Getting started with PLS activity statements

1. Schedule

Schedule the activity statement lodgment report (in the Agent Reports homepage)

• • The activity statement lodgment report (ASLRPT) lists all the outstanding activity statement obligations for your agents. 

  • You need to schedule a time to download the ASLRPT. It's best to schedule it overnight, say between 10 pm and 7am.

  • When you've scheduled the daily report for an agent, you can view it on the Activity statement obligations homepage (ASO) homepage.

  • The ASLRPT will remove activity statements that are not outstanding with the ATO (not in the ATO tax agent portal) if the activity statements are not started. If the activity statements are not outstanding with the ATO, but have an In progress status, you need to manually delete them.

To schedule the ASLRPT

• Once you've scheduled the report, you'll never have to schedule it again. The report will automatically download every night with new and revised (not lodged) details.
• If you reschedule it to run again on the same day, you'll get the error CMN.ATO.ODRPT.EM1001 — Only one 'Whole of Agency' report can be requested per day.
• Schedule the report to run after hours so that your pre-fill data is available the following day.
• It takes approximately 1 hour to retrieve the report.
• If you schedule the report to start today, but the start time has passed, the report is requested immediately.
• The ATO restricts retrieval of the report between 9 pm and 6 am for agents with more than 20,000 clients.

1. From the Tax drop-down click Agent Reports.

2. Select an agent from the Agent drop-down.

3. In the Report column of the table, select Activity Statement Lodgment Report from the drop-down.

4. On the Tasks bar, click Request/Schedule Report.

5. On the Schedule Agent Report window, select a time from the Schedule time drop-down and click OK. The Schedule ATO Report dialogue displays:

   

6. Click OK. The schedule time is saved and the status changes to Report Requested.

2. Pre-fill 

Pre-fill and validate an activity statement (in the Activity Statement Obligations homepage) 

• • After downloading the ASLRPT, you'll see a list of your clients' outstanding activity statement obligations on the Activity statement obligations homepage (ASO) homepage. 
  • To create an activity statement click the client's name. See Creating activity statements in the obligations homepage.
  • When you create an activity statement from the ASO homepage, it's pre-filled with ATO data. See Which fields are pre-filled in activity statements?

  • After pre-filling, you can check the data in the form, then validate and complete it.

    

    Because the ASLRPT lists all outstanding activity statements for all tax obligations from 2015 onwards, you can prepare activity statements for any period using the current year of Tax.

3. Pre-lodge

Pre-lodge the activity statement (in the Activity Statement Obligations homepage)

• • Pre-lodge an activity statement is a validation check done in real-time against the ATO's records.

  • You can avoid delays by pre-lodging activity statements before sending them for signature.

    

    If you don't pre-lodge, and your data doesn't match the ATO's records, you'll receive a lodgment rejection. See CMN.ATO.AS.EM060 when lodging Activity Statements via PLS.

To pre-lodge

From the ASO homepage:

1. Click on a client's name to open their activity statement.
2. Enter the required values and press F3 to complete the statement.
3. Select the activity statement and select Pre-lodge from the Tasks bar.
4. If pre-lodge passes, the status changes to Pre-lodge Passed. You can lodge the statement from the Lodgment Manager homepage.
5. If pre-lodge fails, click the Pre-lodge rejection report link to view the errors.

• The status of a tax return in Tax is not affected by pre-lodging an activity statement.
• If an activity statement hasn't been pre-lodged or if it has failed pre-lodge, a warning message will show on F3 validation.
• When you lodge a form from the Lodgment Manager homepage, pre-lodge runs automatically. A rejected form has a status of Rejected in the Lodgment Manager homepage. The rejection report includes any pre-lodge errors.

The Pre-lodge Status column in the Activity Statement Obligations homepage shows if it has passed or failed:

Pre-lodge Status	Action
Pre-lodge passed	There is no validation report when pre-lodge passes.
Pre-lodge rejected	Lodgment failed. Click Pre-lodge rejection report in the Tasks bar. Fix the reported errors and then pre-lodge the statement again. There's no limit to the number of times you can pre-lodge.

F3 validation warns you when a form hasn't been pre-lodged or if it fails pre-lodge.

4. Lodge the form

Lodge the form (in the Lodgment Manager homepage) 

• • Lodge your activity statements from the Lodgment Manager homepage in the same way that you lodge your tax returns.
  • Any activity statements you completed before your upgrade to version 2018.1 or later:

    • won't display in the Lodgment Manager homepage

    • won't have the new mandatory Form Type field

    • are available to open in the activity statement obligations homepage. Open the statement, overwrite the details to make it PLS compliant, then re-complete the form.

  • In the Lodgment Manager homepage, add fields to the field chooser to help you manage the lodgment of activity statements, such as DIN,period from, and period to.

Revising an activity statement

1. Open the client's current year tax return and go to Preparation > Schedule.

2. Select the activity statement type that you want to revise and click Select.
3. In the Select Schedule window, select the activity statement period and select New.
4. Enter same DIN, ABN and period and click OK.
5. In BAS/IAS window, select Revision.
6. Select New.
7. Enter a revision number and click OK.
8. Enter the details for the revision.

9. Validate, complete and lodge the activity statements from the lodgment manager homepage.

Related topics

Activity statement form types in PLS

Simpler BAS reporting method

Creating an activity statement for a client not on the obligations homepage

Lodge by agent and lodge by client option

Working with an existing ELS activity statement

Common PLS rejections in Tax

CMN.ATO.AS.EM024