EBICS Connector for Sage Intacct

In most companies, Sage Intacct and the bank do not talk to each other directly. Invoices are approved in the ERP, then the payment file is exported, uploaded to each bank's portal and signed, while statements travel the other way to be imported and reconciled. Every manual step adds time, risk of error and a gap in traceability.

Arkaio removes those round trips. Connected natively to Sage Intacct through its APIs, it exchanges your payment files and statements with your banks over EBICS, the standard protocol for corporate banking in Europe.

Why use EBICS to connect Sage Intacct to your banks

EBICS (Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard) is the protocol European banks use to exchange payment and statement files securely. Each user has their own keys, orders are signed electronically and the bank checks the signature before execution.

For a finance team, that means one standardized channel with each bank, however many accounts you hold, and no more manual downloads and uploads on bank portals.

Arkaio supports EBICS 2.5 and EBICS 3.0. For the differences between the two versions, see EBICS 2.5 vs 3.0: what changes for your treasury.

What the EBICS connection automates

Supplier payments (pain.001)

In Arkaio, you select the invoices approved in Sage Intacct. Arkaio takes credit notes and prepayments into account, supports partial payments, generates the SEPA credit transfer file in pain.001 format and sends it to the bank. A matching payment batch is created in Sage Intacct.

Customer direct debits (pain.008)

SEPA CORE and B2B direct debits are generated in pain.008 format from customer invoices, with mandate management built into Arkaio. Both formats are explained in pain.001 vs pain.008.

Payment status (pain.002)

After submission, Arkaio retrieves the bank's pain.002 status reports. A rejected batch is flagged immediately and the invoices involved become available for payment again. See pain.002: tracking payment status after sending to the bank.

Statements and reconciliation (camt.052, camt.053, camt.054)

Statements are retrieved automatically over EBICS. Arkaio's matching engine pairs transactions with Sage Intacct entries, creates the statement in Intacct cash management and submits any transaction it could not match for review. See Automated bank reconciliation: moving from D+5 to D+0.

The flow, from Sage Intacct to the bank

1. Invoices are entered and approved in Sage Intacct, as they are today.
2. In Arkaio, the user selects the invoices to pay; amounts are locked as soon as the batch is prepared.
3. The batch is approved and signed according to the defined workflow, then sent to the bank over EBICS.
4. Arkaio tracks the submission status (pain.002) and raises an alert on rejection.
5. When the statement arrives, the payment is reconciled and the entries are posted in Sage Intacct.

Sage Intacct keeps showing its native statuses, so your team and your auditors find the information where they already look for it.

Security and control

• VEU distributed signature: several signatories can approve the same order without re-keying. See VEU electronic signature.
• Workflow and permissions: approval, signature and cancellation depend on the roles configured in Arkaio.
• Dual IBAN validation: a change to a supplier IBAN in Sage Intacct triggers an approval request in Arkaio, and vice versa.
• Duplicate prevention: a selected invoice leaves the list of invoices to pay, each batch gets a unique identifier and API calls are idempotent.
• Audit trail: every action is logged, with a full history of who did what on each batch.
• Access: passkey authentication (WebAuthn), AES-256 encryption.

Multiple banks, multiple entities

One Arkaio instance handles several banks and several Sage Intacct companies. Groups centralize payments without juggling portals; accounting firms run their clients' flows from a single tool. See Accounting firms: centralize payments for all your clients.

If a bank does not offer EBICS, Arkaio can also connect over Open Banking PSD2 or SFTP, depending on what the bank provides. See Open Banking PSD2 vs EBICS.

Setup: prerequisites and timing

• Sage Intacct: API access must be subscribed.
• Bank: an EBICS agreement is required. The subscriber is then initialized (key exchange and initialization letter) and activated by the bank.
• Arkaio: a cloud-only (SaaS) service, with nothing to install on your servers.

Configuring Arkaio is quick. For EBICS, allow a few days before going live: the timing mostly depends on activation by each bank.

Arkaio is listed in the Sage catalog for Sage Intacct.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to change banks to use EBICS? No. Your bank needs to offer EBICS and you need the corresponding agreement. Arkaio connects to the banks you already use.

Do we have to give up our approval processes in Sage Intacct? No. Invoice approval stays in Sage Intacct. Arkaio takes over for payment, transmission to the bank and reconciliation.

Does Arkaio read supplier invoices (OCR)? No. Invoices must already exist in Sage Intacct.

More answers are available in the FAQ, and pricing on the home page.

See Arkaio on your own flows

A demo lets you check compatibility with your banks and walk through the full flow on a case close to yours. Request a demo.