Answer:

There are two reasons why this may be the case:

• Our systems may need to be updated to record the correct date that you are due to submit your MCR file. We may
  also need to update your submission privileges if you are a payroll provider or Multi Academy Trust making the
  submission on an employer’s behalf.
  

  Please contact us to update this access.

• You have an outstanding warning error that is yet to be corrected. When you attempt to make this submission, you’ll
  receive STOP errors in the file we return to you. If this is the case, please provide this correction in your next MCR
  submission and this will be accepted. We issue employers an outstanding error file on the 17th of each month, please
  check your ‘download a file’ section for this.

Answer:

Your MCR submission requires a set number of columns in the .csv file to ensure that we have the required data. When you use the MCR template to produce the file or we send you an MCR error file that you download, it’s important that this isn’t opened at any point in excel and saved. If it is, excel will perform changes to the file which will corrupt the data.

Where possible, always use the MCR template and its import function to update files.

When you produce an output, make sure you that you don’t open this in excel after producing it.

When you download a file from the Employer Portal, make sure to use the 'save as' option rather than opening the file and saving it that way. Once this is saved it can be imported into the MCR template.

No MCR file should need to be opened in excel at any point, please always use the MCR template and its import function.