Generate ATB Financial payment files without an ERP

To submit a generated file, yes — your business needs to be set up with ATB Financial for batch payment origination, with the EFT Service activated and a Profile ID assigned. PayFile Pro generates the file; your ATB business banking profile is what authorizes you to upload it. If you’re not sure whether your profile supports EFT origination, your ATB Relationship Manager or ATB Business Solutions (1-877-363-4855) can confirm and provision it if needed.

An Originator’s ID is a 10-character alphanumeric value ATB assigns to you when your EFT Service is provisioned. It identifies you as the originator of the file and appears in the A (header) record of every CPA 1464-byte ATB EFT file. Per ATB’s CPA 1464-byte file specification, its format is fixed:

• The first five characters are always 21990 — that’s ATB Financial’s Data Centre ID, identical for every ATB customer.
• The last five characters are your Profile ID— a 5-digit value ATB assigns you. This is the part that’s unique to your business.

So the full Originator’s ID looks like 21990EEEEE, where EEEEE is your Profile ID. Your Profile ID is also what shows up in ATB Business when you go to Create EFT → Import a File and select an EFT profile. Get it from the ATB Business Solutions team that set up your EFT Service, or look it up in ATB Business under your EFT profile settings. There’s no self-serve external lookup — ATB assigns it.

The PayFile Pro template asks for the full 10-character Originator’s ID. If you only have your 5-digit Profile ID handy, prefix it with 21990 to get the value the file requires. (Different banks use different terms for the same kind of code — RBC calls theirs a “processing centre code,” BMO and TD use “Originator ID,” CIBC’s term is “Originator Number,” Scotiabank’s term is “Customer Number,” and ATB’s term is “Originator’s ID.”)

ATB Business accepts three EFT file import formats, and the format you choose is independent of the payment data itself — same underlying transactions, three different file structures.

• 1464-byte (CPA format) — the Canadian Payments Association’s industry-standard fixed-width file. ATB recommends this format. Originator’s ID, originator long/short names, settlement details, and every payment field are written into a 1464-character record. This is the format PayFile Pro generates.
• 96-byte format — an ATB-developed simplified version of the CPA format. Each transaction is encoded in a more compact 96-byte record. Available in ATB Business but not currently generated by PayFile Pro.
• CSV format — ATB’s own CSV layout for EFT import. Available in ATB Business but distinct from PayFile Pro’s input CSV (PayFile Pro’s CSV is the input to the template; ATB’s CSV is an alternative output file format). Not currently generated by PayFile Pro.

If your ATB profile is set up for any of the three, the 1464-byte file PayFile Pro generates will work. If you specifically need the 96-byte or CSV format generated for a downstream system that requires it, email us — both are on the roadmap and customer demand is what moves them up.

Yes — ATB supports EFT credits in both CAD and USD. PayFile Pro’s ATB EFT 1464 generator lets you choose the currency per file. One currency applies to the entire file — you can’t mix CAD and USD payments in the same generation. If you need both, generate two files. (Liquidity limits in ATB Business are tracked separately for CAD and USD, so this single-currency-per-file constraint matches how ATB operates regardless.)

Yes. PayFile Pro generates the payment file; ATB Business (formerly ATB Online Business) is what you use to submit it. They’re complementary tools — no integration or API connection required. From the EFTs home page in ATB Business, choose Create EFT → Import a File → Select EFT profile → Browse to the file PayFile Pro generated → Import file. The same flow works for both small business and full commercial cash management — there’s no separate platform to worry about.

ATB Business lets you save Receivers and reusable Templates, which is genuinely useful — that’s not the differentiator. The difference is what happens when a run varies from the template. In ATB Business, skipping a vendor means actively excluding them from this run, and adding a new vendor means filling in their banking details through the portal UI and adding them as a Receiver. Both actions are stateful and have to be undone or repeated for the next run. With PayFile Pro, your Excel sheet is the template. Leave an amount blank to skip a vendor — their row stays in next week’s template. Add a row to add a vendor — they’re part of your reusable template from then on. The spreadsheet is the state; each run is just what’s in the amount column.

Not currently. PayFile Pro generates ATB credit files — vendor payments, payroll, supplier disbursements. Pre-authorized debit (PAD) collections aren’t supported. If debit file generation is something you need, email hello@payfilepro.com — it’s on the roadmap and customer demand is what moves it up. (ATB has its own PAD agreement requirements you’d need to satisfy with ATB Financial separately before originating PAD collections — see the PAD Agreement appendix in the ATB EFT User Guide.)

Yes. PayFile Pro generates files entirely in your browser. Account numbers, amounts, and payee lists never leave your machine — no upload to our servers, no storage on our disk, no transmission anywhere. The only data we store is your account info: email, company name, primary bank, credit balance.

PayFile Pro validates files against the format spec before generation, which catches most common rejection causes (wrong field length, missing required fields, invalid characters, malformed dates). If ATB still rejects a file after generation, the most likely causes are: an invalid Originator’s ID (a frequent first-time error is using just the 5-digit Profile ID without the 21990 prefix, or vice versa — see the Originator’s ID FAQ), a duplicate file creation number combined with identical transactions (ATB rejects only when both match a prior file — but unique creation numbers per production run is the safer practice), a logical record count mismatch (the trailer’s record count must equal the actual number of records in the file), an out-of-range due date, an invalid transaction type code, an incorrect settlement account, or a rare edge case we haven’t seen yet. Email hello@payfilepro.com with the rejection message and we’ll help you debug.

PayFile Pro uses prepaid credits. One credit per generated file. Credits never expire. Packs start at $10 USD for 5 credits ($2.00 per file) and scale to $1.50 per file at 50 credits. No subscription, no monthly minimum, no auto-renewal. Buy credits when you need them.