Full Payment Submission (FPS)

This is the most common submission procedure which will need to be submitted for each payroll run, the HMRC will use this submission to calculate how much PAYE and NIC is due from your business each tax month/quarter. The submission should be sent to the HMRC on/before you physically you pay your employee.You can only submit a live FPS once for each payroll period – you cannot resend it.

Submitting the FPS

Selecting the Full Payment Submission 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 FPS submission.

XML Filename – displays the XML filename to be created containing the FPS 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 before being prompted to commence the output.

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 send the XML file and you have to correct the data for the reported error before repeating this process.

If no errors are detected then after any printout of the XML file the submission process is begun.

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.

After a successful live submission click CLOSE on the display above and you will be prompted to print a submission receipt – recommendation is to print this and file with your payroll reports for the period.

Once processed the System Status option to restore the payroll for re-run is disabled and, subject to other reporting and updates, you can continue to the period end.