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STP reporting issues and errors

What issues and errors mean in your Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting and steps you should take to address them.

Last updated 24 June 2024

General reporting issues

This list includes some of the reporting issues we've seen with STP reports.

Table 1: STP troubleshooting information for employers and intermediaries

Reporting issue

What you need to do

You missed sending an STP report.

Your employees will not see the correct year-to-date amounts in ATO online services. You have several options, including:

  • lodging the missed report if you can
  • if all employees in the missed report will be paid again in the next regular pay run, ensure the year-to-date values in the next pay run are up to date
  • if some employees are not being paid again, lodge an update event within 14 days to update their year-to-date balance.

If you continue to miss reports, you may be subject to failure to lodge penalties after the first year of reporting.

You started reporting and your software is not connecting to the ATO.

See our start reporting checklist and take those steps before you lodge your first report.

There are different methods for connecting your software to the ATO. In most cases, your digital service provider (DSP) will tell you how to do this as part of your STP setup.

If you are using a hosted cloud-based Standard Business Reporting (SBR) enabled software solution, see our Software service ID (SSID) notification guide below.

You have lodged your first STP report and you want to know if we have received it.

There is no need to phone us to confirm your report has been received.

We will send you a confirmation message once we receive your STP report. The message will generally be displayed in your software.

You can also check Online services for business to view your lodged STP reports.

We will also send a welcome letter to you when you start reporting through STP.

You use multiple payroll solutions and are unsure which Business Management Software (BMS) ID to use.

If you use the wrong ID, your employees may not see accurate information in ATO online services through myGov. This could affect their pre-filling at tax time.

You can report separately from each payroll solution. Most products will allocate the BMS ID for you. Talk to your DSP to find out about the ID you should use.

Find out more in:

 

You lodged your STP report several days after paying your employees.

The law requires you to submit your STP report on or before the day you pay your employees.

If you make an out-of-cycle payment, this can be reported in your next regular pay cycle.

However, if you are consistently late submitting your reports we:

  • will issue reminders
  • may apply penalties after the first year of STP reporting.

 

You used a tax file number (TFN) exemption code for an employee who has not provided you their TFN (for example, you used 000000000).

Where your employee provides you with a different valid TFN (not an exemption code), you should report with this new valid TFN.

When you use a TFN exemption code, the STP information you report can't be matched to your employee. This means they can't see their year-to-date tax and super information in ATO online services.

Continuing to use a TFN exemption will affect your employee's ability to use pre-filled data at tax time.

You entered an incorrect Australian business number (ABN) in your STP report.

You must report the correct ABN.

If you use an incorrect ABN, we can't match the information you report to the records of your business entity, or your employees' myGov account.

You can make a correction to update the ABN. Find out more in:

 

You are unsure if you need to report super.

You must report super amounts through STP. For each employee, make sure you report the following each pay period:

  • year-to-date employer super liability, or
  • ordinary time earnings (OTE) amounts.

If you pay above the minimum super guarantee liability, report that amount.

If the year-to-date super liability for an employee is zero, report zero. Do not leave the field blank.

Find out more in:

 

You deleted unused or legacy pay codes (such as overtime allowances) from your payroll software.

Deleting pay codes may affect the accuracy of your STP data. While your software may allow you to do this, you should check if the pay code was used in a previous STP report in the same financial year.

If you delete a pay code, check your data is correct before lodging your report.

You are a related entity and you need to submit STP reports on behalf of other ABNs in the group.

A related entity that submits STP reports on behalf of other ABNs within a group needs to have a business authority to lodge on their behalf.

You can create this authority. The way you do this depends on whether the entity has been linked in Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM):

The entity can choose the type of permission they want to provide. This tells us what they want you to be able to do or see on their behalf. The STP permission is called 'Payroll event form'.

Your software is requesting an email address for each employee.

Although it's not compulsory, including employee email addresses helps us identify the employee if the TFN doesn't match our records.

If your software requires you to enter an email address for an employee and they don't have one, ask your DSP what to do. Do not enter a fake or invalid email address.

There are also authentication errors which may affect practitioner lodgment services.

