Ozow Hub

Bulk payouts

Upload a batch of payouts from the Ozow Dashboard using a file upload.

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Bulk payoutsPayout Money sent from a merchant to a bank account. Unlike a refund, a payout is not tied to a payment anyone made you, so you can pay anyone with a bank account. Payouts draw on your float rather than on your incoming payments, and they are not self-service: they need approval from Ozow and testing in staging first. let you send payments to multiple recipients at once directly from the Ozow Dashboard, no code required. You complete a CSV template and upload it to the Dashboard to submit multiple payouts in a single action.

Payout approval required

Payouts are not available by default. Your account must be approved for payouts before you can use bulk payouts. If the Payouts tab is not clickable in your Dashboard, contact support@ozow.com or your account manager to begin the approval process.

FloatFloat The balance held with Ozow that payouts and refunds are paid out of. Both draw on it, and neither will process while it is empty. Payins do not need one, so if you only take payments you never meet it. required

Payouts are funded from your Ozow float. If your float does not have sufficient funds, payouts will fail. Make sure your float is topped up before submitting a bulk payout. See the Float top-up guide.

Before you start

  • Your account must be approved for payouts: contact your account manager or support@ozow.com to request approval
  • Your Ozow float must have sufficient funds to cover all payouts in the batch
  • You need access to the Ozow Dashboard at dash.ozow.com
  • Staging testing must be completed before bulk payouts can be enabled in production: see Payout test cases

How the approval process works

Bulk payouts follow a structured onboarding process before production access is granted:

  1. Contact your account manager or support@ozow.com to request bulk payout access
  2. Ozow's integration team will be in touch to set up a staging Dashboard for you
  3. The integration team will set up your staging float with test funds
  4. Complete the bulk payout staging test case: see Payout test cases
  5. Once approved, Ozow enables bulk payouts on your production Dashboard

Production will not be enabled without staging sign-off.

This process exists to protect you, we want to make sure you are comfortable and confident with the full bulk payout process before real money is involved.

Roles and permissions

Bulk payouts use a two-role approval model. We recommend that the person who uploads the payout file is different from the person who approves it.

Role What they can do
Bulk payout requester Upload the bulk payout CSV template
Bulk payout approver Review and approve uploaded payout batches

Note

No payouts will be processed until explicitly approved by someone with the approver role. If you do not have the correct role, contact your account manager or support@ozow.com to have the relevant role assigned.

How to submit a bulk payout

Step 1: Navigate to Bulk Payouts

Log in to your Ozow Dashboard, stagingdash.ozow.com for staging or dash.ozow.com for production. In the left-hand navigation menu, click Payouts → Bulk Payouts.

Step 2: Download the template and available banks list

On the Bulk Payouts page, click Download Template to download the CSV template. Also download the Available Banks file; you will need the bank group IDs and branch codes from this file to complete the template.

Step 3: Complete the template

Open the downloaded CSV template and complete one row per payout:

Column Field Notes
A Amount The payout amount. Must not exceed your available float balance.
B Merchant reference Reference that appears on your bank statement for reconciliation
C Customer bank reference Reference that appears on the recipient's bank statement
D Site codeSite code The unique code for a site registered under a merchant. A site is a place to transact: a website, or a branch of a store. A merchant can have several, and each transaction names the one it belongs to, so sending the wrong code files the payment against the wrong place. Your Ozow site code, found under the Sites tab in the Dashboard
E Notify URL Optional, URL to receive a notification when the payout completes
F Is RTCReal-Time Clearing Payments that clear immediately rather than waiting for a batch. A batch run settles at set times through the day; a Real-Time Clearing payment moves the funds between the two bank accounts as it is made, so the recipient can rely on them straight away.PayInc true for immediate payment, false for standard EFTEFT A transfer between two bank accounts. Used here for the standard kind, which takes one to two business days, as against Real-Time Clearing, which moves the funds immediately. A payout or refund is one or the other, and which you choose is the difference between a customer waiting minutes and waiting days. (1-2 business days)
G Bank group ID Retrieved from the Available Banks download, unique identifier for the recipient's bank
H Branch codeBranch code The six-digit number identifying a South African bank branch, the equivalent of a sort code or a routing number elsewhere. Each bank publishes one universal branch code that works for every account it holds, which is the one to use unless you have been given another. Universal branch code for the recipient's bank, retrieved from the Available Banks download
I Account number Recipient's bank account number
J Identity number Not yet supported: leave blank
K Identity type Not yet supported: leave blank

Site code

Found under the Sites tab in your Dashboard. It appears in the first column and follows the format XXX-XXX-XXX.

Bank group ID and branch code

These must be retrieved from the Available Banks download on the Bulk Payouts page. Do not use bank details from any other source.

Step 4: Upload the template

Save your completed CSV template. Return to Payouts → Bulk Payouts and upload the file.

Ozow will process the uploaded file and create a line on the Bulk Payouts page for your batch. Each batch has a unique reference number.

Step 5: Approve the batch

If you have the bulk payout approver role, you will see an Approve action next to the uploaded batch. Review the batch details and click Approve to process the payouts.

Important

No payouts will be processed until the batch is explicitly approved. If you are the approver, keep a lookout for batches awaiting your approval.

Step 6: Track the batch status

Once approved, you can track the status of the batch on the Bulk Payouts page:

Status Description
Complete All payouts in the batch were processed successfully
Completed with errors Some payouts failed, download the exception report to see which lines failed and why
Error A technical error occurred, redo the upload entirely

If your batch completes with errors:

  1. Click Download Exception Report next to the batch
  2. Open the downloaded file, you will see the original lines plus an error or failure reason for each line that failed
  3. Correct the errors
  4. Re-upload the corrected lines as a new batch and approve again

Step 7: View individual payouts

Once a batch completes successfully, you can view the individual payouts in two ways:

  • Click View under Actions on the Bulk Payouts page to see all payouts within that batch
  • Navigate to Payouts → View Payouts to see all payout transactions across all batches, including status, sub-status, merchant reference, and amount

Support

For assistance with bulk payouts contact support@ozow.com or reach out to your account manager.

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