Additional validation recommendations

Most of the exceptions to validations affect multiple ACH types. If something is specific to one particular application type, that type is noted by its SEC code.

The following table shows the ACH rule, or field that is involved in the exception along with a detailed description.

Table 1. Exceptions to validations.
ACH rule or field	Explanation of exception and potential action
In all fields that are defined as alphanumeric, in the rules, the characters that are allowed are restricted to a subset of ASCII or EBCDIC.	Because of performance concerns, a restriction list is not defined in the type tree to exclude the special ASCII or EBCDIC values. Fields will be left justified, space filled, and defined to the correct fixed size. Mandatory fields are checked to ensure that content is present. Required fields that only include spaces are considered valid by the tree.
Total Debit Entry Dollar Amount field and Total Credit Entry Dollar Amount field in Batch Control Record	If a message can be either a credit or a debit, the only way to enforce the debit/credit totals is through a map.
Check Digit field	The type tree does not contain a rule to insure that the value for this field was computed correctly.
Effective Entry Date field, Settlement Date field in Batch Header	Checks against processing turnaround times and other date related rules need to be done as part of the overall implementation.
Identification number field in ENR	The type tree validation has no means to determine whether this is a Federal Government enrollment. Would need to be implemented in a validation map through lookups, or other means of confirmation.
Payment related information in the addenda records for various application types	The rules call for an asterisk (*) to be the delimiter between data elements, and a backward slash (\), or a tilde (~) to be the terminator between data segments, but this validation must be done in a map. For more information, see the ACH Payment Related Information example. The Payment Related Information field in all of the addenda records must be parsed to validate the data. Similarly, to ensure that the content in this field is ANSI X12 or NACHA, endorsed banking conventions must be validated separately in a map.
Rules regarding valid sending point, valid routing numbers	Other than data format validation, the type tree validation does not provide lookup capabilities against tables of valid ACH participant information.
Rules regarding matching field values (for example, Immediate Origin, File Creation Date, File Creation Time and File ID Modifier) back to original entries or related ACH files in a particular application process flow	The rules must be included in the overall application. In other words, the type tree does not perform records matching within the content of the data, whereas the validation map performs this matching task and reports any duplicates
Originator City field and State/Province field in the Third IAT addenda record, and the Receiver City field and State/Province field in the Seventh IAT addenda record.	The State/Province portion of these fields is not mandatory in all cases, but only "if applicable". If the overall implementation is limited to situations where this is applicable, then additional validation could be implemented in a validation map.
Currency Codes	The type tree does not restrict the value to a valid ISO Currency Code. To make certain the Currency Code is valid, the ISO Currency Code values must be added as restrictions to all Currency Code elements.
DFI Account Number field	The type tree does not provide look up capabilities against validation of the DFI Account number
Rules regarding TRC Entries and TRX Entries	TRC Entries and TRX Entries are permitted only to eligible participants. An ODFI may transmit a TRC entry or TRX entry to an RDFI only if the ODFI and RDFI each are participants in the same Check Truncation Program. The type tree does not contain rules to ensure that ODFI or RDFI are both participants in the same Check Truncation Program. If the overall implementation is limited to situations where this is applicable, then additional validation could be implemented in a validation map.
Rules regarding loan accounts	Originators may transmit ACH credit entries to loan accounts belonging to a Receiver. Originators must be aware that, with the exception of reversals to correct erroneous credit, debit entries to loan accounts are prohibited. The type tree do not contain rules that enforce this entry detail rejection criteria.
Rules regarding Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) enforced sanctions policies.	The type tree does not does have rules to enforce OFAC sanctions policies, such as reporting entities referred to as "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Person" acting as ACH participants.