How to do batch payments in MYOB

Three things need setting up once. First, the electronic clearing category, which usually exists already: look under Accounting menu, Categories, on the Assets tab. It also has to be the linked category for electronic payments, set under Accounting menu, Manage linked categories, on the Categories & Banking tab.

Second, each supplier's banking details. Open the supplier from Contacts and fill in the BSB number, Bank account number, Bank account name, Statement text and Remittance advice email address. Third, the details of your own bank account, entered on the bank category the money will come from. That category must be a Bank type, and it needs the BSB, account number and name, your Company trading name, the option I create Australian Banking Association (ABA) files for this account, your bank's three-letter Bank code and your Direct entry user ID, sometimes called the APCA ID. Your bank can confirm any of these, including whether its files need the Include a self-balancing transaction option.

You'll also need internet banking. Who can prepare these payments depends on each user's role, which controls access to areas such as Banking and Purchases.

1. Record each supplier payment against its bill as usual, selecting the Electronic payment option before you save. No money moves at this stage.
2. Go to the Banking menu and choose Prepare electronic payments. Every payment you marked as electronic is listed.
3. If you want to narrow the list, choose a Payment type, such as bills only, and set a range with Transactions from and Transactions to.
4. Choose the Account the payments will come from. If MYOB shows Account details missing, click it, choose Edit account details, fill in what's missing and click Save.
5. Enter a Description of transaction. This stays in MYOB and doesn't appear on any bank statement.
6. Check the Reference number. Changing it moves the automatic numbering on from the new number.
7. Enter the Date of payment, the day you want the bank to process the file. A future date works if it falls in the current financial year.
8. Check the Description that will show on your bank statement, and change it if you need to.
9. Select the payments to include in this batch.
10. Click Download bank file, then click Download bank file again at the confirmation. The file lands in your Downloads folder.
11. Sign in to your internet banking and upload the file. Your bank's own help explains where to do that.

While they wait for a bank file, electronic payments are held in the electronic clearing category. Adding them to a file clears them from it. Once your bank has the uploaded file, it transfers the money into each supplier's account after its clearance period.

A bank file can be edited outside MYOB, so MYOB asks you to store files securely and check the figures before you upload, and says it isn't responsible for money transferred using them.

If you lose the file, download it again from the transaction. Go to the Banking menu, choose Find transactions and use the Transactions tab filters to find it. Click its Reference no., click the Reference number again inside the transaction to open the electronic payment, then click Download Bank File.

If a payment you expected isn't in the Prepare electronic payments list, it was probably saved without the Electronic payment option, since only payments marked that way appear there.

If you use AccountRight on the desktop, the batch is built in the Prepare Electronic Payments window from the Banking command centre. Pick the Pay From Account, optionally a type in Select Payment by, then Your Bank Statement Text and a Bank Processing Date. Tick the payments, click Bank File and save the file with an ABA extension, taking care not to overwrite an earlier one. Deleting a grouped electronic payment there removes only the MYOB transaction, not the bank file, and puts its payments back in the list. A selection that adds up to zero or less won't produce a file at all.