Transaction Descriptions

Banks require that all transactions have a description so that account holders have insight into their account activity and to assist with reconciliation, troubleshooting, and audits.

The source of a transaction's description depends in part on whether it originated on a card network or whether it originated elsewhere.

• Card transaction descriptions
• Non-card transaction descriptions

Card transaction descriptions

Card transaction descriptions are provided by the merchant in DE043. These descriptions typically contain the merchant name and location. Sometimes a customer service number is included, and in the case of a cash-transfer app, the name of the recipient or sender.

Card-load descriptions by default are provided in DE104, which contains transaction-specific data (merchant, fund source). However, if you would prefer to receive the value in DE043, which contains the merchant name and location (merchant, city, state, country), you can set the VLD43 parameter at the program or product level.

Card transaction descriptions are provided as follows:

• Program API responses:
  • details
  • details_formatted
  • formatted_merchant_desc
• Authorized Transactions and Posted Transactions RDFs
  • MERCHANT DESCRIPTION (auth stream)
  • FULL MERCHANT DESCRIPTION (settlement file)
• Authorization Events
  • merchant_name
  • merchant_location
• Auth API
  • merchant_description

Non-card transaction descriptions

The source of descriptions for non-card transactions can vary. The descriptions in the Galileo system are typically tied to the act_type/otype combination, which is the trans_code. When you set up your funds flow with Galileo, you might use trans_codes such as these:

• ADd — ACH debit
• ADMS — Transfer from Savings
• FE0013 — ATM Domestic Fee
• FE0014 — ATM Intl. Fee
• PMC2 — Card to Card
• PMDD — Direct Deposit
• ADZ — Bill Payment – Check
• ADR — Bill Payment – Electronic

The descriptions for each of these transaction types are provided in these places:

• Program API responses:
  • type_description — Get All Transaction History only
• Posted Transactions RDF
  • TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION
• Transaction Events
  • description

Custom transaction descriptions

To exercise finer control over these transaction descriptions, you can create your own lookup table to supply descriptions for your statements and interfaces. You can define descriptions per trans_code or act_type/otype combination for payments, adjustments, or fees. As desired, you can specify product IDs or any other criteria that each description should apply to. Again, these descriptions will apply to transactions that you produce on your interfaces, but they will not be present in the Galileo system.

This sample table shows one possible way to set up a custom-description lookup table:

Endpoint description fields

Some transaction-creation endpoints provide "description" fields:

• Create Payment has description — If type is an otype that was custom-configured for your program, the description for that otype might override the description you provide in the endpoint request, depending on your setup with Galileo.
• Create Adjustment has description — Descriptions sent in this field override system-default descriptions in the CST only. You can arrange with Galileo to insert this description in the RDFs.
• Create Account Transfer has message and senderMessage — See Message fields in the Creating an Internal Transfer guide for information on populating those parameters.

ACH transactions

The description field of Create ACH Transaction is not included with the outgoing Nacha file. Galileo stores the value for auditing and troubleshooting purposes, and it is returned by Get ACH Transaction History.

For outgoing ACH transactions, the Company Entry Description field in the Nacha file is derived from either the SEC code (a hard-coded description) or a default program value. Ask Galileo to help you create appropriate descriptions for outgoing ACH transactions.

The description for an ACH-related trans_code can be found in the description field of BADJ: adj and BPMT: pmt and other ACH-related event messages. The TRANSACTION DESCRIPTION field of the Posted Transactions RDF has this same information. For example, trans_code: ADd might read "ACH debit."

Wire transactions

The reference field of Create Wire Transaction is included in the outgoing wire description and is returned in Get Wire Details and Get Wire History as description.

In the RDFs and events are the descriptions for ADwo (Outgoing wire) and PMwi (Incoming wire).

Product parameters

These parameters affect some transaction descriptions.

Summary of description locations

Consult this table to see how the description fields are populated. The Output column shows where the description is displayed, and the Input column shows the source for that description.