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Bulk file-based payment processing

Bulk file-based payment processing, common among banks and large corporations, is a result of managing multiple accounts with high daily transaction volumes. This is in stark contrast to families and small businesses, where one or two individuals typically manage a single account with significantly fewer transactions. Despite the arrival of faster payment methods, such as same-day and instant payments, file-based payment processing is still widely used. It’s particularly vital for banks with legacy systems, where it’s used to manage high-volume transactions efficiently.

With the trend pointing towards a reduction in reliance on bulk processing, Pismo is introducing a new solution that leverages AWS S3 bucket cross-account replication to bridge the gap between traditional bulk processing and fast payment methods. This strategy replicates an S3 object (a file and its associated metadata) uploaded manually by clients to their designated bucket on the Pismo platform, enhancing consumption and processing. This development, along with companies sending daily transaction files to banks, reflects the evolving landscape of transaction management.

In addition to manual uploads, you can also use Pismo's Upload bulk file API to upload your files.

Understanding file-based payment processing

Pismo’s bulk file-based payment processing includes the following features:

  • Payments are ingested from a designated AWS S3 bucket, with each file capable of containing up to 500,000 payments.
  • Supports all workflows available through the Post payment API. The following transaction types are supported:
    • Regular transactions, applies to:
      • Debit
      • Credit
      • Transfer
    • Forced transactions, applies to:
      • Debit
      • Credit
      • Transfer
    • Earmarks
      • Debit and transfer with earmark execution
    • Time-influenced transactions
      • Backdated debit and credit
      • Back business debits and credits
    • Clients can upload more than one per day, as long as they upload them to the specified AWS S3 bucket.
    • Files are processed in parallel.
    • Should any payment within a bulk file fail, the processing of the remaining payments continues independently.
    • Details of both successful and failed payments are provided in a response file.

Feature restrictions

  • Pismo does not provide endpoints for progress tracking. File changes can be monitored by checking the output file in the AWS S3 Bucket.
  • Float and Earmark operations fall outside the scope of this project.
  • Once a file has been posted and confirmed as received, a feature to cancel its processing is not available.

Security configuration

Reach out to your Pismo representative for guidance on how to configure security measures for sending and receiving files.

File format

The Pismo platform handles bulk payment processing by ingesting a UTF-8 encoded input file containing the list of transactions to be processed. The file consists of a header line followed by n-lines, each representing an operation entry in pre-formatted JSON schema. The name of the file must adhere to the naming convention rules detailed in the next section.

Naming convention

  • File names must have the format {creation-datetime}-{bulk-id}, where creation-datetime is in the UTC timezone and is formatted as YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss.
  • bulk-id includes only digits, letters, hyphens, and underscores, and has a maximum length of 60 characters. For example: 2023-06-23-11-07-23-a_09BM-001-53.
  • A file extension is not mandatory.
  • Upon processing, an output file is generated following the naming convention {original-input-filename}-out.original. For example: 2023-06-23-11-07-23-a_09BM-001-53-out.original.

Input file

The following sample illustrates how your input files should be structured. The parts of the sample file are explained in detail below it.

Sample input file

{"bulk_id": "c5a5f9cf-07ab-45c5-a7c5-43d101484aca", "org_id": "TN-097d9c0e-0331-492a-93e2-95c8c2019fd1", "header_version": "1.0.0", "operation_type": "PAYMENT", "n_entries": 5}
{"credit": {"external_account_id": "3c075273-1a56-439b-963b-efff1ae347be", "processing_code": "220035"}, "amount": {"value": 1, "currency": "USD"}, "soft_descriptor": "cash-in", "tracking_id": "8607a074-dcdc-4ae6-bc3e-c227865b6e50"}
{"credit": {"external_account_id": "3c075273-1a56-439b-963b-efff1ae347be", "processing_code": "220035"}, "amount": {"value": 1, "currency": "USD"}, "soft_descriptor": "cash-in", "tracking_id": "5a97fc1f-9f08-43e8-a500-6c450af5d4f5"}
{"credit": {"external_account_id": "3c075273-1a56-439b-963b-efff1ae347be", "processing_code": "220035"}, "amount": {"value": 1, "currency": "USD"}, "soft_descriptor": "cash-in", "tracking_id": "3f2d3619-9a2f-42a2-8746-fe0fe1aef401"}
{"credit": {"external_account_id": "3c075273-1a56-439b-963b-efff1ae347be", "processing_code": "220035"}, "amount": {"value": 1, "currency": "USD"}, "soft_descriptor": "cash-in", "tracking_id": "ba491e35-fb11-4975-9cd4-2b0fc71b0678"}
{"credit": {"external_account_id": "3c075273-1a56-439b-963b-efff1ae347be", "processing_code": "220035"}, "amount": {"value": 1, "currency": "USD"}, "soft_descriptor": "cash-in", "tracking_id": "78dabe62-495a-4f85-b728-c532c57d761d"}

Header

The header of an input file is crucial as it holds specific information about the transaction. It includes details about the originator of the bulk payment processing request, the type of operation, and the count of transactions awaiting processing.

