Salary | Creditor Payments – Netcash Developers Documentation

Overview

Our ‘NIWS_NIF’ web service is used to send batched outbound Payment files to a Netcash account for processing through the banking system

Technical Information

NIWS_NIF is an asynchronous web service which exposes multiple methods. The method BatchFileUpload allows an external system to submit a batch file of salary -or creditor payments for processing.

The Service

Object	Name	Description
Method	BatchFileUpload	Parameter: ServiceKey (salary or creditor) File
Method	RequestFileUploadReport	Parameter: ServiceKey (salary or creditor) FileToken (received on file upload if successful)

Object

Name

Description

Method

BatchFileUpload

Parameter:

ServiceKey (salary or creditor)
File

Method

RequestFileUploadReport

Parameter:

ServiceKey (salary or creditor)
FileToken (received on file upload if successful)

Once you have built the file call:

Web service: https://ws.netcash.co.za/NIWS/niws_nif.svc
Method: BatchFileUpload
Service key: Salary payments service key or Creditor payments service key

Input

Requests to the web service are sent as strings

Example

public string BatchFileUpload(string ServiceKey, string File) {
  // initialise client
  NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient client = new NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient();

  // call the BatchFileUpload method equal to a string variable
  string Request = client.BatchFileUpload(ServiceKey, File);

  // close client after response is received
  client.Close();

  switch (Request) {
    case "100":  // Authentication failure
      break;
    case "102":  // Parameter error
      break;
    case "200":  // General code exception.
      break;
    default:  // successful
      return Request;
  }

  // use response to call RequestFileUploadReport method
  return Request;
}

Output

Successful request

If the method call was successful and the file is being processed, the web service will return a file token which is used to retrieve the load report

Example:

20000000.2550236530.0483.2.2

Unsuccessful request

If the method call fails, the web service will return an error code:

Code	Description
100	Authentication failure. Ensure that the service key in the method call is correct
101	Date format error. If the string contains a date, it should be in the format CCYYMMDD
102	Parameter error. One or more of the parameters in the string is incorrect
200	General code exception. Please contact Netcash Technical Support.

Input File Structure

Each file has the following mandatory records:

H – Header record identifies the upload and passes instructions to the Netcash server to determine the purpose of the file.
K – Key record must follow the header record. The key record describes the transaction records which follow. The format defined in the key record is used to validate the record structure and content.
T – Transaction records follow the key record. These fields must conform to the layout defined in the key.
F – Footer record must be the last record in the file and confirms that the file is complete.

Header record (H)

Every file must contain a header record, being the first record in the file.

Record Structure

Field	Name	Type	Value
1	Record Identifier	AN	H
2	Service Key	AN	Salary/Creditor Payment Service Key
3	Version	AN	1
4	Instruction	AN	Purpose of the file
5	Batch name	AN	Your identifier
6	Action date	N	CCYYMMDD ^{TIP: See request action date web service}
7	Software vendor key	AN	The key issued by Netcash to identify the software origin of transactions. (only used by Netcash ISV‘s else use the default value: 24ade73c-98cf-47b3-99be-cc7b867b3080)

Field explanations

Field	Explanation
Record Id	“H” – Identifies the record as a header
Service key	Salary/Creditor Payment Service Key
Version	“1” – This is the Netcash version of the file specification
Instruction	Update – update the master file without loading a batch PaySalaries – Sameday salary batch upload ^{(read more about payment types here)} RTCSalaries – Realtime salary batch upload DatedSalaries – Dated salary batch upload Realtime – Sameday creditor batch upload DatedPayments – Dated creditor batch upload RTCPayments – Realtime creditor batch upload Refer to service cutoff times below.
Batch name	Use this field as an identifier of your batch.
Action date	The date on which the payments are to be made to the beneficiary.
Software vendor key	The key issued by Netcash to identify the software origin of transactions. (only used by Netcash ISV‘s else use the default value: 24ade73c-98cf-47b3-99be-cc7b867b3080)

Example

H C74EXXX5-5499-4663-85FB-2A6XXXXFB9EF 1 PaySalaries My Test Batch 20100331 24ade73c-98cf-47b3-99be-cc7b867b3080

Key record (K)

The key record is mandatory and must appear in the file between the header and transaction records.
It defines the content, order and length of the transactions records in the file. It can be likened to the column headings in a spreadsheet.
All the possible fields contained in the subsequent transaction records are listed, even if not every transaction record contains data in all the fields listed.
It is good practice to list keys in ascending order to assist where debugging and support are required.

