Fed Unveils EDI Software

Early this fall the Fed will introduce FedEDI, our new financial electronic data interchange (EDI) translation and reporting software. With FedEDI, you will be able to translate the remittance information contained in ACH addenda records and pass it along to business customers who receive ACH payments.

An electronic transfer of business documents, such as purchase orders and invoices, is referred to as EDI; when this information is accompanied by a payment, the transaction is called financial EDI. FedEDI will give you the capability to participate in financial EDI and provide valuable payment-related information to your business customers.

FedEDI software will be available, at no additional cost, to the 12,000 financial institutions that have FedLine® software.

Versions will be available for DOS and Windows 95/NT (not Windows 3.1)® operating systems. FedEDI operates outside of FedLine, so it can be run on your FedLine terminal or another PC. However, FedEDI works with FedLine to download, translate and store financial EDI information from incoming ACH payment files. The data then can be communicated to your customers through a hard copy report, e-mail, fax or direct transmission into the company's accounts receivable system.

You also can use FedEDI to perform other special functions, such as:

• review your ACH files to determine if they contain EDI files;
• bill customers receiving EDI transaction data;
• automatically print Notifications of Chang;
• output either summary or detailed reports;
• maintain financial EDI data for a specified length of time; and
• establish passwords to ensure security.

In addition to providing vital information to your customers, FedEDI will help you get ready for EFT 99--the federal government's initiative to deliver most payments electronically by Jan. 1, 1999. The government will include important remittance information in the addenda records accompanying corporate ACH payments. This could require action on your part, especially if any of your corporate customers conduct business with federal agencies. To remain competitive and effectively maintain your relationship with these customers, you need to be capable of translating this data into human-readable form.

Most institutions do not have EDI translation capabilities today. In fact, only around 1,000 institutions nationwide are financial EDI-receipt capable. FedEDI is a solution for all ACH receivers with electronic access to the Fed, including service bureaus or other institutions that receive ACH files for multiple financial institutions.

The Fed will begin FedEDI training and deployment in September and October of 1998.

If you would like additional information about FedEDI, please contact your account executive.