ACH file viewer

How to use the ACH file viewer

1. Drop your file on the box, choose it, or paste its text.
2. Read the summary. It shows who the file is for, who sent it, when it was created and the totals. If the file is a return file or a Notification of Change file from a bank, the first line says so.
3. Look through each batch. Every payment is one row: name, amount, account type, what kind of payment it is, and the trace number.
4. Export the table to Excel or CSV if you need to sort, filter or share it.

What the columns mean

A credit puts money into the account (a deposit). A debit takes money out (a payment collected).

On a phone each payment is shown as a small card, so nothing scrolls sideways.

Read a return file or a Notification of Change file

Two kinds of NACHA files report on payments that were sent earlier. If your bank or your software gives you one, open it here. To see what each one looks like, press “Try a sample return file” or “Try a sample NOC file” in the box above.

• A return file holds payments that were sent back. Each one carries a return code, such as R01.
• A Notification of Change (NOC) file holds corrections. Each one carries a change code, such as C01, and the corrected data.

For a return file the viewer adds a table called “Returned payments”:

Above the table you see how many payments came back for each code.

For a change file the viewer adds a table called “Changes the bank asks for (NOC)”. It shows the change code, what the notice gives you, and the corrected data. A corrected account number is hidden like the others until you tick the box.

Some return codes are messages between two banks about an earlier return (R61 to R77). For those the viewer shows the code and its link only.

To see the lines of these files one by one, read what a return file looks like and what a Notification of Change file looks like.

Transaction codes you will see most

See the full list of ACH transaction codes for the others.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Values in the wrong columns. If the file has format errors, fields can shift. The viewer tells you when it finds format errors. Open that line to see each error and how to fix it.
• Sharing an export with full account numbers. Keep the numbers masked unless the other person needs them.
• Leading zeros lost in Excel. The Excel export keeps routing and account numbers as text. If you open the CSV in Excel instead, format those columns as text.