The vocabulary of Canadian EFT payments, explained

A

Account number

The number of a specific bank account at a branch. Zefty needs yours, entered once during setup, and each vendor's, read from Zoho Books, so that every payment reaches the right account without anything being retyped.

ACH

Automated Clearing House, the network and file format used for batch electronic payments in the United States. Canada does not use ACH; Canadian banks exchange payments through Payments Canada and accept files that follow CPA 005, which is why Zefty produces EFT 1464 files rather than ACH files.

Additional user

A user seat added beyond the one included with your subscription. On the Team plan, each additional user costs $14 per month, and you can add or remove users at any time. The Premium plan includes unlimited users.

Audit report

The readable report Zefty produces for every payment file. It lists each payment with its amount, date, payee and account in plain language, so you can verify what was sent to the bank, answer an auditor or review a file before you upload it.

B

Bank emitter ID (originator ID)

The identifier your bank assigns to your business when it enables EFT origination. Banks also call it originator ID, client number, company number or numéro d'émetteur. Zefty asks for it once, along with your business name as registered with the bank, and applies it to every file.

Bill

A vendor invoice recorded in Zoho Books that your business must pay. Zefty shows your unpaid bills with their vendor, due date and balance, lets you select them for payment in full or in part, and records the payment in Zoho Books once the file is generated.

C

CPA 005

Payments Canada Standard 005, the rulebook that defines how batch EFT files are structured and validated in Canada. A file that follows CPA 005 is what Canadian banks call an EFT 1464 file. Zefty builds every file to this standard.

Custom field

A field you add to vendor contacts in Zoho Books to store extra data. If your team keeps vendor banking details in custom fields rather than in the vendor's bank account record, Zefty can read them from there. You tell Zefty which fields to use once, during setup.

Custom view

A saved filter on your bills in Zoho Books, for example approved bills only. Point Zefty at that view and only bills that match it can be paid, which is how you keep an approval step in Zoho Books before anything goes to the bank.

D

Data centre (Zoho .com / .ca)

The region where your Zoho Books organization is hosted, either zoho.com or zohocloud.ca. Zefty works with both Zoho regions; you pick yours during setup.

Direct deposit

The everyday name for a credit sent electronically to someone's bank account. Paying a vendor by EFT is a direct deposit to the vendor: the funds leave your account and arrive in theirs without a cheque. Every payment in a Zefty file is one direct deposit.

E

EFT

Electronic funds transfer, the general term for moving money between bank accounts electronically. In Canada, businesses send batches of EFT credits to their bank in a file that follows CPA 005, and the bank routes each payment to the recipient's institution through Payments Canada.

EFT 1464

The file format defined by CPA 005 that Canadian banks accept for batch vendor payments. It is what your bank means by an EFT file, an AFT file or a 1464 file. Zefty generates EFT 1464 files for nine Canadian banks and records each payment in Zoho Books.

F

File creation number

The sequential number that tells your bank one file from the next. A number the bank has already received is treated as a duplicate and rejected. Zefty numbers every file for you, including when you move to Zefty from another system.

I

Institution number

The three-digit code that identifies a Canadian financial institution: 001 BMO, 002 Scotiabank, 003 RBC, 004 TD, 006 National Bank, 010 CIBC, 016 HSBC Canada, 039 Laurentian Bank, 815 Desjardins. Zefty applies yours from the bank you select and reads each vendor's from Zoho Books.

M

Multi-organization

Managing several companies from one Zefty login, available on the Team and Premium plans. Each organization has its own Zoho Books connection, bank details, users and subscription, and you switch between them from your organization menu.

O

OAuth

The standard way of letting an application work with your account without handing over your password. You authorize the connection from your Zoho account in a few clicks, Zefty never sees or stores your Zoho password, and you can revoke access from your Zoho account at any time.

Originator

The business sending the payments: you. Your bank identifies you as originator by the originator ID it assigned you and the business name it has on file, and that is the name your vendors see on the deposit. Zefty asks for both once and applies them to every file.

P

Partial payment

Paying part of a bill's balance in one payment run. Enter the amount to pay on the bill; the file carries that amount, the payment recorded in Zoho Books matches it, and the remaining balance stays open on the bill for a later run.

Payment date

The date you choose when generating a payment file, so your bank knows when to release the funds. It also becomes the date of the vendor payments recorded in Zoho Books and appears in your payment history for each file.

Payment run

One batch of bills selected, generated as a single file and uploaded to your bank together. In Zefty a payment run takes a few minutes whether it holds five bills or fifty: select the bills, choose a payment date, download the file, then upload and approve it in your bank portal.

Payments Canada

The organization that owns and operates Canada's national payment clearing and settlement systems and publishes the standards banks follow, including Standard 005 for EFT files. Your bank submits the payments from your file into these systems; Zefty's role is to produce a file that meets the standard.

PDF report

See Audit report. Available beside every file you generate, the PDF report is the readable version of the payment file, showing each payment and its details in plain language. Download it with the file to review a run before uploading, or keep it with your month-end records.

S

Sync

The job that copies vendors and unpaid bills from Zoho Books into Zefty. It runs every night and on demand, so your bills and vendor banking details are current when you start a payment run. Progress is shown on your dashboard.

T

Test mode

A setting that marks every generated file as a test file and records nothing in Zoho Books. Use it to validate your originator details and banking setup with your bank before the first live run, then turn it off. Test files are kept in your payment history like any other.

Transit number

The five-digit code that identifies a specific branch of a Canadian financial institution. Together with the institution number and account number, it forms the routing information for a payment. Zefty needs yours from setup and each vendor's from Zoho Books.

V

Vendor

A supplier you pay, stored as a contact in Zoho Books. Zefty imports vendors with their banking details, shows which ones are ready to be paid, and blocks bills from any vendor whose details are incomplete before a file exists.

Vendor payment

The record Zoho Books uses to mark a bill as paid. After a live file is generated, Zefty creates one vendor payment per bill, dated with the payment date and for the amount paid, so your books are current without any re-entry. Your payment history in Zefty links to each one.

W

Write-back

Zefty's automatic recording of payments in Zoho Books. As soon as a live file is generated, every bill in it is marked paid with a vendor payment for the amount in the file, including partial amounts. Nothing is entered twice and nothing is missed.

Z

Zoho Books

The cloud accounting platform from Zoho in which you record vendors and bills. Zefty connects to it with your authorization, reads your bills, vendors and their banking details, and writes vendor payments back so your books stay current.