Prepare a return

Frequently asked questions

The following are some commonly asked questions.
How can I allow others to review or work on my FBT return?
Some users work in multi-site situations where there is a need to provide access for someone to review or amend in a different location. All users requiring access must be provided with a login.
  • You must arrange additional logins through your internal Fringe Benefits Tax administrator, ONESOURCE Support, or your Thomson Reuters Customer Relationship Manager.
  • Alternatively, you can export various workpapers or reports to Excel to send to your reviewer.
How do I upload my data into workpapers?
Most organisations store the information required for their FBT returns in electronic format in other systems, such as fleet management or payroll systems. This information can be imported directly into ONESOURCE Fringe Benefit Tax.
Depending on your licence, benefit and employee data can be imported using the upload templates. You can find upload templates on the application
Help
 menu.
note
Importing data checks the validity of your data at the time of import.
A log file records what deficiencies have been identified on a row-by-row basis and can be referred to when trouble-shooting issues.
You can import data directly from an Excel or text file (comma delimited CSV or tab delimited TXT).
When uploading I get errors I can’t explain.
To understand an error, compare the validation message and to the data you are attempting to import.
In this example there are three errors that arise because of the computer system settings or rounding in Excel.
Date provided '3/31/11' is invalid at row 3
Total Cost must be equal to or greater than 0 at row 4
Amount paid or reimbursed by employer must be greater than or equal to 0 at row 2
The resolutions are:
  1. Date must be in Australian date format. If your Excel formats dates as US (month-day-year), ask your IT support to change your system settings. The year format must also be the full year in other words, 2018 and not 18. This is important for tax risk mitigation, as transposing the month and day can lead to incorrect calculations of your tax obligations.
  2. For errors “… must be equal to or greater than 0”, check that you are not uploading negative numbers. If you are having trouble locating the negative number, extend the number of decimal places to see the real value. This is particularly relevant for situations where you have used a formula to calculate a result.
Why has my data been duplicated after uploading?
Certain benefit types have a unique identifier that can be used to upload and update information. These are cost centres, employees, house details, and vehicles.
In other workpapers, each time you select
Upload
, the rows of data are added again. In other words, the upload adds these as additional rows; it does not overwrite existing rows. If you want to re-import existing benefits as an update of information into these workpapers you need to first delete the existing rows, then upload. If you do not do this you will duplicate your data.
While uploading I get a "File format is invalid" message.
If you receive a validation result with a "File format is invalid", check the file format you selected from the drop down. You can select from
.xls
 ,
.xlsx
 ,
.txt
 , and
.csv
 . Ensure the file you are attempting to upload matches the file format you selected.
Rarer types of validation occur if you have used an early release version of Excel. You may receive the following or similar message:
File format is invalid: This file was created in a previous beta version of Excel 2007. Open the file with Excel 2007 and save in the most recent version format (.xlsx)
In this case, open the file you are attempting to upload and save as an Excel 2007 .xlsx version and try the upload again. The same applies if the message mentions Excel 2010 or later. In this case save as an Excel .xlsx file format.
I'm using Excel 2010 and am having problems uploading data
Excel 2010 and later uses a different file structure compared to earlier versions of Excel. We have seen instances where the upload is halted because Excel 2010 needs to update your workbook to the new version. To avoid this problem, open your upload templates in Excel 2010 save to the new Excel 2010 file format using
File
 >
Save as
. In most cases this fixes the issue. If you are still experiencing issues this may be a data formatting issue and you might like to contact our Support people for assistance.
Why does Excel keep asking me to save the document when I am uploading?
If you get a series of messages from Excel asking you to save the file you are uploading, your Excel workbook has links to other workbooks or databases. You can either ignore the messages and proceed to the next step, or save a copy of your workbook and remove the links to the workbooks or database files.
Why is upload is taking so long?
If you are uploading a large file the upload will take time. How much time depends on your computer, how many other program you have open, whether the upload file is on your network drive and if you are using a client/server version. In this case you should give the program sufficient time to complete.
If you are uploading a small file (1,000 or fewer rows) the upload should complete in less than five minutes. If it is taking longer than this the issue may be related to one of the following:
  • If the Excel workbook is saved on a network drive, you may have a slow network. Copy the file to your local computer and retry the upload.
  • The Excel workbook has links to other workbooks on your local computer or on a network drive. Copy the data into an unlinked workbook and use this to upload.
  • The Excel workbook has macros that are slowing the upload. Copy the data into a workbook without macros and use this to upload.
  • Your LAN network connection may be slow. There is not much you can do but wait.
How do I import or type negative numbers into the workpapers?
ONESOURCE Fringe Benefit Taxis a tax compliance solution and doesn’t perform accounting functions such as automating the reversal of overpayments. If an overpayment has occurred within an FBT year, the original item must be identified and manually altered to ensure correct treatment. The use of negative numbers is therefore not permitted in any workpaper and will be rejected.
If you are applying a reduction, you must enter a positive value in the relevant column related to the reduction type. For example, a concessional reduction is entered into the
