Build a CPA-005 EFT Payment File

Skill: Convert a payment batch into a CPA Standard 005 EFT file

Region: Canada Category: Payments — Automated Funds Transfer (AFT) / EFT Does: Takes a batch of payment instructions (payroll deposits, supplier payments, pre-authorized debits) and produces the CPA Standard 005 Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT/AFT) file — the fixed-width record file made up of an A (header), one or more C (credit) and/or D (debit) detail records, and a Z (trailer), that an originator uploads to its financial institution for clearing through Payments Canada's Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS). Standard: Payments Canada (CPA) Standard 005 — Standards for the Exchange of Financial Data on AFT Files

This is a fixed-width flat file, not XML or JSON: every field sits at an exact column position inside a 1464-character logical record and is space- or zero-padded. Most financial institutions layer their own profile on top of CPA-005 (file naming, originator/data-centre numbers, record-length and segment-count limits, allowed transaction codes, test vs. production flags). Always validate against your FI's AFT/EFT specification before transmitting — column rules below follow the base CPA-005 standard but FI variations are common.

When this applies

• You are an originator (employer, biller, payer) that has signed an AFT agreement with a Canadian financial institution and been assigned an originator (client) number and one or more logical record / data-centre identifiers.
• You need to move money to (credit) or from (debit) Canadian bank accounts in CAD (or USD via the equivalent USD stream): direct-deposit payroll, vendor payables, government remittances, pre-authorized debits.
• The file clears through the ACSS; settlement happens on the due date you encode, subject to your FI's cut-off times and the file-creation lead time.
• Not for: wire transfers (use the FI's wire/SWIFT channel), Interac e-Transfer, or real-time rail payments. Those are separate systems.

Conversion procedure

1. Read the source. Accept a CSV/JSON/spreadsheet payment register, or pasted key-value text. Each row is one payment: payee name, institution number, transit (branch) number, account number, amount, due/payment date, and credit-vs-debit direction. Header-level inputs (originator number, originator short name, file creation number, return institution/transit/account, currency) are supplied once.
2. Extract fields. Pull every value in the field map below. If the originator number, an institution/transit/account, an amount, or the due date is missing or ambiguous, stop and ask — never invent a transit or account number.
3. Normalize identifiers. Strip hyphens/spaces from institution, transit, and account numbers. Institution number = 3 digits; transit (branch) = 5 digits; together they form the 9-digit routing point. Right-justify the account number and zero-fill to 12 positions. Upper-case and pad/truncate names to their fixed widths.
4. Convert amounts to cents. Amounts are whole cents with no decimal point: $1,234.56 → 0000000123456 (10 digits, zero-filled). Never write a dollar sign, comma, or period.
5. Encode the due date in Julian. The due (payment) date is 0YYDDD — a leading 0, the last two digits of the year, and the 3-digit day-of-year (001–366). Same format for the file creation date in the header.
6. Assemble the records. One A header, then C/D detail records (each detail record holds up to 6 transaction segments), then one Z trailer. Number every logical record sequentially. Reference the document structure and worked example as the template.
7. Compute the trailer. Sum the credit count/value and debit count/value across all detail segments and write them into the Z record. Reference the calculation rules.
8. Validate. Work through the validation checklist; confirm record length and against your FI's AFT spec before upload.

Source → CPA-005 field map

A — File Header record (one per file)

C — Credit detail record / D — Debit detail record (repeatable; up to 6 segments each)

Z — File Trailer record (one per file)

Document structure

CPA-005 AFT FILE  (each logical record = 1464 characters)
├── A  File Header record            (exactly one, first)
│     record type · seq · originator no. · file creation no. · creation date (Julian) · destination DC
├── C  Credit detail record(s)       (zero or more — money OUT to payees, e.g. payroll/vendor)
│     │  header fields (type · seq · originator no. · file creation no.)
│     └── 1–6 transaction segments, each:
│          txn code · amount (cents) · due date (Julian) · institution · transit · account
│          · originator short name · payee name · originator long name · reference · return inst/transit/acct
├── D  Debit detail record(s)        (zero or more — money IN, e.g. pre-authorized debits)
│     └── same segment layout as C (1–6 segments per record)
└── Z  File Trailer record           (exactly one, last)
      record type · seq · originator no. · file creation no. · total debit value/count · total credit value/count

• A file may contain only C, only D, or a mix; the Z trailer always reports both credit and debit totals (zero where absent).
• Each C/D logical record packs up to 6 transaction segments; start a new C/D record for transactions 7, 13, 19, …
• Logical records are fixed at 1464 characters; FIs differ on whether records are newline-terminated or one continuous stream — follow the FI spec.