Example

K 101 102 131 132 133 134 135 136 162 252

Mandatory fields

The fields indicated by are mandatory for the specified instruction.

^{See the full API key legend for value requirements}

Key	Field name	Update	PaySalaries DatedSalaries Realtime DatedPayments
101	Account reference
102	Account name
103	Beneficiary active
104	Delete beneficiary
131	Banking detail type
132	Bank account name
133	Bank account type
134	Branch code
135	Filler
136	Bank account number
161	Default amount
162	Amount
201	Email address
202	Mobile number
251	Default Beneficiary statement reference
252	Beneficiary statement reference
281	Payment recipient / beneficiary group
301	Extra 1
302	Extra 2
303	Extra 3

Transaction fields

Field	Name	Type	Value
101	Account reference	AN22	The unique account reference that you will use in the future to address this client (Minimum 2; Maximum 22)
102	Account name	AN25	The name of your client’s account on the Netcash system (Typically your client’s name) (Minimum 2; Maximum 25)
103	Beneficiary active	N	0 = Inactive 1 = Active
104	Delete this beneficiary	N	0 = Don’t delete 1 = Delete
131	Banking detail type	N1	1 = bank account
132	Bank account name (account holder name)	AN30	The name of the bank account to be debited or credited (may differ to the name in field 102) (Maximum 30 characters)
133	Bank account type	N1	1 = Current / Checking 2 = Savings 3 = Transmission 9 = Public Recipient / Beneficiary
134	Bank account branch	N6	The branch code of the homing account. This field MUST be 6 digits. Pre-fill with zeroes if less than 6. For Public Recipient / Beneficiary payments use “000000”
135	Filler	N1	0
136	Bank account number	N11	The homing bank account number. May not exceed 11 digits. For Public Beneficiary payments use Public Recipient / Beneficiary reference number
161	Default payment amount	N	The default amount to be set in the masterfile (in cents)
162	Payment amount	N	The amount of this payment (in cents)
201	Email address	AN50	This is the email address used to notify your client of the debit order. (The “@” and “.” symbols are allowed in this field)
202	Mobile number	N11	The cell number to be used for SMS notifications Include dialling code EG: 27827822349 NOTE: cell numbers which are not correctly formatted will be ignored and not updated to the masterfile
251	Default Beneficiary statement reference	AN20	This field is the statement reference that appears on the client’s bank statement. This field can only be used when updating the beneficiary masterfile. (Minimum 4; Maximum 20 characters) Note: only the first 12 characters will appear on the beneficiary statement
252	Beneficiary statement reference	AN20	This field is the statement reference that appears on the client’s bank statement. This field can only be used when making payments. (Minimum 4; Maximum 20 characters) Note: only the first 12 characters will appear on the beneficiary statement
281	Payment beneficiary group	AN50	Links this beneficiary to an existing group Validation will fail if the group indicated does not exist.
301	Extra 1	AN999	Custom User-defined data (Extra data you want returned for your internal system use)
302	Extra 2	AN49	Custom User-defined data (Extra data you want returned for your internal system use)
303	Extra 3	AN49	Custom User-defined data (Extra data you want returned for your internal system use)

Optional fields

If the optional fields can be included in the transaction records, they are to be specified in the key record (K).

Footer record (F)

The footer record indicates that the complete file has been received. It must be the last record in the file. If the record is not present, the system will fail the file without processing any transaction records.

Structure

Field	Name	Type	Value
1	Record Identifier	AN	F
2	No of transactions	N	A count of the transaction records
3	Sum of amounts	N	The sum of the amount fields (in cents)
4	End-of-file indicator	N	9999

Field explanations

Field	Explanation
Record Identifier	“F” – Identifies the record as a footer
No of transactions	This is the count of all the ‘T’ records in the file.
Sum of amounts	This is the sum of all the values in the 161 fields. If field 161 is not specified in the key record, this will be the sum of all the 162 fields.
End-of-file indicator	‘9999’ – Indicates there are no more records.

