What are common validation warnings in STP lodgement events? | Payroll Platform

Overview

This article lists the validation warnings we have set up that you may see once you have created a pay/update event. We have put these warnings in place to reduce the possibility of a failed or partially successful lodgement. However, please note, some errors can only be identified AFTER the event has been lodged with the ATO.

The warning will also contain a link to this support article for quick reference.  

Employee Warnings

The list of employee validations warnings, their meaning and required fix are as follows:

• A valid postcode is required: The postcode must be 4 digits and an actual valid postcode. This will need to be fixed in the employee's details. Ensure both the employee's residential and postal postcodes are corrected.
• Tax File Number is invalid: The Tax File Number (TFN) must be 8 or 9 digits and match valid TFN algorithms. If the employee's TFN is invalid, you can select the "The employee quoted an invalid TFN" option from the employee's Tax File Declaration screen and then follow up with the employee at a later time. 
  
  
• Address is too long: The Address Line 1 field in the employee's Details screen must be less than 39 characters. Ensure that Line 1 does not include the suburb and/or postcode and that Line 2 is also used for multi-line addresses. Additionally, ensure the fix has been applied to both the residential and postal address sections.  
• A valid address is required: The "Address Line 1" and/or "Suburb" fields have not been completed. Both fields are compulsory so ensure these are completed in the employee's Details screen for both the residential and postal address sections.
• Invalid date of birth: The employee's date of birth must be less than 110 years. This needs to be rectified in the employee's Details screen.
• Invalid email address: Email addresses go through a standard validation process. If this message appears, it may be that the email address contains an invalid character or the '@' symbol is missing. If the email address does appear to be correct, we suggest you completely delete it and enter it again. We have picked up on instances where the email address does contain invalid characters but they are not visible on the screen so deleting and re-entering is the easiest way to fix this.
• Year to date Allowances must NOT be negative: The ATO will not accept YTD allowance amounts that are negative (ie, less than $0). You will need to unlock the pay run and fix this before the employee can be added to the event.
• Year to date Super must NOT be negative: The ATO will not accept YTD SG contribution amounts that are negative (ie, less than $0). You will need to unlock the pay run and fix this before the employee can be added to the event.
• Year to date Super Deductions must NOT be negative: The ATO will not accept YTD salary sacrifice super contribution or employer contribution amounts that are negative (ie, less than $0). You will need to unlock the pay run and fix this before the employee can be added to the event.
• Year to date Union Fee Deductions must NOT be negative: The ATO will not accept YTD union fee deduction amounts that are negative (ie, less than $0). You will need to unlock the pay run and fix this before the employee can be added to the event.
• Foreign Tax Paid Amount must be greater than zero when Final Event Indicator is True: When an employee is classified with a Foreign Employment (FEI) income type, the employer must pay (or be liable to pay) the foreign government (that is, the employee's foreign country of employment) for the tax to qualify the employee's earnings as foreign employment income. Foreign tax paid can be entered in the last STP event for that financial year but must be done if an event where the "Is final" checkbox is ticked for that employee. If there is no foreign tax liability to report/pay, then the employee's income type classification must change from FEI to salary & wages (SAW). Otherwise, if there is a foreign tax liability to report/pay, you can do this by clicking on Actions > Enter foreign tax paid.
• Lump Sum Financial Year must be provided. When the Lump Sum Type Code is E, Lump Sum Financial Year must be provided: Refer to 'Transitioning to STP Phase 2' of this article for further information on this topic and how to troubleshoot this error.
• Duplicate Income Stream Type. Only one of each of the following Income Stream Type Code can be provided: SAW, CHP, WHM, SWP, JPD, VOL, LAB, or OSP: There are conflicting income stream types selected in the employee's Tax File Declaration page that need to be reviewed. 
• Country Code must be provided. When the Pay/Update Date is after 30/6/2020, Country Code must be provided when the Income Stream Type Code is one of the following: FEI, WHM, or IAA: The employee's home country, as per their visa, needs to be entered via the TFD page from the applicable start date. Refer to the 'Assigning country codes' section of this article for more information. Note: If you've assigned a country and the validation warning still appears you will need to contact your payroll support for further assistance. 
• Payee Cessation Date must be provided: A termination date needs to be recorded via the termination pay run or the employee's Details page. 
• Cessation Reason Code must be provided: A termination reason needs to be selected in the termination pay run or the employee's Details page. 

