What Does The Validation Step Do In Payday Filing?

In the online app, submitting payday filing includes a validation step that checks employee details before anything is sent to Inland Revenue, and lets you fix problems on the spot.

Employment Information (EI) Returns

1. Open the Payday Filing submission screen from Pays and set up the return as usual.
2. Click Validate & continue. A Validation step lists any employees with problems, such as a missing or invalid IRD number or an invalid tax code.
3. Click the Fix button next to an employee to correct their details there and then. Changes are saved to the employee record for future filings.
4. Errors must be fixed before you can continue; recommended settings are shown but do not block the filing. When everything passes, click Continue to review and file as normal.

Employee Details (ED) Submissions

The same step runs when sending employee details to Inland Revenue: click Validate & submit on the outstanding list. As well as IRD numbers and tax codes, this checks details such as address lines longer than Inland Revenue's 38-character limit and incomplete bank accounts, then submits with Submit to Inland Revenue.

Nil returns skip the validation step, since they contain no employee lines. The desktop app validates the return when it is sent instead of showing a separate step.