Loading
This thread is archived and the information may not be up-to-date. You can't reply to this thread.
KrisSmith(Newbie)Registered Tax Professional
14 Aug 2023

We have recently changed Software Providers and are coordinating a bulk extract from this new software for our payments process for multiple clients of their quarterly PAYG instalment notices that have been electronically downloaded by the new Software Provider from the ATO. The extracted data from the new Software Provider have different Payment reference numbers (PRNs) to these downloaded forms that also differ from the PRNs shown on the ATO downloaded paper forms.  The Software Provider support team have confirmed the following and asked that we check with this answer with the ATO:

 “Regarding your query about the Payment Reference Number please note below:

  •  Currently the software uses Custom Reference Number (CRN) generated from ATO. (xxxxxxxxxxx2760)
  • For some entities, ATO Online Services for Tax Agents now uses Payment Reference Number (PRN) (001xxxxxxxxxxx2760)
  • It seems that the ATO will accept both CRN a PRN when making BPay and EFT payments to the ATO (where xxxxxxxxxxx is the ABN of the fund)”

In searching the ATO webpage and now this ATO Community Forum (that I have just signed up for, this being my first question. There seems to be answers for one payment being made.   I wanted to find a more definitive answer before making the multiple payments using this new software. 

 

I was hoping the above can be confirmed by this forum

991 views
3 replies
991 views
3 replies

Most helpful response

Most helpful reply

JacobATO(Community Support)Community Support
15 Aug 2023

Hi @KrisSmith


I can understand how this can be confusing, but both the CRN and the PRN will work. The difference as you have noted in the example is the leading number on the PRN (the 001 before the xxxxxxxxxxx). This leading number is the account number. You may notice that taxpayers will have a number associated with each of their accounts, for example an Income Tax 1 and Activity Statement 3. Most of the time this number isn’t needed, as the client will only have one of each type of account (the last two numbers tells the system what the payment is for, the 60 in this example is for activity statement). But where there are multiple accounts (like if a company has branches for GST) including this number in the PRN avoids any confusion on where the payment is meant to go.


I hope this clears things up.

All replies

Most helpful reply

JacobATO(Community Support)Community Support
15 Aug 2023

Hi @KrisSmith


I can understand how this can be confusing, but both the CRN and the PRN will work. The difference as you have noted in the example is the leading number on the PRN (the 001 before the xxxxxxxxxxx). This leading number is the account number. You may notice that taxpayers will have a number associated with each of their accounts, for example an Income Tax 1 and Activity Statement 3. Most of the time this number isn’t needed, as the client will only have one of each type of account (the last two numbers tells the system what the payment is for, the 60 in this example is for activity statement). But where there are multiple accounts (like if a company has branches for GST) including this number in the PRN avoids any confusion on where the payment is meant to go.


I hope this clears things up.

Top liked users

  1. Bruce4Tax

    (Taxicorn)

    47 likes

  2. Peter_Clyne

    (Superuser)

    33 likes

  3. PayrollDeanne

    (Taxicorn)

    31 likes

  4. qak

    (Enthusiast)

    6 likes

  5. YEP

    (Devotee)

    6 likes

Top contributors

  1. Bruce4Tax

    (Taxicorn)

    111contributions

  2. PayrollDeanne

    (Taxicorn)

    106contributions

  3. Peter_Clyne

    (Superuser)

    36contributions

  4. Mala14

    (Superuser)

    26contributions

  5. TobyJDodd

    (Devotee)

    19contributions

Loading
Will a PRN generated by our new software for our quarterly PAYG instalment notices be correct? | ATO Community