Correct lodged pay runs

Although seSQue Payroll is quite flexible, allowing you to make any changes you want to your existing pay runs, sending these amendments to the ATO may not always be straight forward due to the various conditions which apply depending on the type of correction being made (see the ATO's article Correcting information reported through STP for more information).

In seSQue Payroll there are two options for dealing with pay run corrections, reopening an entire pay run and reopening only specific employee records inside a pay run. The former should be used for dealing with major issues and the latter for minor, less critical issues.

Reopening a successfully lodged pay run must be considered carefully. Reopened pay runs are sent to the ATO as full file replacements (FFR). An FFR provides the ability to replace the latest pay run lodgement that was sent to the ATO in error or contains significant corrupt data. To reopen a pay run use the Reopen button:

Be aware that the ATO will reject an FFR if any employee data sent in the original submit action has been changed by a subsequent pay run, or payment summary, lodgement.

A less constrained alternative, which will work for any pay run, not just the latest lodgement, is to reopen just the affected payee records inside a pay run. On resubmitting the pay run, only the updated payee records will be sent to the ATO. To reopen a payee record, start by editing the pay run using the Edit button:

Then use the Reopen button next to the payee record you want to change:

Note that on resubmitting the pay run to the ATO, this update will now become your latest lodgement. As a result, any further full file replacement (FFR) attempts will be rejected until a new pay run is lodged.

Lastly, keep in mind that you can always correct issues in your next cycle pay run, provided that this falls within the current financial year. You can make adjustments to any number of pay runs, either by reopening entire pay runs or only specific payee records as mentioned earlier, and Lock amounts without lodging. Then later on, when you lodge your next cycle pay run, all these locked in amounts will be reflected in the year-to-date (YTD) balances of each payee record sent to the ATO.