Generate BACS File

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:

Generate BACS file button

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

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

Enter SUN

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.

Enter payment details Add vendor account

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

  Add bank account details

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

Click Generate

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
  2. First File Header Label (HDR1) Record
  3. Second File Header Label (HDR2) Record
  4. User Header Label (UHL1) Record
  5. Payment Instruction Record
  6. Contra Record
  7. First and Second End of File (EOF1 and EOF2) Records
  8. User Trailer Label (UTL1) Record
  9. Volume Header Label (VOL1) Record
  10. First File Header Label (HDR1) Record
  11. Second File Header Label (HDR2) Record
  12. User Header Label (UHL1) Record
  13. Payment Instruction Record
  14. Contra Record
  15. First and Second End of File (EOF1 and EOF2) Records
  16. User Trailer Label (UTL1) Record
BACS file format

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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