Finacle for New Joiners — First 30 Days, Must-Know Commands & Mistakes to Avoid
- Week 1 (counter basics):
CI·CASHDEP·CASHWD·STMTPR·ACLI - Week 2 (transactions + customer):
HFTI·CUMM·CHQISS·HCBR - Week 3 (instruments + clearing):
DDISSUE·CPFD·HCASHPND· clearing commands - Week 4 (controls + day-end):
ALM·AFSM·EOBR·HCCST·HSSI
You have joined a bank. You have been assigned to the branch. Someone has set up your Finacle login. On Day 1, a senior colleague shows you three commands in 20 minutes and then disappears to handle a queue. By Week 2, you are expected to handle counter transactions on your own. By the end of the month, your BM will assume you know the basics.
No one gives you a structured guide. This is that guide — the training that should happen but rarely does, written down properly for the first time. It covers the commands you need week by week, the five mistakes almost every new joiner makes, the function keys no one tells you about, and how the Finacle role system works.
Before You Start: How Finacle Works
Finacle is a command-driven system. You type a command code (like CI or CASHDEP) in the command field and press Enter to open that function. There are no menus to click through — speed comes from knowing the right command for the right task.
Two concepts you must understand from Day 1:
- Maker-Checker: Almost every transaction in Finacle requires two people — the maker enters it, the checker verifies it. As a new joiner, you are usually the maker. Your transaction is not live until a checker (supervisor or authorized officer) approves it. If you enter something and nothing seems to have happened — it is probably waiting for verification.
- Business Date: Finacle operates on a business date, not the calendar date. The business date advances when BOD runs in the morning. Transactions you post today carry today’s business date as the value date. If BOD has not run, no transactions are possible. See: Finacle SOD/BOD — Start of Day Process.
Week 1 — Counter Basics
In your first week, focus on four things: looking up account information, processing cash deposits and withdrawals, printing statements, and understanding what you are seeing on screen. Do not try to learn everything at once.
| Command | Function | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| CI | Customer Inquiry | Your most-used command. Shows all accounts linked to a customer CIF — balances, account status, lien amounts. Always check CI before processing any transaction. |
| ACLI | Account Level Inquiry | Detailed view of a single account — available balance, lien, hold, interest due, last transaction date. Use when CI gives you more accounts than you need. |
| CASHDEP | Cash Deposit | Post a cash deposit to a savings or current account. Enter account number, amount, and denomination details. Your most frequent transaction as a teller. |
| CASHWD | Cash Withdrawal | Process a cash withdrawal. Always verify the customer’s signature (F9 on most configurations) and confirm the available balance in CI before processing. |
| STMTPR | Statement Print | Print a passbook or statement for a customer. Enter account number and date range. If the printer is not responding, check the printer assignment for your teller ID first. |
Week 2 — Transactions and Customer Profiles
| Command | Function | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| HFTI | Host Financial Transaction Inquiry | Look up any transaction by reference number. Use this to check if a transaction you entered is pending verification, has been posted, or has been deleted. Essential for resolving “did that go through?” questions. |
| CUMM | Customer Maintenance Menu | The customer master record. View and modify customer details — address, mobile number, KYC, CKYC ID, nominee. You will mostly use it in Inquire (I) mode initially. Modifications require checker verification. |
| CHQISS | Cheque Issuance | Issue a cheque book to a customer. Verify the request form, check the account, assign the cheque series, and confirm dispatch mode (counter collection or courier). |
| HCBR | Hard Cash Balance Report | Verify your teller cash position at any point in the day. Run this after your opening cash count (HOCST) and before closing (HCCST) to confirm your system balance matches your physical cash. |
Week 3 — Instruments and Clearing
| Command | Function | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| DDISSUE | Demand Draft Issuance | Issue a DD — payee name, amount, payable branch, charges. DD issuance requires checker verification before the instrument is valid. Do not hand over the DD to the customer before it is verified. |
| CPFD | Cheque Purchase / FD | Used for collection cheques and outward clearing. When a customer deposits a cheque drawn on another bank, this is the process for sending it to clearing. |
| HCASHPND | Host Cash Pending | Shows all cash transactions entered but not yet verified. Check this before closing your teller and before EOD. Any pending transaction here must be verified or deleted — do not leave entries hanging overnight. |
| HOICZ | Host Open/Close Clearing Zone | Know this command exists and that the supervisor must run it each morning before clearing transactions are possible. If customers’ outward cheques can’t be posted, this is usually why. |
Week 4 — Controls, Restrictions, and Day-End
| Command | Function | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| ALM / ALMI | Account Lien Maintenance / Inquiry | Check or mark a lien on an account. As a new joiner, use ALMI to check why a balance shows as restricted. ALM to mark is typically officer-level access. See: Finacle LIEN Marking Guide. |
| AFSM | Account Freeze Setup Menu | Check freeze status on an account (Inquire mode). Applying a freeze is officer-level. Know how to read the freeze type when ACLI or AFSM shows one, so you understand why a transaction is blocked. See: Finacle Account Freeze Guide. |
| HCCST | Host Close Cash Transactions | Close your teller cash at the end of each day. Must be done before EOD can run. Run HCASHPND first — resolve all pending cash transactions before closing. |
| EOBR | End of Business Report | Your day-end teller summary — total cash in, total cash out, net position. Print and verify this against your physical cash before HCCST. This is the document your BM signs off on. |
| HSSI | SOL Status Inquiry | Check the current business date and SOL status. Run this first every morning to confirm BOD has run. Run it in the evening if EOD is taking longer than expected. Your diagnostic starting point for any date or system issue. |
The 5 Mistakes Every New Joiner Makes
1. Entering a Transaction Without Checking the Account First
Always run CI or ACLI before posting any transaction. Check the balance, check for liens (ALMI), check for freezes. Trying to post a withdrawal on a frozen account or an account with insufficient free balance will fail — and if you have already counted out the cash, you now have a problem. Two seconds of checking saves five minutes of reversals.
