Skip to main content
English (Australia) English (Canada) English (United Kingdom) English (Malaysia) English (Singapore)

Manage your Akahu payment integration on Payroll classic

Updated

Available for the following plans: Employment Lite, Employment Plus
Available for the following Payroll plans: Standard, Premium
Available for the following user access levels: Admin

Warning

Due to new banking regulations in New Zealand, we will be retiring our Akahu integration on 10 April 2026. The transition to the new regulated open banking system in New Zealand does not currently support the "pay-anyone consent" functionality that our Akahu connection relies on. While we explored several workarounds to maintain this service, the regulatory timeline does not allow us to transition to a compliant alternative before the integration is decommissioned.

To ensure that your next pay run goes smoothly after the cutoff, please ensure you have set up a bank payment file which can downloaded and uploaded to your bank after each pay run has been finalised. We understand this adds a manual step to your process, and we are committed to exploring new automated payment solutions as the New Zealand regulatory landscape matures.

Integrating your Payroll classic platform with Akahu lets you automate bulk payments securely from your connected bank account.

This integration will get rid of any time wasted on manually uploading payroll files or logging in and out of different apps to manage payments. With a few clicks, you can now automate your payments, including IRD contributions and deductions.

Akahu supports smooth connections with a broad range of New Zealand banks. It also allows you to use separate bank accounts for different pay schedules.

Important

Before you start, please review the following article to confirm bank eligibility and understand product limitations: Akahu Integration Limitations and FAQs.

Getting started

Connect to Akahu
  1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll classic platform.
  2. Click the  Businesss menu.
  3. Click the Payroll Settings submenu.
  4. Under Business Management, click Integrations.
  5. Click the Add button for Akahu.
  6. Click the checkbox to agree to pay $5 per month charge.

  7. Click the Connect to Akahu button.

    Helpful Hint

    You will be redirected to the Akahu screen.

  8. Click the Continue button.
  9. Enter your email address registered with your Akahu account.
  10. Click the Continue button.
  11. Enter the 6-digit verification code sent to the email you entered in the previous step.
  12. Choose your bank.
  13. Enter your bank log in details.

  14. Click the Continue button.

    Helpful Hint

    ANZ is only used as a sample bank in this scenario.

  15. Enter your verification code.
  16. Click the Continue button.

  17. Choose the bank account you would like to connect to the Payroll classic platform.

    Helpful Hint

    You can select more than one bank account. To see a list of ‌bank accounts you can link, please refer to Akahu's list here: Supported Integrations - Banks.

  18. Click the Connect button.

    Helpful Hint

    You will be taken back to the Payroll classic platform.

  19. You may choose to enter your Code and Reference, which are optional.

    Important

    The Code and Reference are statement details to be shown on the source and destination accounts. They can both be a maximum of 12 characters made up of upper-case and lower-case letters, digits 0-9, and “-” or “_”.

  20. Click the Save button.

    Helpful Hint

    You have now enabled your Akahu integration.

Daily activities

Pay with Akahu

Important

Akahu only works with manual pay runs and this does not consider the payment date on the pay run. Instead, when you click pay, the payments are sent immediately.

  1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll classic platform.
  2. Click the  Pay Runs menu.
  3. Select the required finalised pay run
  4. Click the Pay with Akahu button.
  5. Select your bank account from the Bank Accounts drop-down.

  6. Click the Confirm button.

    Helpful Hint

    Clicking the Confirm button prompts a validation process to take place to check for a valid NZ bank account. If successful, we will send the payment via your Akahu payment service and connected bank account. If we detect any problems, the platform will show you a warning with the details on your screen.

    Helpful Hint

    Once completed, the Pay with Akahu button will change to a View Akahu Payments button. If there are any employees that have their bank details set to manual payment or cash/cheque, then once you finalise the pay run, a warning message will appear and it will not stop the pay with Akahu process. There are some limitations to the payments you can make. For example, the maximum dollar amount for any payment is $50,000.

View payment status
  1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll classic platform.
  2. Click the  Pay Runs menu.
  3. Select the required finalised pay run that you processed with Akahu.

  4. Click the View Akahu Payments button.

    Helpful Hint

    Doing this will launch a side panel where you can see information about the last pay run and the information sent via Akahu and the status of the payments:

    • Payment file.
    • Payment date.
    • Payment code.
    • Payment reference.
    • Number of payees.
    • Employee Payments:
      • Name
      • Account number.
      • Amount.
      • Status.
      • Error Message.
      • Retry.
    • IRD Payment:
      • IRD.
      • IRD number.
      • Amount.
      • Status.
      • Error Mssage.
      • Retry.

    Helpful Hint

    Similarly, when you log into your Akahu account, you can see the status of each payment. Each payment will show as sent, failed, or processed. If any of the payments have failed, you can tick the Resubmit tick box, then click the Retry button. Doing this will launch the modal window again in case you want to choose a different bank account.

Removing data

Disable your Akahu integration
  1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll classic platform.
  2. Click the  Businesss menu.
  3. Click the Payroll Settings submenu.
  4. Click the Integrations button.
  5. Click on the  button for Akahu.
  6. Click the Disable button.