo database. You may find that you can use this DED format directly. In my experience, tweaking this format is frequently all that is required to get the results needed to match the specifications provided by your bank.

CCD Data Exchange Definition

“Gotchas”

1. If your bank is requesting a balanced CCD file, as far as I have been able to determine, we cannot do this out of the box in Business Central. It was possible in NAV, but unfortunately, BC can only generate an unbalanced CCD file.
2. If your bank is requesting the CTX format (with addendums), again as far as I have been able to determine, BC does not support this format OOB. It may appear that this format is supported since the US DEFAULT EFT Data Exchange Definition’s Entry Class Code is set to CTX, however, it is not possible to provide the addenda required with this file type.

Summary

Although NACHA sets standards for electronic funds transfer, I have seen many minor variations from bank to bank. Getting a specification document and a sample file are important to getting your files created and the format approved quickly by the bank.

BC provides us with one CCD sample file format (US EFT CCD), and a minor tweak or 2 may be all that is required to match what the bank needs.  BC provides us with a CTX file format sample (US EFT DEFAULT) that is incomplete. It does not include the addenda records needed for this format. However, in one instance, I found that I was able to use this format by changing the Entry Class Code from CTX to CCD. The column, line and field mapping definitions were an exact match for one bank’s CCD file format after making this change. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the bank. Lesson learned – check both file formats, one may require less tweaking than the other to make it work.

Let me know if you find this information helpful and it gets you closer to be able to say you are using BC in The Righter Way^TM