2020.3 Cannot delete a payroll transaction - System.ArgumentNull Exception

[ChrisR]

That is rubbish about the ATO not allowing pay events to be deleted for security reasons - we could do them prior to the upgrade!  This 'new' feature is a complete and utter pain and needs to be changed back to the way is was.  As long as the payroll balances at the end of the year, that is all that matters.

[DFGBookkeeper]

You are absolutely right,   but will MYOB staff listen to us?

[Tracey_H]

Hi @DFGBookkeeper and @ChrisR 

I think there may be some confusion over the ATO allowing for pays to be deleted. To my knowledge the ATO don't stipulate whether you can or cannot delete pays in your software, however, they do not allow for pays to be deleted from the ATO Business Portal. This is what we are referring to when we say the ATO don't allow for deletions and this is one of the reasons this change has been made in AccountRight. 

Reversing a pay event that has been reported through STP and appears in the Business Portal provides a better audit trail and security for payroll reporting. Deleting pays that are reported in the Business Portal caused confusion for users and did not provide a clear trail of what happened to that pay from an ATO perspective.

Reversal also aids in the prefilling of BAS amounts. It is also important to note that pays that have not been sent to the ATO can still be deleted.

We do understand this is a change from previous versions and we have passed on your feedback.

[DFGBookkeeper]

Thank for some responses,

The existing locking periods serves all of the purposes you just mentioned ALREADY.  Most business do adjust pays instead of deleting pays after the period is locked.  It is totally unnecessary to take the option of re-entering an incorrect pay away from users.     It is also important to point out that for those offline users, once a pay is entered, you cannot delete it anymore even if you have not reported to ATO.    Payroll usually involves many admin and operation aspects, mistakes can come from all directions, eg. the team leader reports wrong timesheet etc.   The new version adds unnecessary stress to offline MYOB users.   Due to the time constraint, employees are now forced to accept the wrong pay and wait for correction later even when they notify us before the pay is finalized.     This is definitely not a user-friendly software now.