Example header

{
  "bulk_id": "c5a5f9cf-07ab-45c5-a7c5-43d101484aca",
  "org_id": "TN-097d9c0e-0331-492a-93e2-95c8c2019fd1",
  "header_version": "1.0.0",
  "operation_type": "PAYMENT",
  "n_entries": 5
}

The fields in the example are defined as follows.

  • bulk_id
    The ID of the bulk payment request. Only digits, letters, hyphens, and underscores are allowed. Maximum length is 60 characters. bulk_id is client-generated.
  • org_id
    ID that represents the organization sending the file. This is a client-generated ID.
  • header_version
    The version of the header. Must be 1.0.0.
  • operation_type
    The type of the operation to be executed, only PAYMENT is supported.
  • n_entries
    The number of entries contained in the file. n_entries is used to check the number of rows in the file against the value of n_entries. The maximum number of rows per file is 500,000.

Output file

An output file presents the outcomes of a bulk payment processing. The following sample illustrates how output files are structured. The parts of the sample file are explained in detail below it.

Sample output file

{"bulk_id": "c5a5f9cf-07ab-45c5-a7c5-43d101484aca", "org_id": "TN-097d9c0e-0331-492a-93e2-95c8c2019fd1", "header_version": "1.0.0", "operation_type": "PAYMENT", "n_entries": 5, "status": {"description": "FINISHED"}}
{"response_status": 201, "cid": "ex-cid-1","tracking_id": "5a50d3a3-9ab2-463b-9bfb-7c5044489f95"}
{"response_status": 201, "cid": "ex-cid-2","tracking_id": "5a50d3a3-9ab2-463b-9bfb-7c5044489f96"}
{"response_status": 201, "cid": "ex-cid-3","tracking_id": "5a50d3a3-9ab2-463b-9bfb-7c5044489f97"}
{"response_status": 201, "cid": "ex-cid-4","tracking_id": "5a50d3a3-9ab2-463b-9bfb-7c5044489f98"}
{"response_status": 400, "cid": "ex-cid-5", "error": {"code": "WPMT-0010", "message": "Insufficient funds"},"tracking_id": "5a50d3a3-9ab2-463b-9bfb-7c5044489f99"}

Header

{
  "bulk_id": "blk-0001",
	"org_id": "tn-0000-0001",
	"header_version": "1.0.0",
	"operation_type": "PAYMENT",
	"n_entries": 10000,
	"status": {
		"description": "FAILED",
		"error": {
      "code": "WBLK-0001",
			"message": "Malformatted input file"
    }
  }
}
  • bulk_id
    ID of the bulk payment request. Only digits, letters, hyphens, and underscores are allowed. Maximum character length allowed is 60. This ID is client-generated.
  • org_id
    A client-generated ID that represents the organization sending the file.
  • header_version
    The version of the header. It must be 1.0.0.
  • operation_type
    The type of the operation to be executed. Only PAYMENT is supported.
  • n_entries
    The number of entries contained in the file.
  • status
    Details about the result of payment processing:
    • description
      Status name. It can be CREATED, FAILED, or FINISHED.
    • error
      This field is populated with an error code and a corresponding message in case an error occurs while processing the input file:
      • code
        Error code that represents the error.
      • message
        Message that describes the error.

Error response

In the event of a processing error, the output file includes the unsuccessful transaction, along with its corresponding error code and message. Refer to the sample in Output file, where an unsuccessful transaction does not prevent Pismo from processing other transactions in the file.

Example of a JSON object for a failed transaction:

{
  "response_status": 400,
  "error": {
    "code": "WPMT-0010",
    "message": "Insufficient funds"
  },
  "cid": "ex-cid-5",
  "tracking_id": "5a50d3a3-9ab2-463b-9bfb-7c5044489f99"
}

The fields in the above example are defined as follows.

  • response_status
    HTTP status code returned for the specific operation.
  • error
    This attribute is populated in case of an error:
    • code
      Error code.
    • message
      Error message.
    • cid
      Correlation ID for the operation.
    • tracking_id
      ID that identifies the payment transaction encountering error.

Updated 19 days ago

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