2. Leaving Pending Transactions at End of Day
Run HCASHPND before you close your teller every single day. If there are any pending cash transactions — entered but not verified — resolve them before HCCST. A transaction stuck overnight in pending state causes cash mismatches, blocks EOD, and creates the kind of audit finding that follows you around. Make HCASHPND the last thing you check before closing.
3. Entering the Same Transaction Twice
A transaction that shows no visible result after you commit it is almost always in maker-checker pending — not missing. Before entering it again, check HFTI with the transaction reference number or search by account and date. Duplicate transactions are significantly harder to fix than pending ones. When in doubt, check first.
4. Not Using F5 (Background) During Mid-Transaction
You are halfway through a CASHDEP entry and a colleague asks you to check something quickly on another screen. Do not press Shift+F3 (full quit) — that abandons your current transaction. Press F5 to push the current screen to the background. You can then open a new command, do what you need, and come back to your in-progress transaction. Shift+F3 when mid-transaction means starting over.
5. Ignoring the Signature Verification Step
On withdrawal transactions, Finacle has a signature view function — typically F9 on most configurations — that pulls up the customer’s signature image from the KYC records. New joiners skip this because it feels like an extra step. It is not optional. Verifying the signature before paying out cash is a basic control. A payment made on a forged signature — where the signature view was available and not used — is a serious lapse that the bank will hold you accountable for.
Function Keys That Will Save You Time
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| F9 | Signature view — pulls up the customer’s scanned signature. Use on every withdrawal before paying out cash. |
| F5 | Background — pushes the current screen to background so you can open another command. Press F5 again (or use the background menu) to return to the suspended screen. |
| Ctrl+E | Explode / drill down — on many screens, pressing Ctrl+E on a highlighted field opens the detailed record behind it. Useful in CI to drill into a specific account from the customer summary. |
| Shift+F3 | Full quit — exits the current function entirely and returns to the command line. Use only when you want to completely abandon what you are doing. Do NOT use mid-transaction. |
| F4 | Go / fetch — after entering an account number or customer ID, press F4 to retrieve the record. Equivalent to hitting Enter on the key field. |
| F10 | Commit — finalises the transaction entry and sends it for verification. This is the “submit” key. After F10, the transaction is in the system and requires checker action to post or to be reversed. |
How Finacle Roles Work — Why Some Commands Are Greyed Out
Finacle uses a role-based access control system. Every user ID is assigned one or more roles, and each role grants access to a specific set of commands and functions. If you try to open a command and get “Unauthorized” or “Function not available,” it means your role does not include that command.
As a new joiner, your role is typically teller-level — which means you have access to cash transactions, inquiry commands, statement printing, and basic instrument issuance. You will not have access to lien marking (ALM), account freeze (AFSM), back-value overrides, or system-level commands. This is intentional — these are controlled functions that require authorization level above teller.
If you need access to a command that is currently blocked, the correct process is to raise a formal access request through your BM to the IT/CBS team. Your BM must authorize it and the access is granted at the role level — not by sharing someone else’s credentials, which is a compliance violation regardless of the circumstances.
The Three Things to Do Every Morning Before Your First Transaction
- HSSI — confirm the business date is today. If it shows yesterday, BOD is pending. Do not start transactions. Call your BM.
- HOCST — open your teller cash for the day. Count your physical cash. Run HCBR to confirm the system opening balance matches.
- HCASHPND — check there are no pending transactions left over from yesterday. If there are, resolve them with your supervisor before you start the day’s work.
Finacle rewards bankers who are methodical. The colleagues who never have day-end problems are not luckier — they follow the same checklist every morning, resolve pending items as they arise during the day, and do not wait until 6 PM to find out something is broken.
Save this page. Come back to it in Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4. The commands will make more sense each time you read them once you have seen them in action at the counter.
For the errors you will inevitably see in your first month — and exactly what to do about each one — read: Finacle Common Error Codes — What They Mean & How to Fix Them.