Generate Bank of America payment files without an ERP

To submit a generated file, yes — your business needs to be set up with Bank of America for ACH origination through CashPro, with a Company Identification value assigned, your funding account entitled for ACH origination, and the ACH module enabled on your CashPro profile with permissions that include file upload (or, for larger customers using CashPro Connect, an active B2Bi SFTP transmission profile). PayFile Pro generates the file; your BofA enrollment as an ACH Originator is what authorizes you to upload it. If you’re not sure whether your CashPro profile is provisioned for ACH file upload, your BofA Treasury Management or Global Payments Solutions contact can confirm and provision it if needed. BofA enrolls business customers in ACH origination through a separate underwriting and agreement process — most CashPro customers who run business payments have it, but the ACH module + Validator-feature permissions are a specific entitlement set that’s not always turned on by default for new CashPro users.

Three values in the File Header and Batch Header of every BofA NACHA file need bank-specific attention, plus one Entry Detail value (the Vendor ID) where BofA’s field-mapping convention is the most common source of CashPro rejections.

• Immediate Destination — a 9-digit BofA ACH routing number placed in a 10-character field with a leading blank space. BofA uses state-based routing numbers inherited from its acquisitions of NationsBank, FleetBoston, LaSalle Bank, Countrywide, and others; the routing number for your account is the one for the state where the account was originally opened, regardless of where the business operates today. Common examples: 011000138 (Massachusetts), 026009593 (New York), 121000358 (California), 111000025 (Texas), 063100277 (Florida), 071000505 (Illinois — Northern), 122101706 (Arizona), 053000196 (North Carolina), 052001633 (Maryland), and 061000052 (Georgia). You can look up the routing number for your specific account in CashPro under Information Reporting → Account Information, at the bottom of any BofA business check, or by contacting your BofA Treasury Management representative. Unlike some banks, BofA does not publish a single canonical enumeration of all valid CashPro ACH routing numbers in their public NACHA spec — the spec document itself is gated through CashPro University, so the routing number you use is the one tied to your specific account rather than a value selected from a published menu. PayFile Pro reads the BofA routing number you enter in the originator-details section of your XLSX template and inserts it into the File Header automatically.
• Immediate Destination Name — BANK OF AMERICA (uppercase, left-justified, and blank-padded to 23 characters) is the conventional value. BofA’s spec is less prescriptive than some banks about exact casing variants — values like Bank of America or BankAmerica N.A. may also pass Validator’s format check, but the network-standard convention is uppercase, so PayFile Pro defaults to BANK OF AMERICA to minimize cross-RDFI ambiguity downstream.
• Company Identification — a 10-digit numeric value BofA requires in both the Batch Header Record (positions 41–50) and the Batch Control Record (positions 45–54). This is typically your business’s federal Tax ID prefixed with 1 (e.g., a Tax ID of 12-3456789 becomes 1123456789), or another 10-digit value BofA assigns when they enroll you for ACH origination. The value has to match the Company ID BofA has on file in CashPro for your business — a mismatch here is one of the more common batch-level rejections at upload. Confirm with your BofA Treasury Management contact which value to use if you’re not sure.
• Vendor ID (BofA’s name for the NACHA Identification Number field on each Entry Detail Record) — this is where BofA’s field-mapping convention is the most prescriptive, and where the most common BofA-specific rejections happen. CashPro reads the value at NACHA Entry Detail Record Type Code 6, Field 7 (file positions 40–54, 15 characters, left-justified and blank-padded), and surfaces it in the CashPro UI as the “Vendor ID” — same field, different name. JPMorgan Chase calls this same field “Beneficiary ID Number”; Bank of America calls it “Vendor ID”; the NACHA standard calls it “Identification Number” (for CCD batches) or “Individual Identification Number” (for PPD batches). PayFile Pro maps the Vendor ID column from your payee-list template directly into positions 40–54 of each Entry Detail Record — getting that mapping right is the difference between CashPro showing the right Vendor ID at upload and Validator surfacing a field-mismatch error. If you’re rolling your own NACHA file from a generic accounting export, this is the most common place field placement goes wrong: the Vendor ID gets dropped into the Individual Name field (positions 55–76) instead, or into the addenda area, or simply gets truncated to fewer than 15 characters from a left-pad mistake. Each of those breaks the Vendor ID display in CashPro and can hold the batch up for manual reconciliation.

(Different US banks use different conventions for these fields. JPMorgan Chase requires PAYROLL-only- with-PPD in the Company Entry Description, a 20-digit Company Discretionary Data field containing your Chase funding account number, and one of 16 published Chase ABA routing numbers in the Immediate Destination. Bank of America maps the Vendor ID field in CashPro to the NACHA Identification Number field at Entry Detail Record positions 40–54 — placement is the most common BofA-specific source of field-mapping rejections — and uses state-based routing numbers inherited from legacy acquisitions. Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and PNC each have their own bank-specific conventions for the Company Identification, Company Entry Description, and originator-routing values — documented on each bank’s dedicated PayFile Pro page as those launch, or available from your CashPro / CEO / SinglePoint / PINACLE relationship manager today.)

