SARS easyFile Employer Thin Client – Tips 4 Running

7.4.5/7.4.6 can no longer be used for filing. 7.4.6 is read only and will no CONNECT to SARS, it permanently displays DISCONNECTED.
SARS recommendation “For the first two years it is recommended that both e@syFile™ Employer applications remain installed on the Employer’s PC, even when submissions are made via the new e@syFile™ Employer application. This will allow you to refer back to historical submissions and process amendments.”
The old and new version are 2 separate software packages, with totally different datanases, and know nothing of each other. The new version is essentially a blank slate and cannot import complete backups from the old version, you are starting fresh, hence why you keep the old version on your PC.

Maximise your easyfileTC window for the best experience working in the new easyfile.

Setting up your Username & Password

Sign in with your PAYE/Income Tax number as well as your eFiling credentials and click VERIFY.
Next, leave the Username as ADMIN & setup a new password (you can use the same as your old easyfile) & reminder. (Needs to be minimum of 8 characters, 1 UPPERCASE, 1 lowercase, 1 number & 1 special character.)

Check the boxes for Allow CSV editing – This allows editing of imported certificates & the I understand box – to acknowledge SARS will not be able to retrieve or reset your password should you lose it.
Then click REGISTER to continue.
Log in screen will pop up to log in. Use the credentials you just created. ADMIN is in caps

If you want to have a your own user you can add it as an additional user once you have logged in with ADMIN. The main reason for this is that if you have an issue with logging in the ADMIN username is generic/default and is known.

If you do manual entry – Importing data from old easyfile

The new version does not pull complete backups from the old version. Read the manual under Retrieve Certificate History
For  more information about completing manual certificates, employers can go to the e@syFile™ Employer User Guide or access the Step-by-Step Guide to the Employer Reconciliation Process.

Watch this instructional video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9fc9s7ySow

• Open easyfileTC & log in
• Click Retrieve Certificate History
• Click Select Backup File and browse to your old version ZIP backup. [When retrieving certificates make sure you are retrieveing from a backup created in the old easyfile v7.4.5 or 7.4.6 not earlier versions. You need to select a ZIP file and not an already decompressed folder.]
• Put in your Login name & Password from your old easyfile as this is required to decrypt the ZIP
• Put in the PAYE reference of the company you want to retrieve history from & Select Period you want to retrieve
• Click Retrieve Certificate History
• It should give you a success message, now you should be able to see the company & period in easyfileTC

Starting the new period

• Click the Employee Admin in the left bar
• Scroll down and toggle the Employee Selection, so that you can select Employees
• You can now either select all or specify which employees you need in the new period and click Duplicate Employees
• Select your new period e.g. 202508 and click OK

If you use payroll software – Import

A video going into how the new easyfile 8.0.0.258 works, all subsequent versions are similar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6SZi7JPliA

Issues importing a Payroll File

Do you import and either you get Failed to import payroll file or nothing seems to happen and no error log is generated.
Please log in to e@syfileTC and make a backup (very important)

• Once done, log out and close e@syfileTC
• Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc, then go to Services, select EasyfileServer, right-click and select Stop
• Go to the C: drive, C:\EasyFileEmployer\EasyFileEmployerDB and delete the PAYE#_202508 folder for the company with the problem 202508 is replaced with the period you are having the issue with
• Go back to Task Manager select EasyfileServer, right-click and select Start
• Then log in to e@syfileTC and Import Payroll

Submit to SARS

After going to Reconciliations and Accept Data, and once you are done with checking your figures click File>File and close
Then under Action, click the 3 dots … next to your EMP501 Reconciliation and Submit to SARS – You can Download EMP501 PDF etc as well from here

Errors/Issues

DB Permissions/Creation

It is possible to force the DB folder creation. Open an elevated command prompt then cd C:\EasyFileEmployer\App\EasyFileServer\karaf\win64 and run update_db_permissions.bat

Log in issue

• Make sure your Username is ADMIN [all caps]
• Try restart your PC & then log in. Or try Run as Administrator

Error retrieving version.json

Usually occurs after trying to restore a backup from the old easyfile. See importing data above.
Restore from your old easyfile backup ZIP files. You’ll get errors if you unzip the backup first.

PAYE reference number is not available

Are you sure you didn’t submit a zero return for that client & period?

Retrieve Certificate History issues

Error The captured PAYE Reference number and Period of Reconciliation is not available in the selected backup file.

If you are unable to import it could be that it was a zero return for the period, or possible data corruption. Try another backup.

Just being able to see the .dbz files does not mean that the backup is not corrupt. Check the .ZIP filesize, the newer backups should be larger than the older, unless you delete files or there is corruption. As you keep adding data, filesize naturally grows.
You can test the backup by seeing if it will restore in 7.4.5/7.4.6. – Make sure you have a backup of your current data as it will get overwritten.

Manual Creating 202502

After you have retrieved your certificate history for the last period, you toggle Employee Selection, then select all employees with the checkbox or select individually and then click Duplicate Employees, it then gives you the option to select the 202508 period, it will copy the employees you selected to the new period. You can edit them from there.

Employer Information: Employer SEZ Code (2083) Code invalid ‘ZAR’ or “Extra text after Employer EOL Marker – code 9999”

• Open e@syFileTC
• Navigate to Employer Admin>Edit Employer
• Locate the SEZ (Special Economic Zone) dropdown
• Click the dropdown and select the option Please Select – the top option, so that NO SEZ is displayed – even if it appears blank
• Scroll down, and click Update Employer
• Refresh the declaration, and attempt the submission again

Server not available

You might see the following text in the error message: “e@syFile Thin Client – System Unavailable e@syFile Employer server cannot be reached. It is either still starting up or not available.”

• Close the e@syFileTC
• Wait a few minutes
• Reopen the application

If this does not work, then you can try rebooting your PC and trying again.

EMP501 Reconciliation does not balance

This could be because not all the tax certificates were imported into e@syFile. In this case:

• Check your payroll certificate totals, and compare them to the PAYE, SDL, and UIF certificate totals displayed on the EMP501
• If the certificate totals reflected on the EMP501 are not correct, then not all your tax certificates were imported into e@syFile
• Delete the imported file, and import the file again until the totals are reflected correctly. (This might need to be done more than once.)

Maximum length requirement not met (xx/21)

Clear the field that is giving issues and retype your details making sure in this case to not have more than 21 characters.

Notepad Missing

For a quick test, you can also try running %windir%\\\\system32\\\\notepad.exe in the Run dialog box

Reinstall through Optional Features

• Open Settings with Windows+I
• Go to Apps, then Optional features
• Click View features (or Add a feature)
• Search for “notepad” in the list
• Check the box next to Notepad and click Install
• Restart your computer after the installation is complete.

Repair system files using Command Prompt

• Open Command Prompt as an administrator by searching for cmd and right-clicking to “Run as administrator”
• Enter the following commands one by one, pressing Enter after each:
  • sfc /scannow
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
• Restart your computer after the commands have finished running.

Install from the Microsoft Store

• Open the Microsoft Store
• Search for “Windows Notepad”
• Click Get or Install to download and install it

Use the Run dialog to find and pin it

• Press Windows+R to open the Run dialog box
• Type %windir%\\system32\\notepad.exe and press Enter
• If Notepad opens, you can right-click its icon in the taskbar and select Pin to taskbar to make it easily accessible

Uninstall your McAfee product from a Windows PC

https://www.mcafee.com/support/s/article/000001616?language=en_US