How Do I Setup Direct Deposit in ESC Accounting?

ESC’s Direct Deposit creates an industry standard NACHA (National Automated Clearing House Association) file to transmit to your bank.

Company Setup

Set up a cash account, as shown below. This is an account the program uses to temporarily store information while it sorts it out and is required to process direct deposit.  To setup this account, go to Company → Enter Chart of Accounts and click Add New.

Company → System Setup → Company Information

Next, you'll need to check your company information to make sure that the Company Name and Address are entered correctly, as it can affect your direct deposits.  You can view this information by going to Company → System Setup → Company Information.  

It's also important to make sure your Federal ID Number is accurate in this screen.  (File Header position 15-23/ Batch Header Record Company ID position 41-50 / Batch Control Record Company ID position 45-54)

Next, head to the Accounting tab (Company → System Setup → Accounting) and set the Pay Week Start to the day of the week on which your payroll period will begin.

Switch to the System Accounts tab (Company → System Setup → System Accounts) and make sure your Payroll Checking Account is set to the appropriate account (the account your payroll comes out of, even if it is the only checking account).  Also, be sure to enter the Direct Deposit Allocation Account set up earlier.

Set up the Bank information

To setup the Bank information for Direct Deposit, you'll head to Company → System Setup → Direct Deposit → General Settings.  This screen should be set up with the assistance of your bank’s personnel. The information in parenthesis for each field is provided to help clarify for bank personnel where the information will appear in the file and can be safely ignored by most.

• Immediate Destination / Transit routing number – Transit routing number provided by your bank.
  (File Header position 4-13 /File Entry Detail 80-89)
• Immediate Origin/ ABN /AMRO number – If your bank is NOT using your company’s Federal Tax Identification number entered in Company → System Setup, then fill in the information provided by the bank. If your bank IS using the tax ID entered in the System Setup screen, leave this field blank and ESC will pull the Tax ID number from there.
  (File Header position 15-23 Batch Header Record Company ID position 41-50 / Batch Control Record Company ID position 45-54)

• ABN Number – If your bank is NOT using your companies IRS Federal Tax Identification number located in Company >  System Setup > Company Information tab, then fill in the information provided by the bank. If your bank IS using the Federal ID then leave this field “blank”. If left blank it will read the Federal ID as set on Company Information tab.

   (Batch Header Recod, row 2 position 41-50)

• AMRO number – If your bank is NOT using your companies IRS Federal Tax Identification number located in Company >  System Setup > Company Information tab, then fill in the information provided by the bank. If your bank IS using the Federal ID then leave this field “blank”. If left blank it will read the Federal ID as set on Company Information tab.

  (Batch Control Record position 45-54)

• Immediate Destination Bank Name – Enter your bank’s name here unless they have informed you there is another name involved. If your bank requires another bank’s name in addition to theirs, enter that bank’s name here and enter your bank’s name in the Origin Bank field below.
  (File Header position 41-63)
• Immediate Origin Bank Name – Enter the name of your bank here only if you have entered a different bank’s name in the Immediate Destination Bank Name field above, otherwise leave this field blank and it will default to your company’s name from Company → System Setup.
  (File Header position 64-86)
• Service Class Code – Choose Mixed or Credits in this field as provided by your bank.
  (Enters the service class code that identifies the classification of dollar entries to be exchanged, 200 = ACH entries mixed debits and credits, 220 = ACH credits only (Batch Header position 2-4 / Batch Control Record position 2-4))
• Bank Routing Number – Enter the routing number provided by your bank less the last digit.
  (Both Batch Header Record and Batch Control Record Originating DFI Identification positions 80-87 transit routing number)
• Trace Number – Enter the bank assigned Trace Number.
  (Entry Detail Record overrides detail positions 80-89)
• Company Entry Description – This is the description of the transaction printed on the receiver’s bank statement. The default for this field is “Payroll” but can be changed.
  (Batch Header Record positions 54-63)
• Exclude Social Security Numbers – Check this box and your employee’s social security numbers will not be included in the ACH file.
• Include Offset Debit Entry – Check this box if your bank requires a batch off-set entry. If this box is checked new fields will appear for additional bank information.
• Offset Receiving DFI Identification – Transit Routing Number of receiver’s financial institution.
  (Batch offset entry detail overrides detail positions 04-11)
• Offset Payroll Account – This account number should be provided by your bank.
  (Batch offset entry detail overrides’ detail positions 13-29)
• Offset Trace Number – Enter the bank assigned trace number.
  (Batch offset entry detail overrides detail positions 80-89)

