STP error from ATO - An unexpected error occurred. Please try again
Answers
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if you are lodging a BAS or IAS and the figures are wrong on the business portal just overwrite them with the correct totals from your payroll report
The STP figures flow through to the portal so in cases like this you just change them, the fact that the STP isnโt lodged wonโt cause any problems
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I would stop worrying about it for now and see how you go next week, could be just a glitch in the matrix!!
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We are a large withholder - PAYG for the pay run on 26th Aug is due for payment today
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do you lodge something on the business portal first, I am not familiar with your situation - sorry
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Hi all
Just a quick update here, we're looking into this. At the moment, its hard for me to say with any certainty whether this is coming from us or on the ATO end but we're checking a few things out.
The reason I asked about whether the message appears immediately or after going into Pending status is, if it appears immediately after submission then its a tell-tale sign of it being caused by something on our end, whereas if it goes into Pending status for a while and then returns that error then it means that error is being returned by the ATO.
The main thing we need at the moment is examples so if you haven't already been in touch with our support team to lodge a case in relation to this, can I please ask that you give us a call and we'll collect details about your submissions along with grabbing a copy of your STP .json file for investigation.
@gcamm in regard to your question above, and its a good question too, usually sending multiple duplicate submissions can have an impact on W1 & W2 prefill figures in the ATO Portal, this is separate and unrelated to employee balances which are only sent as YTD. While there's some more context on this here, the info from @Kris_Williams above is 100% correct, if the W1 & W2 prefill in your ATO Portal is incorrect, they can be edited for correction.
With that said, I can't say for certain this particular error is having an impact on prefill balances in the ATO Portal yet.
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I dont suppose you have a new employee with an email address @internode.on.net
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Rav I agree with the above, pending then error. I'll call support and give the details my client has just passed along.
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The new employees have not been part of previous STP submissions - only the payruns from last week that both failed.
Mine go into pending firstโฆ0 -
" โฆ The new employees have not been part of previous STP submissions - only the payruns from last week that both failed ..."
@Simone_9171542 In that case, it definitely sounds like a formatting issue in the employee records ๐ฌ
Shaz Hughes Dip(Fin) ACQ NSW, MICB
*** Reckon Accredited Partner (AP) Bookkeeper - specialising EXCLUSIVELY in Reckon Accounts / Hosted ! *** Bookkeeping & 1-on-1 customised software Training/Troubleshooting ***
* Regd BAS Agent (No: 92314 015)* ICB-Certified Bookkeeper* Snr Seasonal Tax Consultant since 2003 *
Accounted 4 Bookkeeping Services
Ballajura, WA
(NB: Please give my post a Like or mark as Accepted Answer if I have been able to resolve your query as this helps others when seeking solutions!)
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Just to confirm for everyone โฆ Unlike the STP submissions, the ATO prefill of this data at W1 & W2 is NOT in real time! It only gets refreshed intermittently & also does not recognise full file replacements or updates.
Therefore, ALWAYS check the prefilled ATO STP figures against your payroll reports & manually edit them if they are incorrect.
(The ATO do also have a note at those labels referencing this as shown here,, but it's easy to miss ๐ฌ) :
(I have just screen-snipped this now - 01/09/25 - & as you can see, it states the STP prefill data is correct as at 07/08/25 !)
Shaz Hughes Dip(Fin) ACQ NSW, MICB
*** Reckon Accredited Partner (AP) Bookkeeper - specialising EXCLUSIVELY in Reckon Accounts / Hosted ! *** Bookkeeping & 1-on-1 customised software Training/Troubleshooting ***
* Regd BAS Agent (No: 92314 015)* ICB-Certified Bookkeeper* Snr Seasonal Tax Consultant since 2003 *
Accounted 4 Bookkeeping Services
Ballajura, WA
(NB: Please give my post a Like or mark as Accepted Answer if I have been able to resolve your query as this helps others when seeking solutions!)
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Hi folks
Just an update here. Our team have been investigating this throughout the course of the day and look to be narrowing down on the cause of this problem.
From the initial observations it seems as though there is something related to the number of employees included in a submission which is causing a failure somewhere along the line of the submission and triggering an error. They're continuing to investigate what has changed and how to best address it.
A couple of questions to the group in this thread -
- Have previous submissions for this same entity been successful? I'm assuming the answer to this is yes but just going to ask anyway.
- Secondly, do your submissions include a high number of employees?
- If yes, if you create your STP .json file and select a smaller group of employees then send the submission does it process successfully? If so, select the next group of employees and send them through.
The second point is both a test and a bit of a workaround (if successful) which hopefully gets your submissions in but either way, I'd like to hear how you go.
0 - Have previous submissions for this same entity been successful? I'm assuming the answer to this is yes but just going to ask anyway.
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would you create these files as an updated event, new payroll or a full file replacement?
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previous submissions largest except for finalising year was 82 employees.
Last successful week had 80 employees.
21August error 81 employees
28 August error 78 employees.
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I followed Rav's Suggestion and split the file into smaller submissions - having a mixed issue, Some are going through, the rest are giving another error "Payee Record Count must be equal to the number of children (PAYEVNTEMP)"
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That particular error message relates to missing pay info:
Shaz Hughes Dip(Fin) ACQ NSW, MICB
*** Reckon Accredited Partner (AP) Bookkeeper - specialising EXCLUSIVELY in Reckon Accounts / Hosted ! *** Bookkeeping & 1-on-1 customised software Training/Troubleshooting ***
* Regd BAS Agent (No: 92314 015)* ICB-Certified Bookkeeper* Snr Seasonal Tax Consultant since 2003 *
Accounted 4 Bookkeeping Services
Ballajura, WA
(NB: Please give my post a Like or mark as Accepted Answer if I have been able to resolve your query as this helps others when seeking solutions!)
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Hi Shaz
Thanks for that, however when we split the submissions up it goes through. without any change to the data. That is a 2023 issue why is it happening in 2025
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After spliting the file up. It appears to have all gone thru
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We have 125-170 employees for the week the error has occurred.
We always have a very large number of employees each week, and this is the first time we have had this issue. What is the solution? This is the first time it has happened.
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Look at the workaround Rav listed above. It worked for my client.
Are there any further updates today Rav?
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I dont know how to make the submission smaller through reckon payroll? It does not give me an option?
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Morning all
Our teams are continuing to work on this. We've confirmed that the issue is not data-related and that is evident both with our testing, and your confirmation of, successful submissions when sending through a small number of employees in a submission.
We've got our devs looking into any recent infrastructure changes that may be impacting this area or causing a conflict in the process. Hoping to have a further update from them very soon which I'll share here once I've got it.
- For Reckon Accounts Desktop and Reckon Accounts Hosted users, the above workaround of splitting the STP .json file with a smaller number of employees and then sending the submission through is still the recommendation.
- For Reckon One/Reckon Payroll users, unfortunately there is no direct way to manually reduce the number of employees sent in a submission aside from creating separate pay runs which may or may not be feasible.
Apologies for the hassle this is causing at the moment everyone, I can certainly understand that its a frustrating one to contend with. I'll keep you posted as soon as I have more info.
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Hi again everyone
I've got some positive news to share ๐
Our dev team have found the root cause of the issue and have applied a fix which is now live.
Your submissions should now go through as normal without this error appearing. If you haven't already sent your submission yet, please try it out when you have a chance and let me know how you get on.
Please note - if there is a genuine error with your submission such as invalid data etc, then you will receive a error response from the ATO.
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Thanks Rav appreciate your assistance.
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Thanks for getting this resolved Rav & team
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