Generate statutory outputs

Use Documents → Statutory Filings to prepare a supported statutory document or contribution data export after checking its requirements. The page is headed Statutory Filings & Local Exports. Preparation, generation, local saving, and official submission are separate steps.

When to use it

Use this guide for a supported official-template document or for the existing P2/P16 Tax cards when their versioned renderers are marked Supported. The review controls differ by output; an internal P2/P16 workbook is not an authority filing.

What is available

The statutory catalogue lists these five outputs. Check each row’s current availability and validation before relying on it:

• ZIMRA employee registration upload — selected employees, XLSX.
• ZIMRA FDS employee earnings upload — the FDS population for a reporting month, XLSX. A separately labelled payroll-run extract is available for a single-run extract.
• ZIMRA Non-FDS employee earnings upload — the Non-FDS population for a reporting month, XLSX. A separately labelled payroll-run extract is available for a single-run extract.
• NSSA P4 contribution upload — contribution data for employees covered by applicable NSSA schemes for a contribution month, XLSX. This is a data export, not a certified portal filing template.
• ZIMDEF training levy declaration — an organisation declaration for a declaration month, PDF.

The catalogue keeps each document’s criteria in its existing review panel. Registration asks for selected employees and an effective date. Earnings rows ask for a reporting month, P4 asks for a contribution month, and ZIMDEF asks for a declaration month and its shortfall/surcharge values. The FDS and Non-FDS rows also let you choose a payroll-run extract; that extract may omit other runs in the month’s filing population. A Supported availability label means a renderer and file format are registered; the selected criteria still need a successful validation preview.

The existing P2 and P16 Tax cards are in Documents → Custom Reports & Proof → New Custom Report. When their versioned renderers are shown as Supported, P2 prepares a monthly PAYE and AIDS Levy working schedule and P16 prepares an annual PAYE and remittance reconciliation. These are product-defined internal workbooks, not confirmed authority upload forms. P6 remains unavailable as an employee certificate. Whether an annual authority submission applies remains unverified.

Before you begin

• Confirm the organisation and the criteria requested by the selected document.
• For P2 or P16, use the active organisation’s existing Tax card. These reports do not use the selected payroll run; the server resolves payroll sources from the reporting criteria.
• For P16, choose a cutoff month in the selected tax year. December (YYYY-12) covers the full year; an earlier month is a year-to-date/cutoff report.
• For an applicable monthly output, confirm that all relevant payroll sources for the selected month have been finalised and are available to the server-side source review. ZIMDEF applicability is resolved across the declaration month; conflicting dated statuses block the preview for review.
• For monthly source payroll, review the runs’ retained signed packs and effective dates. For new payroll work, inspect the date-scoped workspace default in Workspace Settings > Statutory Packs; Compliance provides Rules and detached Tax Preview.
• Resolve any organisation or employee issues shown in that output’s preview.
• Select employees for registration. Choose a payroll run only for the optional FDS/Non-FDS payroll-run extract; monthly paths discover their source runs from the selected month.

Steps

1. Choose the output

   Open Documents → Statutory Filings and select the authority row. For P2/P16, use the Tax card described in P2 monthly schedule and P16 annual reconciliation.

2. Enter its criteria

   For registration, select employees and an effective date. For FDS, Non-FDS, P4, or ZIMDEF, select the requested month. Enter ZIMDEF shortfall and surcharge when appropriate; blank means no adjustment, while 0 records an explicit zero.

3. Review the validation preview

   Check scope, source runs, warnings, blockers, and reconciliation totals. For registration, review selected employees and issues. For monthly outputs, confirm the source set covers the intended month.

4. Resolve blockers

   Fix displayed issues and wait for the refreshed preview after changing criteria or source payroll. Generation stays unavailable while required coverage or document data is unresolved.

5. Generate and save

   Generate the output and use Save generated file locally or Save historical file. Monthly actions include Generate current monthly export, Generate monthly P4, and Generate monthly declaration. Confirm the saved file’s scope.

6. Complete any required submission

   Follow Official submission notes and the organisation’s authorised channel. Documents does not submit to an authority or establish receipt.

ZIMRA employee registration sequence

For ZIMRA employee registration upload, select at least one employee belonging to the current organisation and set the effective date in the review panel. The requirements are Employee identity and employment dates, At least one employee selected, and Employer ZIMRA identifiers and tax office.

Registration does not use a payroll-run selector and does not require payroll history. Wait for the preview after selecting employees and an effective date, then review the selected count and any issues. Generate only after blockers are resolved. The validation preview is not the XLSX file.

What to check

Confirm that the output is tied to the intended employee selection and effective date, reporting month, contribution month, declaration month, or explicitly selected payroll-run extract. Confirm that all displayed required fields are resolved. Generated monthly and payroll-run files retain their original scope in history. Registration history is labelled as organisation-scoped; it does not record the selected employee list.

