aba-generator

ABA generator

Generate ABA Files from Node.js

Notable:

• The minified version of this module is 2.4KB.
• The only dependency is printf, which can be minified to 8.2KB
• The source code of aba-generator is quite easy to read, understand, and amend. We welcome any changes.

Usage

Installation

npm i -S aba-generator

Minimal example of sending money from your account:

const ABA = require("aba-generator");

const aba = new ABA({
  bank: "ANZ", // The bank processing this file
  user: "Allowasa Pertolio Accounting&Tax", // Your (money sender) company name
  userNumber: 1234, // Your ID in the bank system, often hardcoded to some number. Consult with your bank
  description: "Credits Of The Wooloomooloo" // Description of the transactions within the file

// Optional
// bsb: String, // Main account BSB. Not in the ABA spec, but required by ANZ
// account: String, // Main account number. Not in the ABA spec, but required by ANZ
// date: Date|String|Number, // The date to be processed, default is now
// time: Date|String|Number, // The time to be processed. Not in the ABA spec, but required by ANZ
});

const transaction = {
  bsb: "061021", // recipient's account BSB
  transactionCode: ABA.CREDIT, // indicates "you are sending money (debit), they are receiving (credit)"
  account: "123456", // recipient's account number
  amount: 12.0, // Number|String sending amount the recipient will see in their bank account
  accountTitle: "Georgian Council of New South Wales", // recipient account name
  reference: "Invoice # 1234", // payment reference, will be visible to the recipient
  traceBsb: "061123", // your (sender) bank account BSB
  traceAccount: "1234567", // your (sender) bank account number
  remitter: "Acme Inc" // Your (sender) company name
  
// Optional
// tax: "N"|"W"|"X"|"Y"|" "|"", // Tax withholding indicator. Typically blank, meaning no tax. See ABA specification.
// taxAmount: Number|String, // Tax amount. Typically 0.
};

const file = aba.generate([transaction]);

console.log(file);

Should print:

0                 01ANZ       Allowasa Pertolio Accounti001234Credits Of T180320                                        
1061-021   123456 500000001200Georgian Council of New South WaInvoice # 1234    061-123  1234567Acme Inc        00000000
7999-999            000000120000000012000000000000                        000001                                        

which is a fully valid ABA file. (There should be spaces in the end of the first and last rows, but are not rendered in Markdown).

Every line in the ABA file must be 120 chars. So data like user, description, accountTitle, etc are truncated if too long.

Note

Even though the format is standardised, bank typically mandate some of the fields to be hardcoded.

ABA file specification

1. http://ddkonline.blogspot.com/2009/01/aba-bank-payment-file-format-australian.html
2. https://www.cemtexaba.com/aba-format/cemtex-aba-file-format-details

API

new ABA(options)

Constructor options:

 * Specify the header of the ABA file.
 * @param options {Object} Header data.
 * @param [options.bsb=""] {String} Main account BSB. Should be ignored according to the specs.
 * @param [options.account=""] {String} Main account number. Up to 9 chars. Should be ignored according to the specs.
 * @param options.bank {String} Name of financial institution processing this file. 3 characters, like "ANZ", "WBC"
 * @param options.user {String} How the user will be shown in the transactions of the third party banks.
 * @param options.userNumber {Number} The ID of the user supplying the file.
 * @param options.description {String} Description of this file entries. Up to 12 chars.
 * @param [options.date=Date.now()] {Date|String|Number} Date to be processed.
 * @param [options.time] {Date|String|Number} Time to be processed. Should be ignored according to the specs.

.generate(transactions)

Transactions schema. Most of the params are required as yo ucan see.

 * Generate ABA file of these transactions.
 * @param transactions {Object[]} Transactions in the file
 * @param transactions[].bsb {String} The third party account BSB
 * @param [transactions[].tax=" "] {"N"|"W"|"X"|"Y"|" "|""}
 * @param transactions[].transactionCode {Number|ABA.CREDIT|ABA.DEBIT} Debit or credit? ABA.CREDIT or ABA.DEBIT
 * @param transactions[].account {String} The third party account number
 * @param transactions[].amount {String|Number}
 * @param transactions[].accountTitle {String} The third party (recipient) account name. Up to 32 chars.
 * @param transactions[].reference {String} Payment reference, e.g. "Invoice # 123". Up to 18 chars.
 * @param transactions[].traceBsb {String} The transacting account BSB
 * @param transactions[].traceAccount {String} The transacting account number
 * @param transactions[].remitter {String} The transacting company name.
 * @param [transactions[].taxAmount=0] {Number}
 * @return {String} The ABA file contents as a string.

TODO

• Input data validation

Credits

The module is based on this excellent work: https://github.com/ordermentum/aba

Changes: removed Bignumber.js and moment dependencies, added documentation and examples, simplified code infrastructure, fixed few bugs, implement max length limit of variable data fields.