Generate BACS File

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BACS or Bankers Automated Clearing System, is a payment system used for bank transfers in the UK. You can generate BACS files for your bills in Zoho Books to make BACS payments.

To generate a BACS file in Zoho Books:

Go to Purchases from the left sidebar and click Bills.
Bulk select the bills that you want to pay using a BACS file.
Click Generate BACS File at the top of the page.

In the next page, click Update Now to enter the service user number of your organisation. You can edit it in the Profile page under Settings.

Insight: A BACS Service User Number (SUN) is a unique six-digit number assigned to your organization by BACS for identification purposes.

In the next popup, enter the Service User Number and click Save.

Note: You won’t see this banner if you’ve already updated your organisation’s service user number in the Profile page under Settings.

Select the Payment Account. You can also add a new bank account through which you want to make the bill payment.
Enter the Payment Date, Details, and Narrative.

Insight: You can enter additional information about your debit account in the Narrative field, and include any additional details required by payment institutions, such as the Beneficiary roll number, in the Details field.

If you have enabled Branches for your organisation, select the Branch used to track this payment.

In the Transaction Details section, click Add Now to add your vendor’s bank account details.

In the popup, enter your vendor’s bank account details, including their Account Number and Routing Number / Sort Code.

Insight: A sort code is a unique 6-digit number used to identify banks and payment institutions during bank transfers.

Click Save.

The details entered in this page are going to be mapped to different fields in your BACS file.

Once you’ve entered all the details, you can click Generate to generate the BACS file or click Generate and Record Payment to generate the file and record payment for the bills.

Insight: If you click Generate, the BACS file will be generated, but the payment for the selected bills will not be recorded. You should record those payments manually.

BACS File Format

Once you generate the BACS file, you can import it to your bank account to make the corresponding bill payments. The records listed below will be displayed in individual rows within the BACS file:

1. Volume Header Label (VOL1) Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-3	Label Identifier	Must be ‘VOL’
4	Label Number	Must be ‘1’
5-10	Serial Number	6 digit serial number
11	Accessibility Indicator	Must be ‘0’
12-41	Reserved For Future Use	Blank space
42-47	SUN	SUN of your organisation
48-79	Reserved For Future Use	Blank space
80	Label Standard Level	Must be ‘1’

2. First File Header Label (HDR1) Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-3	Label Identifier	Must be ‘HDR’
4	Label Number	Must be ‘1’
5	File Identifier	Must be ‘A’
6-11	SUN	SUN of your organisation
12		Must be ‘S’
13-14	Reserved For Future Use	Black space
15		Must be ‘1’
16-21		Blank space
22-27	Serial Number	Serial number from the VOL record
28-31	File Section Number	0001
32-35		0001
36-41		Blank space
42-47	Creation Date	Date [YYDDD format]
48-53	Expiration Date	Date [YYDDD format]
54	Accessibility Indicator	Must be ‘0’
55-60	Block Count	000000
61-80	Reserved For Future Use	Blank space

3. Second File Header Label (HDR2) Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-3	Label Identifier	Must be ‘HDR’
4	Label Number	Must be ‘2’
5	Record Format	Must be ‘F’
6-10	Block Length	02000
11-15	Record Length	00100
16-50	Reserved for Operating Systems	Blank space
51-52	Buffer Offset	‘0’
53-80	Reserved For Future Use	Blank space

4. User Header Label (UHL1) Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-3	Label Identifier	Must be ‘UHL’
4	Label Number	Must be ‘1’
5-10	BACS Processing Day	Date [YYDDD format]
11-20	Identification Number of Receiver	99999 and 4 blank spaces
21-22	Currency Code	‘0’
23-28	Country Code	‘0’
29-37	Work Code	‘1bDAILYbb’ where ‘b’ indicates a blank space
38-40	File Number	A random 3 digit number
41-47	Reserved For Future Use	Blank space
48-54	Audit Print Identifier	3 blank spaces and ‘0000’
55-80	For Use by User/Bureau	Blank space

5. Payment Instruction Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-6	Destination Sort Code	Vendor’s sort code
7-14	Destination Account Number	Vendor’s bank account number
15	Destination Account Type	‘0’
16-17	Transaction Code	99 - Bank Giro Credit
18-23	Originating Sort Code	Sort code of payment account
24-31	Originating Account Number	Bank account number of the payment account
32-35	Free Format	Blank space
36-46	Amount	Amount (in pence)
47-64	Username	Your Zoho Books organisation name
65-82	User’s Reference	The information entered in the ‘Details’ field
83-100	Destination Account Name	Beneficiary name of your vendor’s bank account
101-106	BACS Processing Day	Blank Space

6. Contra Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-6	Originating Sort Code	Sort code of payment account
7-14	Originating Account Number	Bank account number of the payment account
15	Types of Users Account	‘0’
16-17	Transaction Code	17 - Debit record
18-23	Originating Sort Code	Sort code of payment account
24-31	Originating Account Number	Bank account number of the payment account
32-35	Free Format	Blank space
36-46	Amount	Total amount (in pence) of all transactions
47-64	Narratives of User’s Choice	The information entered in the ‘Narrative’ field
65-82	Contra Identification	Must be ‘CONTRA’
83-100	Abbreviated Account Name of User’s Nominated Account	Your Zoho Books organisation name
101-106	BACS Processing Day	Blank Space

7. First and Second End of File (EOF1 and EOF2) Records

The EOF1 and EOF2 records will have the same details as the HDR1 and HDR2 records, except for the first four positions, where the label identifier will be replaced with ‘EOF’ respectively.

8. User Trailer Label (UTL1) Record

Row Position	Information Type	Information Populated
1-3	Label Identifier	Must be ‘UTL’
4	Label Number	Must be ‘1’
5-17	Monetary Total of Debit Records	Total amount (in pence) from the Contra record
18-30	Monetary Total of Credit Records	Total of all the standard records’ amount (in pence)
31-37	Count of Debit Records	‘0000001’
38-44	Count of Credit Records	Count of standard records. It should be right justified and zero filled.
45-54	Reserved for Future Standardisation	Blank space
55-80	For Use by User/Bureau	Blank space

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