Correcting and fixing STP reporting

When an employer makes a payment to an employee that is subject to withholding, they are required to lodge a pay event to us on or before the date the payment is made.

Payroll events allow employers to report pay and entitlement amounts to us for payments made to their employees, along with any amounts withheld from those payments.

At times employers may need to correct or update employee year-to-date amounts and/or employer-level period totals (gross payment and withholding) reported in a pay event.

Update events allow the employer to report changes to employee YTD amounts previously reported. An update event should only be used in circumstances other than when employees are paid.

Adjustment events are optional and can be used to report an increase or decrease to previously reported employer-level period totals (gross payment and withholding) for a specific payroll event or withholding period. When you report a correction via an adjustment event it will be included in your ATO PAYGW pre-fill (where available for small and medium withholders). Adjustment events:

  • will not replace or override previously reported amounts
  • cannot be used to report or correct employee (payee) details – the employee details are corrected through an update event or the next pay event.

Even if you report your employer level correction through your STP reporting you must still ensure you include it in your activity statement reporting or payment (for large withholders), see Correcting employer level information.

Full file replacement (FFR) allows an employer to replace the last lodgment that was sent to us in error or contains significantly inaccurate data. This is an optional service that digital service providers (DSPs) may offer but is not mandatory.

The following table provides some common examples of how to correct or fix your STP reporting.

Table 2: STP reporting corrections or fixes

Reporting issue

What you need to do

You need to correct employee YTD entitlements or add a new employee to a previously reported pay period.

Lodge an update event and ensure the correct values for all employees are reported.

Also review your previously submitted BAS for the affected period. Ensure your W1 and W2 amounts are correct because update events do not modify your BAS figures.

You accidentally lodged a pay event to fix previously lodged STP data rather than lodging an update event. Your employees' myGov displayed amounts are now incorrect.

Lodge an update event to correct the YTD entitlements for the intended period.

Your most recently lodged employee YTD data does not match the information in your payroll software.

If you are unsure how to correct this in your payroll software, contact your DSP. Many scenarios may cause this issue such as STP reporting errors or data validation issues.

Your DSP can advise you on your circumstances.

Your employee's income statement is showing as 'not tax ready' after you have completed your end of financial year declaration.

Check the finalisation declaration was correctly added and successfully processed in your payroll software.

If processed and you changed your payroll software or updated the payroll IDs for the employee during the year, check if you duplicated their data in your payroll software.

If you have access to those records, correct the duplication and submit the finalisation declaration.

Phone us if you need to confirm duplicated data.

You have incorrectly defined a pay item as 'not reportable' or 'do not report to the ATO' in your payroll settings. While you have made the correct payments to your employees, you have not reported the complete amounts paid and withheld.

You may be able to fix employee YTD amounts and employer-level period totals in your next pay event. Alternatively:

  • employee YTD amounts can be fixed via an update event, and
  • if available in your product, employer-level period totals may be fixed via an adjustment event.

Even if you report your employer-level correction through your STP reporting, you must still ensure you include it in your activity statement reporting or payment (for large withholders) – see Correcting employer level information.

You lodged an STP report when you didn't mean to or your report contained a significant amount of incorrect data.

You can only lodge a FFR to replace the latest lodgment which can be for a regular pay cycle or an out of cycle payment. The FFR:

  • must contain the submission ID of the lodgment to be replaced
  • cannot be sent if any payee information sent in the original lodgment has been changed by a subsequent lodgment or update action
  • cannot apply to an update action.

 

You submitted several FFR for the same pay period and they failed.

A FFR can only be submitted once within a 24-hour period. Wait 24 hours before attempting to submit again.

If this fails again, talk to your DSP.

Common STP reporting errors

There are some common reporting errors that prevent you from lodging.

Your payroll solution may advise you if there is an error preventing you from lodging your report. Not all software has the same alerts and warnings. But most have a help page or user forum where errors and solutions are explained.

