What Triggers An Outstanding Employee Details Task And How Do I Resolve It?

Lightning Payroll automatically queues an Employee Details task whenever an employee record changes in a way that Inland Revenue needs to know about. There are three task types: Create, Update, and Terminate.

What triggers each task type

• Create ÔÇö a new employee is added to the company. Lightning Payroll queues a Create task immediately so Inland Revenue's Employment Service can register the new employee before their first pay is filed.
• Terminate ÔÇö a termination date is recorded or the employee is marked as terminated. A Terminate task is raised and takes priority over any pending Update for the same employee.
• Update ÔÇö one or more of the following reportable fields is changed on an existing, active employee:
  • Name (first, middle, or last) or date of birth
  • Address or contact details (address lines, city, postcode, country, home phone, mobile, email)
  • Start date
  • IRD number or tax code
  • Student loan flag or student loan deduction type
  • KiwiSaver status code, employee or employer contribution rate, opt-out details, or ESCT settings

Multiple edits to the same employee between submissions are coalesced into a single active Update task ÔÇö you will not accumulate a backlog of tasks for the same person from repeated small changes.

How to view and resolve outstanding tasks

In the desktop app: open the pay run, then choose Employee Details Dashboard from the action menu. The dashboard opens on the Outstanding tab, which lists every queued task. Select the tasks you want to send and click Submit selected to IR.

In the online (web/mobile) app: go to the Pays area, open the Payday Filing menu, and choose Employee Details. The screen lists all outstanding Create, Update, and Terminate tasks. Select the tasks you want to send and click Submit selected to IR. A count badge on the Payday Filing button shows how many tasks are waiting whenever there are tasks still to send.

What if a task fails?

If a submission is rejected by Inland Revenue, the task stays active and is shown with a Failed status. Check that the employee's IRD number, tax code, and name are correctly recorded, then resubmit. See also: What Employee Details Must Be Recorded Before Submitting Employee Details?

Outstanding Employee Details tasks must be sent to Inland Revenue before Employment Information (payday filing) can be lodged for the affected employees. See Why Do I Need To Submit Employee Details Before Filing Employment Information? for more detail on that requirement.