eRefund File Specifications

Flywire provides file specifications for the files used in eRefunds.

The Refund File Specification contains the information the SFS needs to trigger the disbursement process. Flywire will disburse refunds to students or their Authorized Users based on their eRefunds selection. The payer will be able to choose either an ACH or paper check disbursement. The data provided to Flywire in the specification below will trigger the disbursement process. For file specification details and examples, see eRefund File Specification.
The Refund Transaction Specification is used to report information about completed refund transactions. For file specification details and examples, see Refund Transaction File Specification.

eRefund File Specification

Flywire will disburse refunds to students or their Authorized Users based on their selection in the eRefunds module. The user will be able to choose either an ACH or paper check disbursement. The data provided to Flywire in the specification below will trigger the disbursement process.

Refund File Specifications

Flywire will accept a refund file from you on a daily basis. Below are the definitions of both the file naming convention as well as the format of the data provided in the file.

File Format and Transmission

File Format: “|” Delimited
File Frequency: Daily

File Naming Convention

Examples:

TEST: test_{institution}_refund_load_file_{YYYYMMDDHHMMSS}.dat

PROD: {institution}_refund_load_file_{YYYYMMDDHHMMSS}.dat

Item	Description
Institution	Name of the institution
YYYMMDDHHMMSS	The date the file was generated.

File Transmission and Compression
Flywire will accept or send the files using the following methods of compression and transmission.
1. Standard .dat file sent over SFTP (SSH protocol)
2. Gzipped file (.gz extension added to file name) sent over SFTP (SSH protocol)
3. Zipped file (.zip extension added to file name) sent over SFTP (SSH protocol)

Refund File Specifications

File layout

File Header Record ('H')
	First Entry Record ('E')
	Second Entry Record ('E')
	Last Entry Record ('E')
File Footer Record ('F')

All entries will be pipe ( | ) delimited.

Parts of a file

File Header Record - The first row of every file will have the institution name and a date and time stamp indicating when the file was produced.
Entry Record - Each record will have the information about the refund.
File Footer Record - This record will appear at the end of each file and will contain a total number of student records in the file.

Example file layout

H\|University Name\|201407281200
	E\|1\|123456789\|JOHN\|\|DOE\|\|…
	E\|2\|123456790\|JANE\|\|DOE\|\|…
	E\|3\|123456791\|TEST\|\|DOE\|\|…
F\|University Name\|3

File Header Record

The first row of every file will have the institution name and a date and time stamp indicating when the file was produced.

Example: H|University Name|201407281200

Field Number	Field Name	Field Size	Required	Value	Field Information
1	Line Type	1	Y	'H'	Describes the type of line. It is always literal 'H'.
2	Institution Name	100	Y	Any	Descriptive name for the institution
3	File Creation Date	12	Y	Date	Format YYYYMMDDHHMM

Refund Data Records

Each record will have the information about the refund. Any field that is not required must be represented in the file even if the information is not provided.

Example:E|1|123456789|JOHN||DOE||…

The address field contains the information about the address a check should be addressed to. In the case of a Plus loan refund it would be the address of the Plus loan holder.

Value requirements:

Dollar signs are NOT needed in any of the amount fields.
Commas are NOT required in any amount field.
Negative signs need to be left of the value, right side negative signs are not accepted.
No extended characters can be included in data fields. The fields must consist of standard US ASCII encoding with no ANSI extended characters.

Empty fields should be left empty and not sent with word "null".
A record should not start or end with a delimiter ( | ).

Field Number	Field Name	Field Size	Required	Value	Field Information
1	Line Type	1	Y	'E'	Describes the type of line. It is always literal 'E'.
2	Entry Identifier	10	Y	Numeric	A unique number generated for each row of the file. It should start from 1 and incremented for each line.
3	Student Identifier	50	Y	Any	Student ID
4	Student First Name	50	Y	Any	First name of student
5	Student Middle Name	50	N	Any	Middle name of student
6	Student Last Name	50	Y	Any	Last name of student
7	Refund Address Line 1	50	Y	Any	Include street, road, avenue, etc.
8	Refund Address Line 2	50	N	Any	Additional address information
9	Refund City	50	Y	Any	City name
10	Refund State/Province	2	Y	Any	Abbreviated State or Province code
11	Refund Zip Code/Postal Code	10	Y	Any	Zip or Postal Code
12	Refund Country	3	Y	Any	The ISO Alpha-3 country code. For example, United States = USA and Great Britain = GBR.
13	Refund Amount	15	Y	Unsigned Monetary	Amount to be refunded
14	Plus Load First Name	50	N	Any	First name of the Parent PLUS loan holder
15	Plus Loan Last Name	50	N	Any	Last name of the Parent PLUS loan holder
16	Plus Loan Last 4 of SSN	4	N	Any	The last 4 numbers of the parent's SSN for Parent PLUS loan disbursement

File Footer Record

This record will appear at the end of each file and will contain a total number of student records in the file.

