Turn your payment spreadsheet into an .aba file your bank accepts, first time.
Export the payment list from your payroll or accounting system, drop the file here, and download the ABA file to upload to your bank. Every BSB, account number and amount is checked first, so the batch doesn’t bounce back at you on payday.
- Your payee details never leave your computer. Nothing is uploaded. The file is read and converted right here in this browser tab, so there is no copy of your staff’s bank details sitting on somebody’s server.
- We catch the mistakes before your bank does. Every BSB is checked against the AusPayNet bank directory — all 16,000 of them — and every row against the rules your bank applies. Anything wrong comes back with the row number and what to do about it.
- Works with the file you already export. Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, Employment Hero, or your own spreadsheet. The columns are matched for you — you just check we got them right.
- 01Your file
- 02Match columns
- 03Bank details
- 04Check & send
Every line is exactly 120 characters, and one wrong character fails the whole batch.
You don’t need any of this to use the converter — it is handled for you. But if your bank has sent a file back and nobody can tell you why, this is where to look. Hover any coloured field to see the rule it has to pass.
Descriptive record
The top line. Names your business, the six-digit ID your bank gave you, a short description like PAYROLL, and the date you want the payments to go out.
Detail records
One line for each person you are paying. Their BSB and account number, the amount, the name on their account, and the reference they will see on their statement.
File total record
The last line: how many payments, and what they add up to. If these totals are a cent out, the bank rejects the file. It is where most hand-built ABA files come unstuck.
The conversion is the easy part. Remembering it all next payday is the hard part.
If you run the same payments every fortnight, you should not be re-entering your bank details, re-checking the same payees and re-learning which box your bank wants ticked. That is the part worth paying for.
| ABAConvert | A free online converter | An Excel macro template | Building it in-house | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Free to 10 payments, then $19/mo | Free | $400 one-off | A developer’s time, twice |
| Checks every BSB against the bank directory | All 16,000, plus merged branches | Basic | Very little | Only what you build |
| Remembers your bank details | Yes | No, re-type every time | Lives in the spreadsheet | No |
| Keeps a list of who you pay | Yes, up to 100 on Starter | No | Manual | No |
| Handles your bank’s quirks | Set from the bank you pick | Some | You configure it | You research it |
| Tells you why a file was rejected | Yes, line by line | No | No | No |
| Your data stays on your computer | Yes | Usually | Yes | Yes |
| Works on a Mac | Yes | Yes | Often blocked by macro settings | Yes |
| Running payments for several clients | Coming soon | No | No | No |
| Someone to ask when it breaks | Yes | No | Limited | Whoever built it, if they’re still here |
Comparison drawn from publicly published pricing and features, September 2026. Re-check before launch.
Free while we are in beta. Here is what it will cost after that.
Right now every feature is free and there is nothing to pay — we are not taking payments yet. These are the plans we intend to launch. If one of them suits you, put your email against it and you will get a free month when it opens, plus a say in what gets built first.
Prices in Australian dollars, GST included, and not yet charged. Everything on this page is free to use today.
What people ask before their first pay run.
It’s my first pay run. What do I actually need?
Four things about each person — their BSB, account number, the name on their account, and the amount — which your payroll system almost certainly exports already. Plus three things about your own account: your BSB and account number, and the six-digit APCA number your bank issued you. That is the whole list. Everything else on this site exists to stop you getting one of those seven things wrong.
How do you know a BSB is real?
Every BSB in your file is checked against the Australian Payments Network’s published directory — the same list the banks use — which currently holds a little over 16,000 of them. If a BSB is not on that list, you are told before you send rather than after. We also flag the 441 branches the directory marks merged or closed, and give you the replacement BSB where there is one, and the 148 that are not set up to receive electronic payments at all — a payment to one of those is returned every time. AusPayNet republishes on the first business day of each month and we pull the new file then.
Is a Cemtex file the same thing as an ABA file?
Yes. Cemtex, ABA, direct entry, DE file, batch payment file — they are all names for the same 120-character text file Australian banks accept. If your bank or your accountant asks for a Cemtex file, this is it.
Excel keeps dropping the zero off the front of my BSBs.
A known nuisance: Excel treats 062-000 as a number and throws the leading zero away, and the bank then rejects every row. Format the BSB and account columns as Text before you paste the data in, or add an apostrophe before the number. If it has already happened, we will flag the short BSBs for you rather than quietly building a broken file.
Where does my staff’s bank data actually go?
Nowhere. Your spreadsheet is read inside this browser tab, converted there, and handed straight back to you. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no server holding your staff’s account numbers. You can prove it to yourself: load the page, turn off your wi-fi, and convert a file anyway. It still works.
What is an APCA number and where do I find ours?
It is a six-digit number your bank gave you when they switched on batch payments — some banks call it a Direct Entry User ID. CBA is usually 301500, and ANZ, NAB and Westpac are often 000000. If nobody in your office knows it, open last month’s ABA file in Notepad and it is the six digits near the start of the first line, or ask your bank’s business banking team. Getting this wrong is the most common reason a file bounces.
The bank says my file has to “balance”. What does that mean?
Some banks want one extra line showing the total coming out of your own account, so the file adds up to zero. Tick “Add a self-balancing record” in step three and that line is added and the totals redone for you. If your bank is Westpac, St.George, BankSA or Bank of Melbourne, it is ticked automatically.
Will it work with our bank?
Yes. ABA files are the same standard at every Australian bank — CBA, NAB, ANZ, Westpac, St.George, BankSA, Bendigo, Macquarie, Suncorp, ING, Bank of Queensland and the mutuals. Banks differ only in small details at the top of the file, and choosing your bank in step three sets those for you.
How many people can I pay in one file?
Tens of thousands. A few thousand payments convert in well under a second, because the work happens on your own computer rather than queueing on a server somewhere.
Can I see what was in a file I already sent?
Yes. Drop any ABA file into the checker and it turns back into a readable list of payments with the totals re-checked — useful when you are reconciling, or when someone asks whether a supplier was actually in last week’s run. Paid plans export that list to CSV.
Something is wrong and I need a person.
Email support@abaconvert.com.au with the file your bank rejected, or a description of what happened, and we will look at it. If a file of yours will not convert, that is a bug on our side until proven otherwise — tell us and we will fix it.
Does this actually move the money?
No. ABAConvert only makes the file. It never touches money, never holds funds and is not connected to your bank. You upload the finished file to your own banking platform and approve it there, exactly as you do now — which also means nothing can be paid without someone authorising it.