HMRC Basic Paye tools

Basic PAYE Tools repeatedly crashed when I tried submitting RTI data having installed HMRC's January 2024 update. I found that submitting individual employee data one piece at a time rather than as a batch overcame the problem. This was on Sonoma 14.1. I didn't have to reinstall Ventura.

I have had the same problem - Basic Paye tools is not supported by Sonoma 14. I am on the verge of having to roll back my Mac to Ventura but really dont want to do this! HMRC just said there were no updates on the horizon and it would probably be next tax year... not very helpful! There must be many people having the same problem.

Hi Cathy,

Officially you are using a suported operation system (Ventura). The release notes for BPT version 24.0.24072 say;

The following operating systems are supported:

• Windows 10 and 11
• macOS version 13 ‘Ventura’ and 14 ‘Sonoma’
• Ubuntu Linux version 20.04 LTS and 23.10

Only 64-bit Intel/AMD compatible versions of these operating systems are supported. MacOS is also supported on Apple Silicon (M1) processors.

You can use the following browsers if you need assistive software support:

• Microsoft Edge (Windows only)
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari (macOS only)

Check your version number of BPT if it's not current re-download it ( Do *not* uninstall as that deletes your data)

If it still fails you have a valid case to report it to HMRC.

Regards,

Shawn

January's update (slated for the change in NI) has rewritten the interface and now it "talks" to you default browser in a much more discreet way. For me this fixed the issue with Sonoma too so I'm a happy bunny.

Note some elements have changed, e.g. if you want to restore a file (which I do a a lot as I move around so have an export file on DropBox that I import at every location before I start) then the import dialogue doesn't support a "locate" option now, you have to just use the Finder and drop the file on the dialogue box.

Happy submitting folks.

Shawn.

I too have been using Basic PAYE tools on OSX for a long time now, but I've been facing this issue for months on my Macbook Pro running Sonoma, luckily my iMac had Ventura so was able to work around it... until this week the final submit causes the crash. It then occurred to me that this all bagn when HMRC stopped building with an embedded browser UI which lead me to believe it was browser related. I use Firefox and Chrome but only Safari in emergencies. Oddly enough after changing the default browser to Safari on Ventura the submission worked. I cannot verify Sonoma untl next month when I'll have something to submit.

Safari on Sonoma 14.2 didn't work - crashed at Submit Data section.

So I loaded RTI Tools again, copied the 'homepage' URL into Chrome and it submitted my data just fine.

Found you have to enter the whole file name not just the backup name. Put in the location first as per their instructions, put a backslash after the word backups then the file name ie rti etc etc. Found that worked.

Finally BPT is all working fine after downloading the latest version from HMRC website, even succeeded to Restore data from an external drive and managed to send the final submission for the tax year. Yey TGFT!!!

Yes, I did. I downloaded the PAYE tools again. It now opens up in a web browser but it does seem to work. I still have the icon that it can be accessed through.

Okay so it's a rubbish workaround but it's ok if you don't have too many employees - it works if you submit each item separately instead of selecting 'submit all outstanding' (that's what seems to crash it). After tearing my hair out all morning, I've managed to do a successful submission using Chrome and doing each submission individually. A PIA but works.

I saw somewhere online that ticking the box ' I wish to explain why this is late' stopped the programme crashing. It worked for me.

Poor effort by HMRC though.

I had to roll back my Mac to Ventura to enable me to process

payroll, it just kept crashing on Sonoma - I don’t think I could even get to

the point of ticking the box as suggested above.  I called HMRC a few times but they were absolutely

no help unfortunately - just said an update would probably be issued next

financial year!

I posted this a few weeks back, which still works for me on Ventura using Safari, but I just tried on MBP with Sonoma and the final submit crashes. It's incredible that the issue has been dragging on for so long.

I too have been using Basic PAYE tools on OSX for a long time now, but I've been facing this issue for months on my Macbook Pro running Sonoma, luckily my iMac had Ventura so was able to work around it... until this week when the final submit causes the crash. It then occurred to me that this all began when HMRC stopped building with an embedded browser UI which lead me to believe it was browser related. I use Firefox and Chrome but only Safari in emergencies. Oddly enough after changing the default browser to Safari on Ventura the submission worked. I cannot verify Sonoma untl next month when I'll have something to submit.

I noticed you now have to drop the file on the restore from location rather than being able to select it, and it takes forever to process (I used Activity Monitor to check it was doing something) but I’ve restored several times (different systems) and it’s always eventually worked effectively first time.

YMMV