Monthly earnings, P4, and ZIMDEF scopes

Use the existing ZIMRA FDS employee earnings upload, ZIMRA Non-FDS employee earnings upload, NSSA P4 contribution upload, or ZIMDEF training levy declaration row in Documents → Statutory Filings. Select the row’s reporting, contribution, or declaration month. The preview asks the server to discover and validate the relevant finalised payroll sources for that month. Review the selected month, source-run count and source-run list before generation.

The preview reports blockers when required source coverage is incomplete, ambiguous, or unsupported; generation remains unavailable until the reviewed source set and output-specific data are valid. Resolve each listed issue and wait for a fresh preview. FDS and Non-FDS membership comes from frozen source evidence. P4 uses frozen NSSA identity, contribution-basis, and generated employee/employer contribution facts. If the month has mixed currencies that the P4 template cannot represent, generation is blocked. ZIMDEF uses frozen wage-bill and levy evidence. When applicability is consistently not applicable across the declaration month, the preview reports that state, requires no payroll sources, and makes generation unavailable. Conflicting dated applicability within the month blocks the preview with an issue asking you to review the evidence; missing applicability, incomplete evidence, or currency combinations the declaration cannot represent also block generation. The output does not recalculate statutory contributions or submit the declaration.

If another run is finalised or the source set changes, review the refreshed preview before generating. The reviewed source runs are recorded with the generated monthly output. Earlier generated files retain their original month or payroll-run scope and remain available from the output history. For FDS and Non-FDS, choose Payroll-run extract only when you intend to create a single-run extract. It remains an extract even when a month has one source; use the monthly path for the monthly filing. Generate or save the file locally, then follow the organisation’s authorised submission process if a filing is required. Generating or saving a file does not submit it or establish authority acceptance.

For ZIMDEF, enter the shortfall and surcharge in the declaration currency when needed. Leave a value blank for no adjustment and enter 0 when an explicit zero must be reviewed. The month printed in the declaration comes from the selected declaration month.

P6 and annual reconciliation

P6 remains an unavailable employee certificate. It is intended for an employee and the applicable tax-year or employment-period context. Do not use the P16 report as a P6 certificate or as a historic ITF16 return. Annual authority-submission applicability remains unverified; the P16 name does not establish that a filing is required.

P2 monthly schedule and P16 annual reconciliation

Open the existing P2 or P16 card in Documents → Custom Reports & Proof → New Custom Report. These cards retain their existing Tax category and report-builder steps. Use them only when the installed output is marked Supported; a registered renderer still requires a successful preview for the selected scope.

For P2, select the reporting month (YYYY-MM). Documents asks the server to discover and pin the relevant finalised payroll sources. Review the source-run IDs and payroll-coverage state before generation. You do not select a payroll run or employees. Recorded return/payment evidence can be included when available and authorised. Missing portal evidence does not block a complete payroll-derived working schedule; the preview and workbook identify incomplete evidence and provisional status. If evidence is not available to your account, the preview labels the payroll-only variant and explains its status.

For P16, select the tax year and a cutoff month in that same year. December is the full-year cutoff; an earlier month includes year-to-date/cutoff movements and excludes later months. Review each month’s payroll coverage, evidence status, provisional label and source-run IDs. A year-to-date cutoff, incomplete payroll coverage or incomplete return/payment evidence keeps the report provisional. Missing return/payment evidence is shown as unknown or incomplete rather than treated as zero or reconciled. No filing deadline or authority-upload requirement is inferred.

P16 may also show certified same-employer opening balances and corrections separately from current-year payroll movements when their covered-through date falls within the selected cutoff. Prior-employer opening entries are excluded, and these rows are not added to current payroll liability totals. The current active certified position history and current employee profile are read when the report is generated; they are not reconstructed as they stood on the historical cutoff date. The preview and workbook disclose this limitation, so treat generated bytes and their recorded source references as the retained review evidence.

After reviewing the backend preview, use Generate & Export to create the product-defined workbook and choose a local save location. The generated-history list is filtered by the selected report and server-persisted month or tax-year/cutoff metadata; evidence-included status distinguishes available workbook variants. Use Save historical workbook only after confirming its displayed scope. Generation and local saving do not submit a TaRMS return, confirm payment, or establish authority acceptance.

Important compliance boundary

Paydae calculates and prepares the selected output using the installed pack and payroll/setup data. It does not assert that the file is legally sufficient, does not automatically submit it, and does not replace review by the responsible payroll or compliance owner. Verify the file and any deadline or field requirement with the relevant official channel.

Common problems

Bureau and single-organisation notes

In a Bureau workspace, check the organisation before selecting employees or a month. Document criteria and source payrolls are resolved within the current organisation and are not combined across clients.

Related guides

Related guideReview the active statutory packRelated guideZIMRA employee registration outputRelated guideZIMRA FDS and Non-FDS earnings outputsRelated guideNSSA P4 outputRelated guideZIMDEF declarationRelated guideOfficial submission notes