Employer Alignment Submission (EAS)

On selection of this option the system will list your employees. Any employee where additional data needs to be recorded for the HMRC will be highlighted in red.

As you scroll up/down a help bubble at the bottom right of the screen shows the errors for each employee.

At the foot of the screen are three options:

Edit– pressing <Enter> against an employee record shows the data for this employee that is to be included within the Employer Alignment Submission. You can amend detail as required here to correct the employee data.

Submit – this option is to submit the EAS to the HMRC. This option will only be activated when no employee records are highlighted as ‘errors’.

Hours – this option allows you to update all employee records with a standard ‘Normal Hours Worked’. Selecting the option offers the HMRC advised ranges for you to select. If proceed then any employee with an unrecorded Normal Hours Worked will be updated with the selected value.

Submitting the Employee Alignment

Selecting the SUBMIT option takes you through a submission process similar to those you will be familiar with from your year-end and new starter / leaver submissions.

XML Template – displays the template definition to be used for the EAS submission.

XML Filename – displays the XML filename to be created containing the EAS submission.

Print XML Output – set this option if you require a printout of the XML generated output file. This can be useful if the Datafile validation of the generated XML reports an error – if set send to output print the spooler.

Report Errors Only – set this option when omitting the printout of the XML output file to report the entries in the output where any errors are generated.

Test Submission – Identifies the submission as a test only, the HMRC will not process a submission flagged as a test but will validate the contents as acceptable.

Selecting the RUN option begins the process – you will be warned whether you have selected to process a test or live submission.

The standard submission parameters are displayed for your company and any payroll agent you may have over the next two pages. If you have successfully submitted End of Year returns or processed P45/P46 submissions prior to the activation of RTI then you only need to review the Account Office Ref which is new for the 13/14 tax year.

Once the details are confirmed select NEXT to confirm the general employer details and then next again to confirm any agent details.

If you commence output then the submission file is created and a summary screen shows the number of employees processed and whether Datafile has detected any errors within the submission.

If any errors have been generated then the XML printout includes details of the error. Typically the major errors, such as invalid NI codes, are protected against within the system. The only likely errors remaining are inputs which are valid in DF but not on the XML submission – a name starting with a non-alphabetical character for example. If you have spooled the XML printout use <F5> to search for the text ‘Error’ this will give further details on the actual error found.

If any errors have been detected the system does not proceed to output the XML file and you have to correct the data for the reported error before repeating this process.

The submission process goes through several stages in communicating with the HMRC Government Gateway.At the end of the process the system will report whether the submission was successful or whether any business level errors were detected – these might include an invalid ECON reference for which you are not registered. If a business level error occurs then you need to correct the advised error and then re-submit the file.

A common business level error of 1046 indicates that your HMRC credentials have been rejected – this may mean the tax office details are incorrect or your HMRC user-id / password have been supplied incorrectly. Check and update these details if necessary and submit again.

If the gateway is busy or off-line you may get the ‘Submission Poll’ message repeated. If this is the case keep trying for a few loops but if it continues select the SKIP button – the submission will have been made to the HMRC and you can use the ‘Check for Active Submissions’ option within the Payroll Utilities menu to check whether the submission has been accepted / rejected later.

Once the Employer Alignment has been accepted then this will release the company to allow a Payroll Run. If there are other Datafile companies sharing the tax reference – a weekly payroll, a monthly payroll or a director’s payroll for instance – then you’ll need to submit an EAS for these companies before you can submit a Full Payment Submission and you should leave at least 24 hours between sending your final EAS and sending the first FPS.