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Canadian Payroll ROE Submission to CRA

  • 15 April 2024
  • 5 replies
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J
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We have been unable to submit an ROE file processed through Acumatica, because Service Canada is rejecting the file type.  The file has to be in BLK format.  We have tried numerous ways to get this to work, but it appears that Acumatica needs to automatically convert the XML file to BLK when it’s processed and saved to the computer.  (Our previous system Sage converted automatically.  The file was in BLK before saving to computer)  Seems like a programming issue in Acumatica, but so far, support has been unable to figure this out.   I’m wondering if anybody using Canadian Payroll has had to process a termination and use Acumatica’s ROE feature?   And if so, how has it worked for you?  

Hope this all made sense.  I am not a system analyst and my terminology may be confusing.  lol

Thanks!

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Best answer by smichael 23 April 2024, 19:54

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S
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Userlevel 1

Hi Jodi,

 

Out of curiosity, have you tried changing the extension to BLK and then tried manually importing it (instructions are here: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/ei/ei-list/reports/payroll-extract.html#h2.2)?  From what I was able to find, the ROE files are created using Service Canada's XML ROE Web specification (https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/ei/ei-list/ei-roe/user-requirements/appendix-d.html), and is saved with a .BLK file extension before transmission.  

Acumatica will need to change the file extension in their code so that it saves the files as .BLK however running a test import yourself will allow you to verify that the output is valid.  

J
Rank
Userlevel 1

Hello!   Thanks for this feedback and valuable information.  I am familiar with all this as I’d had no issues submitting ROEs from our old system.  In answer to your question, I had changed the file extension manually to BLK and submitted, but Service Canada still rejected it.    I will forward your second link to our support people, although I think I had done so already. :)   But no harm in doing so again.  lol   They are stumped in how to get this working.   But I’ve mentioned as you have, that Acumatica needs to be programmed to convert the file to BLK before the file is saved and then submitted.

Thanks again for your input - much appreciated!

jodi

S
Rank
Userlevel 1

Hi again Jodi,

I went through the process of validating a test ROE file generated from our Acumatica sales demo data against the schema provided on the Service Canada website and found a number of issues with the output.  I can provide you with the original output file and a “fixed version” that now validates against the schema if you wish.  The list of issues that I found from the validation process are as follows:

  • The first issue is the ProductVersion attribute in the ROEHEADER  is 11 characters (ie. ProductVersion="23.110.0025"), in the schema the field is limited to 10 characters.
  • Element <B5> is the BusinessNumberType with a value of 839432893PR0001 - this violates the pattern constraint "[0-9]{9}[R][PW][0-9]{4}". The value should be 839432893RP0001.
  • Element <B14> is the ExpectedRecallInfoType with an element named <DT> that is a NullableDate. The value in the file is a bunch of spaces followed by a carriage return which doesn't parse. The field needs to either be an actual date or empty like this <DT></DT>.
  • Element <B15A> is the TotalInsurableHoursType with a value of 1322.32.  This violates the pattern constraint "[0-9]{0,4}" which only allows from 0 to 4 digits and doesn't allow for decimals.  The value should be 1322.
  • Element <B15B> does not exist in the schema and should not be in the file.
  • Element <B15C> is the PayPeriodDetailsType and improperly formatted.  It currently lists the sub-elements as follows:

<B15C>

  <PP nbr="1" />

  <AMT> 3412.18</AMT>

  <PP nbr="2" />

  <AMT>2020.83</AMT>

  ...Etc. up to 53 times

</B15C>

 

They should be as follows:

<B15C>

  <PP nbr="1">

    <AMT> 3412.18</AMT>

  </PP>

  <PP nbr="2">

    <AMT>2020.83</AMT>

  </PP>

  ...Etc. up to 53 times

</B15C>

  • Element <B16> is the ContactAndReasonForIssuingCodeType and contains a number of sub-elements:
    • sub-element <AC> is the PhoneAreaCodeType and is required with a max length of 3 and a pattern restriction of "[0-9]{3}|".  This means that it has to have 3-digits between 000 and 999.  The field value from Acumatica is a bunch of spaces followed by a carriage return.
    • sub-element <TEL> is the PhoneNumberType and is required with a max length of 7 and a pattern restriction of "[0-9]{7}|".  This means that it has to have 7-digits between 0000000 and 9999999.  Again, the field value from Acumatica is a bunch of spaces followed by a carriage return.
  • Element <B17C> is the OtherMoniesListType and has up to 3 <OM> sub-elements that are the OtherMoneyType.  The <OM> sub-element has an attribute nbr that has an invalid value of 0 (it restricted to 1 through 3). It is also missing the required <CD> OtherMoneyCodeType element.  The current XML is as follows:

<B17C>

  <OM nbr="0" />

  <AMT>932.80</AMT>

</B17C>

 

This should be as follows:

<B17C>

  <OM nbr="1">

    <CD>A00</CD>    

    <AMT>932.80</AMT>

  </OM>

</B17

*Note that the <CD> element has a max length of 3 and a pattern restriction of “[A-Z][0-9]{2}|”.

Lastly, our test file was pretty basic and didn’t include a large number of the other possible elements and values.  My expectation is that Acumatica will need to do more than just change the extension of the output file and will need to rewrite the export process.

 

Scott

J
Rank
Userlevel 1

Wow, this is phenomenal information!  I so appreciate all the hard work you’ve done.   I will forward all this to my support person, as I am not a coder or programmer so this is beyond my expertise.  :)

Thanks again!  :) 

J

I have submitted a case to Acumatica to have them resolve this issue.

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