SERR report common mistakes

Whether lodging the report directly or on behalf of a client, here are the key issues to watch for. By avoiding these common errors, your SERR report should be accurate and accepted on first submission.

Gross income

Report the gross income earned by the supplier (referred to as the seller in the SERR Business Implementation GuideExternal Link). This is the total amount paid for bookings, digital goods or services during the reporting period including GST and commissions.

Exclude any refunds for cancelled transactions.

The SERR report must show income earned in each financial year quarter. However, instead of listing every individual transaction, the report should include aggregated totals for each supplier for each quarter, as outlined in the SETP XML SchemaExternal Link.

Invalid characters

All information in the SERR report must use English characters supported by the XML schema. The allowed characters set includes:

[0-9a-zA-Z \.,\?\(\)\{\}:;'\|\-_=\\/@#$%\*=&"]

While some of our systems may apply character conversion after lodgment, this does not apply to SERR reports. All character conversion must be completed before submission.

Character conversion requirements

Non-English characters (such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean), must be converted to acceptable English equivalents. For example, the Chinese name 王 can be written as either Wang or Wong (no tones or accents).

Accents and special marks should be replaced with standard characters. For example, O`Loughlin, should be reported as O’Loughlin.

For guidance on converting unsupported characters, see Non-ASCII character translation conversion listExternal Link.

Number of activities

The 'number of activities' refers to the total count of completed bookings, goods or services a reportable supplier provided during the reporting period.

This figure should reflect only successful transactions. It should not include any bookings or services that were cancelled or not paid for.

Titles and prefixes in supplier names

When reporting supplier names, remove any titles and suffixes, such as, MR, MRS, ESQ, JNR or similar.

For names that include prefixes like 'Exec for', 'Rep for' or 'Trustee for', follow these rules:

• If the name refers to an individual (for example, 'Exec for John Smith'), report as John Smith (remove the prefix)
• If the name refers to an entity (for example, 'The Trustee for Smith Family Trust'), classify and report the entity as a non-individual supplier.

Timestamp format

The SERR report must include a file creation timestamp in the correct format. If the timestamp is missing or incorrectly formatted, the file will be rejected and you will need to correct it before re-lodging.

The acceptable formats follow the ISO 8601 UTC standard. Examples include:

• 2024-03-20T14:32:23.66Z
• 2024-03-20T14:32:23.66+00:00
• 2024-03-20T14:32:23.66+0000
• 2024-03-20T14:32:23.66+00.

Duplicate document reference ID

Each document reference identifier in a SERR report must be unique. It can only used once and must never be re-used within:

• the same report
• a different report for another reporting period.

Reusing or duplicating document reference IDs will result in the report being rejected.

This applies to all the following identifiers:

• SETP1 Message Reference Identifier
• SETP30 Reporter Platform Document Reference Identifier
• SETPP1 Document Reference Identifier (for all suppliers, the ID cannot be the same).

Required format

Each reference ID must follow this structure:

{Receiving country}{Report calendar year}{Reporting Platform ABN/ARN}{unique identifier}

For example: AU202386429753100d120d120c3cb-b006-4960-b125-e0ea361a0002, where

• AU = receiving country (Australia)
• 2023 = reporting calendar year
• 86429753100 = platform’s ABN or ARN
• Unique identifier = a string that ensures the ID is never duplicated.

Missing or incorrect Bulk Business Document Message (BBDM) wrapper header

All SERR reports submitted via File transfer in ATO online services must include a valid Bulk Business Document Message (BBDM) wrapper header. This header is essential for us to receive and process the file.

If the BBDM wrapper is missing or incorrectly formatted, the report will be rejected with the following error message: ‘The version of this file type cannot be sent by this channel’.

This error will appear in the validation report returned through the File transfer test facility or ATO online services.

For guidance on implementation guidance and solutions to common errors, see the Bulk Data Exchange common information artefactsExternal Link page.

If issues persist with the BBDM Wrapper, you can contact the Bulk Data Exchange support team by emailing ATOBulkDataTransfer@ato.gov.au.

Determining the correct reporting period

Transactions must be reported in the period when the supplier is paid, not when the booking is made or the service is delivered. This is especially important when the booking, supply, and payment occur in different reporting periods.

If part of a supply occurs before the first reporting period

The start date for SERR reporting depends on the type of supply. From:

• 1 July 2023, reporting applies to taxi travel, ride-sourcing and short-term accommodation
• 1 July 2024, reporting applies to all other industries and reportable transactions.

Taxi travel, ride-sourcing, and short-term accommodation

You must report the transactions if payment to the supplier occurs on or after 1 July 2023, even if the booking or supply happened earlier. Reporting is required if:

• the booking, supply and payment all occur on or after 1 July 2023
• the booking was made before 1 July 2023, but the supply and payment occurred on or after 1 July 2023
• the booking and supply occurred before 1 July 2023 but the payment was made on or after 1 July 2023.

All other industries

You must report transactions if payment to the supplier occurs on or after 1 July 2024, regardless of when the booking or supply occurred. Reporting is required if:

• the booking, supply and payment all occur on or after 1 July 2024
• the booking is made before 1 July 2024, but the supply and payment occur on or after 1 July 2024
• the booking and supply occurred before 1 July 2024, but payment was made on or after 1 July 2024.

For more guidance, see:

• SERR for software developersExternal Link
• How to test your SERR report.