File Post (ASCII Format)
File format: Each file has exactly one header row. If you need to post transactions to different months, post dates, or journal codes you must create multiple files. All files must end with a trailer row. Fields with spaces must be in quotes.
Header Row : 1 per file.
HD: author,User ID,post date,station,fiscal month,journal code, doc code
HD: XTRANS,,02/12/2002,,FEB,AR
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Author: Name of process that produces the file. This is NOT loaded into the database.
 User Id number: We’ve always left this blank. I think it’s not loaded into the database
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Post date: MM/DD/YYYY format. CX standard process ignores this field. Graceland scripts use it.
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Station Number: posted files don’t go through a station so this is typically left blank
Fiscal month. CX standard process ignores this field. Graceland scripts use it.
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Journal Code: AR, JC, etc. Must be a valid code: AC, AP, AR, SA, CH, QC, DA, PD, FA, JC, CK, BG,
PC, PR, PS, SB.
 Document code. We’ve always left this blank (the doc code is on the GE lines below). If you have a comma after the journal code followed by a comment, then you get the posting error: Document #, station 0 is an invalid station. There is no such station
General Entry Row : Make a new line whenever doc code, doc number, comment, or entry changes. All transactions in an entry must total 0.
GE: Doc Id,doc code,doc num,"comment",entry,Form of Payment, Pay number
GE: 000000,XT,20020212,"Extensions",XTND
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Document id: If there is a 1 to 1 relationship between the GE and a single ID, this should be the ID number to make certain CX reports show the subsidiary info. Otherwise, 0.
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Document Table Code: Must be an active doc from doc_table.
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Document Number: an integer. Often made up (like the date in yyyymmdd format) or the serial key from a driving table. The most desirable is to increment last_issued_num from doc_table and use that number , but that’s very difficult to build into a file.
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Entry Description: 24 character description. The only description in files without subsidiaries. The comment is for the batch of transactions and not a single transaction. It should have quotes around it and should not contain quotes.
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Entry Type: XTND, BOOK, etc. Must be an active ent in ent_table.
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Form of Payment. We have never used this because we load changes not payments. But this would
 be any valid form of payment like CK (check).
Form of Payment number (check number). We’ve never used this because we load changes not payments. But this would be the form of payment number (like check number).
General Transaction Row : Make a GT row for each transaction.
GT:amount,fund,func,obj,subfund,
GT:107.90,10,,1210,,
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Amount: the amount of the charge (a debit of an account is a positive number). Cannot have dollar signs, commas, or parenthesis to indicate negative.
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Fund
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Func
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Obj
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Subfund
Subsidiary Entry Row : Some files have no subsidiaries. Student accounts always do.
SE: subs,id,doc id,doc code,doc num,"comment",entry
SE: S/A,255671,255671,XT,12345,"ENGL3410",XTND
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Subs Code: S/A, etc. Must match the account number in the GT account record for the transaction as defined in subs_table.
 Subs Number: student’s id number
 Doc ID: student’s id number
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Doc Code: same as the doc code on the GE line. This may not be required but it has been in all the files I’ve made.
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Doc Number: an integer. See the note on GE doc number

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Description: 24 character description. It should have quotes around it and should not contain quotes.
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Entry Type: Must be valid code. Same as the entry type on the GE line. This may not be required but it has been in all the files I’ve made.
Subsidiary Transaction : At least one per SE line. (We’ve always made them 1 ST per 1 SE.) Total of amounts must be the same as on the owning GT line.
ST: tot, tot period, bal, bal period, amount, assoc amount
ST: BKST,SP95,SB,SP95, 21.81, 0
Note: Some subsidiaries require tot codes, some do not. For those that do not have tots, the tot code and bal code must be spaces (surrounded by quotes) and the periods are left blank:
SE: MISC,1,1,AR,56350,"Housing",ENT
ST: " ",," ",,100.00,0.00
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Tot Code: Must be an active tot_code from subt_table (if required).
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Tot Period: 2 character Session + 2 char year (SU01) for students, calendar year (CY02) for wages (if required).
 Bal Code: SB in all I’ve done or blank.
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Bal Period: Accounts payable "INV", student same as total code, wages combination of payroll code and payroll number, blank if tot code is blank.
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Subsidiary Amount: amount of individual line
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Subsidiary Associated Amount: Typically zero. In payroll, amount deduction is based on.
Trailer Row :
TR:
Every posting file ends with a trailer line. It has no other inputs.
Comments:
# This is a comment on its own line
ST: BKST,SP95,SB,SP95, 21.81, 0,# This comment explains a ST line
The pound sign starts a comment which continues to the end of the line. You can put comments as their own lines or at the tail end of any line. When adding comments to the end of a line, I would suggest you put a comma directly ahead of it. Also any lines after the TR: row are treated as comments in that they are completely ignored. Pound signs are allowed within quotes. For example, this entry line GE:
5981,AR,86283,"PARKING VIOLATION #1149",ENT loads with a comment of “PARKING VIOLATION
#1149”; the pound sign does not start a comment.
General Notes:
In the examples above here is a colon after the line type. The file format also allows for a comma here. This makes it a completely comma delimited file which means it can be created from or loaded into Excel or other spread sheet programs. If you save a CSV file from Excel, you may need to check it for issues before you load it. For example you can’t have quotes in the transaction comments.
The official CX documentation on these files (on the CD) is Print Files/Techman/Tmglvol1.doc