Bank Payment Files

Supported formats

Standard Bank (Business Online / CATS), FNB PayBatch, Absa CashFocus, Nedbank ACB and a generic CSV are built in. You can also build your own layout if your bank profile expects a specific column order.

Generating

From a finalised run, choose Exports → Bank payment file and select your bank. The file contains beneficiary name, branch code, account number, account type, amount, your payment reference and the action (pay) date.

Standard Bank

The Standard Bank option produces the Business Online beneficiary CSV: beneficiary name, branch code, account number, account type code (1 current/cheque, 2 savings, 3 transmission), amount, own reference, beneficiary reference and action date in CCYYMMDD format.

Business Online import profiles are configured per customer, so if your branch supplied a spec sheet with a different column order, use the custom layout builder below — no code change or support ticket needed.

Building a custom bank layout

Go to Settings → Bank payment file and switch on Use a custom bank file layout. You can:

• Choose which fields appear and in what order
• Rename each column header, or omit the header row entirely
• Pick the delimiter (comma, semicolon, pipe or tab)
• Pick the date format (CCYYMMDD, YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, DDMMYYYY)
• Pick the amount format (decimal, or cents with no separators)
• Cap beneficiary name and reference lengths to your bank's limits

A live preview shows exactly what the file will look like. Once saved, the layout appears at the top of the bank format list on every pay run.

Validation

Before download Payroll Africa flags employees with missing bank details, branch codes that are not 4–6 digits, account numbers that are not 6–16 digits, zero or negative net pay, names longer than the bank allows, and two employees sharing one bank account — so you fix them rather than having the bank reject the whole batch.

Reference on the statement

Set the statement reference in the export dialog — for example ACME SALARY plus the period. Most South African banks cap this at 20 characters.