Code tables

Record types

Transaction (CPA) codes — selected

Transaction codes are 3-digit CPA codes; the full list lives in CPA Standard 007 / your FI's AFT spec. Use the code your FI maps to the payment's purpose — credits (200–299) on C records, debits (400–499) on D records, government codes per the FI.

Routing components

Calculation rules

• Amounts are integer cents. amount_cents = round(dollars × 100); written zero-filled, right-justified, no separators. $2,500.00 → 0000250000.
• Due date (Julian) = 0 + YY (last two digits of year) + DDD (ordinal day-of-year, 001–366). 2026-03-16 → day 075 → 026075. The file creation date in the A record uses the same 0YYDDD form.
• Trailer credit total = Σ of every C-segment amount (in cents); trailer credit count = number of C-segments. Likewise for debit total/count from D-segments.
• Reconcile: total transaction count in the trailer must equal the number of C-segments + D-segments actually written; total value must equal the summed segment amounts. Recompute — never copy a register subtotal blindly; flag any mismatch with the source.
• Account number right-justified, zero-filled; institution/transit left-zero-padded to 3/5 digits. Names upper-cased, left-justified, space-padded (truncate to field width — typically 30 for the long name, 15 for the short name).
• One file = one currency. CAD and USD streams are separate files with separate originator numbers.

Worked example (end-to-end)

Originator ACME PAYROLL (client number 0123456789, short name ACME PAY), file creation number 0001, file created 2026-03-13 (day 072 → Julian 026072), destination data centre 00510. One payroll credit (txn code 200) of $2,500.00 due 2026-03-16 (day 075 → 026075) to JANE Q SAMPLE, account 001-12345-000123456789, with return account 001-12345-000999888777.

The trailer reports 1 credit transaction totalling 250000 cents, 0 debits.

A000000001012345678900010260720051000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
C000000002012345678900010002000000250000026075001123450001234567890000ACME PAY       JANE Q SAMPLE                 ACME PAYROLL                  PAYRUN-2026-06          0011234500009998887770000000000000000000000000
Z000000003012345678900010000000000000000000000000000000025000000000001000000000000000000000000000000

Field walk-through (key positions):

• A record — A · seq 000000001 · originator 0123456789 · file creation 0001 · creation date 026072 · destination DC 00510 · rest space/zero-filled to 1464.
• C record — C · seq 000000002 · originator 0123456789 · file creation 0001 · then segment 1: txn code 200 · amount 0000250000 (= 250000 cents = $2,500.00) · due date 026075 · institution 001 · transit 12345 · account 000123456789 · short name ACME PAY · payee JANE Q SAMPLE · long name ACME PAYROLL · reference PAYRUN-2026-06 · return institution 001 / transit 12345 / account 000999888777 · remaining 5 segments and tail zero/space-filled.
• Z record — Z · seq 000000003 · originator 0123456789 · file creation 0001 · total debit value 00000000000000 · total debit count 00000000 · total credit value 00000000250000 (= $2,500.00) · total credit count 00000001.

Normalisations shown: $2,500.00 → 0000250000 (cents, no separators); 2026-03-16 → Julian 026075; account 123456789 → 000123456789 (right-justified, 12); names upper-cased and space-padded; institution/transit zero-padded to 001/12345. (The blocks above are illustrative widths; the real record is exactly 1464 characters — pad each field to its FI-specified column before upload.)

Validation checklist

• All required fields extracted; AI asked about anything missing or ambiguous (no invented transit, institution, or account numbers)
• Exactly one A header (logical record 1) and exactly one Z trailer (last record)
• Record type letters correct: C for credits (txn 2xx), D for debits (txn 4xx); each C/D record ≤ 6 transaction segments
• Logical record count increments sequentially in positions 2–10 of every record
• Originator (client) number and file creation number identical across A, C/D, and Z records
• Amounts in integer cents, zero-filled, no decimal point / comma / dollar sign
• Due dates and creation date in Julian 0YYDDD (day-of-year 001–366)
• Institution (3) + transit (5) + account (≤12, right-justified, zero-filled) normalised; return institution/transit/account present
• Z trailer credit value/count and debit value/count reconcile to the summed C/D segments; recomputed totals match the source or discrepancy flagged
• Each logical record is exactly 1464 characters; file naming, data-centre numbers, transaction codes, and test/production flag validated against your FI's AFT/EFT specification before upload

Last updated: 2026-06-13 — verify the CPA Standard 005 record layout, transaction-code list, and your financial institution's AFT/EFT file specification (record length, field positions, originator/data-centre numbers, cut-off times) before use.