Error

Explanation

The error means this was your first attempt as a finalisation event on our payroll platform. You need at least one pay event lodged before you can lodge a finalisation event. You will need to resolve this error before you lodge events to the ATO.

Solution

Lodge a Pay Event.

Your first option it to lodge one pay event with the ATO. You can refer to the following article for details on how to create a pay run and lodge it with the ATO. Once you have lodged this pay run with the ATO, you can create your finalisation event and lodge it with the ATO.

If you have only entered opening balances, i.e. there are no pay runs to lodge.

First, you can choose to mark your employees as final via an update event. To refer to further details on how to undertake this process, you can refer to the following article. If this does not work, you can create an empty pay run.

When you create your pay run, ensure you enter a period end and paid date on or before 30/6 and add a short note in the Notes field in each employee record, otherwise the platform will not add the employees to your finalisation even as it will think there was no activity present. Also, there is no need to publish pay slips but please select the Lodge pay Run Now option.

The only reason you would take option two and create a blank pay run is if you want to take advantage of the Send Notifications feature in the finalisation event. Marking an employee as final in a pay, update or finalisation event achieves exactly the same result at the ATO.