 

You'll also need to navigate to the File Format tab under Company → System Setup → Direct Deposit and fill in the information with the assistance of your bank's personnel.  The information in parenthesis for each field is provided to help clarify for bank personnel where the information will appear in the file and can be safely ignored by most.

• Leading character before Federal ID – A number 1 is the default for this field. Some banks require a blank space; if this is the case, delete the 1 out of this field by pressing your space bar twice and tabbing to the next field.
  (File Header position 14)
• Delimiter – Choose Carriage return + Line feed or Line feed only depending on bank requirements.
  (Carriage return + Line feed wraps text, Line feed only does not wrap.(Entry detail record))
• Effective Date offset – This is the actual number of days after the file is delivered to the bank until the payroll is processed by the bank, usually determined by the bank.
  (Batch Header Record positions 70-75)
• Initial Header Record – Some banks require an Initial Record be included in the file. Your bank may provide an initial record or pass word that is to be included as the first record in your file each week. Enter the code as supplied by your bank. Be sure to enter any spaces that are indicated.
  (The very first record in the ACH file before the file header record.)

Employee Setup

To setup each employee's direct deposit information, you'll head to Employees → Enter Employees.  Double-click on an employee to edit their profile, then open the Direct Deposit tab.  Each employee can have deposits into multiple accounts.

• Name in Deposit – Enter the employee's name here.
• Direct Deposit Active for this employee – Do not put a check in the box if you wish to print the employee a check, or if you need to send a pre-note to the bank. After the bank approves of the pre-note, place a check in the box to activate direct deposit.
• Active – Check this box for each account to be deposited to.
• Bank account type – select the type of account, Checking or Savings.
• Routing number – Enter the routing number from the voided check obtained from the employee.
  (Detail file record DFI ID position 04-11)
• Bank Account Number – Enter the bank account number from the voided check obtained from the employee.
  (Detail file record DFI Account position 13-29)
• Allocate – Allocation can be the balance of the direct deposit, a fixed dollar amount and/or a percentage of the direct deposit. Below shows an employee record using all three methods.
• Balance – Regardless of how many accounts an employee is having money deposited into one line must be Balance. If all of the deposit is going into one account choose Balance.
• Amount – If Balance is chosen, nothing is required in this field. If Fixed is chosen enter the amount to be deposited into the account. If Percent is chosen enter the percentage to be deposited into that account.

Below shows the results of the example setup above:

Sending Pre-notifications

Pre-notes can be sent by two methods, either individually or as a batch for multiple employees.

Sending Individual records

A pre-note can be sent directly from an employee's profile by going to Employees → Enter Employees → Edit → Direct Deposit. This pre-note option is used to create an individual pre-note for the bank of a new direct deposit employee. Choose the Create prenotification tab at the bottom of the screen and a prenote.txt file will be created in the Documents folder of your workstation.

Sending pre-notes for multiple employees or an individual with normal payroll

To issue a pre-note for any or all employees in your payroll who will also receive a payroll check head to Employees → Process Payroll Checks.

Enter time for employees as usual. When in the Process Payroll Checks screen, click the Select for Pre-notification button located in the upper left hand corner of your screen. A new field will appear before each employee’s name called Create Pre-note. Check the box beside each employee you wish to send a pre-note for. Notice the Select for Pre-notification button has changed to Create Prenotification File. Click on it and the following notice appears.

Now, click Generate Checks and as long as time was entered for the person(s) having the pre-note created, a check will be generated for them.

Now both files are in your Documents folder, ready to be transmitted to your bank and the checks are ready to print.