Bank Export for Bulk Payments

Processing vendor payments one by one through your bank's net banking portal is manageable when you have five vendors. When you have fifty, it becomes a tedious, error-prone exercise — entering each beneficiary's account number, IFSC code, amount, and narration manually, fifty times over. One transposed digit in an account number, and the payment bounces, delaying the vendor and creating reconciliation work.

Bank export solves this problem. Instead of entering each payment manually, Udyamo ERP Lite generates a payment instruction file — a structured text file containing all payment details in the format your bank expects. You upload this single file to your bank's net banking portal, and the bank processes all payments in the batch. This is how businesses handle bulk NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS payments efficiently.

What You Will Learn

• The bank export concept and how it fits into the payment workflow
• Bank export formats and why they are customizable
• The end-to-end flow: batch creation, approval, file export, bank upload
• How to set up a bank account with an export format
• How bank export formats work (templates and format types)
• Step-by-step: setting up a bank export format
• Step-by-step: exporting a payment batch

Prerequisites

• At least one bank account configured (Settings > Bank Accounts or covered in Chapter 35)
• At least one approved payment batch ready for export (covered in Chapter 29)
• Vendor bank details (account number, IFSC code) recorded for all vendors in the batch (covered in Chapter 26)
• Knowledge of your bank's bulk payment file format (available from your bank's corporate net banking documentation)

Where Bank Export Fits

Bank export is the final step in the purchase payment workflow:

Create Bills  -->  Approve Bills  -->  Create Payment Batch
                                            |
                                            v
                                      Approve Batch
                                            |
                                            v
                                      Export Bank File
                                            |
                                            v
                                   Upload to Net Banking
                                            |
                                            v
                                   Bank Processes Payments

By the time you reach the export step, all the hard work is done: bills have been verified, TDS has been calculated, the batch has been reviewed and approved. The export step simply takes the approved payment data and formats it into a file your bank can read.

Bank Export Formats

Every bank has its own file format for bulk payment uploads. HDFC Bank expects a different file structure than ICICI Bank, which differs from SBI. Even within the same bank, the format may vary between NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS.

Udyamo ERP Lite handles this through Bank Export Formats — configurable templates that define how payment data is structured in the output file.

Bank Export Format Fields

How Templates Work

The template is a text-based definition of the output file structure. It contains static text (headers, delimiters, fixed values) interspersed with dynamic placeholders that the system replaces with actual payment data at export time.

For example, a simplified CSV template for NEFT might define each row as:

payment_method,beneficiary_name,account_number,ifsc_code,amount,narration

When the system processes an approved batch, it iterates through each payment batch item, reads the vendor's bank details and the payment amount, substitutes the placeholders, and generates the output file.

The exact template syntax and available placeholders depend on your bank's requirements. Common data points included in bank export files are:

Common Format Types

Tip: Contact your bank's corporate banking team and request their bulk payment upload format specification. This document will tell you exactly what fields are required, in what order, with what delimiters, and any header/footer requirements.

Bank Account Setup

Each bank account in Udyamo ERP Lite can be linked to a bank export format. This tells the system which template to use when exporting payment batches from that account.

Bank Account Fields (Relevant to Export)

When you create a payment batch and select a bank account, the system uses the linked bank export format to generate the file at export time.

Step-by-Step: Setting Up a Bank Export Format

Scenario: Your company banks with HDFC Bank and needs to set up the bulk NEFT upload format.

1. Navigate to Settings > Bank Export Formats and click New Format.
2. Enter the Name: HDFC NEFT Bulk Upload.
3. Set the Format Type: CSV.
4. In the Template field, enter the template structure as specified by HDFC Bank's corporate net banking documentation. A simplified example:

   NEFT,{beneficiary_name},{account_number},{ifsc_code},{amount},{narration}
   

   (The actual template will be more detailed and must match your bank's specification exactly.)
5. Enter a Description: HDFC Bank NEFT bulk payment file format. Use for weekly/fortnightly payment runs. Upload via Corporate Net Banking > Bulk Transactions.
6. Ensure Active is checked.
7. Click Save.

Now link this format to your bank account:

1. Navigate to Settings > Bank Accounts and open your HDFC current account record.
2. Set the Bank Export Format field to HDFC NEFT Bulk Upload.
3. Click Save.

The bank account is now configured for automated file export.

Step-by-Step: Exporting a Payment Batch

Scenario: You have an approved payment batch (from the previous chapter) containing 5 vendor payments totaling Rs. 3,87,000 on the ICICI current account. The bank export format is already configured.

1. Navigate to Purchases > Payment Batches and open the approved batch.
2. Verify the batch status is Approved.
3. Confirm that all vendors in the batch have complete bank details (account number and IFSC code). If any vendor's bank details are missing, the export may fail or produce an incomplete file.
4. Click Export.
5. The system generates the payment file using the bank export format template linked to the batch's bank account.
6. The file downloads to your computer.
7. The batch status changes to Exported.

Uploading to Net Banking

1. Log in to your bank's corporate net banking portal.
2. Navigate to the bulk payment or batch transfer section.
3. Upload the exported file.
4. Review the parsed transactions on the bank portal — verify the count and total match your batch.
5. Authorize the transaction using the bank's approval mechanism (typically a second-level authorization with OTP or digital signature).
6. The bank processes the payments, typically within the same day for NEFT (during NEFT settlement windows) or immediately for RTGS/IMPS.

Warning: Always review the parsed transactions on the bank portal after uploading. If the bank shows a different count or total than your batch, something is wrong with the file format. Do not authorize until the numbers match.

Handling Export Issues

Missing Vendor Bank Details

If a vendor in the batch does not have complete bank details (account number or IFSC code), the export may exclude that vendor's payment or produce an error. Before exporting, review the batch and ensure every vendor has verified bank details.

Format Mismatch

If the bank rejects the uploaded file, the most common cause is a mismatch between your template and the bank's expected format. Common issues include:

• Incorrect delimiter (comma vs. pipe vs. tab)
• Missing header row
• Incorrect field order
• Date format mismatch (DD/MM/YYYY vs. YYYY-MM-DD)
• Amount format (no decimal vs. two decimals)

Compare your template against the bank's specification document and correct any discrepancies.

Re-Export

If you need to re-export a batch (for example, after fixing a template issue), the system allows you to export again from the same approved batch. The batch remains in Exported status.

Tips & Best Practices

Tip: Test your bank export format with a small batch (one or two payments) before running your first large batch. Upload the test file to the bank portal and verify it parses correctly. Fixing format issues on a two-payment file is far easier than debugging a fifty-payment file.

Tip: Maintain separate bank export formats for different payment methods (NEFT vs. RTGS) if your bank requires different file formats for each. Name them clearly: "HDFC NEFT Bulk" and "HDFC RTGS Bulk".

Warning: Bank export formats contain your account details and payment structure. Treat them as sensitive configuration. Only authorized users should be able to create or modify export formats.

Tip: After the bank processes the payments, reconcile the bank statement against the payment batch. Every payment in the batch should appear on the bank statement with a matching amount and reference. This closes the loop and confirms that all vendors were paid as intended.

Tip: Keep a record of which batches have been uploaded and processed. The Exported status in the system confirms the file was generated, but you should also verify bank-side that the transactions were completed successfully.

Quick Reference