Due to the sensitive nature of electronic transfers, it is important to ensure that both your organization and your bank are set up to receive and process ACH files properly.  A pre-notification (or pre-note) is a zero-dollar transaction that is transmitted and processed to ensure you have the proper information for your bank for transmission and processing, as well as having the proper information for the other party. In other words, a pre-note is a test transaction sent before the transmission of live data.

Creating a Pre-notification

When importing transactions as a file, ACH Universal will treat all zero-dollar amounts as pre-notes.  It will create a debit or credit pre-note based on your default selection during the Account Setup.  It is important to create one pre-note for debits and one pre-note for credits.

File Level Import

In creating a pre-note, you can import or enter all transactions as you normally would.  

Manually Entered Pre-notification

Similar to transactions, a pre-note can also be entered manually.

From the Home screen select 'Add A Record'. 

Fill out all fields exactly as you would for a dollar transaction, except the amount must be $0.00.  Click OK. A dialog box will be displayed to confirm that you intended to create a pre-note.  (This is to verify that the amount was intended to be zero and was not left blank unintentionally).  Click 'Yes' to create the pre-note.

You can import or enter all other types of transactions as you normally would.  

During transmission, on the 'Transmit to Bank' screen you will see the number of pre-note transactions listed in the summary information in the 'Pre-Note' column.