Bank of America follows the NACHA network-level Company Entry Description conventions without adding prescriptive bank-specific deviations the way some other banks do — there’s no BofA-specific PAYROLL-only-with-PPD enforcement or required ACH PMT for CCD beyond what the network rules already say. The Company Entry Description goes in Batch Header positions 54–63 and describes the purpose of the batch in a customer-entered value: PAYROLL, ACH PMT, VENDOR PAY, BONUS, EXPENSE, or whatever short label fits the batch.

There is, however, one network-level rule that’s now in effect across every US bank including BofA: as of March 20, 2026, NACHA requires the value PAYROLL in the Company Entry Description field of any PPD credit entry that pays wages, salaries, or similar compensation. The rule applies network-wide; it isn’t BofA-specific. BofA has published the new requirement on their official ACH page under “Nacha Operating Rule Changes” alongside the rest of the 2026 changes (Fraud Monitoring Phase 1 effective March 20, Phase 2 effective June 22, and IAT-definition / funds-availability changes effective September 18). PayFile Pro defaults PPD payroll batches to PAYROLL in the Company Entry Description to satisfy the network rule. See the 2026 rule changes FAQ on the US ACH hub page for the full picture across PURCHASE, the Phase 2 fraud monitoring deadline, funds availability for non–Same Day ACH credits, and the IAT scope update.

Bank of America’s CashPro platform uses the NACHA Identification Number field on each Entry Detail Record (Type Code 6, Field 7, file positions 40–54) as the per-payee Vendor ID. CashPro surfaces the value in the portal UI as “Vendor ID” — same field, different name. The value is yours to define: it can be your internal vendor number for an AP system, an employee ID for payroll, a billing-account identifier for a recurring payee, or whatever you use to disambiguate who’s being paid. CashPro uses it for display, reconciliation, and as a join key when you’re looking at payment activity inside the portal.

What makes it BofA’s most prescriptive convention is the placement requirement: the value has to live at positions 40–54 of the Entry Detail Record, exactly 15 characters, left-justified, blank-padded for any unused length. CashPro’s Validator parses NACHA files by file position rather than by field label, so a Vendor ID that’s been dropped into the wrong character range gets flagged — even if every other field in the file is well-formed. Common ways this goes wrong when files are built outside of a dedicated NACHA generator: the Vendor ID gets written into the Individual Name field (positions 55–76) by mistake; the value gets right-justified instead of left-justified, which shifts everything that follows in the record; the value exceeds 15 characters and gets silently truncated to a different length than intended; or the value contains symbols or punctuation that NACHA doesn’t accept in this field. Each of those produces a Validator error or, worse, a batch that uploads but presents the wrong Vendor ID in CashPro’s batch detail screen.

PayFile Pro builds the field automatically from the Vendor ID column in your template, padded and positioned to BofA’s expected layout. If the Vendor ID field is blank for a given payee, PayFile Pro leaves positions 40–54 as 15 blank spaces (which is valid NACHA but means CashPro won’t show a Vendor ID for that payment — useful to know if you have payees you genuinely don’t have an internal ID for).

The Validator is a feature inside CashPro’s ACH module that accepts a raw NACHA file as input, runs a basic format check, and (if the file passes) drops the parsed contents into the ACH Batch List as if you’d built the batch from the Database List manually. From there you release it the way you’d release any other CashPro ACH batch — review batch totals, click Release, second user approves if Dual Control is enabled for ACH on your account.

What makes the workflow non-obvious is that direct entry through the ACH Database List is the default surface CashPro presents to first-time users. The Validator entry point sits as a less-prominent link within the ACH module alongside the Database List and Batch List entries, and the platform’s documentation and onboarding flow optimize for the templated-payment experience rather than raw-file upload. Tier-1 BofA support has had a long-running pattern of not knowing the Validator path is available on a customer’s profile — one notable third-party employer-portal walkthrough documented this exact dynamic in 2014, where the originator had to escalate past first-line support to a technical-services resource before being told the feature exists, and the same pattern still shows up periodically in BofA SMB customer threads online today.

If you call BofA support and the first person you reach says “you can’t upload a raw NACHA file through CashPro,” ask to be escalated to a technical-services or Global Payments Solutions resource and reference the Validator feature in the ACH module by name. The right phrasing — “I need to upload a raw NACHA file through CashPro’s ACH module Validator” — usually moves the conversation forward quickly. Once Validator is confirmed available on your CashPro entitlements, the path is repeatable for every subsequent file you upload.

(Note: BofA also operates a separate standalone tool branded CashPro Validator at cashprovalidator.bankofamerica.com, launched in November 2022, used primarily by CashPro Connect customers to pre-validate payment file formats during onboarding or when adding payment types. That standalone tool is different from the in-portal ACH-module Validator described above — the standalone one is for B2Bi SFTP file-format pre-checking, not for one-off SMB NACHA file upload through the CashPro web portal.)

