Managing failed or partially successful STP events

There may be instances where a pay event is deemed partially successful. The reason for this would be that one or more employee records failed. N.B. To clarify, all other employees whose records do not fail are successfully lodged with the ATO.  

Once an event is created, if you see a "Warnings" tab on the screen, ensure you go through and correct all the validation warnings as this will significantly reduce the instances of a failed or partially successful lodgement.

Partially Successful Lodgements

Below is an example of a partially successful lodgement:

There are 2 employees in this lodgement containing errors. The first employee, Cian, had a negative YTD salary sacrifice deduction. The second employee, Aming, had a negative YTD super contribution amount.

N.B: YTD values of gross salary or wages, allowances, deductions and PAYG withholding for each employee may be less than a previous lodgement (due to recovery of an overpayment, for example) however the YTD amounts cannot be negative.

These 2 employees have, in effect, been removed from the lodgement with the ATO. That is, no YTD data for these 2 employees has been sent to the ATO for that specific event. 

How to deal with this partially successful lodgement depends on whether the lodgement pertains to the most recent pay run for a specific pay schedule or to a previous/older pay run (that is, a subsequent pay run exists for this pay schedule). 

We would also like to point out here that the ATO states the following in terms of when the employer needs to report a fix to employee data:

1. An employer must report a fix within 14 days from when the issue is detected.
2. An employer may choose to report a fix in the next pay event for an employee where this is later than 14 days from when the error is detected. Additional time will be allowed to the next regular pay cycle for the employee. For example, monthly pay cycle.
3. An employer may report a fix in an update event.

This article will provide assistance on how to re-lodge a pay event and/or create an update event to fix employee data.

Partially Successful lodgement pertaining to the most recent pay run (where the ABA file has NOT been sent to the bank)

Using the above example, the employee errors relating to this pay event are payroll related, that is they can only be rectified by making adjustments in a pay run. As such, we recommend here that you:

• Unlock the pay run;
• Make the necessary adjustments to the employee's pay;
• Finalise the pay run. You will then see the following pop up box: 
• Select "Lodge Pay Run now", where you will be redirected to the Pay Event screen;
• You will notice that the status of the Pay Event has reverted back to "Created" - this is because the pay event, when lodged, will fully replace the previous pay event lodged;
• Review any validation warnings in the "Warnings" tab and make sure to rectify them before lodging. If you do not see a "Warnings" tab this is good news as it means there are no fixes required;
• Lodge pay event as per normal process.   

Partially Successful lodgement pertaining to the most recent pay run (where the ABA file HAS been sent to the bank)

Using the same example above, if the ABA file has been submitted to the bank, we highly recommend you DO NOT unlock the pay run to fix the employee errors. The reason for this is that employee net figures sent to the bank may end up being different in the pay run and therefore payroll reports will not match actual figures.

Rather, in this instance, we suggest creating a new pay run for the sole purpose of fixing the  employee issues. You can then choose to either:

(a) create a pay event for that pay run; or

(b) create an update event. 

Partially Successful lodgement pertaining to an older pay run

When a partially successful lodgement for a pay event:

• pertains to a pay run that is NOT the most recent pay run for that pay schedule; and
• and a more recent pay event has successfully been lodged for that pay schedule

DO NOT try and re-lodge the event. This is because the most recent lodged pay event would have transmitted the most current YTD figures to the ATO.

So, looking at the example below, you will note the pay event for pay run PE 1/7/18 is partially successful. However, the pay event for pay run PE 8/7/18 (a more recent pay run) has been lodged successfully. As the data transmitted to the ATO are YTD values, re-lodging an older pay run will override the current figures held by the ATO. This will result in inaccurate (out-of-date) data being reported to the ATO.