Generate credit union payment files without an ERP

To submit a generated file, yes — your business needs to be set up with your credit union for AFT origination, with a PaymentStream AFT Originator ID assigned and the File Upload service activated. PayFile Pro generates the file; your credit union’s enrolment with Central 1 is what authorizes you to upload it. If you’re not sure whether your account supports AFT origination, your credit union’s business banking team can confirm and provision it if needed — and most credit unions in the directory above publish PaymentStream AFT setup guides on their own websites.

Two identifier codes go in the A (header) record of every CPA005 1464-byte file you upload to PaymentStream AFT, and both are commonly missed by first-time originators:

• Originator ID — a 10-digit alphanumeric value Central 1 assigns to your business when your credit union enrolls you as an Originator (e.g., 8090012300). It identifies you as the originator of the file. The full Originator ID also gets concatenated with your 4-digit file creation number to form the Origination Control Data field that appears in every detail and trailer record — PayFile Pro builds this automatically, but it’s worth knowing the relationship if you ever inspect the raw file.
• Destination Data Centre — a 5-digit code identifying Central 1 as the destination. This is 86900 for most originators, or 86920 for Originators in Ontario specifically. PayFile Pro asks which one applies; if you’re not sure, your credit union’s business banking team can confirm. Using the wrong Data Centre causes the file to reject at validation.

To get your Originator ID: when your credit union sets up PaymentStream AFT for your business, the ID is what they (and Central 1) assign you. There’s no self-serve external lookup. The ID is also visible on the Originator Information page in PaymentStream AFT itself (Select Originator ID → Originator Information → Submit). Your credit union’s business banking contact is the right person to ask if you can’t find it.

(Different banks and credit unions 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,” ATB’s term is “Originator’s ID,” and PaymentStream AFT calls it “Originator ID” — same 10-digit shape as BMO and TD, but assigned by Central 1 rather than the credit union directly.)

Yes — PaymentStream AFT actually supports two distinct test phases, which is unusual among Canadian EFT platforms and worth knowing about before you ship your first production file.

Phase 1: file upload test (validation only). PaymentStream AFT has a Test an AFT File button on the File Upload page. The system validates your file against Central 1’s CPA005 spec but does not deliver any transactions to other financial institutions. The test file’s results show in the Activity Log only — no settlement, no email confirmation, and the file creation number is not incremented. This is the right place to confirm a file PayFile Pro generated parses cleanly before you ever use a production file creation number.

Phase 2: production validation test (live transactions). Once Phase 1 is clean, you can submit a production validation test — a real file in the live production environment, typically with a few $0.01 transactions. The dollar amounts are valid and will be processed. The first production validation file must use file creation number 0001. Then — and this is the part that surprises people — once the validation test is complete, you must reset your file creation number back to 0001 for your first real production file, and increment from there.

PayFile Pro’s template lets you set any file creation number, so both phases are straightforward. The two-phase flow is documented in Central 1’s PaymentStream AFT Guide for File Upload, but the reset-to-0001 nuance is the kind of detail that’s easy to miss until your first real file rejects for being out of sequence.

Yes — Central 1’s PaymentStream AFT supports EFT credits in both CAD and USD, as long as the recipient’s account is held at a Canadian financial institution. PayFile Pro’s PaymentStream AFT 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. (The currency code is set in the file’s A header record, which is why it has to be one or the other for the whole file.)

Yes. PayFile Pro generates the payment file; PaymentStream AFT is what you use to submit it. They’re complementary tools — no integration or API connection required. You’ll typically reach PaymentStream AFT through your credit union’s business banking portal (most credit unions provide a link or single sign-on). From PaymentStream AFT: Select Originator ID → File Upload → Browse to the file PayFile Pro generated → Upload File → review the Confirm page → Confirm File Upload. If your account has dual authorization (mandatory above $1M monthly limits, optional below that), a second user approves before the file is released to Central 1.

PaymentStream AFT saves your Originator information — long and short names, settlement account, return account, file creation number history — and the data-entry workflow lets you key transactions directly into the platform. What it doesn’t have is a per-payee template layer that lives outside the system. Every run, you’re either keying transactions in or releasing pre-entered records that you have to maintain inside PaymentStream itself. 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 PaymentStream AFT — but the variance management lives in your spreadsheet, where editing is easier than navigating the portal UI.

Not currently. PayFile Pro generates credit files — vendor payments, payroll, supplier disbursements (the C record type in CPA005). Pre-authorized debit (PAD) collections, which PaymentStream AFT calls “Direct Debit” or D records, 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. (PaymentStream AFT has its own PAD agreement and Originator-level approval requirements you’d need to satisfy with your credit union separately before originating PAD collections — see the Allowable Type field on the Originator Information page, which controls whether your Originator ID is set to “Credit,” “Debit,” or “Both.”)

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, out-of-range due dates, file creation date outside the ±7-day window). If PaymentStream AFT still rejects a file after generation, the most likely causes are: an out-of-sequence file creation number (PaymentStream is strict — each production file must increment by 1 from the last, and gaps or duplicates cause rejection), an invalid Originator ID or wrong Destination Data Centre (using 86900 when your credit union is in Ontario and should use 86920, or vice versa — see the identifier codes FAQ), a credit due date more than 30 days before or 45 days after the file creation date, an invalid transit/route combination, 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.