Example

F 2 0 9999

Example of input file

H 78e30d1e-aa36-0000-XXXX-dcd68866XXXX 1 DatedSalaries Batch_Name 20131204 24ade73c-98cf-XXXX-XXXX-cc7b867b3080
K 101 102 131 132 133 134 135 136 162 252
T EMP001 A Employee 1 AB Employee 1 632005 0 40600000004 110200 Dated sal test
T EMP002 X Employee 1 X Employee 2 198765 0 2060000001 200000 Dated sal test
F 2 310200 9999

Example of string file (C#)

string fl =
"H\t78e30d1e-aa36-0000-XXXX-dcd68866XXXX\t1\tDatedSalaries\tBatch_Name\t20131204\t24ade73c-98cf-XXXX-XXXX-cc7b867b3080" +
Environment.NewLine +
"K\t101\t102\t131\t132\t133\t134\t135\t136\t162\t252" +
Environment.NewLine +
"T\tEMP001\tA Employee\t1\tAB Employee\t1\t632005\t0\t40600000004\t110200\tDated sal test" +
Environment.NewLine +
"T\tEMP002\tX Employee\t1\tX Employee\t2\t198765\t0\t2060000001\t200000\tDated sal test" +
Environment.NewLine + "F\t2\t310200\t9999";
string FileToken = BatchFileUpload("78e30d1e-aa36-0000-XXXX-dcd68866XXXX", fl);

Processing deadlines

Click here for processing deadlines
Action date is the date the transaction is processed on the recipient bank account.
TIP: See request action date web service.
Business days are the days between and including Monday to Friday but do not include public holidays and/or weekends.

Retrieving the Load Report

Postback option

Where the postback option in your NetConnector profile is utilised, the load report is automatically posted back to the URL specified.

Polling option

You will need to request the load report using the file token received from the BatchFileUpload method call.

Using the file token, call:

Web service: https://ws.netcash.co.za/NIWS/niws_nif.svc
Method: RequestFileUploadReport
Service key: Salary/Creditor Payment Service Key

Requests to the web service are sent as strings

Example:

Example public string RequestFileUploadReport(string ServiceKey,
                                              string FileToken) {
  // initialise client
  NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient client = new NIWS_NIF.NIWS_NIFClient();
  // call the RequestFileUploadReport method equal to a string variable
  // the same service key used for the batch file upload
  string Request = client.RequestFileUploadReport(ServiceKey, FileToken);
  // close client after response is received
  client.Close();
  // use response to output to UI
  // service will respond with the result of the file uploaded
  return Request;
}

Output file

File content

Only errors are reported in the file. If all the entries in the file are successfully validated, the Load report header will contain “SUCCESSFUL” and there will be no detail messages.

File structure

The report is tab delimited with a linefeed character as line terminator.

Load report header (occurs once at the start of each load report)

Field	Name	Type	Value
1	Record identifier	AN8	###BEGIN
2	Batch name	AN	{your batch name}
3	Result of upload	A13	SUCCESSFUL / UNSUCCESSFUL / SUCCESSFUL WITH ERRORS
4	Start time of report	AN8	HH:MM AM/PM
5	Batch Value	AN15	TOTAL OF BATCH
6	Action Date	AN8	CCYYMMDD

Load report message (occurs multiple times – once per error record)

Field	Name	Type	Value
1	Unique reference	AN25	The unique reference you supplied in (p2)
2	Line number	AN	Line :{line in your file where error was found}
3	Error message	AN	The error message
OR
1	Record identifier	AN8	###ERROR
2	Error message	AN	The error message

Load report trailer (occurs once – the last line in the report)

Field	Name	Type	Value
1	Record identifier	AN6	###END
2	End time of report	AN8	HH:MM AM/PM

Upload report example (successful):

###BEGIN MY TEST BATCH SUCCESSFUL 01:59 PM R1.00 20160410
###END 01:59 PM

Upload report example (successful with errors):

###BEGIN MY TEST BATCH SUCCESSFUL WITH ERRORS 01:29 PM R1.00 20160410
Acc Ref :XI5 Line :3 Account details could not be validated. Please check the fields Bank account type, Branch code and Account number.
Acc Ref :XI5 Line :3 Bank account number has incorrect length (min 4, max 11 characters)
Acc Ref :HCOS1 Line :5 Beneficiary statement reference has incorrect length (min 4, max 20 characters)
Acc Ref :HCOZ1 Line :6 Beneficiary statement reference has incorrect length (min 4, max 20 characters)
###END 01:29 PM

Upload report example (unsuccessful):

###BEGIN MY TEST BATCH UNSUCCESSFUL 01:23 PM R1.00 20160410
###ERROR: A system error occurred. Please contact Netcash R0.00 20160410
###END 01:23 PM

Compact Upload File Specification

Click here for the Netcash Compact Payment file upload file format. The compact file format is used where large number of transaction records are UPDATED for processing of a Payment batch. New line items can not be loaded with the Compact Payment file upload file format.