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Creating an EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) File

Owned by Hilary Hawkins (Deactivated)
Last updated: 15 Jul 2024 by Kai Andras
5 min read

1. In the main menu select Accounts Payable > Payment Processing.


2. In the Cheque Details tab tick the Create Funds Transfer File checkbox to reveal a third tab called EFT Setup.

3. Click on the EFT Setup Tab


4. Fill in the Company Name and Bank Details.


5. Set the User ID to the ID for your bank (if you are unsure, leave it as 0).

  • Australian customers please contact your bank as you need your Client ID inserted into this field.

 

6. Set the Process Date to the current date (today).


7. Tick the Create 1 EFT File checkbox.


8. Type in the Layout of the EFT based on the bank you are using to send payments:

BANKLINE for Coutts

BANKLINENW for NatWest

BANKLINERBS for Royal Bank of Scotland

HSBC for HSBCnet

BACS for Barclays

BACS2 for Barclays.net

ARBUTHNOT for Arbuthnot

JPM for JP Morgan (Netflix UK Only)

ABA for Australian Banking Association*

SBF for Australian Self Balancing File*

*Australian customers check the upload section of your bank website to see if you can upload an ABA file, otherwise create a SBF file.

For Australian Customers please change the default Tran Code to 50 otherwise your ABA file will be sent as a payroll file which can be confusing when paying AP, etc.

 

9. In the Download Path field type in the filepath and filename where your EFT file will be saved into on your local computer. Please read the notes below before typing it in.

Important Notes:

  • You will need to make sure that any folders in the download path exist on your hard drive before you print the EFT.

  • Eclipse sees your hard drive C:\ referred to as M:\ in Eclipse. You must always use M:\ and not C:\ otherwise your EFT file creation will fail.

For the example below, there will need to be a folder called BACS on the C: drive of your local machine if you are using the download path M:\BACS\file_name.csv


We recommend the following paths for Macs and PC's. Change file_name in the below path to your own file reference. You can either set it as .csv or .txt depending on what your bank accepts. For these examples we will use .csv

MAC - Create a BACS folder on your desktop, then add the following Download Path:
M:\Desktop\BACS\file_name.csv

PC - Create a BACS folder on your C: drive, then add the following Download Path: 

M:\BACS\file_name.csv

 

Troubleshooting the Download Path:

If you get the Unable to Copy file message that means your Download Path is incorrect. Please check it and try again.

You cannot save directly to M:\ and it must be in a folder. For example:

M:\eft.csv will fail
C:\eft.csv will fail
C:\BACS\eft.csv will fail
M:\BACS\eft.csv will work

 

If you are still having issues saving to your M drive and you have the correct download path - It is possible that your M drive has disconnected from our servers. Please attempt to reset your session and relogin by following the article below. Eclipse Frozen / Copy & Paste not working / M Drive is not accessible - Reset your own Eclipse Session

 

Note:  When multiple users are doing EFT files, and each person uses a different path, each user will need to create their own default in the drop-down list on the Cheque Details tab, i.e. "Accounts Payable Denis".  This is a way to save your settings and allow you to select during each cheque run. You can see how to create your own default here: Creating Multiple EFT Bank details and EFT Defaults

10. Double-check your EFT Setup details to make sure everything is correct, then return to the Cheque Details tab and click the Save icon to save your bank details.

 

11.  Highlight the invoices you wish to pay in the Invoice Selection tab and click Print to create the EFT file.

 

The EFT file will appear in the BACS folder you created on your Desktop (MAC) or in your C:\ Drive (PC) if you followed the naming conventions in Step 9. Please ensure that you do not open the EFT file as this will corrupt it & you will be unable to upload it to the bank.


The remittances should have also printed. If they have not printed correctly click No when the system asks if the file had been printed correctly.

 

12.  Now that your cheques are printed you must post them or else the system will not recognize them as paid. To do this in Eclipse go to Accounts Payable > Cheque Posting and highlight the cheques and press the Post button. See Cheque Posting / Remittances for more details on this module.

Note: It is not possible to create an EFT file after a Cheque has been posted from Cheque Posting. To create an EFT file for a posted Cheque you will have to cancel/reissue the Cheque using this guide Cancel a Cheque and print it again starting from the top of this guide.


13. If you get errors when uploading your EFT File:

  • Check that your vendors have their bank details setup under the bank details tab of each vendor. If they are missing bank details they will appear in the EFT file as a row of XXXXXXXX.

  • Any missing field in Eclipse will appear as XXXXXXXX in the EFT file. You will need to fill in the missing details and re-create the EFT file.

  • Only open the file in TextEdit (MAC) or Notepad (Windows) if you want to view the information prior to uploading. 

  • Do not open the file with Excel as it will scramble the information and drop all leading zeros, resulting in a corrupted upload that will not work.