There are different types of errors, including:

  • SBR.GEN.AUTH errors relate to your authorisations or permissions when your payroll solution unsuccessfully connects to our SBR channel – see more about  
  • CMN.ATO.AUTH are data validation errors related to the authorisations required to lodge reports and the information about the reporting entity or agent doesn't match the information on our systems.
  • CMN.ATO.GEN or CMN.ATO.PAYEVNT errors are generated by your payroll solution when you attempt to lodge invalid data.

If you can't resolve the error, contact your digital service provider (DSP). They can help you identify and remediate it.

The following table shows the most common reporting errors and how you can resolve them.

Table 3: STP reporting errors for employers and intermediaries

Error type

What you should do

SBR.GEN.AUTH.006

You have not nominated this DSP to secure transmissions made through online (cloud based) software. You should:

  • log on to Access Manager (accessed via RAM)
  • select My hosted software services
  • follow the instructions to nominate a provider.

Agents trying to lodge via the employer's software will need to link the SSID on the employer's ABN in Access Manager.

SBR.GEN.AUTH.008

Your nomination with the online (cloud) DSP does not contain the correct Software ID. This error only occurs when the SSID:

  • is not correct, or
  • does not correspond to the correct ABN.

Confirm the ABN and SSID you are lodging under by:

  • logging on to Access Manager (accessed via RAM)
  • selecting My hosted software services
  • updating the SSID.

Agents trying to lodge via the employer's software will need to link the SSID on the employer's ABN in Access Manager.

CMN.ATO.AUTH.001

This error occurs when the agent number used with your ABN or credential is not related.

Check the ABN that's linked to your registered agent number is correct.

CMN.ATO.AUTH.011

The client transmitted is not associated with the Registered Agent Number (RAN) supplied and cannot be authorised. You should:

  • confirm you are using the correct RAN
  • ensure you added your client at the correct role and linked them to their RAN.

Confirm the ABN you are practicing on is linked to your client's RAN. If your ABN is incorrect, you need to:

  • contact the Tax Practitioner Board (TPB) and update your details
  • update your details on Australian Business Register (ABR).

If, as a registered agent, you are lodging via your client's software, ensure the setup has been completed correctly to run via the client profile.

Ensure you are lodging as an intermediary through the software. For example, inputting RAN into correct fields as required.

CMN.ATO.PAYEVNT.EM.92168

The update is referring to a previous year where STP reporting did not occur.

You cannot lodge for a period before STP.

CMN.ATO.PAYEVNT.EM.92172

A record with the same submission ID already exists.

If submission is intended to be a FFR, ensure the FFR indicator is selected.

If it is a duplicate, do not resend.

Software Service ID (SSID) notification guide

If you use a hosted cloud-based SBR-enabled software solution, you need to notify us of your digital service provider (DSP).

Before you notify us of a SSID, you need to work out who owns the software you will use to submit your STP reports.

The following table can help you work out which ABN to register the SSID against.

Table 4: Registered agent owns the payroll software

Who is lodging?

What SSID needs to be registered?

ABN the SSID needs to be registered against

How to notify us

Agent for their own practice

Practice's

Practice's

Principal authority or authorisation administrator in RAM logs into Access Manager to register the SSID against the:

  • RAN, or
  • agent's ABN.

If the registered agent has multiple RANs, the notification applies to the ABN for the entire practice, not against each RAN.

Agent on behalf of their client

Software purchased by the agent for multiple client lodgments

Practice's

Principal authority or authorisation administrator in RAM logs into Access Manager to register the SSID against the:

  • RAN, or
  • agent's ABN.

If the registered agent has multiple RANs, the notification applies to the ABN for the entire practice, not against each RAN.

Client

Software purchased by the agent for multiple client lodgments

Client's

Principal authority or authorisation administrator in RAM for the client's business logs into Access Manager to register the SSID against client's ABN.
Table 5: Employer owns the payroll software

Who is lodging?

What SSID needs to be registered?

ABN the SSID needs to be registered against

How to notify us

Agent on behalf of their client

Software purchased by their client

Client's

Principal authority or authorisation administrator in RAM for the client's business logs into Access Manager to register the SSID against the business ABN.

Employer

Software purchased by the business

Employer's

Principal authority or authorisation administrator in RAM for the employer's business logs into Access Manager to register the SSID against the business ABN.

QC54704