Concession Amount
 column or an otherwise-deductible amount is entered as a business percentage, which will calculate the business amount.
If the negative relates to an overpayment in a previous lodged return, an amendment of the previous return must be made with the ATO or via your accountant.
The reason we don't permit credits in an upload of general data is because we cannot easily reconcile this to the original item being corrected. The use of debit and credit in the Expense, Residual and Property workpapers is particularly fraught with risks. For example, if the original amount (value of the benefit) is GST exclusive, which expense payments often are, the value ;must subsequently ;be grossed up for FBT calculation purposes. As already stated, ONESOURCE Fringe Benefits Tax is a tax compliance package and isn’t intended to perform accounting functions, such as automating the reversal of overpayments.
Why is the option to upload disabled?
There are a couple of common reasons why you may not be able to upload data:
  1. You may be using the "Lite" version, which doesn't support data upload. You can only type data into the workpapers manually in the lite version. If you need to upload you must upgrade to the standard version, which supports uploading of data.
  2. Your user role may be limited to either only viewing data or updating data manually. If you need to be able to upload data as part of your role you must request your System Administrator to update your user role.
What is the purpose of the Recalculate All button on the navigation bar?
A link called
Recalculate All
 can be found in the ATO Return panel. ONESOURCE Fringe Benefit Tax automatically calculates and applies in-house benefit reductions, exemptions, and rebates for individual benefits, and displays these in the benefit workpapers dynamically so you do not need to routinely use this function. You should nevertheless select
Recalculate All
 when it comes time to lodge.
Tax rules and rates can change, even during the FBT period. You would have received notification of this, but to be sure, it is advisable to run the
Recalculate All
 to refresh rates, in-house reductions, exemptions, and rebates for all benefits before you lodge.
The recalculation may run for some time depending on the size of your return and the number of reporting entities.
Why is the
Generate FBT Return
 button disabled?
Check your user level access. If your user role has been limited, you may not be able generate FBT forms. Speak to your application administrator to have your role upgraded.
How can I change the loan start date to an earlier date than I originally entered?
The original loan start date is created when you first enter the loan. Because this date rolls forwardforward with the loan, it cannot be changed.
If you really need to change the loan start date to an earlier date than originally entered, delete this loan row and re-enter the loan. This allows the program to create a new original loan start date and recalculate the loan.
Why are the workpaper and report totals different to the FBT form?
If you see a slight variance between the FBT form and the workpapers the differences may be acceptable. A small variance may be seen between the reports and workpapers and the form as the tax office rules require truncated values (remove the cents and do not round) on various parts of the return.
How can I see more rows in a workpaper?
ONESOURCE Fringe Benefits Tax provides an option to set various user options. Workpaper row number is one such option.
Why do I get a date or date-time error when uploading data?
You may not be using the correct system date format. ONESOURCE Fringe Benefits Tax is intended for the creation of an Australian fringe benefits tax return. The date format is expected to be Australian date format (dd/mm/yyyy or dd-MMM-yyyy). The main reason for this is that if you use other date formats (US, for example) dates such as 04/01/2018 may be interpreted as 4th January 2018 and not 1st April 2018. Although this difference may not effect calculation of taxable value, if you are entering benefits that are calculated over a period of time such as car parking, housing, LAFHA, loan or vehicles, you may be miscalculating your tax obligations.
The date format must include four digits for the year (dd/mm/yyyy or dd-MMM-yyyy). The format dd/mm/yy is not acceptable. You can check the regional settings on your computer using the Control Panel. Alternatively, it may be necessary to seek assistance from your internal IT support contact to check or change the settings.
What settings do I need to e-mail RFBA letters and Declarations?
To send emails directly from ONERSOURCE Fringe Benefits Tax each employee must have a valid email address entered.
important
You should test the e-mail by sending to yourself or your team before sending any employee emails.
If you select
Email
 when you send a letter or declaration, you must complete the following:
  1. Email subject
  2. Email body
  3. Email reply to address
note
If you intend to generate more than 2,500 letters as PDFs or via email in one go, you should consider sending RFBA in smaller batches of up to 2,500.
How do I know if the letter I sent was actually emailed and received?
ONESOURCE Fringe Benefit Taxuses an email server for sending emails from a Thomson Reuters address. It is not always possible to check whether the email address has worked, but we do check that is it not blank or invalid. (missing or bad snippet) creates a log of those employees to whom you attempted to email the letter and sends this list to the
Reply-to
 address, as well as a list of those to whom it was unable to send. This happens if the
Email Address
 column in the Employee Maintenance workpaper was blank, or the email address was obviously invalid, such as bob.smith@@acme.com.
Why isn't the email feature working?
Check the following:
  1. On each row in the Employee workpaper, ensure a valid email address is entered.
  2. You have entered an email subject.
  3. You have entered an email body.
  4. You have entered a reply-to address.
Can I send a large numbers letters via email?
If you intend to generate more than 2,500 letters as .pdfs or via email in one go, you should consider sending RFBA in smaller batches of up to 2,500.
You can use filters on the RFBA Letters window to limit the number of rows to Last Names from A to M , for example.

This article applies to:

  • Product: ONESOURCE Fringe Benefits Tax