Payment runs
Pages: Payments · New payment run · a payment run
A payment run is how you pay several bills at once from the bank — what Xero calls a batch payment. You pick what to pay from everything that is approved or certified, Base groups it by payee, an admin approves the run and Base builds an ABA file, the standard Australian batch-payment file every online bank accepts. You upload it to the bank, mark the run paid, and Base closes the bills, emails each payee a remittance advice and records the payments in Xero. The Payments page lists every run, newest first, with its status: Draft, Approved, Paid or Cancelled.
- The Cashflow or Job Costs module must be on (Settings → Team modules); either opens Payments.
- Your business bank details on Settings → Finance → Bank: the bank's three-letter code, BSB, account number, account name (26 characters at most), the APCA user id your bank issued for batch payments, and optionally the remitter name shown on their statement. Without these a run cannot be approved.
- Bank details on each supplier and subcontractor you want to pay, on their record in Contacts.
- Bills approved on Job Costs; subcontractor claims certified.
- Approving, downloading the file and marking paid need an organisation admin. Anyone with Job Costs can build a draft.
- On Payments, press New payment run. Everything eligible is listed by payee: approved unpaid bills and certified unpaid subcontractor claims, each with its ex-GST amount, GST and total. A payee with bank details shows a green tick; one without shows what is missing, and anything already on an open run is marked.
- Everything payable is ticked by default. Untick what can wait; it stays eligible for the next run. The footer counts the items and the total, and says how many of the ticked items will be held back.
- Set the Run date and an optional note.
- Press Create draft run. The run opens. Anything held back is listed with the reason — no bank details on file, bad bank details, already on an open run, no ABN under your no-ABN policy. If nothing could go on the run, it is not created and the reasons are shown.
A draft moves no money.
Admins only. On the run, press Approve & build ABA. Base checks every BSB and account number and refuses to build a file with a bad one. If your own bank details are not set, the page says so and links to where they live. If the run's total is over your approval limit, it waits on Money → Decide for someone whose limit covers it instead. On success the page reports how many payments the file holds and any warnings — a name the format had to shorten, a character it dropped.
Press Download .aba (admins only) and upload the file in your online banking as a batch or direct-entry payment. This is the only step that moves money, and it happens outside Base.
Admins only. After the bank has processed the batch, set Paid on and press Mark paid & send remittances. Base:
- stamps every bill and claim on the run as paid, and draws down the orders the bills pay;
- emails a remittance advice to each payee with an email address, listing what was paid and the references, and shows a mail icon on each row it reached;
- records a payment in Xero against every bill that is already in Xero, from the bank account for payments chosen on the Xero card;
- tells you how many remittances went out and how many were skipped for want of an email.
Press Cancel run on a draft or approved run and confirm. Every bill and claim on it goes back to the pool. A draft can be cancelled by the person who created it or an admin; an approved run, which already has a bank file, only by an admin. A paid run cannot be cancelled.
- Approving tells your automations the file is ready; marking paid tells them the run is paid, with the count and total.
- Xero payments follow a paid run for the bills already in Xero, when a bank account for payments is chosen.
- With the payment-run schedule turned on (Settings → Finance → Automation), Base drafts a run each week on the weekday you chose from every approved unpaid bill and certified claim and files it as a decision on Money → Decide with the held-back payees listed. Nothing is paid until a person approves it.
- A payee with no ABN is held off the run, or paid 47% short with the withholding recorded, according to the policy on Settings → Finance → Automation.
- Creating and approving a run pays nobody. Only the bank upload does.
- Payment amounts are GST inclusive; the bill on Job Costs is ex GST. The run shows both.
- Team members see the run without the money buttons and the line "An admin approves and pays runs."
- Xero payments are recorded only for bills already in Xero, and only if a bank account for payments is chosen on the Xero card. Otherwise the bank feed reconciles them, as it always did.
- Marking paid is not reversible from the run. If the bank rejected the batch, cancel the run instead, fix the details and start again.
- The bank-details warning links to the Cashflow page, but the card itself is on Settings → Finance → Bank.