The CPA 005 is a Canadian banking standard for electronic payments, widely used for PAD (Pre-Authorized Debit) and EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) transactions. It’s a structured text file that allows financial institutions to process payments securely and efficiently.
File Structure
A CPA 005 file is a plain text file where each line is exactly 1464 characters long. It contains several types of records:
Header and Trailer Records
Header (A record): Contains key metadata, including the file creation date, originator ID, and settlement account information.
Trailer (Z record): Provides summary details for reconciliation.
D Lines (Debit) and C Lines (Credit)
Each line starts with a 24-character header and can include up to six segments of 240 characters.
If fewer than six segments are used, the line is padded to reach 1464 characters.
While debits and credits are interchangeable in format, they are usually batched separately in practice.
Other Key Elements
Originator ID: A unique number assigned to entities authorized to submit PAD/EFT payments.
Bank, Transit, and Account Numbers: Identify the account receiving or sending funds, much like a postal address.
File Creation Number (FCN): A sequence number (0001–9999) to prevent duplicate submissions.
Dates: Represented as a 6-digit number — three digits for the year and three for the day of the year.
Padding Conventions: Numeric fields are left-padded with zeros; text fields are right-padded with spaces.
Note: While CPA 005 is a standard, individual Canadian banks may have slightly different requirements or interpretations, so it’s important to confirm with your bank before submission.
How to Generate a CPA005 File in Propra
Go to Payables and select the payments you want to post.
Click Post to open the posting page.
On the posting page, click the down arrow above the POST button. This will generate the CPA005 file with all the selected transactions.
Save the generated file — it’s now ready to upload to your bank.
How CPA 005 Works
Once you have the file:
Upload to Your Bank
Log in to your bank’s portal and upload the CPA005 text file.
Initiate Transfer
The bank processes the file to execute the electronic funds transfers.
Using the CPA 005 format ensures your payments are processed accurately, efficiently, and in compliance with Canadian banking standards.