Business Warnings

• Business is not enabled for lodgement: SBR or Electronic lodgement is not enabled. You cannot proceed without enabling both electronic lodgement and STP. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.
• Tax agent declaration signatory contains invalid characters: The user lodging the event may has an invalid email.
• Employer declaration signatory contains invalid characters: There are 2 possible scenarios here: (a) If an STP Pay Event Approver has been used to approve a lodgement, their email address may not be valid or (b) The user lodging the event may have an invalid email.
• ATO Supplier details must be completed: This means the ATO Supplier Settings have not been completed correctly or certain fields are missing data. Refer here for instructions on completing this section.
• The ABN entered for the Intermediary under ATO Settings is invalid: This warning will only appear if the business's ATO Settings are using "an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities" to lodge reports to the ATO. The issue here is that the ABN entered under the "Intermediary Details" section of the ATO Supplier Settings is invalid. Ensure the ABN entered is active and valid.
• The ABN entered for the Tax/BAS Agent under ATO Settings is invalid: This warning will only appear if the business's ATO Settings are using "a registered Tax/BAS Agent" to lodge reports to the ATO. The issue here is that the ABN entered under the "Tax/BAS Agent Details" section of the ATO Supplier Settings is invalid. Ensure the ABN entered is active and valid.
• 'Phone number' cannot be more than 16 characters: This warning will appear if the number of characters contained in the Phone Number field in the "ATO Settings" screen exceeds 16 characters. Ensure the phone number only contains numeric characters and no more than 16 digits.
• Intermediary {Business Name} must have a contact phone number: This warning will only appear if the business's ATO Settings are using "an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities" to lodge reports to the ATO. The Phone Number field contained in the "Intermediary Details" section of the ATO Supplier Settings is empty. Ensure a phone number is entered in this field and only contains numeric characters.
• Intermediary {Business Name} has invalid characters in the contact phone number: This warning will only appear if the business's ATO Settings are using "an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities" to lodge reports to the ATO. The Phone Number field contained in the "Intermediary Details" section of the ATO Supplier Settings is invalid. Ensure the phone number only contains numeric characters.
• When lodging for multiple employing entities, the value of 'I will be lodging reports to the ATO' (under Payroll Settings > ATO Settings) must be set to either 'As a registered Tax/BAS Agent' or 'As an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities': If there are multiple employing entities set up in the business, the ATO Supplier Settings cannot be set as "As the Employer" lodging reports to the ATO. This setting must be one of 'As a registered Tax/BAS Agent' or 'As an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities'. You must fix these settings before you can proceed with the lodgement.
• You have selected the option to lodge 'As an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities' however you do not have multiple employing entities set up in this business. You will need to change this setting in Payroll Settings > ATO Settings to either 'As the Employer' or 'As a registered Tax/BAS Agent': You can only select the option to lodge s an intermediary for multiple employing entities, if you have multiple employing entities set up in the payroll account. If you don't, you must change your reporting option as advised in the warning. 
• The ABN entered for the {organisation name} under ATO Settings is invalid: This warning will only appear if the business's ATO Settings are using "As an Employer" to lodge reports to the ATO. The issue here is that the ABN entered in the ATO Supplier Settings screen is invalid. Ensure the ABN entered is active and valid.
• {Organisation Name} must have a phone number: This warning will only appear if the business's ATO Settings are using "As an Employer" to lodge reports to the ATO. You will need to ensure a valid phone number is entered in all of the following areas:
  1. Business Details screen;
  2. ATO Settings screen; and
  3. Employing Entities screen (if you have employing entities set up).
• {Organisation Name} has invalid characters in the phone number: This means the phone number entered is invalid. You will need to ensure a valid phone number - containing only numeric characters or spaces that must be greater than 2 and less than 16 characters - is entered in all of the following areas:

1. Business Details screen;
2. ATO Settings screen; and
3. Employing Entities screen (if you have employing entities set up).

• {Organisation Name} contains invalid characters: This means the Legal Name or Employing Entity name contains invalid or special characters not allowed by the ATO.  
• {Organisation Name} contact name contains invalid characters: This means the Contact Name field contains invalid or special characters not allowed by the ATO.
• Employing entity {Name} is not enabled for lodgement: SBR or Electronic lodgement is not enabled for the specified employing entity. You cannot proceed without enabling both electronic lodgement and STP. Instructions on how to do this for employing entities can be found here.
• This event cannot be the first lodgement for the financial year. Another event that does not include all employees marked as 'is final' must be successfully lodged before this event can be lodged: This error has been triggered because you are attempting to lodge a finalisation event or update event where all employees are marked as is final as your first STP lodgement for the financial year. If you have finalised pay runs for the financial year and have not lodged these pay runs via STP, then you must first lodge each pay run prior to starting the finalisation process. This is a mandatory requirement of the ATO. Once you have lodged the pay runs via a pay event submission you can then return to lodging the finalisation event - if you are still seeing the validation warning in the event just refresh the data by clicking on Actions > Refresh data, within the event. If you have no finalised pay runs for the financial year (for eg because you have moved over to this payroll system from another payroll system) and only opening balances to report, you must first create an update event but not mark all employees as is final. Once the update event is successfully lodged, you can then return to lodging the finalisation event. 
• The pay category name OR allowance description is not a recognised JobKeeper identifier: This means that you are attempting to process a JobKeeper payment (either a top-up payment or START/FINISH notification) for an employee using a pay category or allowance description that is not in the ATO's prescribed format. To correct this, you must unlock the pay run, change the pay category name to the approved format OR if the allowance description is the issue you'll need to correct that , finalise the pay run and then refresh the pay/update event. Details of the approved pay category/allowance format and correct process of adding JobKeeper payments in the pay run can be found in this article.
• The pay category name OR allowance description is not a recognised JobMaker identifier: This means that you are attempting to process a JobMaker action (either a nomination, re-nomination, or a period claim) for an employee using a pay category or allowance description that is not in the ATO's prescribed format. To correct this, you must unlock the pay run, change the pay category name OR if the allowance description is the issue you'll need to correct that, to the approved format, finalise the pay run and then refresh the pay/update event. Details of the approved pay category/allowance format and correct process of adding JobMaker in the pay run can be found in this article.

If you have any questions or feedback please let us know via support@yourpayroll.com.au