Payment files

• How to create a SEPA XML payment file from Excel
  Turn an Excel or CSV list of payees into a SEPA credit transfer XML (pain.001) your bank accepts: the columns you need, the checks that matter, and how to upload it.
• pain.001.001.03 vs pain.001.001.09
  The practical differences between the 2009 and 2019 versions of the SEPA credit transfer XML: BICFI, execution date, structured addresses, UETR and LEI.
• SEPA structured addresses: the November 2026 deadline was postponed
  The EPC planned to stop unstructured addresses in SEPA payments on 15 November 2026. On 9 September 2026 it postponed that date. What changes for your pain.001 files.
• How to create a NACHA ACH file from Excel
  The structure of a NACHA file (records 1, 5, 6, 8, 9), the fields you need in your spreadsheet, the routing-number check, entry hash and blocking – explained simply.
• How IBAN validation works
  What an IBAN check really verifies, how the two check digits are calculated with mod 97, a worked example, and what validation cannot tell you.
• How to create a SEPA direct debit file (pain.008) from Excel
  How to turn a spreadsheet of members or customers into a SEPA Direct Debit collection file (pain.008): the columns, FRST vs RCUR, CORE vs B2B, and the checks banks run.
• The ABA (Cemtex) bulk payment file, explained
  The Australian ABA / Cemtex direct entry file, line by line: the 120-character header, detail and total records, BSB and account rules, transaction codes and balancing.
• FRST vs RCUR: SEPA direct debit sequence types
  A clear guide to SEPA Direct Debit sequence types FRST, RCUR, OOFF and FNAL: what the EPC rulebooks say since 2016, what banks still ask for, and how to avoid rejected pain.008 files.

Bank statements, PDFs, spreadsheets and photos

• How to convert MT940 to Excel
  What the tags in an MT940 file mean (:20:, :25:, :60F:, :61:, :86:, :62F:), how to read a :61: statement line, and how to turn the file into an Excel sheet with a balance check.
• camt.052 vs camt.053 vs camt.054
  The three ISO 20022 cash-management messages explained: intraday report, end-of-day statement and debit/credit notification – and how to open them in Excel.
• Analysis ToolPak alternatives in Google Sheets
  Built-in Google Sheets formulas that replace the Analysis ToolPak: T.TEST, F.TEST, CORREL, LINEST and CHISQ.TEST, plus how to do a one-way ANOVA with formulas.
• Arabic PDF to text: which method keeps the letters right?
  Copy-paste, Word, Google Docs OCR or a bidi-aware converter? Which way of getting Arabic text out of a PDF keeps the letters and word order correct, and when to use each.
• Fix wrong dates after a Google Photos Takeout export
  After a Google Takeout export, photos show the export date and no location. Why the date is in a separate JSON file, the file-name traps, and how to write it back into the photos.