You can receive this message when an employee has a negative OTE (Ordinary Time Earnings or QE (Qualifying Earnings) value in STP Reporting.
Note: As part of the Payday Super changes, Qualifying Earnings replaces Ordinary Time Earnings. If you have changed the tax year to 2026/2027, Qualifying Earnings (QE) will display. If you are still in the 2025/2026 tax year, Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) will display.
This error can happen when:
Components are incorrectly marked as OTE or QE.
When a component that is marked as OTE or QE and paid in a previous Financial Year is being reversed in the current financial year. For example, Sick Leave (flagged as QE) has been reversed and paid as Worker's Compensation (not flagged as QE).
When you pay a component that isn't marked as QE and include a Salary Sacrifice that is marked as QE. For example, pay Company Paid Parental Leave or Worker's Compensation (not flagged as QE) and include a salary sacrifice, e.g. salary packaging (marked as QE).
Find the cause
To find the cause, run the Employee Previous Earnings for the whole financial year and check which components are marked as OTE/QE or not.
Go to Payroll, Reports, End of Pay, Employee Previous Earnings.
Select the Payroll Company and Location or leave as <All>.
Enter the employee in From Employee and To Employee.
As STP is for the whole financial year, select the first period in the financial year as the From Date and the most recent period as the To Date. This can be the same date.
Leave Transaction Type, Pay Components, Additions and Deductions, Leave Reasons and User Defined Leave as <All>.
Click Preview.
Note the components and values from the Employee Total section.
Find the QE setting for the below by adding STP2 QE to the grids to find what has been included.
Payroll, Maintenance, General, Pay Components
Payroll, Maintenance, General, Additions and Deductions
Payroll, Maintenance, Leave, Leave Reasons
Correct the negative Qualifying Earnings
The steps to correct the QE will depend on the cause.
Component incorrectly marked
If the cause is due to OTE or QE being incorrectly ticked or unticked, you can correct the components and then review the OTE or QE value in STP Update. To do this:
Go to
Payroll, Maintenance, General, Pay Components
Payroll, Maintenance, General, Additions and Deductions
Payroll, Maintenance, Leave, Leave Reasons
Edit the component.
For Additions and Deductions or Leave Reasons, click the STP Reporting tab.
Tick or untick Qualifying Earnings (QE).
Click OK.
Reverse a QE component
If the cause is because Sick Leave has been reversed and Worker's Compensation paid, use the steps below to correct the negative OTE or QE:
Go to Payroll, Maintenance, Leave, Leave Reason.
Right-click and Copy the existing Worker's Compensation reason.
Enter a new Code and Description. The description should indicate that this one is marked for OTE or QE.
Select the STP Reporting tab and tick Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) or Qualifying Earnings (QE).
Click OK to Save.
Next, go to Payroll, Transactions, Processing, Manual Calculation.
Select the Employee and click Subtract.
From Pay Calculation, tick Value.
Select Other Leave in the Pay Summary and click Add.
Enter the Leave Reason used in the original adjustment and the number of hours. Check that the value is correct.
Click Process.
Continuing with the same employee, create Pay Advice 2 and select the Add radio button.
From Pay Calculation, tick Value.
Untick Generate Payment to exclude the transaction from the EFT file.
Select Other Leave in the Pay Summary and click Add.
Enter the new Leave Reason created above and the number of hours. Check that the value is correct.
Click Process.
Salary Sacrifice when there is no QE component
If the cause is because you paid a component that isn't marked as QE and included a Salary Sacrifice (e.g. Novated Leave or Salary Packaging) that is marked as QE, use the steps below to correct the negative OTE or QE:
Go to Payroll, Maintenance, General, Additions and Deductions.
Right-click and Copy the existing Deduction Before Tax (e.g. Novated Leave).
Enter a new Code, Shortcut Key and Description. The description should indicate that this one is not marked for OTE or QE and is for correcting the error.
Select the STP Reporting tab and untick Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) or Qualifying Earnings (QE).
Click OK to Save.
Next, go to Payroll, Transactions, Processing, Manual Calculation.
Select the Employee and click Add.
Untick Generate Payment.
Select Deds Before Tax in the Pay Summary and click Add.
Enter the Salary Sacrifice used in the original adjustment and enter the Value as a negative. In the Pay Summary, this will create a negative Deds Before Tax total, and a positive Gross Taxable Total and Net Pay.
Click Add to create a second line.
Enter the new Salary Sacrifice created above and the Value as a positive. In the Pay Summary, the Deds Before Tax total, Gross Taxable Total and Net Pay should all be 0.
Click Process.
After processing, verify the adjustments in the STP Update to confirm that the QE value is zero.
If the reversal entered is due to another reason, e.g., reversing an overpayment of Normal Hours for a terminated employee, contact support via MyAccess.