Check Issue Payments

Check issue requests are used to instruct the RAVEN system to commence validation, printing and shipping of paper checks to a prearranged destination. Printed checks can be shipped in bulk, or mailed out individually depending on the arrangement that has been made. This page will describe the fields used to submit check issue requests; it will also help you to understand the responses from RAVEN.

To issue your first batch of checks, you may copy the following sample, save it as a .csv file and then simply edit it in Excel or NotePad by replacing the sample data with the PRN you have been given and the specific details of the checks you need to issue. A file may contain a mix of countries and currencies. Make sure you provide the total number payments and total numeric amount in the footer line.

RavenPaymentFile_v2.2
PRN,PymtType,Currency,Amount,Beneficiary,AddressLine1,City,ProvState,Country,PostalCode
830044, chq_issue_credit, USD, 1000, John Smith, 12 W. 15th, Boston, MA, US, 1232
830044, chq_issue_credit, EUR, 1114, Bruno Heider, 45 Speisse Gasse, Berlin,, DE, 1232
RavenFooter, 2, 2114

Once you have created the file in csv format, log on to RAVEN Online and upload the file. Your checks will be issued and mailed according to your specifications. You can use RAVEN Online to track the status of your check issue request, view account information and get reports. You can even use the built-in web terminal to conveniently issue individual checks without the bother of uploading a file.

Request and Response Fields

The fields supported for Check Issue payments are described in the following table. The column ‘Req/Rsp’ indicates if the field forms part of the request to RAVEN (Req)or part of the response from RAVEN (Rsp). Except as noted, RAVEN will echo all request fields in the response. The column O/C/M indicates if a field is optional, conditional or mandatory.

Field Names	Type	Max. Size	Req/Rsp	O/C/M	Remarks
PRN	N	6	Req	M	The 6-digit payment routing number assigned to you.
PaymentType	T	25	Req	M	The type of payment to be issued. For outbound check payments, the PaymentType will always be: chq_issue_credit.
Amount	N	10	Req	M	Amount, in the currency of check. Value supplied in base unit of currency, with no decimal. E.g. $150.00 is 15000. If the optional AccountAmount field is supplied, then the Amount field must be zero. In this case, the Amount will be returned in the result file.
Beneficiary	T	40	Req	M	The beneficiary’s name, exactly as it should appear on the check.
Currency	A	3	Req	M	The three-character ISO currency code (e.g. USD, EUR, GBP) the check will be valued in.
Country	A	2	Req	M	The two-character ISO country code (e.g. US, GB) used to verify the country of the account on which the check will be drawn.
AccountAmount	N	10	Req	O	Amount in the currency of the account associated with the payment routing number. The value of the check will be determined when the check is printed, based on the exchange rate in effect at that time. If this value is present and is NOT zero, then the amount field must be zero. Value is supplied in base unit of currency, with no decimal. E.g. $150.00 is 15000
Description	T	60	Req	O	Memo or Payment Reference to be printed on the check.  If field is not identified in Field Names line, then value will default to “Promotion Name”.   If field is present, but empty, then no value will be printed.
Reference	T	30	Req	O	Information the merchant may supply at their discretion identifying the payment or beneficiary. Will be echoed on reports. Will not be printed on the check. May be used to support the mail merge service. In the case of batch files this field is recommended but optional, in all other cases (RAPI, Virtual Terminal) this field is mandatory and must be unique in the file.
Reference2-10	T	100	Req	O	9 additional reference fields, containing information the merchant may supply at their discretion identifying the payment or customer. Will be not echoed on reports. Will not be printed on check. May be used to support the mail merge service.
Table1-3	T	-	Req	O	Three additional fields to provide tabular data in Wiki format for advanced letter mail merge.
Address Information		See ‘Note on Addresses’, below.
AddressLine1-4	T	60 each	Req	O	Address lines of the beneficiary. Up to four may be supplied. If present, these will be printed on the mail merge letter in a location suitable for insertion into a window envelope. NOTE: At least one address line is mandatory for fulfilment.
City	T	50	Req	O	City the check will be mailed to. NOTE: This field is mandatory for fulfillment.
ProvState	T	50	Req	O	The Province, Department, Canton or State the check will be mailed to. NOTE: Where applicable, this field is mandatory for fulfillment.
PostalCode	T	10	Req	O	The postal or zip code the check will be mailed to. NOTE: Where applicable, this field is mandatory for fulfillment.
CustomerCountry	A	2	Req	O	The two-character ISO country code (e.g. US, GB) used to verify the country the check will be mailed to. NOTE: This field is mandatory for all checks issued.
ReturnAddressLine1-5	T	60 each	Req	O	Your return address lines. Up to five may be supplied. If present, the return address is available to be printed on the mail merge letter. If there are return address fields available on the check, the return address will also be printed on the check.If not present, the return address defaults to the mailing address held on file for your company.NOTE: If the ReturnAddressLine1 is null, RAVEN assumes the rest of the return address lines are null and defaults to the mailing address held on file for your company.
ShipmentMethod	A	25	Req	O	If present, the check will be fulfilled using the method specified. The default fulfilment method is post. The possible choices are: courier post The default fulfilment method is post.
Comment	T	1000	Req	O	Information the merchant may supply at their discretion. Will be echoed on reports. Will not be printed on cheques. Can be used as a merge field for mail merge letter template.
Status	T	50	Rsp	M	One of the following status codes. InProgress – check issue request was  received and will be processed. Shipped – check has been shipped to beneficiary. Voided – the check issue request has been voided and will not be processed. Invalid:<field> – a field in the request is invalid Rejected:<reason> – the payment, while valid, has been rejected for another reason. ConfigError:<error> – due to a RAVEN configuration error, the payment could not be processed. Invalid:TestChannel – payment was submitted to a test channel and the test was successful. If the channel was live the payment would be InProgress.
TrackingNumber	N	9	Rsp	M	RAVEN will return a unique tracking number for each payment processed.
ChequeNumber	N	13	Rsp	C	If successfully printed, this will be the serial number of the check.
EffectiveDate	N	8	Rsp	C	If successfully printed, this will be the date printed on the check in DDMMYYYY format.
ShipmentTrackingNumber	AN	100	Rsp	C	If a check has been requested with a ShipmentMethod of courier, this field will contain the courier company’s tracking number; otherwise, it will be empty.
FormattedAmount	N	15	Rsp	M	Decimal formatted amount of item.
TicketExchangeRate	N	10	Rsp	M	Exchange rate for the account the funds will be drawn on.
FormattedTicketAmount	N	15	Rsp	M	Amount to be withdrawn.
TicketCurrency	A	3	Rsp	M	ISO currency code of account from which funds will be drawn.

