Unable to lodge a pay event with the ATO as I am entering them a few days after they were paid (but with the correct pay date)

Hi MB105,

Thanks for posting in the Community! 

When submitting pay event to the ATO, several dates are associated with the pay run transmitted along with the payroll data. This includes the pay run's pay date and the date the pay run was initially finalised. 

The ATO do not allow the pay run finalisation date to be later than the pay run's pay date. If this does happen, this warning will be triggered. 

To resolve this issue you will either need to unlock the pay run and change the date paid to a date that is earlier than the initial pay run finalisation - this should only be done if you have incorrectly entered the pay date to begin with as the date paid should truly reflect when the net earnings were paid to the employee. 

If, for whatever reason, the pay date of the pay run is an earlier date than that of the pay run finalisation date then you must lodge an update event as opposed to a pay event. This will ensure the employee YTD amounts are updated correctly.

Also, we currently have an ongoing investigation of this issue as well. You can contact our support team to be included in our list of affected users. This way, you'll receive email notifications whenever an update becomes available. For your reference, this is the investigation number: INV-78089.

Here's how:

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online company.
2. Click the Help menu.
3. Select Contact us.

For more detailed information, you can check on this article: Troubleshooting validation warnings for STP Events. 

Feel free to drop a comment below if you need further assistance. Have a great day! 

Thanks for that information.

So basically, I have to enter the pays on the day they are made and lodge them with the ATO on that day.

I can't come in a few days later and do the accounts. I have to do them on the day that wages are paid.

This won't suit a lot of bookkeeping companies.

I have a job already logged about this. Job number 1589101569 I think. Although I did call a day earlier.

I don't know if I will be getting updates though.

So when I lodge an update pay event, those pay events that I could not lodge still show as not lodged with the ATO. Is that OK? 

Yes, that's correct, MB105. Creating and lodging an update event will report any changes to employee year-to-date (YTD) amounts previously reported to the ATO. 

Also, your account has been listed on the ongoing investigation and rest assured that you'll receive an update from our engineers. 

Let me know if you need any help with STP lodgement. Thanks! 

Thanks so much.

Hi,

I just came across this thread as I am having the same issues with a clients Quickbooks file. 

I find your comment regarding the ATO not allowing finalisation date to be later than the pay run's date confusing as I process payroll using other accounting software and I don't have any issues at all with lodging a pay event regardless of the dates. 

This is going to be an issue for a lot of BAS agents & Accountants and something Quickbooks need to change.

Hi Melissa8888,

Thanks for joining the thread. Let me share with you some information about the new STP pay event validation.

As a result of ongoing discussions with the ATO on best practice STP reporting, we are adding a new validation warning to pay events that will be triggered if the date paid of the pay run is before the date that the pay run is finalised. This means that the pay event will not be able to be lodged. This new validation warning was implemented on 6th of October 2022 and will be applied to any pay events lodged on or after this date.

If you are still experiencing this unexpected behavior, we would ask you to reach out to your online support team for further assistance.

Feel free to drop a comment below if you have any other questions. Have a great day!

This is insane.

Our pay day is Tuesday and I typically work in a voluntary capacity on Wednesdays. Almost every payrun is finalised after the pay date.

This means that:

1) I'll have to create and submit an update event for every pay run (more work)

2) I'll have a lot for pay runs that show the STP not submitted.

or finalise the pay run a week before the pay date.

From the wording, Intuit have discussed and implemented this "best practice" (not a requirement) with the ATO then expect us poor users to suck it up, or go argue individually with the ATO.

At the very least, you now need to add an option in the Update Event to be able to flag pay runs a Submitted to the ATO. But please undo this "best practice" devised by people who don't work in the real world.

Hi sedge,

I understand your part with regard to the new STP pay event validation. This is not the experience we wanted to have with our customers. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the current software as this will help us to do better. I'll definitely share this with our Product Development Team for them to know. 

You can also send your valuable feedback or suggestion by following these steps. 

1. Select the Gear icon at the top, then Feedback.
2. Enter your comments or product suggestions. Then select Next to submit feedback.

Feel free to post again if you have more questions about QuickBooks Online. 

I understand the concept behind the validation warning but in reality, this just makes more work for the end user. 

I would imagine many pay runs will be processed after a pay date for a variety of reasons, some listed in this thread here. By making the user lodge an update event instead is pointless. It's the same information reported just more steps involved. 

I understand the ATO would encourage best practice reporting for STP but I don't think its up to QuickBooks to regulate this for their customers. 

I'm a BAS agent and have clients that use a variety of different accounting software & I haven't seen this warning on any other software.

The warning needs to be removed as its counter productive to the concept of STP reporting. 

This now appears to have been resolved. I can now lodge a pay run after the pay date.

Hi sedge,

Thanks for getting back to us and letting us know this all works for you. 

Our team since then has rolled this back after consultation with the ATO to wind back the release of the update. This means the validation errors won't longer apply. If on the event you have pay runs that aren't able to be lodged, we recommend creating an Update Event.

You can refer to this link to learn more about how to Create and lodge an update event in QuickBooks Online.

Post again in the Community if you have other QuickBooks Online concerns. I'll be here to help you. Have a great rest of the day!