nACH is a Node.js module exposing both a high & low-level API for generating ACH (Automated Clearing House) files for use within the ACH network. It's design makes it a high-performance, dependable and frustration-free solution for developers.
Note: nACH does not bundle a bank agreement/partnership to upload ACH files to the network :)
To intall nACH, use NPM:
$ npm i nach2 --save-dev
Then include the NPM module like so:
const nach = require('nach2')Now you're ready to start creating ACH files.
nACH implements the ACH file specification.
Each ACH file is a flat text file (.txt) which contains records and entries. Within both records and entries, are "columns" called fields. To get a sense for what an ACH file actually looks like, check out the example below:
101 081000032 0180362811503042207A094101Some Bank Your Company Inc #A000001
5220Your Company Inc 0018036281WEBTrnsNicknaMar 5 150305 1081000030000000
622081000210123456789012345670000003521RAj##23920rjf31John Doe A10081000030000000
6220810002105654221 0000002300RAj##32b1kn1bb3Bob Dole A10081000030000001
6220810002105654221 0000002499RAj##765kn4 Adam Something A10081000030000002
6220810002105654221 0000001000RAj##3j43kj4 James Bond A10081000030000003
822000000400324000840000000000000000000093200018036281 081000030000000
5220Your Company Inc 0018036281WEBTrnsNicknaMar 16150316 1081000030000001
6220810002105654221 0000017500RAj##8k765j4k32Luke Skywalker A10081000030000004
822000000100081000210000000000000000000175000018036281 081000030000001
5225Your Company Inc 0018036281PPDTrnsNicknaMar 6 150306 1081000030000002
627101000019923698412584 0000015000RAj##765432hj Jane Doe A10081000030000005
822500000100101000010000000150000000000000000018036281 081000030000002
9000003000002000000060050600106000000015000000000026820
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
Each line in an ACH file is always 94 bytes (or 94 characters) long, and the number of lines in an ACH file is required to always be a multiple of 10. This means, if a file doesn't contain enough rows of data to be a multiple of 10, the ACH specification requires you to fill in the remainder of the file with rows of 9s until the number of rows is a multiple of 10. Of course, nACH will handle all of this for you, but it's aways good to know why it's doing it.
Let's delve a little deeper into the anatomy of an ACH file. ACH files were originally created when punch-card computers were the "rave", so don't consider ACH files cutting-edge technology. They aren't. But they do provide a means by which to move money from one bank account to another--the entire purpose of the ACH network. As aforementioned, each ACH file has several sections known as "records". These are as follows:
File header
First batch header
First detail record
...
Last detail record
First batch control
Second batch header
First detail record
...
Last detail record
Second batch control
File control
As seen above, each file has one file header and one file control (similar to a footer or a closing html bracket). After the file header, the file can contain any number of batches and each batch may contain multiple entry details. While it may seem pointless to use different batches if all the entries could be inserted into one batch, there are various reasons one might choose to divide up entries into different batches. One such reason stems from the fact that only batch headers can specify when the entries within are to be deposited into the respective account. As a result, one might use batch headers to specify different deposit dates for a group of entries.