Payment references
Every outbound payment carries two references. They are different things, they go to different people, and mixing them up is the usual cause of a payment nobody can match.
| Reference | Who reads it | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| My reference | You | What the payment is called on your own statement |
| Their reference | The beneficiary | What the payment is called on their statement |
Their reference is the one that matters to the person being paid. It is what the receiving bank shows them, and it is how they work out which invoice, account, or tax period the money belongs to.
Defaults and overrides
Most beneficiaries want the same reference every time. A supplier wants your account number with them; that never changes.
So a beneficiary carries default references. A payment that says nothing carries them.
Some beneficiaries want a different reference every time. Each tax payment carries its own payment reference number, issued for that one payment.
So every payment you capture may override the defaults. There is no setting to turn overriding on — it is always available, because for some beneficiaries it is the normal case.
| What you enter on the payment | What the payment carries |
|---|---|
| Nothing | The beneficiary’s default |
| A reference | What you entered |
Whatever the payment ends up carrying is recorded against that payment. Months later, the trail shows the reference that was actually sent, not the one the beneficiary happens to want today.
Set a beneficiary’s default references
You can set these while adding the beneficiary, or any time afterwards from the account itself:
- Open the external account.
- Select Payment references.
- Enter My reference, Their reference, or both.
- Select Save.
Leave a field empty and payments carry no reference of that kind, which is what every destination does until you set one.
Reference rules
An approved beneficiary can go further and say what its own bank will accept.
This is worth doing wherever a wrong reference means the money bounces back days later, after the deadline has passed. The revenue service is the classic case: a payment with a malformed payment reference number is returned, and nobody finds out until it is late.
A rule has two parts, and you can use either or both:
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Reference required | A payment with no Their reference is refused |
| Validation pattern | A Their reference that does not look right is refused |
The refusal happens when you capture the payment, while you are still in the screen and can correct it.
A pattern describes what a whole reference looks like, not something it contains. If
the pattern says nineteen digits, then 1234567890123456789 is accepted and
PRN 1234567890123456789 is not — the second one has a valid reference buried in
text the beneficiary’s bank will not read.
You can only set a rule on a destination that is already an approved beneficiary. An ordinary destination belongs to one counterparty, who can be asked; an approved beneficiary is paid by everyone, so the rule is what stops a hundred clerks each guessing.
Telling the beneficiary the money arrived
A beneficiary can be sent proof of payment by email, text message, or both.
- Open the external account.
- Select Notification contacts.
- Enter an email address, a mobile number, or both. Pick the dialling code, then type
the national number; it is stored in E.164 form, for example
+27821234567. - Select Save.
Leave both empty and nothing is sent, which is what every destination does today.
The notification goes out when the scheme confirms the money landed — not when you send the payment. A payment can still be returned after it is sent, and telling someone their money arrived when it did not is worse than telling them nothing.
| Payment outcome | What the beneficiary is sent |
|---|---|
| Settled | One proof of payment, on each channel you configured |
| Rejected or returned | Nothing |
The notification quotes the payment’s Their reference, so the beneficiary can match it without asking you.
Each notification is recorded against the payment, so you can see what was sent, where, and when. If the scheme’s confirmation arrives twice, the beneficiary is still notified once.
How references travel
Their reference is sent as the payment’s remittance information, which is what
the receiving bank turns into the line on the beneficiary’s statement. This follows
ISO 20022 — see the standards register row for
ISO 20022 — RemittanceInformation.
What your organisation configures
- Default references on each beneficiary, and whether an approved beneficiary declares a reference rule.
- Notification contacts on each beneficiary. No contacts means no notification.
- Whether outbound payments are licensed at all.