NAME

       dtaus - Converter for DTAUS files

DESCRIPTION

       The   dtaus(1)   program   reads   and   writes  German  DTAUS  files.   DTAUS  is  an  semi-acronym  for
       DatenTrägerAUStausch.  It is used by German credit institutes  in  order  to  implement  money  exchanges
       between accounts and credit institutes.  These files are always called DTAUS0.TXT.

       Since they are shipped in a weird ascii format that is not quite readable and writable for human beings a
       special  control  format  was  invented.   The  dtaus(1) program reads and writes such a control file and
       generates a proper DTAUS file if requested or decodes one.

CONTROL FILE

       The control file implements a very simple format which was  invented  only  for  use  with  the  dtaus(1)
       program.   Like  with  many  *nix  configuration  files  empty lines and those beginning with a hash mark
       (``#'') are ignored.   The  remaining  file  is  splitted  into  three  major  parts:  one  BEGIN  record
       (representing the A record), several regular records (representing C records) and one optional END record
       (representing  the  E  record),  which is ignored when the control file is read but is extracted from the
       bank file if one is decoded.

       Here's a short sample for a control file:

         BEGIN {
           Art   type
           Name  Martin Schulze
           Konto 123545
           BLZ   2004002
           Ausfuehrung 23.12.2001
           Euro
         }

         {
           Transaktion transaction
           Name   Martha Schulze
           Konto  98832
           BLZ    2004003
           Betrag 20.00
           Zweck  Gebühr Wohnheimnetz
           Text   Anschluß u. 11+12.97
         }

         ...

       Please note that several field names are used in both the BEGIN and the regular record.  When used in the
       BEGIN record they denote your name and your bank account.   When  used  in  a  regular  record  they  are
       affiliated with your customers data.

       You  may  use  up  to  15  fields  entitled  as  Text.   They will be recorded one by one and stored into
       additional data records using the same order.  This way you could add a detailed description of the  type
       of  money transfer if you like.  The contents of the field Zweck are most probably what the customer will
       see on their bank statements.

       The field Ausfuehrung is optional and denotes the day when the entire transaction  should  be  processed.
       The date has to be given as DD.MM.YYYY and will be translated into the resulting bank file literally.  It
       may  not  be younger than the creation date of the file which will automatically be inserted by dtaus(1).
       The processing date also may not be more than 15 years later than the creation date.

   Explanation of type
       One of the following:

       LK     Lastschrift Kundenseitig

       GK     Gutschrift Kundenseitig

       LB     Lastschrift Bankseitig

       GB     Gutschrift Bankseitig

   Explanation of transaction
       One of the following:

       Einzug Bankeinzug

       Gutschrift
              Überweisung

       Vermögen [JJJJ]
              Vermögenswirksame Leistung mit Sparzulage.  Als Argument kann das Jahr angegeben werden,  für  das
              diese Leistung gilt.  Wenn es weggelassen, wird, verwendet dtaus das aktuelle Jahr.  Vom Jahr wird
              nur die letzte Ziffer verwendet, es muß daher auch nicht vollständig angegeben werden.

       Vermoegen [JJJJ]
              Wie Vermögen, jedoch ohne Umlaut.

       E-Cash Lastschrift aus Verfügung im elecctronic Cash-System

       E-Cash-A
              Lastschrift aus Verfügung im elecctronic Cash-System mit ausländischer Karte.

       You  may  only  use  one  of these for the entire file.  You are not allowed to switch between Einzug and
       Gutschrift within the same file.  If you require the credit institute to process both types, you'll  have
       to provide two separate diskettes.

   Support for Euro
       From  January  1st 2002 the currency in many European countries, Germany is among these, changes to Euro.
       Hence, money transfer changes from DM  (formerly  known  as  ``Deutsche  Mark'')  to  Euro.   The  format
       specification  of  DTAUS  was meant for DM but was modified in 2001 to support Euro as well.  The current
       version of dtaus(1) supports both currencies.  It defaults to using Euro,  however.   To  switch  to  DM,
       simply  add  the  keyword  DM  (or Euro respectively if this version was compiled without Euro support as
       default) to the BEGIN record.  If no currency keyword is given, the compiled in decides (upstream  source
       defaults to Euro).

   Character Encoding
       German  Umlauts  are converted into two 7-bit characters on the fly so you don't need to care about them.
       Since the DTAUS0.TXT file only uses uppercase letters every text is also converted to uppercase.

       Except for the way records are delimited the format should be self explanatory.

SEE ALSO

       dtaus(1).

       DTAUS files use a  special  but  simple  and  publically  documented  format.   It  is  included  in  the
       distribution of dtaus(1) as dtaus.txt.

                                                17 November 2001                                        DTAUS(5)