Playbooks
Audit Week
A practical guide for payment review week in South Africa, for teams checking mandates, references and reconciliation gaps.
Audit week checks before month-end
Audit Week is a working note for South African teams reviewing how payments are checked and recorded. It focuses on mandates, payment references and reconciliation gaps so finance staff can spot weak wording before month-end pressure builds.
Audit Week focuses on the places where payment control usually frays under pressure. That means checking whether DebiCheck mandates match the wording used at sign-up, whether Instant EFT proof was accepted too loosely, and whether PayShap references can be traced back to the order or account line. Teams in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town often need one note that suits head office review and branch handling at the same time.
Begin with the earliest record your team relies on, not the last report in the chain. A saved mandate screen, the customer reference exactly as received, and the bank-side status used for release decisions usually tell you more than a polished reconciliation file. When those pieces are missing, audit queries tend to spread into email threads and manual ledger fixes.
Outputs that help review work
Use Audit Week beside the matching Playbooks note and any Signals entry when a payment issue keeps repeating. Before stock, access or service is released, compare the bank result with the exact reference captured by your team, not the one expected in the SOP. Our contact form takes attachments, so include a screenshot of the current checkout, payment prompt or internal check step.
- Mandate wording checked against live use
- Reference capture reviewed at first handoff
- Contact route for specific queries
Checks shaped by South African payment habits
We write with places like OR Tambo travel desks, Sunnyrock warehouse teams, Crown Mines offices, and mall counters in mind, where payment checks happen between walk-ins and dispatch calls. Some teams need mandate wording reviewed, while others need a tighter match between customer references and ledger entries. Keep exception handling for urgent releases outside the standard review routine so gaps do not disappear inside rush decisions.
Load-shedding can affect when proof is saved and when staff can verify bank-side status. Branch traffic changes how clearly payment options must be explained, especially where a customer is standing at a counter and wants an answer that does not sound like bank copy. Courier cut-off times also matter because a settlement delay can turn into a dispatch error if the release rule is too loose.
Operated by Astros Marketing (Pty) Ltd from 2 Makro Place, Sunnyrock 1401.
What to gather for review
Bring the payment method, screenshots, timings and the exact failure point into the review pack. Include the customer-facing wording, the internal check step and any sample proof that staff accepted during the period under review.
File the note while the transaction trail is still easy to trace. Store it alongside the order record, the proof-of-payment file and any reconciliation comment used to explain an unmatched item.
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