When you upload a Bulk Payment file to the NDIS portal, the file undergoes a certain amount of validation.
This generally relates to the format of the fields included in the file, but also includes validation of the filename and filetype.
When your payment file has been created from within your CDS database, it should pass all validations.
However, if the file has been opened, changed or renamed, there may be some issues.
File
- The file must be saved in CSV format
- Check that the filename ends with .csv, not .xls or xlsv
- The filename must not exceed 20 characters in length. e.g. bulkupload2.csv is 15 characters (including .csv)
- Check that the name of the file is not too long
- The file should not contain any characters outside of the payment information
- Check that there are no stray characters
Date Format
If you have opened the CSV file and resaved it, the date formats may have been changed.
NDIS recommends the following process for resolving this issue:
- Open the CSV file in excel
- Update the date fields to use the required format yyyy/mm/dd
- Save the file to your desktop
- With the file still open, upload the csv file to the portal using the Bulk Upload function
For further information, please refer to the NDIS Provider Toolkit, especially the Bulk Payment Request Instructions document.