Glossary of common STP lodgement validation warnings for the Payroll platform

This article lists common warnings that Employment Hero may flag with you when there is an error in your STP (Single Touch Payroll) lodgement process.

Although some errors may only be noticed after an STP lodgement reaches the Australian Tax Office, the below glossary can help prevent this occurring. This is as it will help you identify the many validation warnings and how to respond to them quickly and appropriately.

Validation warnings related to employees

List of employee-specific warnings




"Address is too long."

This occurs when: the address exceeds the limit of 39 characters.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"A valid address is required."

This occurs when: the address and/or suburb fields are not complete.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"A valid postcode is required."

This occurs when: the inputted postcode is not recognised and/or does not meet the required format of four digits.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.


 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "Address is too long."
  • "A valid address is required."
  • "A valid postcode is required."
     
List of employee-specific warnings (continued)




"Invalid date of birth."

This occurs when: the date of birth is incomplete and/or corresponds to an age over 110 years.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Invalid email address."

This occurs when: the email address does not meet standard formatting requirements due to invalid characters, incomplete entries, and/or missing components (such as the '@' symbol or the correct domain name).

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Tax File Number is invalid."

This occurs when: on the employee's record, the individual's tax file number does not meet the required length of eight or nine digits.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.


 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "Invalid date of birth."
  • "Invalid email address."
  • "Tax File Number is invalid."
     
List of employee-specific warnings (continued)


"Year-to-date allowances must not be negative."

This occurs when: the value of the inputted year-to-date (YTD) allowance(s) is less than $0.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Year-to-date super must not be negative."

This occurs when: the value of the inputted superannuation amount(s) is less than $0.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Year-to-date super deductions must not be negative."

This occurs when: the value of the inputted year-to-date (YTD) super deduction(s) is less than $0.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.

 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "Year-to-date allowances must not be negative."
  • "Year-to-date super must not be negative."
  • "Year-to-date super deductions must not be negative."
     
List of employee-specific warnings (continued)


"Year-to date union fee deductions must not be negative."

This occurs when: the value of the inputted year-to-date (YTD) union fee deduction(s) is less than $0.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Foreign tax paid amount must be greater than zero when final event indicator is true."

This occurs when: you have classified an employee with a foreign employment income (FEI) type but have not entered a foreign tax paid amount (i.e. that amount is not greater than zero) that applies to the relevant foreign government, as is required.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Lump Sum Financial Year must be provided. When the Lump Sum Type Code is E, Lump Sum Financial Year must be provided."

This occurs when: you process a Lump Sum E payment for an employee without specifying the relevant financial year in the pay run. Doing so is now required under STP Phase 2 to ensure back payments are properly attributed to the correct year for tax purposes.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.


 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "Year-to date union fee deductions must not be negative."
  • "Foreign tax paid amount must be greater than zero when final event indicator is true."
  • "Lump Sum Financial Year must be provided. When the Lump Sum Type Code is E, Lump Sum Financial Year must be provided."
     
List of employee-specific warnings (continued)


"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."

This occurs when: There are conflicting income stream types selected for this employee's record that need correcting. If you have not entered this data correctly, the platform will display the above warning when you go to submit an STP lodgement.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"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."

This occurs when: You need to enter the employee's home country, as per their visa correctly, from the applicable start date. If you have not entered this data correctly, the platform will display the above warning when you go to submit an STP lodgement.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Payee Cessation Date must be provided."

This occurs when: This warning shows when one of your terminated employees does not have a cessation date. If you have not entered this data correctly, the platform will display the above warning when you go to submit an STP lodgement.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



Cessation Reason Code must be provided.

This occurs when: This warning shows when one of your terminated employees does not have a cessation code. If you have not entered this data correctly, the platform will display the above warning when you go to submit an STP lodgement.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.
 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "Payee Cessation Date must be provided."
  • "Cessation Reason Code must be provided."

     

Validation warnings related to organisations

List of organisation-specific warnings




"The ABN entered for the Intermediary under ATO Settings is invalid."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly completed your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"The ABN entered for the {organisation name} under ATO Settings is invalid."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly completed the ABN (Australian Business Number) on your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"The ABN entered for the Tax/BAS Agent under ATO Settings is invalid."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly completed the ABN (Australian Business Number) for the tax/BAS (Business Activity Statement) agent on your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "The ABN entered for the Intermediary under ATO Settings is invalid."
  • "The ABN entered for the {organisation name} under ATO Settings is invalid."
  • "The ABN entered for the Tax/BAS Agent under ATO Settings is invalid."
     
