FBI - MAIN CONCEPTS

Authentication

In order to read or submit messages using FBI, you must first obtain a login and password from HMRC. FBI will then be able to use the login and password to connect to HMRC and will send and receive messages at your request.

Important Note:
For security reason, FBI will never store your password on your computer. If you forget your password or are worried that somebody else may have discovered it, please contact HMRC for a new password.

Retrieval of messages from HMRC

FBI shields users from the technical complexities of communicating with HMRC. For example, FBI retrieves messages from HMRC using a technical standard termed SOAP and a technical format termed XML. FBI understands how to employe the SOAP standard to receive messages, and translates received message from their XML format to an on-screen representation very similar to the familar payroll-related printed forms.

By shielding the user from such technical complexities, FBI allows the user to concentrate on the job at hand.

All messages received from HMRC are gathered by FBI into a folder termed your Inbox. Clicking on FBI's Inbox icon reveals a summary list of all received messages, with the ability to to click on any message within that summary for more comprehensive details.

In addition to reviewing messages, FBI lets the user to:

• delete one or more message (keeping a back-up copy in a local Archive folder)
   
• save one or more messages on the computer's filing system (in a number of formats)
   
• print one or more messages to paper
   
• transfer one or more messages for processing by the Payroll System
   
• refresh the Inbox in order to see if any new messages have arrived

    Obtaining P35/P14 forms from your payroll system

Before P35s and P14s can be submitted to HMRC, FBI needs to retrieve them from your payroll system. For this, you need a suitable "FBI plugin module" for that payroll system. Contact your payroll system supplier if you are unsure whether or not you have a suitable FBI plugin module for your payroll system.

Version 2.0 FBI includes the following two following plugin modules:

• Selima Payroll Plugin - which retrieves P35 and P14 data from the Selima Payroll System
   
• Test plugin - which uses artificial data for testing purposes

Assuming a suitable FBI plugin module is in place, at your request FBI will retrieve the necessary P35 and P14 data from your payroll system, and construct from this the necessary messages for submission to HMRC. Before submission, FBI will let you preview the resultant P35s/P14s to check for errors or omissions. As a further option, advanced users may wish to use the Form Validation feature of FBI, which interacts with HMRC to check the P35s and P14s for a wide range of errors before they are actually sent to HMRC for processing. Note that HMRC prefers you to send a sequence of small P14 messages (taking no more than a few minutes each) and (after their acceptance) a summary P35, rather than one or two large messages (which can lead to severe processing delays at HMRC)

All forms submitted by FBI to HMRC are stored in FBI's Sent folder for subsequent review.

    Incomplete messages

It is possible that while P14s and P35s are being sent to HMRC, some uncontrollable external failure occurs, such as loss of your Internet connection. When such a failure occurs, it is possible that the messages sent by FBI to HMRC were not received correctly. Likewise, it is entirely possible in such circumstances that replies from HMRC were not received by FBI correctly.

For handle such situations, FBI provides an Incomplete messages folder where the user is able to review all incomplete/failed messages and filter them according to a date range of interest. Additionally, the Incomplete folder allows the user to resend the Incomplete messages to HMRC, assuming the condition leading to the external failure has been corrected (such as the restoration of your Internet connection).

FBI is able to operate against live data and also in a test mode with artifical data. Both modes work identically but submit messages to different technical locations within HMRC's computer systems. In test mode, data is sent to https://secure.dev.gateway.gov.uk/submission and in live mode data is sent to https://secure.gateway.gov.uk/submission. This ensures that test data will never be confused by HMRC with live data and vice versa. It is sensible to use FBI in test mode before sending any live data to ensure that things are working as expected. For help in switching between Live and Test modes, contact Selima Software.

Some companies may not have a permanent Internet connection. For example, some smaller companies still operate with dial-up connections. FBI is designed to accommodate this and, indeed, much of the functionality of FBI will even operate without an Internet connection being present. Note, however that the first time FBI is used, it is vital that an active Internet connection exists, so that FBI can check with HMRC that the user is authentic.

Following this first sucessfull login, FBI will remember the user's credentials internally in an encrypted (and hence secure) format. For subsequent logins, FBI can authenticate the user against these encrypted credentials, without any need to involve HMRC and hence without the need for an active Internet connection.

Remark:
Naturally, only certain areas of FBI are usable in offline mode (that is, without an active Internet connection). Specifically Sent and Archive folders are available for browsing. As you would expect, sending and receiving messages both require an Internet connection to be active.