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ACH Drafter — Setup

Overview

Before you can create ACH drafts, you need to complete a three-step setup process. The setup wizard guides you through configuring your company information, adding bank accounts, and creating recipients.

Accessing Setup

  1. Navigate to ACH Drafter from the top navigation menu.
  2. Click the Setup tab.
  3. The setup stepper shows your progress through the three steps.

Step 1: Company Information

Your company information appears in every ACH file you generate. Fill in the following fields:

Field Description
Company Name Your organization's legal name (up to 16 characters in the ACH file).
Company ID Your company's identification number, typically your EIN/Tax ID prefixed with 1.
Company Entry Description A brief description of the transactions (e.g., "PAYROLL", "VENDOR PMT").

Click Save after entering your company details. You can return to edit this information at any time.

Step 2: Bank Accounts

Add the bank accounts that will originate your ACH transactions. Each bank account requires:

Field Description
Bank Name A friendly name to identify this bank (e.g., "Primary Checking").
Routing Number The 9-digit ABA routing number of the originating bank.
Account Number Your account number at the originating bank.
Account Type Checking or Savings.

Adding a Bank

  1. Click Add Bank to open the form.
  2. Enter the bank details.
  3. Click Save. The routing number is validated for correct format and check digit.

You can add multiple bank accounts and select which one to use when creating each draft.

Editing or Removing Banks

Use the Edit and Delete buttons in the banks table to manage your accounts.

Step 3: Recipients

Recipients are the individuals or businesses that will receive (or send) payments through your ACH files. Each recipient requires:

Field Description
Name The recipient's name (up to 22 characters in the ACH file).
Routing Number The 9-digit ABA routing number of the recipient's bank.
Account Number The recipient's bank account number.
Account Type Checking or Savings.
ID Number An optional identifier for the recipient (e.g., employee ID).

Adding Recipients

You can add recipients in three ways:

  • Manual entry — Click Add Recipient and fill in the form.
  • CSV Import — Import multiple recipients at once from a CSV file. See CSV Import for Recipients for details.

Managing Recipients

Use the table actions to Edit or Delete individual recipients. The search box filters the recipient list by name or account number.

Archiving Banks and Recipients

Once a bank account or recipient has been used in a payment file, you can't delete it — that history needs to stay intact for your records. If you try to delete one and it's been used, you'll see a message explaining this and suggesting you archive it instead.

Archiving is how you retire a bank account or recipient you no longer use, without losing anything. An archived bank or recipient:

  • Disappears from your everyday Banks and Recipients lists.
  • No longer shows up when choosing a recipient or bank while building a draft.
  • Stays fully intact on any past payment file — nothing about your history changes.

Showing Archived Items

Each list has a Show archived switch. Turn it on to see everything you've archived, shown in a muted style with an "Archived" label. Your choice is remembered the next time you visit that list.

Bringing an Item Back

Click Unarchive next to any archived bank or recipient to make it active again — it will reappear in your lists and become available to choose again when building drafts.

A Few Rules to Know

  • You can only archive a bank account once every recipient tied to it has also been archived. If you try to archive a bank while it still has active recipients, FiSTWorks will tell you how many are still active.
  • When bringing things back, unarchive the bank before unarchiving its recipients — if you try to unarchive a recipient while its bank is still archived, you'll be asked to unarchive the bank first.
  • If you add a new bank using the same routing number as one you've archived, FiSTWorks will recognize it and suggest unarchiving the existing bank instead of creating a duplicate.
  • If you try to add someone whose bank account matches a recipient you've already archived, FiSTWorks will ask you to unarchive that recipient instead of creating a second one on the same account.
  • When a CSV import includes someone whose bank account matches an archived recipient, the preview marks the row "will be unarchived" and the import restores that recipient automatically — no duplicate is created, and the import summary tells you how many were brought back.

Setup Status

The ACH Drafter Dashboard shows your setup status at a glance:

  • A green checkmark indicates a completed step.
  • The dashboard shows your bank count and recipient count.
  • You can return to setup at any time by clicking the Setup tab.

Next Steps

Once setup is complete, you're ready to create your first ACH draft.