Importing Profiles

A profile, in accounting system parlance, is a record maintained about a transaction party. This helps to separate information common to the party (for example, name and address) from information that varies on a transactional basis (amount and date of payment).

Suppose Company A, current with a profile of all their employees, wishes to begin using direct deposit to pay their employees electronically. They would add information to the profile concerning the employee's bank account. Specifically, the profile must contain the ABA/Routing Number for the employee's bank and the account number at the bank for fund dispersal.

A profile does not have to represent just an employee. You can also use profiles for customer or vendor transactions as well.

Regardless of method or party, the minimum information required for the profile will be the same:

Name	Name of party
ID Number	Usually customer, vendor, or employee ID. Avoid using Social Security numbers if possible.
Account #	Party's bank account number.
ABA/Routing #	Party's bank ABA/Routing number

In addition to the required information, there are some optional fields you may wish to use. Some are required when using more advanced features while others are just extra information you wish to retain.

Checking or Savings	Type of account
Email	Party's email address (required for email notification)
Application	ACH transaction code to use by default for this party. Example: PPD or CCD
Origination Account	Needed when using multiple origination accounts
ID Type (CTX)	CTX only. Type of ID being used. Example: Federal ID or ABA/Routing Number.
ID Number (CTX)	CTX only. Actual ID number of type defined in ID Type.

From the ACH Universal Main Screen, click the Import Customers, Employees, and Vendors button. Alternatively, you can select Import from the main menu, then Customers, Employees, and Vendors.

Click the

and browse to and select your profile source file. If you prefer, you can copy and paste the information from Excel into the grid at the bottom. Best practice is using a file import.

If this is your first time importing profiles, you will get a message asking if you wish to import profiles or transactions. Click Yes to continue with profile import. If you intended to import transactions, click No, then follow the steps in Importing Transactional Data.

The Profile Import Wizard Mapping screen will now be displayed (Figure 1 below).

Mapping is the final step in the import. During this step, you will map fields in the file to their intended purpose. See Mapping Profiles for more information.