Adding A Service User

Before you can send payment files to Bacs, you must add at least one service user.

From the Service Users screen, click the Add button. This will bring up the Service user details and accounts screen, shown below.

This screen requires you to provide service user details and, optionally, service user bank account details. The fields and their required contents are described below.

In this field type the name of the service user you want to add. This should be the name of a business entity, such as a company name or a company division.

In this field type the Bacs number assigned to this service user. You will notice that, if you type a bureau number in this field (i.e. one that begins with the letter 'B'), all fields following the Submission status will become greyed out. This is because no other fields on this screen are applicable to bureaux.

Use the dropdown list to select the appropriate submission status for this service user. The choices are:

• Full Test - This is the level under which format validation takes place. This level does all the testing that would occur for a live file, but stops short of sending files on to the bank.
• Live - This is the highest submission status is Live, which means you can send live payment files to Bacs
• Structural Test - This is the lowest level of testing, under which submissions are validated for the Bacs three-day service

Use the dropdown list to select the appropriate bank for this service user.

If you wish to group one or more Service Users together, you should enter a two-digit code into this box. This code will be outputted when you export a submission summary to a CSV file and will allow you to sort the data by service user groups once imported to a spreadsheet application. If you do not wish to group your service users then leave this field blank.

Select this checkbox if you want to add a restriction to submissions for this service user that requires them to be marked as “Authorised” before they're allowed to be submitted to Bacs.

A typical scenario that utilises this functionality would involve one user who has permissions to import files, create submissions and send them - but doesn't have permission to “Authorise”. This role would be the responsibility of another user who would review the submission before authorising it. Once this action has been performed, then the first user would be able to send the submission to Bacs.

If this option is enabled, then the system user who signs the submission must be different to the one that eventually submits it to the Bacstel service.

Select this checkbox if you want to allow this service user to sign payment files using the Validate and Sign option. This need only be done if your bank has stipulated that the service user must sign payment files.

Select this checkbox if you want payment files associated with this service user to create submissions as soon as they are imported. The result of this will be that each submission will contain one payment file only.

Another result is that the submission created in this way will appear immediately on the Active Submissions page of the SmarterPay client application, so that you will not normally have to use the Payment Files page at all.

If you do not select this checkbox, payment files will appear instead on the Payment Files page of the SmarterPay client application. You will then have to create a submission from them manually.

Select this checkbox if you want SmarterPay On-Premise to download Bacs reports for this Service User.

The Download Reports option is used in conjunction with “From last ## Days”, where ## is an integer from 1 to 31..

This option will only be visible for bureau users of SmarterPay. When used in tandem with the “Create submissions on import” checkbox, this option allows you to automatically create submissions to be associated with a given bureau user.

More:

• Originating bank accounts

This section of the page displays a list of originating bank accounts, giving their name, account number and sort code.

You will notice, if you are adding or editing service user details for a bureau, that this section of the page is greyed out. This is because originating bank account details are not applicable to a bureau service user.

If these fields are not greyed out, and if this service user does not use the Standard 18 file format, you must provide details of at least one originating bank account. If you do not, you will not be able to complete the Back Office configuration.

There are three buttons that may be used on this part of the screen:

Add
Use the Add button to add a new bank account for this service user.

Edit
Use the Edit button to edit an existing bank account for this service user.

Delete
Use the Delete button to delete an existing bank account for this service user.

More:

• Adding an originating bank account
• Editing a service user bank account

Use the Add button to add a bank account to be associated with this service user. This will bring up the Account Details dialog, shown below.

Details – Name

Type in here the name of the account e.g. Company Current Account.

This name should be something that uniquely describes the account, so that you can easily recognise it in a list of other accounts.

Details – Account number

Type in here the number of the account.

Details – Sort code

Type the account sort code into the three boxes provided. The cursor will automatically move into the next box when you have typed two numbers in.

Details – Narrative text

Type the narrative text associated with this account. When you import Standard 18 data, the narrative text field from CONTRA records will be used to populate corresponding records on the payment files that BACS.IP generates. Specify a value to be used in that field where no value was included in the imported file, or the imported file type is not Standard 18.

Details – Account type

Use the dropdown arrow to select the type of account. You can choose between Main (Default), Main (Secondary) and Individual. If creating the first account for a service user, then Main (Default) will be selected by default. Any subsequent accounts for that service user will default to Individual.

However, you can change the account type by simply clicking the combo box and choosing the account type you desire.

Main (Default)

Each Service User must have one Main (Default) account. The details of this account get substituted into any imported Standard 18 payment files that do not have originating account details.

Main (Secondary)

This account type is a special case and should only be used if your sponsoring bank does not allow individual accounts. The account is treated as an individual account, so a service user can profile multiple Main (Secondary) accounts.

However, when the submission is sent to BACS for processing, the account type is transmitted as a main account rather than individual. This option may prevent warning messages about invalid account details.

Individual

A service user can have a number of Individual accounts. These are additional accounts which should be profiled if more than one bank account is being used by the service user. Payment files and submissions can be originated from individual accounts in the same way as Main accounts.

Account Details – More button

Click the More button if you want to add, view or edit details of account limits and supported transactions for this account. The current dialog will then change to show two page tabs at the bottom.

Account limits

This page tab allows you to specify the account limits for this account. All values should be in pounds sterling.

If you choose not to enter any values in these four fields, no credit or debit levels will be set.

These account limits are limits placed on each file. The file credit limit is the upper boundary placed on the sum of all credit transactions in a file. If this limit is exceeded in any one file, then the user will be notified when the payment file is validated.

Supported transactions

This page tab displays a list of about twenty different types of transaction that are supported by BACS. By default all of them are selected, meaning that this account will be authorised to handle any of the supported transactions. You may de-select any that you do not wish to be supported by this originating bank account.