Secure Payments allows Canadian companies to process payments using CPA standard 005 formatted files. This format is used by most Canadian banks. The file can simply be submitted to the originating bank and will contain all information necessary to complete the transfer of funds to or from one or more bank accounts. CPA-005 files can only be used when both the originating and target banks are located in Canada. 

This article will explain how to configure and use CPA-005 files for Canadian transactions within LoanPro. 

Adding a CPA-005 processor

New CPA-005 payment processors can be created either in Secure Payments or in LMS. Some advanced settings relating to batching days and times are only found in Secure Payments.

• For LMS:
  • Navigate to Settings > Company > Secure Payments > Bank Account/EFT (Canada) > Add Processor. Select ‘CPA005’ from the ‘Processor Type’ dropdown.         
  • Enter the following information for the processor:
    • Name: Distinguish this processor from others you create.
    • Bank/institution id: Numeric ID of the originating bank.
    • Cut off time: Time after which transactions will no longer be added to the day's CPA-005 file.
    • Sundry: Used by the originator to further identify the transaction to the payee/payor/ (e.g. pay period, dividend issue, billing period, insurance policy number, etc.)
    • Originator number: Used by the originator to identify the transaction to its own record. (e.g. employee number, policy number, etc.)
    • Originator name: Name of the transaction originator. This should be your company name. This field is limited to 30 characters.
    • Transaction code: Transaction code as defined by standard 007.
    • Branch number: Branch or office for the institution identified by the bank/institution id.
    • Destination center: Number that identifies the data center to which the file is being delivered.
  • Once you have entered the required information, click 'Save'.
• For Secure Payments:
  • Navigate to Processors > Bank Account/EFT (Canada) > CPA005 in Secure Payments. Click the add icon in the top right corner.
  • Enter the needed information in the new window. Many of the settings on this page are the same as the ones in the LMS UI with only a few exceptions:
    • Time zone: Time zone that the bank is located in.
    • Batching days: Determine which days of the week batch files will be created on.
    • Exclude banking holidays: Clicking ‘Enable’ prevents batch transactions on days when banks are closed. By default, LoanPro uses U.S. banking holidays. See our article ‘custom banking schedule’ to learn how to configure a unique schedule.
  • Once you have entered the required information, click 'Save'.

Automated CPA-005 delivery

To enhance your operational efficiency, you can automate the process of generating an encrypted CPA-005 file and delivering it to your bank’s SFTP site. Then, when the bank sends LoanPro the return file, we can automatically update the accounts and take automatic servicing actions in line with your custom business logic.

Reach out to your normal LoanPro contact and they can help you configure the process. You’ll need to provide us with the following information:

• Your schedule or triggers for when LoanPro should generate and send the files.
• Your bank’s SFTP site with directories for the following:
  • CPA-005 file delivery
  • Confirmations file location (credit/debit)
  • Returns fIle location (credit/debit)
• File naming format. (This is optional. Some banks require file names to be formatted a specific way.)

LoanPro’s team will then  set up a two-way connection between Secure Payments and your bank, enabling us to deliver the files to them, and for them to deliver processing confirmations and returns files to us.

Manually generating a CPA-005 file

To add transactions to a CPA-005 file, you must select a CPA-005 processor to process payments. This can be done either when you manually log a payment or when you create an AutoPay. Once transactions have been processed using a CPA-005 processor, they will be added to a CPA-005 file. To generate the file, 

1. Navigate to CPA005 Files and History inside Secure Payments.   
2. Click the page icon in the top right. 
3. Choose the preferred CPA-005 processor from the drop-down menu, and click 'Generate' to create the file.  

CPA-005 returns

When Canadian banks reject CPA-005 transactions, they will provide a rejection code that indicates why the transaction failed. LoanPro then lets you set automatic actions in response to the specific code received.

To set a specific action for a Canada return code, navigate to Settings > Company > Merchant > Canada Returns. The page displays all of the return codes, which are numbered from 900 to 922 before jumping up to 990. The entry for each return code lists this number, an explanation of what it indicates, the current action assigned to it, and an icon allowing you to edit it. Clicking the pencil icon pulls up a window providing the options for when that code is returned. You can take no action, cancel upcoming AutoPays, or inactivate the payment profile.

Choose the desired action related to the code in the popup window and click ‘Save’.