There is no error checking system on this field. Systems such as the BPAY electronic bill payment service offered by a number of financial institutions, use check digits to detect transcription errors in the reference field. However, the standardised finanacial system has no such checking. How to fit a standard, complete and reliable description of the payment into this small field can be termed the Eighteen Character Problem . Optimum efficiency and cost effectiveness will be achieved through direct credit payments to suppliers' bank accounts.
Most agencies already complete payment activities electronically with their banks.
With the introduction of the Shared Systems Suite Initiative and the inclusion of financial management information systems, most agencies now have, and some routinely use, the capacity to transact all elements of payments to suppliers electronically. Furthermore, the banking system has long had the capability to directly credit supplier bank accounts when suitably instructed. The diagram below illustrates one variation of the proposed process. The bank provides normal supplier account statements regularly. Suppliers to Government have indicated that the main reason for not moving to electronic payments has been the inadequacy of the current 18-character remittance advice provided by the banking system to reconcile direct entry payments.