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.

When reopening already lodged pay runs do note that some fields remain read only, e.g tax branch, payment period:

This is done in order to avoid potential data duplication on the ATO side, which may occur if the same amounts are being allocated to a different tax branch or payment period.

Note as well that removing a pay run from seSQue Payroll does not affect your ATO existing records. To undo a previously successful ATO lodgement, a possible approach may be to reopen the affected pay run, zero out the included payees' data and resubmit the pay run to the ATO:

Once you confirm that all your payee YTD balances are correct on the ATO side, then you may proceed with the removal of the respective pay run from seSQue Payroll.

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 sometimes 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, and Lock amounts without lodging. Then later on, whenever you lodge your next cycle's pay run, all these locked amounts will be reflected in the year-to-date (YTD) balances of the payee records sent to the ATO.