Generate Scotiabank payment files without an ERP

Two different submission paths into Scotiabank. CPA005 1464 is the Canadian Payments Association industry-standard format — a 1464-byte fixed-width file you submit directly to Scotiabank, with all originator details (Customer Number, originator long/short names, settlement account) carried in the file’s header records. ScotiaConnect EFT Import is a Scotiabank-specific 586-byte format used by businesses who manage payments through ScotiaConnect’s Service Groups and Payment Groups — the file references your preconfigured Payment Group by name, and ScotiaConnect resolves the originator details, settlement account, and currency from your existing setup. Which one you submit depends on how your Scotiabank business banking is configured and how your team prefers to submit files. PayFile Pro generates both.

To submit a generated file, yes — your business needs to be set up with Scotiabank for batch payment origination, either for direct CPA005 submission or for ScotiaConnect with EFT/Payment Group entitlements. PayFile Pro generates the file; your Scotiabank business banking profile is what authorizes you to upload it. If you’re not sure whether your profile supports EFT origination, your Scotiabank business banking contact can confirm and provision it if needed.

A Customer Number is a 10-digit unique identifier Scotiabank assigns to you when your account is provisioned for CPA005 EFT file submission. It identifies you as the file submitter and appears in three places in every CPA005 file: the A (header) record, every C (credit) record, and the Z (trailer) record. Per Scotiabank’s CPA005 1464-byte file specification, all three values must match exactly or the file will be rejected. Your Customer Number is assigned by Scotiabank — there’s no self-serve way to look it up. Get it from the Scotiabank business banking contact who set up your CPA005 EFT origination.

A common point of confusion. Scotiabank also issues a separate 6-digit “ScotiaConnect customer number” that’s used for identifying your company when you call ScotiaConnect technical support. It’s visible by clicking the profile icon in the top right corner of any page in ScotiaConnect. This is a different identifier from your 10-digit CPA005 Customer Number — they are not interchangeable. Putting the 6-digit ScotiaConnect support number into your CPA005 template will cause Scotiabank to reject the file. The value you need for your PayFile Pro template is the 10-digit one assigned for EFT submission.

For ScotiaConnect EFT Import files, you don’t enter a Customer Number directly into the template — the file references a Payment Group instead, and ScotiaConnect resolves your customer identity from your authenticated session. The 10-digit Customer Number requirement only applies to the CPA005 path. (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,” and Scotiabank’s term is “Customer Number.”)

A Payment Group is a unit you configure in ScotiaConnect that controls which SD Agreements and chargeback (settlement) accounts a batch of EFT payments can be debited against. The SD Agreement linked to your Payment Group is what carries your originator long and short names, settlement account, and currency — so a single Payment Group reference in the file resolves all the originator-side details Scotiabank needs. Per Scotiabank’s ScotiaConnect Standard Import spec, the Payment Group field is mandatory in every EFT Import (EO) record, and Scotiabank validates that the agreement number and chargeback account associated with the named group are accessible to your user — if they’re not, the file is rejected.

Payment Groups are a different ScotiaConnect concept from Service Groups. Payment Groups govern originator-side details (which SD Agreements and chargeback accounts a payment can draw from). Service Groups govern recipient-side details (which payees a user can send payments to, and approval limits). The ScotiaConnect EFT Import file references your Payment Group; the recipient details for each payment are entered directly in your PayFile Pro template (recipient name, institution, transit, account) and written into each payment row in the generated file.

To find the Payment Group identifier you should reference in your PayFile Pro template: in ScotiaConnect, go to your EFT/Integrated Payments setup and look at the Payment Groups your profile has access to. If you don’t see any, your Super User or administrator needs to set one up before you can use the ScotiaConnect EFT Import format. If you only have CPA005 file submission set up (not ScotiaConnect Payment Groups), use PayFile Pro’s Scotiabank CPA005 generator instead.

Yes — Scotiabank supports EFT credits in both CAD and USD via CPA005 1464. PayFile Pro’s Scotiabank CPA005 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.

For ScotiaConnect EFT Import, the file’s currency is set by your Payment Group configuration in ScotiaConnect — not by the file itself. If you need to submit USD via the EFT Import path, you’ll need a USD-configured Payment Group set up in ScotiaConnect (your Super User or administrator can do this).

Yes. PayFile Pro generates the payment file; ScotiaConnect is what you use to submit it. They’re complementary tools — no integration or API connection required. You upload the file PayFile Pro generates directly to ScotiaConnect’s payment file upload feature. The same flow works whether your business uses ScotiaConnect Digital Banking for Business for small-business operations or for full commercial cash management — there’s no separate small-business platform to worry about.

ScotiaConnect lets you save EFT templates and configure Payment Groups, which is genuinely useful — that’s not the differentiator. The difference is what happens when a run varies from the template. In ScotiaConnect, 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 assigning them to a Service Group. 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 Scotiabank 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.

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 Scotiabank still rejects a file after generation, the most likely causes are: the wrong Customer Number on a CPA005 file (a frequent first-time error is using the 6-digit ScotiaConnect tech-support customer number instead of the 10-digit one Scotiabank assigned for EFT submission — see the Customer Number FAQ), a duplicate file creation number on a CPA005 production file (Scotiabank requires every production file’s creation number to be unique — use 0000 only for test files), a due date outside Scotiabank’s −30/+60-day window from the file creation date, the wrong format for your submission path (CPA005 sent to a Payment Group profile, or vice versa), 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.