Example:F|University Name|3

Field Number	Field Name	Field Size	Required	Value	Field Information
1	Line Type	1	Y	'F'	Describes the type of line. It is always literal 'F'.
2	Institution Name	30	Y	Any	Descriptive name for the institution
3	Total Records	10	Y	Numeric	Number of records in the file
4	Total Disbursement	24	Y	Unsigned Monetary	The total amount to be disbursed
5	Check Sum	128	Y		The SHA 512 hash value of the Total Records, Total Disbursement, and Shared Secret fields concatenated together.

Refund Transaction File Specification

Flywire will prepare a refund transaction file to report information about refund transactions.

Refund transaction records will be included in the file if they have been updated since the last time a file was generated. The record will always reflect the current status of the refund. If multiple changes have been made since the last time the file was generated, only one row with the current information will be sent.

File Naming Convention

The file will be named: {institution}_erefund_transactions_{YYYYMMDDHHMM}.dat

Item	Description
Institution	Name of the institution
YYYMMDDHHMMSS	The date the file was generated.

File Transmission and Compression

Flywire will accept or send the files using the following methods of compression and transmission.

Standard .dat file sent over SFTP (SSH protocol)
Gzipped file (.gz extension added to file name) sent over SFTP (SSH protocol)
Zipped file (.zip extension added to file name) sent over SFTP (SSH protocol)

File Specifications

The following statuses are available for a refund transaction:

SHELVED: The refund was shelved and the student has 24 hours to sign up for eRefunds
PAPER CHECK GENERATED: A paper check was generated with this refund amount
FAILED PAPER CHECK: Flywire attempted to generate a paper check and could not complete the process
E-REFUNDED: Flywire processed an eRefund payment with this amount
FAILED E-REFUND: Flywire attempted to process an eRefund payment and could not complete the process
RETURNED E-REFUND: An eRefund payment was returned from the bank and converted to a paper check
RETURNED_NO_CHECKS: An eRefund was returned from the bank and the school does not use Flywire to process paper checks
VOIDED E-REFUND: An Administrator voided a refund in the SFS
AMOUNT DISCARDED: The refund amount was too high to process
DUPLICATE: Flywire attempted to process a refund that was already processed
DISCARDED: Flywire attempted to process a record in the inbound file and was discarded

Field Number	Field Name	Field Size	Required	Value	Field Information
1	Status		Y	'SHELVED', 'PAPER CHECK GENERATED', 'FAILED PAPER CHECK', 'E-REFUNDED','FAILED E-REFUND','RETURNED E-REFUND','VOIDED E-REFUND','AMOUNT DISCARDED','DUPLICATE','DISCARDED'	Current refund transaction type
3	Student ID	64	Y	Any	Student ID
4	Student Name	129	Y	Any	Student name
5	AU Last Four	8	N	Any	Last four numbers of Authorized User SSN
6	AU Name	129	N	Any	Authorized User Name
7	Account Holder	101	N	Any	Account Holder name Populated only if the refund is sent via ACH
8	Account #	4	N	Numeric	Account # Populated only if the refund is sent via ACH
10	Amount	50	Y	Unsigned monetary or Signed monetary	Amount of refund
11	Load Date	10	Y	Date	Date refund loaded into Flywire's system
12	Shelved Date	10	N	Date	Date refund was shelved
13	E-Refund Date	10	N	Date	Date ACH refund was sent
14	Paper Check Date	10	N	Date	Date paper check was created
15	Paper Check Number	11	N	Any	Paper check number
16	Canonical	200	Y	Any	The name of the institution at flywire Used for cohorts, for example “school-tuition-undergrad” or “school-tuition-grad”
17	Cohort Code	200	N	Any	Cohort code set up for canonical in SFS, if applicable
18	Return Date	10	N	Date	Date paper check was returned Applies if the status is RETURNED_NO_CHECKS or RETURNED E-REFUND

Example amount	Will appear as
$180.00	180.00 or 180
$987,654,321.38	987654321.38

Example amount	Will appear as
−$12.00 or $12.00CR	−12.00 or -12
−$1,987,654,321.00	−1987654321.00
$15.25	15.25
$12,987,654,321.00	Will not be present as the example is too many digits (13)

Example date	Will appear as
August 18, 1976	19760818
January 1, 2003	20030101

Example amount	Will appear as
$180.00	180.00 or 180
$987,654,321.38	987654321.38

Example amount	Will appear as
−$12.00 or $12.00CR	−12.00 or -12
−$1,987,654,321.00	−1987654321.00
$15.25	15.25
$12,987,654,321.00	Will not be present as the example is too many digits (13)