Use the payment list after disbursement to check who must be paid, then complete the payments through your bank. This guide covers Australian ABA files and payments entered manually in online banking.
A downloaded file is a payment instruction
Downloading an ABA file does not send money, clear the payment list or confirm a bank transaction. Bank payment, clearing the list and bank reconciliation are separate steps.
On this page: Before you start · Export and pay · Manual payments · Resolve a problem
Before you start
- Record the required property disbursements and review any contractor payments being included.
- Check that your bank supports ABA uploads for the account you will pay from. Your bank may need to enable this facility. See What is an ABA file?.
- Verify your trust/host account, trading account and payee bank details. Confirm that any earlier payment list has been dealt with before combining it with new payments.
- For accounts outside Australia, ask support for the correct export format and bank setup before following file-upload instructions.
Export and complete the payments
- Go to Trust Account > ABA Export. Check every payee, destination account and amount. This list may include owners, your trading account and contractors. Use this list as your payment reference, rather than adding totals from owner reports.
- Select Download ABA and save the file for this payment run. Downloading leaves the list in BookingTrust.
- Upload the file to your bank. Review the bank’s payment summary and complete its required approval or authorisation steps.
- Check the bank’s result. Resolve rejected, incomplete or scheduled payments before treating the run as finished. Keep the bank confirmation with your payment records.
- Once the pending batch’s payments have been handled, including any separately paid items, return to Trust Account > ABA Export and select Clear ABA. This records the batch as cleared in BookingTrust; it does not obtain confirmation from your bank.
- When the payment appears on your bank statement, match and confirm the corresponding outgoing batch under Trust Account > Bank Rec. Follow Daily bank reconciliation to complete the bank check.
Check the whole pending batch before clearing
Clear ABA is not limited to the file you downloaded. Check the account’s pending payments, including separately paid items. If a payment failed or only some payments succeeded, keep the evidence and ask support how to handle the remaining entries before clearing or exporting again.
If you enter payments manually in your bank
Use the same ABA Export list to check the payee account details and amounts, even if you do not upload a file. Enter and approve the payments in online banking and keep the bank confirmation. Check any separately paid items before clearing the pending batch, then reconcile the payments as described above.
No EFT Transfer: a payee bank account with this option selected is excluded from the ABA export. Those payments must be handled separately. Keep a record of how they were paid, and avoid including them again in the uploaded payment file.
If something does not look right
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| A payee is missing | Check that the disbursement or invoice payment has been recorded, that the correct bank account is selected, and whether No EFT Transfer applies. |
| The bank rejects a payment | Check the bank’s reason and the saved payee/account details. Do not mark the whole run complete or submit the same successful payments again. |
| You downloaded the file twice | Check which file, if any, was actually submitted and authorised at the bank. Downloading another copy is not evidence that another payment was made. |
| You are unsure whether a payment was made | Check the bank’s payment history and statement before exporting or paying again. Clear ABA alone does not prove a bank payment succeeded. |
If you need support, include the payment-run date, affected payee reference, exact bank message and whether the file was downloaded, uploaded, authorised or cleared. Omit unrelated banking and personal information from screenshots.