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smsfdataflow Issues
smsfdataflow Issues

If your payroll officer/employer has sent you a message that smsfdataflow ESA has been rejected, this article tells you what to do about it.

Intello Robot avatar
Written by Intello Robot
Updated over 4 years ago

Issues with smsfdataflow

There are two key parts to the SuperStream payment system for contributions:

  1. Payment of cash from employer to SMSF (direct or via a clearing house like QuickSuper)

  2. Transmission of an electronic remittance or receipt that provides details of contributions paid to the SMSF

Both the above should work together seamlessly, however sometimes item #2 – the electronic remittance message – gets rejected and causes errors for payroll systems and super payment clearing houses.

The smsfdataflow solution is provided by listed SMSF software company Class Limited. For the electronic messages to be received (and NOT cause any rejection messages) the SMSF must be administered on the Class SMSF software platform.

Class is the software your accountant / SMSF administrator needs to use. As of 31 December 2019, there were 174,360 SMSFs administered on Class – this is about 3 in 10 of the 600,000 SMSFs in Australia.

What you need to do

If you’ve been advised by your employer or payroll office of an error message relating to smsfdataflow, check the following:

  1. Check to see whether the contributions have been deposited into the SMSF bank account

  2. Ensure the payroll system and super clearing house provider have the correct ESA address: smsfdataflow must be used – ensure it is all lowercase as the ESAs are case sensitive

  3. Check that your SMSF accountant or administration provider is using Class Super

  4. If your SMSF is administered on Class, ask your accountant / provider for a login so you can see the contributions going into your SMSF via ClientView online reporting (this is the replacement for the reporting that used to be on the smsfdataflow website portal)

  5. Ensure your SMSF is correctly displayed as ‘Complying’ on Super Fund Lookup

  6. Ensure the payroll system and super clearing house have the correct bank details and ABN for your SMSF

SMSF accountant NOT using Class?

If your accountant or SMSF provider is not using Class for your SMSF and you’ve been using the smsfdataflow electronic service address, you have two options:

  1. Engage an specialist provider like us to help you with your SMSF and to ensure your employer can still pay contributions to your chosen fund

  2. Ask your accountant for their recommendation on a different ESA you can use

It’s important to understand that most SuperStream electronic service address providers that are free are restricted to a certain software, clearing house or bank account (i.e. they receive fees via another method).

Some standalone services such as the one provided by Australia Post come with a subscription fee.

Next steps

If you’ve received a rejection email from your payroll office, please forward it to private@intello.com.au – we will review your issue as a courtesy to you and if necessary send it onto the Class support team to liaise with the payroll office / super clearing house on your behalf.

If you have additional questions myself and the team would be more than happy to assist you with your SMSF administration and support needs.

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