Process EFT (Direct Debit) Payments
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What is EFT
EFT stands for Electronic Funds Transfer and this is the common standard for Canadians. In the United States this is known as ACH. TimeSavr does not generate ACH files at this time.
EFT is the process of debiting (or crediting) a bank account directly. In the case of a debit, the money is taken from another bank account and deposited into yours, but EFT can also be used for depositing (crediting) money into another bank account. This is typically done for payroll deposit, and in the case of TimeSavr can also be done for paying dayhome educators.
How it Works
TimeSavr does not handle the actual debiting (or crediting) of bank accounts, but it does make it easy for you ask a payment processor (such as Accept Pay Global or your bank) to process those payments for you. In order for your payment processor to facilitate these transactions, they need to know certain details about the transactions you want to process, and those details are listed in an EFT file. Details such as who to debit money from, their bank account number and the amount.
TimeSavr generates those EFT files for you. EFT files are simple text documents which can be opened in any text editor, such as Notepad, TextEdit or even Word, but these text documents are generated in a very specific format that the processor's computer systems can read, which makes them difficult to read for humans.
Payment Processors
Different processors require these files in different formats, which is why your payment processor options in TimeSavr are limited to the following:
- Accept Pay Global (recommended)
- RBC
- TD Canada Trust
- Scotia Bank
- BMO
- CIBC
- ATB (Alberta Treasury Branches)
- Servus Credit Union
In order to facilitate EFT payments you will need to set up an account with one of the above listed payment processors. If you're already banking with one of the above listed banks, it may make sense to ask them to also process EFT payments for you. However, regardless of which bank you're with, Accept Pay Global can process payments for any Canadian financial institution. Either way, you will pay a monthly fee so it's not a bad idea to get quotes both from your bank and from Accept Pay Global to compare prices.
Accept Pay Global
If you go with Accept Pay Global and tell them you're using TimeSavr, they will waive your setup fee for you, and give you your first 60 days free. The other advantage of using Accept Pay Global is that TimeSavr will automatically submit your EFT files for you. After TimeSavr generates the EFT file for you, it will ask you if you want to submit it now, and if you answer yes, then the file is automatically submitted. If you're not using Accept Pay Global, then TimeSavr will still generate that file for you but you will have to download it to your computer, then log into your bank and upload the file there.
PAD Agreement
PAD stands for Pre-Authorized Debit. You must get each of your families to sign a PAD agreement in order to legally debit their bank accounts. You can download the sample TimeSavr PAD agreement and simply add your company name and logo.
Getting Started
Decide who you want to process your EFT files for you
- Create an EFT account with your chosen processor (from the list above)
- Your processor will give you a client ID or customer ID.
- Enter this ID into TimeSavr in order to link TimeSavr with your EFT account. This is done on the Basic Setup tab in Finance / EFT Payments.
If you haven't yet created a bank account, use the link to Add a new bank account, or go to Admin / Finance / Accounts.
Payment Information
Once your basic setup is done, you'll need to record the bank account information for each family. And if you're using EFT to direct deposit staff pay cheques then you'll also have to enter staff bank account information on each staff member's Payroll Deposit page.
To add direct deposit information for a staff member, click on the Direct Deposit button on their Profile tab and enable the option to Pay this employee via direct deposit.
Creating an EFT File
To create an EFT file go to Finance / EFT Payments. By default this will take you to the Create a New EFT tab and select the Families option. If you want to create an EFT for staff payroll, then click on the Staff button, or if you need to pay your dayhome educators, click on the Dayhomes button.
If you're creating an EFT for families or dayhomes, the amounts will be pre-filled for you. These are the amounts that TimeSavr calculates the families currently owe you, or in the case of dayhomes, the amounts that you currently owe them. If you're creating an EFT for staff, you will need to manually type in the net pay amounts.
Regardless of which option you're using, the first thing you should do is select your Transaction date. When you select your date, TimeSavr may ask you if you want to recalculate the list. If you say yes, then TimeSavr will recalculate the amounts based on the selected date. For example, if you're generating a file for January 1st, but a family already has an invoice on their profile for February 1st, then the February 1st invoice will not be included in the balance owing calculation, as it is not yet due.
After selecting your transaction date, notice that all the amounts are automatically populated based on the balance owing for each family. Families that split payments between two accounts are indicated with a percentage amount and their balance owing is split accordingly.
If you wish to change an amount for a family, simply type over it before you create your EFT.
Then scroll to the bottom of the list and click Create EFT. This generates the EFT file. If you are using Accept Pay Global to process your EFTs, at this point you will be prompted to immediately submit the file for processing. If you are not using Accept Pay Global, you will be taken to the EFT History tab where you will see the most recent EFT file listed at the top.
Click the download link and save the file on your computer, then log into your bank and upload the file there. The process for uploading your file to the bank depends on your bank and is outside the scope of this article.
File Rejected
If your EFT file was rejected by your processor for whatever reason, mark your file as rejected in Timesavr and start over. To mark the file as rejected, click on the 
icon on the far right of the EFT line on the EFT History page. Rejecting the file will also automatically delete all the transactions which had been automatically entered by Timesavr when the file was created.
Delete Transactions Manually
If you need to delete transactions that were not linked to your EFT file, and so they were not able to be deleted automatically, you can also delete your EFT transactions manually. For more information on deleting a bunch of payments click here.
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