Importing Your Bank's Setup PDF

Overview

When your bank sets you up for ACH payments, they usually send a document listing everything you need: your company name and company ID, the identifying numbers for your account, and often a roster of the people or vendors you'll be paying. Instead of re-typing all of that, you can upload the PDF and let FiSTWorks read it for you.

You stay in control the whole way: FiSTWorks shows you everything it found, you decide what each piece is, and nothing is saved until you press the final button.

What Document to Ask For

Ask your bank for your ACH setup document (sometimes called an origination setup letter, ACH welcome packet, or company profile sheet). The useful ones include some or all of:

• Your company name and company ID as the bank has them on file
• Identifying numbers the bank assigned for sending payments
• A list of recipients with names, routing numbers, and account numbers

Make sure they send it as a real PDF file, not a scan or a photo of a printed page.

Why a Scan Won't Work

FiSTWorks reads the text inside the PDF. A document that was printed and then scanned or photographed is really just a picture — there is no text inside it to read, even though it looks the same on screen.

How to tell the difference: open the PDF on your computer and try to select some text with your mouse. If you can highlight and copy the words, it's a real PDF and will work. If you can't select anything — or clicking just draws a box over the page — it's a scan. Ask your bank to send the original file instead of a printed-and-scanned copy.

If you upload a scan, FiSTWorks will tell you it can't read it. Nothing is lost — you can always enter the details by hand instead.

Limits

• The file can be up to 10 MB and up to 50 pages.
• A recipient list can have up to 500 rows per import. If your roster is longer, ask the bank to split it, or import it in parts.
• The file must be a PDF — spreadsheets have their own import (see CSV Import for Recipients).

The Five Steps

Open ACH Drafter, go to the Recipients tab, and click Import from bank PDF.

Step 1 — Upload

Choose your PDF and click Upload and scan. FiSTWorks reads the document and moves you to the next step. If something is wrong with the file — it's a scan, it's too big, or it isn't a PDF — you'll see a clear message explaining what to fix.

Step 2 — What We Found

FiSTWorks shows you everything it could read: any tables (like a recipient roster) and any labeled details (like "Company Name: …"). Tables show their first few rows so you can recognize them. For safety, account numbers are hidden on screen except their last four digits.

If some lines couldn't be read, they're listed here too, so you know what you may need to add by hand later.

Step 3 — Assign

For each table, tell FiSTWorks what it is:

• Recipients — a roster of people or vendors you'll pay. Match each column to what it contains (name, routing number, account number, account type). Columns with recognizable headings are matched for you, and you can change any of them.
• Banks — a list of banks with names and routing numbers.
• Company profile — some banks print your company details as a small two-column block of labels and values. Choose this, and each line becomes its own choice: tell FiSTWorks which line is your company name, which is your company ID, and so on.
• Ignore this table — skip anything you don't want.

Labeled details found outside tables get the same treatment: mark each one as your company name, company ID, or another company detail — or ignore it.

Step 4 — Review

Every item you assigned is listed with a colored label telling you what would happen:

Two recipients with the same name but different account numbers are both treated as New — plenty of businesses legitimately pay two different accounts under the same name.

Step 5 — Done

Click Import selected. Everything you checked is saved together in one go, and a summary tells you how many recipients, banks, and company details were added or updated. Your new recipients appear on the Recipients tab, ready to use.

Nothing Is Saved Until the Final Button

Up to the moment you click Import selected, nothing has been added or changed in your account. You can click Start over at any point to throw the whole thing away and begin again.

The details FiSTWorks read from your PDF are held for up to 60 minutes while you work through the steps. If you step away longer than that, the import expires and you'll be asked to upload the file again — a small safety measure so sensitive details never sit around.

Your PDF Is Never Kept

The uploaded file itself is not stored. FiSTWorks reads the text out of it and immediately discards the file; only the text you're reviewing is held, and only until you finish or the 60 minutes pass. If you'd like to keep the document, keep your own copy — FiSTWorks won't have one.

Tips

• If your bank's roster spans several pages, that's fine — FiSTWorks stitches the pages together, even when later pages don't repeat the column headings.
• If a column wasn't matched automatically, check its heading in the dropdown yourself — unusual headings just need a manual pick.
• Importing a bank list never marks a bank as the one your payment files are sent to. You can set that separately in your bank settings.