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We recently moved to Santander and attempted to make our first bulk supplier payments, only to encounter errors. After investigating the issue, we discovered that the first line of the payment file exported from Xero does not match Santander’s required template.

I raised this issue with Xero and asked for assistance, only to be told that they could not customise the export file for us and that we would need to resolve the issue ourselves. I find this extremely disappointing. Surely, ensuring that payment exports are compatible with major banks should be part of the service Xero provides.

I was then directed to raise the issue in this forum. Having reviewed the discussions, I now realise that we are far from the only customers experiencing this problem.

Surely this should be a priority for Xero to investigate and resolve. If so many customers are facing the same issue, why has this not been addressed already?

It is unreasonable to expect customers to manually amend exported payment files or develop their own workarounds to overcome what appears to be a compatibility issue. This creates unnecessary work and introduces additional risks when processing supplier payments.

I strongly urge Xero to take this issue seriously, investigate it as a priority, and provide a proper solution rather than leaving customers to figure it out for themselves.

We moved to Santander expecting to manage our supplier payments efficiently through Xero, and this experience has been incredibly frustrating. Very disappointed that this issue remains unresolved.

I agree, this needs to be looked at as adding significant time to a previoulsy quick process. Thanks.

URGENT ATTENTION REQUIRED FROM XERO

Santander implemented a mandatory change to its bulk payment import specification effective 12th January.

As a result, the existing “Santander Connect Standard bulk payments” file exported by Xero is no longer compatible with Santander’s live banking platform and cannot be imported without manual amendment.

Specifically, Santander now requires:

- Removal of the trailing empty line at the end of the file
- Inclusion of a debit account reference on the first line (after 08,,,,,)
-There may be additional adjustments required. Xero should check this with Santander.

This is not a feature request or enhancement. It is a loss of compatibility in a bank format that Xero explicitly supports for UK organisations. Customers cannot meet Santander’s mandatory requirements using the current Xero export without manual intervention.

This should be treated as a bank-driven regression / supported integration fix, rather than a new product idea. Maintaining alignment with current bank file specifications is a fundamental requirement of supported payment templates.

Please confirm whether:

- Xero intends to update and continue supporting this Santander bulk payment format, or
- Xero no longer supports it, so customers can take appropriate action.

URGENT ATTENTION REQUIRED FROM XERO

Further to Howard Thompson's message below. This requires urgent attention from Xero.

Santander implemented a mandatory change to its bulk payment import specification effective 12th January.

As a result, the existing “Santander Connect Standard bulk payments” file exported by Xero is no longer compatible with Santander’s live banking platform and cannot be imported without manual amendment.

Specifically, Santander now requires:

- Removal of the trailing empty line at the end of the file
- Inclusion of a debit account reference on the first line (after 08,,,,,)

This is not a feature request or enhancement. It is a loss of compatibility in a bank format that Xero explicitly supports for UK organisations. Customers cannot meet Santander’s mandatory requirements using the current Xero export without manual intervention.

This should be treated as a bank-driven regression / supported integration fix, rather than discretionary roadmap work. Maintaining alignment with current bank file specifications is a fundamental requirement of supported payment templates.

Please confirm whether:

- Xero intends to update and continue supporting this Santander bulk payment format, or
-Xero no longer supports it, so customers can take appropriate action.

There is a bug in the current batch payment files.

I have done batch payments to santander for years, In December it stopped working.
The total is missing from the batch file and you have to update manually.

I'm experiencing the same, after 9 years of it working. Fairly trivial change, but involves manual intervention and introduces the chance of errors.

Thanks for posting the solution and specification!