ProcessCode (FIX tag 81)

charFIX 4.4FIX 4.2

ProcessCode (tag 81) is a char field defined in FIX 4.4 and FIX 4.2. It appears in 10 message types, always optionally. It is an enumerated field with 7 defined values.

At a glance

Tag: 81
Name: ProcessCode
Datatype: char
Dialects: FIX 4.4 and FIX 4.2
Messages: 10
Valid values: 7

What the specification says

FIX 4.4

Processing code for sub-account. Absence of this field in AllocAccount (79) / AllocPrice (366) /AllocQty (80) / ProcessCode instance indicates regular trade.

FIX 4.2

Processing code for sub-account. Absence of this field in AllocAccount / AllocPrice/AllocShares / ProcessCode instance indicates regular trade.

Descriptions are quoted from the FIX Orchestra sources under the Apache 2.0 licence.

A real message using tag 81

NewOrderSingle · FIX 4.4

Tag	Field	Wire value	Meaning
8	BeginString	FIX.4.4
9	BodyLength	116
35	MsgType	D	Order – Single
49	SenderCompID	BOARTEAM
56	TargetCompID	COUNTERPARTY
34	MsgSeqNum	2
52	SendingTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
11	ClOrdID	ORD-10042
81	ProcessCode	0	regular
54	Side	1	Buy
60	TransactTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
40	OrdType	1	Market
10	CheckSum	204

Edit and decode it yourself

Shown with | separators for readability. On the wire FIX uses SOH (0x01), an invisible control byte — and because BodyLength and CheckSum are computed over the actual bytes, the two forms have different checksums. Both are valid and both decode here.

Open in the full decoder →

Generated from the FIX 4.4 dictionary and verified at build time: it parses and validates with no issues. Open the decoder to try your own message.

Valid values

A value outside this list is not a parse error — the message still decodes — but validate() reports it as validate/value-not-in-enum.

Value	Meaning	Symbolic name
0	regular	REGULAR / Regular
1	soft dollar	SOFT_DOLLAR / SoftDollar
2	step-in	STEP_IN / StepIn
3	step-out	STEP_OUT / StepOut
4	soft-dollar step-in	SOFT_DOLLAR_STEP_IN / SoftDollarStepIn
5	soft-dollar step-out	SOFT_DOLLAR_STEP_OUT / SoftDollarStepOut
6	plan sponsor	PLAN_SPONSOR / PlanSponsor

Where tag 81 appears

Requiredness is a property of the message, not of the field: the same tag can be optional in one message and conditionally required in another.

Message	MsgType	FIX 4.4	FIX 4.2	Where in the message
AllocationInstruction	J	Optional	Optional	inside the AllocGrp component
AllocationReport	AS	Optional	—	inside the AllocGrp component
Confirmation	AK	Optional	—	directly on the message body
CrossOrderCancelReplaceRequest	t	Optional	—	directly on the message body
MultilegOrderCancelReplace	AC	Optional	—	directly on the message body
NewOrderCross	s	Optional	—	directly on the message body
NewOrderList	E	Optional	Optional	inside the ListOrdGrp component
NewOrderMultileg	AB	Optional	—	directly on the message body
NewOrderSingle	D	Optional	Optional	directly on the message body
TradeCaptureReport	AE	Optional	—	inside the TrdCapRptSideGrp component

Wire format

A single character. Most char fields are enumerated, so the value is one of a fixed set rather than arbitrary text. @boarteam/fix keeps the value as a string and, for enumerated fields, reports validate/value-not-in-enum when it is not a defined value.

Read tag 81 in TypeScript

decode.tsts

import { createFixEngine } from "@boarteam/fix";import { dictionary } from "@boarteam/fix-dict-fix44";const fix = createFixEngine(dictionary);const { message, issues } = fix.parse(raw);const processCode = message.fields[81]?.raw;// e.g. "0" — regular// The dictionary also carries the labels:const label = fix.dictionary  .fieldByTag(81)  ?.enumValues?.find((e) => e.value === processCode)  ?.description;

Decode this in your own code

The same engine that produced the decoded example above is an Apache-2.0 npm package with zero runtime dependencies. It runs in Node and in the browser, and parse() returns problems as data instead of throwing.

npm i @boarteam/fix @boarteam/fix-dict-fix44

Try the decoder Source on GitHub