Before you can pay your employees from a Kiwibank account, you need to:

• enable the bank files feature in MYOB Essentials
• enter your Kiwibank account details, and
• enter your employees' bank account details.

Here's how:

Enable the bank files feature

1. In MYOB Essentials, click your business name and choose Payroll settings.

2. Select your MYOB Essentials Bank account for paying wages.

3. Select the option Pay employees using bank files option.

   

4. For the Bank, choose BNZ.

5. Enter the details for your Kiwibank account.

6. (Optional) Enter Extra information for your bank statement:
   • Payer particulars
   • Payer code
   • Payer reference

7. Click Save settings. The Banking section will now be available on the Employee details tab for each of your employees.

   New Zealand only

   If you're setting this up after previously using PayAgent, you'll receive security emails about changed bank account details—you can disregard these emails. You'll also need to re-enter your employee's bank details as described below.

    

   Enter your employees' bank account details
   

8. From the Payroll menu, choose Employees.

9. Click the employee's name to open their details.

10. On the Employee details tab:
    1. Choose whether the employee's pay is being paid into one account or split between two accounts.

    2. Enter the bank and account details. If you only see the Account description field, make sure you've recorded your business's bank details as described above.

       Employee bank account details previously entered into the Account description field can now be entered into the relevant bank, branch and account number fields.

    3. (Optional) Add a Payee reference (statement text) to appear on the employee's bank statement for wage payments.
       
11. Click Save.
12. Repeat steps 6-8 for each employee being paid electronically.

To pay your employees and download a bank file

Once you're set up (see above), you can do a pay run and download the bank file. If you need to add or update employee bank details, do this before processing the pay run. This ensures the bank file generated during the pay run contains up to date banking details.

1. Complete a pay run.

2. In the final step of the pay run, click the Download bank file button to download your bank file (also known as an ABA file). Save it to your computer in an easy-to-find location.
   
   
   

   Download bank file button greyed out? This means you haven't completed entering, or you didn't save, the employee's bank details. See To set up electronic payments, above.

You'll now need to make a slight change in the downloaded bank file before uploading it to Kiwibank—see the next task for instructions.

Because you chose BNZ as your bank when you set up (see above), you'll need to make a slight change to the downloaded file to ensure it can be processed by Kiwibank when you upload it.

1. Find your bank file that you downloaded and in the previous task.

2. Double-click to open the file. The file will open in your computer's default text editor program, such as Notepad.
3. Click to place your cursor after the last character in the file.
4. Press the Enter key on your keyboard to add a return after the last line in the file.
5. Save the file and close the text editor program.

Take a look:

You're now ready to upload the file to Kiwibank via your internet banking.

How do I download a bank file from a past pay run?

If needed, you can download bank files from past pay runs.

1. In the Payroll menu, click the Past pay runs link. The Past pay runs page appears with a list of pay runs.

2. Click the Download button for the applicable pay run to download your bank file. Save it to your computer in an easy-to-find location.

3. Upload the bank file to Kiwibank using your internet banking.

How do I fix a mistake and recreate the bank file?

If something in an electronic payment bank file is wrong, you'll need to:

1. Delete the pay run the bank file was created for. You'll need to delete all employee pays contained in the pay run. For details, see Changing or deleting a pay.
2. Fix whatever needs fixing (maybe an employee's bank details need updating or other payroll details have changed). Learn more about entering an employee's pay details.
3. Process the pay run again and download the updated bank file, then modify the new file. See above for details.