Sending a payment file to the bank is not the end of the process. Was it accepted? Was a single transaction rejected? Did the money actually move? This article explains how to track payment status after submission through the bank's pain.002 message and the account statement.

What the pain.002 message is for

The pain.001 file contains your credit transfer orders. The bank replies with a status message in pain.002 format (Payment Status Report): it shows whether the file or individual transactions were accepted or rejected, often with a rejection reason. For formats, see pain.001 vs pain.008.

Why status often surfaces too late

Without processing the status message, a rejection is often noticed only when the supplier calls or the entry is missing from the statement. This delays payments and strains the supplier relationship.

A flow with feedback

Right after submission: Arkaio retrieves the bank's pain.002 notices and alerts the user if a batch is in error.
Before execution: if the bank returns an error on a transaction in the batch, that transaction can be removed from the batch.
After execution: the statement confirms the batch is compliant and reveals rejected transactions. More in automated bank reconciliation.

What happens on error

The batch goes into error, the invoices become available for payment again and the user is notified, in Arkaio or by email.
If the whole batch is in error, it is cancelled and restarted. There is no partial resubmission of the same batch.
For a payment rejected after submission, the statement lets you import only the amount actually paid, and the failed transaction is cancelled.
Returned funds are handled as a cancellation entry for the payment concerned.

Day-to-day monitoring

An operational dashboard shows, among other things, the number of failed EBICS transactions and the latest submissions. The notification center in Arkaio gathers alerts. For the channel itself, see EBICS 2.5 vs 3.0.

Use cases

SMEs: few payment runs, but immediate warning on rejection.
Multi-bank groups: uniform monitoring across institutions.
Accounting firms: spotting errors per client early.

Limits

The content and level of detail of status messages depend on the bank. Some errors only become visible on the statement. How partial payments are handled within a run is covered in partial payments and payment budgets.

Arkaio since the Sage catalog

Arkaio has been available in the Sage catalog since September 23, 2026 and processes pain.001, pain.002, pain.008 and camt messages in one flow.

Key takeaways

The pain.002 status message turns a blind submission into a traceable process. Teams that process it spot errors in minutes rather than days.