We're pleased to announce significant enhancements to file processing in DDCMS Direct. These improvements ensure that your files process smoothly without requiring manual edits, whilst maintaining full BACS compliance.

The enhancements extend existing automatic processing capabilities to additional file types and introduce new character conversion functionality across all file formats, streamlining your payment processing workflow and reducing the time needed to prepare files for submission.

Before uploading your files, you'll see a prominent warning on the import screen

This warning ensures you're aware of the automatic processing, but it won't prevent your files from being uploaded or processed.

We have extended our existing automatic destination account name truncation functionality to include Bacs Active (EaziPay) and SmartDebit Direct files. You can now upload these file types containing destination account names longer than 18 characters without encountering validation errors.

This enhancement brings Bacs Active (EaziPay) and SmartDebit Direct files in line with the automatic truncation that already exists for daily Standard 18 files and payment lines, ensuring consistent behaviour and BACS compliance across all file types.

When you upload a Bacs Active (EaziPay) or SmartDebit Direct file with destination account names exceeding 18 characters, DDCMS Direct now:

· Accepts the file successfully without rejecting any lines due to destination account name length.

· Automatically truncates destination account names to exactly 18 characters during processing.

· Displays the truncated destination account names throughout all system screens, including the File Content review.

· Exports the truncated destination account names in BACS Standard 18 format, upon submission ensuring full BACS compliance.

DDCMS Direct now accepts files of all types containing destination account names with invalid BACS characters (such as apostrophes, accented letters) without validation errors. The system automatically converts these characters to ensure BACS compliance.

This new functionality applies to all file types processed through DDCMS Direct, including Standard 18, Bacs Active (EaziPay), and SmartDebit Direct files.

BACS only allows the following characters:

· A-Z (uppercase letters)

· 0-9 (numbers)

· Full stop (.)

· Ampersand (&)

· Slash (/)

· Hyphen (-)

When you upload a file containing invalid BACS characters in destination account names, DDCMS Direct now:

· Accepts the file successfully without validation errors.

· Automatically converts invalid characters to blank spaces.

· Preserves valid characters - only invalid characters are converted.

· Displays the converted destination account names consistently across all system screens and exports.

· Exports BACS-compliant destination account names without requiring any additional conversion.

We have extended the automatic name truncation functionality to include the SUN (Service User Name) field in EaziPay files. You can now upload EaziPay files containing SUN names longer than 18 characters without encountering validation errors.

This enhancement ensures EaziPay files comply with BACS Standard 18 requirements, not exceeding 18 characters for successful processing by BACS.

We have enhanced the user experience across DDCMS Direct by preserving your pagination preferences when you navigate between pages. Your chosen page size settings are now remembered during your session, eliminating the need to reconfigure your view each time you return to a page.

This improvement applies to all paginated screens within DDCMS Direct, including the Home page and Outgoing Files listings.

When you're viewing paginated data in DDCMS Direct, the system now:

· Remembers your preferred page size setting (e.g., 50 records per page instead of the default 5).

· Preserves these preferences when you navigate away to other sections like "Review and Fix" for specific files.

· Restores your preferred settings when you return to the original page via browser back button, bookmarks, or navigation menu.

· Maintains these preferences throughout your entire browser session.

The update will be applied to everyone on our SaaS platform on 14/01/2026.