Not currently. PayFile Pro generates credit files — vendor payments, payroll, supplier disbursements (Service Class Code 220). Debit files for customer collections, pre-authorized debits, or bill pay aren’t supported. ACH credit and ACH debit origination are underwritten and enabled separately on a BofA CashPro profile — your business may be enabled for one, both, or only credit (which is the typical SMB starting point). If debit file generation is something you need, email us — it’s on the roadmap and customer demand is what moves it up. Note that originating ACH debits requires separate underwriting and approval from BofA: your CashPro profile has to be enabled for ACH debit origination specifically, distinct from credit origination, and BofA’s risk review for debit origination is more rigorous than for credit-only since you’re pulling funds from third parties rather than pushing your own funds out.

Yes. PayFile Pro generates the NACHA file; CashPro is what you use to submit it. They’re complementary tools — no integration or API connection required. From CashPro: Payments → ACH → ACH module → Validator → Browse → select the file PayFile Pro generated → upload. CashPro runs a basic format validation; if the file passes, it lands in your ACH Batch List as a batch you release the way you’d release any other CashPro ACH batch. If your account has Dual Control enabled for ACH, a second authorized user approves the batch before it’s released to the ACH operator. The Validator path works for customers using CashPro web; larger customers using CashPro Connect (B2Bi SFTP) submit the same NACHA file through their existing SFTP tooling instead of the web-portal Validator — same file format, different delivery channel. PayFile Pro doesn’t generate any CashPro Connect–specific wrapper around the NACHA file (e.g., PGP encryption envelopes, XML status-report parsing); CashPro Connect customers handle those layers through their existing managed-file-transfer tooling.

CashPro’s ACH Database List saves your payee list and lets you key transactions directly in the platform — Add Payee, Manage Payees, create templated batches, group payees by Database. The data-entry flow works, especially if you’re paying the same handful of vendors the same amounts on the same schedule.

What it doesn’t have is a per-payee template layer that lives outside CashPro. Every run, you’re either keying transactions in or releasing pre-saved templated batches that you have to maintain inside the portal — and the CashPro UI for editing 30 vendors at once is slower than editing a spreadsheet. 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.

You still upload the file through CashPro’s ACH module Validator — PayFile Pro doesn’t bypass CashPro or sit in the payment flow. Bank-side controls, Dual Control, batch release, payment activity tracking, reversals, all stay where they are. PayFile Pro replaces the variance-management step (editing 30 amounts, skipping 2 vendors, adding a new one) with editing a spreadsheet column. That’s it.

Yes. PayFile Pro generates files entirely in your browser. Routing numbers, 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 NACHA PPD/CCD spec before generation, which catches most common rejection causes (wrong field length, missing required fields, invalid characters, malformed dates, mismatched record counts, Entry Hash that doesn’t tie to the routing-number sum, batch totals that don’t tie to entry totals, PAYROLL paired with the CCD SEC code, pre-note transaction codes 23/28/33/38, and offset records). If BofA still rejects a file after generation, the most likely causes are bank-specific and outside the file-format spec itself:

• Vendor ID placement error — the single most common BofA-specific Validator rejection. The Vendor ID has to live at Entry Detail Record positions 40–54, exactly 15 characters, left-justified, blank-padded. If the value was built by a generic accounting export and ended up shifted, right-justified, truncated, or merged with the Individual Name field, CashPro’s Validator flags it. PayFile Pro builds the field to position automatically (see the Vendor ID FAQ).
• Field-mapping mismatch between bank-side configuration and the file — CashPro stores a mapping of how your business’s NACHA files are expected to be structured (Company Identification value, funding account, Vendor ID convention). If a field in the uploaded file doesn’t match the expected configuration on the BofA side, Validator surfaces it as a mapping error. Usually fixable by confirming your BofA-side configuration with Treasury Management, then regenerating with the corrected value.
• ACH origination not enabled on the account — your CashPro profile has to be entitled for ACH credit origination specifically, with the ACH module + Validator-feature permissions set on your user. If you’re getting a “feature not available” error rather than a file-format error, that’s the issue. Your Treasury Management contact provisions this.
• Ineligible BofA funding account — the account you’re trying to fund the batch from isn’t entitled for ACH origination on your CashPro profile. Your BofA Treasury Management representative can confirm which accounts in your profile are entitled.
• Company Identification mismatch — the 10-digit value in the Batch Header doesn’t match the value BofA has on file in CashPro for your business. Usually your Tax ID prefixed with 1; confirm with your BofA Treasury Management contact.
• Routing number doesn’t match account region — using 026009593 (New York) when the account was originally opened in California (121000358), for example. BofA’s state-based routing numbers are tied to where the account was opened, not where the business operates today, and a mismatch surfaces as a routing/funding alignment issue rather than as a hard file-format error.
• Tier-1 support says Validator isn’t available when it actually is — a workflow rejection rather than a file rejection. If support tells you “you can’t upload a NACHA file through CashPro,” that’s the Validator-discovery friction described in the FAQ above. Escalate past tier 1 and reference the ACH-module Validator feature by name.

Email hello@payfilepro.com with the rejection message and we’ll help you debug — if the rejection is BofA-specific and frequent enough, it gets documented here so the next person hits a known-resolved issue.

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.