File Standards Validation Rules
Business Rules can be used to validate the content and structure of batches that are ingested
by Gateway. This function is provided as a set of Business Rules nodes that are
called from the Business Rules workflow. The validation node types are shown in the following
list.
- Content
- Content validation verifies that the fields in a record contain valid values. It checks the values for type, format, justification, and for specific contents. Content validation also checks that required fields are present and verifies that two fields from different records have the same value.
- Context
- Context, exclusive context, and envelope context validation work together to check the structure of the
incoming transmission.
- Context
- Context validation verifies that records are in the correct order by analyzing the current and previous record types to determine whether the pairing of these record types is valid.
- Exclusive Context
- Exclusive context validation also works with current and previous record types. It allows the user to specify pairs of record types that are invalid if they appear together in a certain type of transmission. For example, a transaction record (type 25) normally follows a bundle header record (type 20), but this structure is not allowed in a returns batch.
- Envelope Context
- Envelope context validation verifies that the record type pairs that contain, or envelop, some number of other records appear properly. For example, transmission, batch, and bundle header records (types 01, 10, and 20) must be followed by their respective trailer records (types 99, 90, and 70) and also be properly nested.
- Collectors
- Collectors validation uses a value that is calculated from the preceding records to verify the value of a
specific field. As a transmission is processed, records are counted and field values are summed. These
accumulated values are then used to validate the specified fields. For example, batch records (type 10) can be
counted and compared with the batch count that is found in field 2 of the type 99 record.
This node also checks for unique values. For example, the batch ID (field 10 of the type 10 record) field in each record in the transmission must have a unique value.
Error codes can be assigned to each of the validation types. For configuration options, see Error Code Management.
Business Rules provides sample rule sets for several standards. The
validation rule sets are unique for each standard. Each level in a standard has its own set of tables. Some
predefined rule sets are shown in the following list.
- ANSI DSTU X9.37 - 2003
- Industry Adoption of DSTU X9.37 - 2003
- ANSI X9.100-187 - 2008
- Canadian ANSI X9.100-187 - 2008
- ANSI X9.100-187 - 2013
- NACHA - 2021
The X9 family shares a set of structural components that are shown in the following list.
- Database tables
- Database views
- Node, task, and data descriptors
Though the underlining validation functions are the same for ACH, it requires its own set of structural components. These differences are noted in the following topics.