Creating and Generating ACH Files

Overview

The ACH Drafter walks you through creating a draft, adding payment batches and individual entries, and then generating a NACHA-compliant ACH file ready for submission to your bank.

Creating a New Draft

1. Navigate to ACH Drafter and click the Create Draft tab.
2. Choose your entry method:
   • Manual Entry — Build the draft step by step using the form interface.
   • Use Template — Start from a saved template. See Templates for details.
3. Click Start to begin.

Adding a Batch

Each ACH file contains one or more batches. A batch groups related transactions together. To add a batch:

1. Click Add Batch.
2. Fill in the batch details:

3. Click Save to add the batch to your draft.

Prenote Batches (Account Verification)

A prenote is a zero-dollar test transaction used to verify that a recipient's bank account details are correct before sending real payments. Banks process prenotes like regular transactions but with a $0 amount — if the account information is wrong, the bank will return the prenote, alerting you to fix the details before any money moves.

To create a prenote batch:

1. Click Add Batch as usual.
2. Check the Prenote (account verification) checkbox.
3. Fill in the SEC Code, Entry Description (defaults to "PRENOTE"), Effective Date, and Originating Bank.
4. Click Save.

When you add entries to a prenote batch, the amount is automatically set to $0.00 and cannot be changed. Everything else works the same — select your recipients and transaction types as usual.

When to use prenotes:

• Before sending a first payment to a new recipient.
• After a recipient changes their bank account details.
• When onboarding a batch of new vendors or employees.

Most banks recommend waiting 3 business days after sending a prenote before sending the first real transaction. This gives the receiving bank time to verify the account and return any errors.

Adding Entries

Entries are the individual transactions within a batch. For each entry:

1. Select a batch, then click Add Entry.
2. Fill in the entry details:

3. Click Save to add the entry.

You can add as many entries as needed to each batch.

Adding payment information to an entry

For Corporate (CCD) and Corporate Trade Exchange (CTX) batches, each entry can carry a short note of payment information — typically an invoice or PO number — that travels with the payment so the recipient's bank can pass it along. You'll find the field in the Add/Edit Entry window.

• CTX batches require it. Banks reject CTX payments without payment information, so FiSTWorks won't generate a CTX file until every entry has it.
• CCD batches treat it as optional, but including an invoice number helps your vendor apply the payment correctly.
• Keep it to 80 characters, and never include full account numbers, Social Security numbers, or card numbers — this text is visible to the banks that process the file.

Draft Summary

As you build your draft, the summary panel updates in real time showing:

• Total Batches — The number of batches in the draft.
• Total Entries — The total number of individual transactions.
• Total Credits — The sum of all credit entries.
• Total Debits — The sum of all debit entries.

Review the summary carefully before generating the file.

Generating the ACH File

When your draft is complete:

1. Click the Generate button.
2. Confirm the generation in the dialog.
3. The system creates a NACHA-compliant ACH file and downloads it to your browser.

The generated file appears in your Generation History on the Dashboard, where you can:

• Download the file again at any time.
• Send the file to your bank via SFTP.
• View the transmission status if the file has already been sent.

Editing and Deleting Drafts

• Edit — Click on a draft in the Recent Drafts list to modify its batches and entries.
• Delete — Remove a draft you no longer need. Generated files are not affected.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you create files often, keyboard shortcuts can speed things up. Click the keyboard icon at the right end of the tab bar (or press Ctrl+/) to see the full list:

• N — Start a new draft.
• Ctrl+S — Save your draft settings.
• Ctrl+G — Generate and download the file.
• Ctrl+Enter — Add an entry to your most recent batch.
• Esc — Close an open window.

On a Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl. Shortcuts only trigger actions that are currently available on screen, and single letters like N are ignored while you're typing in a field. Prefer the mouse? Turn shortcuts off with the switch in the shortcut list — your choice is remembered.

Tips

• Double-check the Effective Date on each batch — banks will process transactions on this date.
• Verify the SEC Code matches the type of transactions in the batch (PPD for consumer, CCD for corporate).
• Use the ACH Validator to check your generated files before submitting them.
• Save frequently-used draft configurations as Templates to save time on recurring payments.