List of organisation-specific warnings (continued)



"ATO Supplier details must be completed."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly completed the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) supplier details on your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Business is not enabled for lodgement."

This occurs when: your business does not have the STP Lodgements feature enabled.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Employer declaration signatory contains invalid characters."

This occurs when: the user lodging the event has an invalid email address on the ATO Settings page and/or an STP Pay Event Approver has used an invalid email address to approve a pay event lodgement.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.
 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "ATO Supplier details must be completed."
  • "Business is not enabled for lodgement."
  • "Employer declaration signatory contains invalid characters."
     
List of organisation-specific warnings (continued)



"Employing entity {employing entity's name} is not enabled for lodgement."

This occurs when: your business does not have the STP Lodgements feature enabled on one or more of your entities.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Intermediary {organisation name} has invalid characters in the contact phone number."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly entered your intermediary's phone number on your organisation's ATO Settings page. For example, the field may contain a phone number with over 16 characters, which renders that phone number invalid.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Intermediary {organisation name} must have a contact phone number."

This occurs when: your business has not entered a phone number for your intermediary on your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.
 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "Employing entity {employing entity's name} is not enabled for lodgement."
  • "Intermediary {organisation name} has invalid characters in the contact phone number."
  • "Intermediary {organisation name} must have a contact phone number."
     
List of organisation-specific warnings (continued)




"{Organisation name's} contact name contains invalid characters."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly entered your contact name on your ATO Settings page. This means the inputted information contains invalid or special characters not allowed by the ATO.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"{Organisation name} contains invalid characters."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly entered your legal name or employing entity name on your ATO Settings page. This means the inputted information contains invalid or special characters not allowed by the ATO.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"{Organisation name} has invalid characters in the phone number."

This occurs when: your business has not correctly entered your organisation's phone number on your ATO Settings page. For example, the inputted phone number was not between two and 16 numeric characters, as required.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "{Organisation name's} contact name contains invalid characters."
  • "{Organisation name} contains invalid characters."
  • "{Organisation name} has invalid characters in the phone number."
     
List of organisation-specific warnings (continued)



"{Organisation Name} must have a phone number."

This occurs when: your business has not inputted a phone number on your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Phone number cannot be over 16 characters."

This occurs when: your business has inputted over 16 characters in the phone number field on your organisation's ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"Tax agent declaration signatory contains invalid characters."

This occurs when: the user lodging the event has an invalid email address on the ATO Settings page.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.


 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "{Organisation Name} must have a phone number."
  • "Phone number cannot be over 16 characters."
  • "Tax agent declaration signatory contains invalid characters."
     
List of organisation-specific warnings (continued)



"When lodging for multiple employing entities, the value of 'I will be Lodging Reports to the ATO' must be set to either 'As a Registered Tax/BAS Agent' or 'As an Intermediary for Multiple Employing Entities'."

This occurs when: your business has multiple employing entities but on the ATO Supplier Settings page you have not selected one of these two options: 'As a Registered Tax/BAS Agent' or 'As an Intermediary for Multiple Employing Entities'. To elaborate, this warning can be triggered when you have incorrectly selected the 'As the Employer' option, rather than whichever one of the above two options applies to your STP lodgement process.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"You have selected the option to lodge 'As an Intermediary for Multiple Employing Entities'; however; there are not multiple employing entities set up in this business. You will need to change this to either 'As the Employer' or 'As a Registered Tax/BAS Agent'."

This occurs when: you have selected the Multiple Employing Entities lodgement option on the ATO Supplier Settings page, despite your business not having multiple employing entities set up.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"This event cannot be the first lodgement for the financial year. Any event that does not include all employees marked as 'is final' must be successfully lodged before this event can be lodged."

This occurs when: you marked all employees as 'is final' in your first STP lodgement for the financial year, while attempting to lodge a finalisation event or update event.

To help resolve this: refer to this article.



"The pay category name or allowance description is not a recognised JobKeeper identifier."

This occurs when: you are trying 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 help resolve this: refer to this article.


 


Click above for these validation warnings:

  • "When lodging for multiple employing entities, the value of 'I will be Lodging Reports to the ATO must be set to either As a Registered Tax/BAS Agent' or 'As an Intermediary for Multiple Employing Entities'."
  • "You have selected the option to lodge 'As an Intermediary for Multiple Employing Entities'; however; there are not multiple employing entities set up in this business. You will need to change this to either 'As the Employer' or 'As a Registered Tax/BAS Agent'."
  • "This event cannot be the first lodgement for the financial year. Any event that does not include all employees marked as 'is final' must be successfully lodged before this event can be lodged."
  • "The pay category name or allowance description is not a recognised JobKeeper identifier."
     

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