A business paying its suppliers from Canada quickly hits a wall: the transfer file Canadian banks expect has nothing in common with the one used in Europe, and nothing writes it on its own. This application produces that file, for businesses paying from Canada, character by character, and also reads what the bank sends back.
Who the application is for
For businesses based in Canada, or that pay suppliers or customers there by direct debit, whose bank requires the file format specific to Canadian financial institutions. Since each bank's rules and expectations are specific to Canada, this application is not meant for European or American payments.
What the application does
- Groups a batch of payments into a remittance tied to a bank journal, and produces the corresponding transfer file, position by position.
- Checks the file's form before producing it: anything missing from the journal, the payee's account or a payment line is flagged.
- Produces pre-authorised debits with, on each line, the payer's debit agreement reference — without transmitting the content of that agreement, which the format does not carry.
- Produces corrections that cancel a transfer or a debit already sent, reusing exactly the fields of the original item.
- Keeps a profile per bank — file separator, accent handling, file name and location — that you fill in from the specification received from your institution.
- Reads a returns file sent by the bank and matches each returned item with the corresponding payment, flagging anything that cannot be matched.
Day to day
- Fill in your bank's profile from the specification it gave you, then date it as verified once a first file has been accepted.
- Create a transfer remittance tied to that bank's journal, then check it before producing the file.
- For a pre-authorised debit, enter the agreement reference on each line before checking the remittance.
- To correct an item already sent, open a correction remittance and select the original item: its fields are reused automatically.
- On receiving a returns file, drop it into the dedicated screen and run the matching: each remittance then shows its returned items and their reason.
What the application does not do
- It does not deposit the file with the bank and does not fetch returns itself: you submit the file and retrieve the return through your own channel.
- It does not post any accounting entry from a return: a matched return remains a finding, the accounting follow-up is up to you.
- It does not assess a pre-authorised debit agreement: it asks for its reference, without checking its content or validity.
- It has not yet been tested through any real submission to a Canadian financial institution: have your bank validate a first test file before relying on it.
- Canadian transfer rules can change: it does not replace the advice of your bank or your accountant on the expected format.
Free and full editions
The free edition already writes the transfer file, compliant position by position, with its form check and the remittance log. The full edition installs on top without losing anything, and adds pre-authorised debits, error corrections, bank-specific profiles and reading of return files.
Getting started
First ask your bank for its exact file specification: separator, accent handling, expected file name, deposit channel. Then fill in that bank's profile in the application, and have a first transfer file accepted before adding debits or corrections.
Going further
To find out whether this application suits your business and how to activate it, compare the plans or write to us.