Notes on Addresses

The correct CustomerCountry field is required for all checks issued, even if they will not be shipped in bulk to your business address.  The CustomerCounty is the country in which the check will ultimately be received by the beneficiary.

When providing address information for checks to be mailed or sent via courier, it is mandatory to supply one or two street address lines as well as the city, political division (state, province or county if applicable), postal code (if applicable) and the beneficiary’s country code. If differentiated address information is not available, it is possible to simply provide four lines of address information, though this may compromise delivery rates.

All addresses, whether supplied in block or using differentiated fields, require the customer country field to be completed.

Mail Merge

An optional service is available that will result in a customized letter to be printed and packaged with each check that is issued on your behalf.  The letter can be on a separate page or as the top portion of a “letter check”.  If you take advantage of this service you will be required to supply a Microsoft Word “mail merge template” prior to the checks being printed.

The merge fields available to you are exactly the same as values supplied in the Request and Response Fields (described above) with the following changes:

Merge Fields	Type	Max. Size	Remarks
PromotionName	AN	100	This additional field is the name of the originating company or “dba” associated with the PaymentRoutingNumber in the check issue request.
CountryName	A	100	Name of the beneficiary’s country.
BeneficiaryAndAddress	A	100	Beneficiaries name and address, across several lines

Mail Merge Table Formatting

Mail merge supports the inclusion of tables of any dimension and per-cell emphasis and alignment. If you wish to include a table in your form letter, you will need to supply the data in the optional fields Table1-3 following these rules:

• Each table must start with {WIKIDATA-1.0}
• Each cell must start with one of the following,
  • || (center-aligned cell)
  • |{ (left-aligned cell)
  • |} (right-aligned cell)
• Each row must end with ^
• Each cell may have one or more of the following emphasis options at the very beginning,
  • * (bold)
  • / (italic)
  • _ (underline)
  • ~ (hide cell borders)
• Newline characters must not be included (for example, CR, LF or CR+LF)

Below are some examples showing the data supplied and the resulting table.

Table Example 1

Table Example 2

Table Example 3