So, without the DUA’s help, here is what I did and found to work:

1. Copy their template and save it as a .csv on your computer.

2. In their template, highlight the data cells they provide as examples and under FORMAT, CELLS, select “Text”. Change all the cells to text before beginning anything else. There’s a reason; if you cut and paste Social Security numbers or any other data that begins with a zero, the zero will disappear.

3. If you use Quickbooks or another program that allows you to export payroll data, export to a new worksheet. You can cut and paste some of the data as needed, but make sure the zeros do not disappear.

4. Following their template, enter your Employer ID (your DUA number, not your Federal EIN), etc., etc., until you have each employee complete. Make sure under each month that a person worked there is either a 0 or a 1 to indicate they worked or not.

5. Enter your payroll data, but when you get to the column where you are asked to enter number of hours worked in the quarter, YOU MUST ROUND UP. QUEST will kick back any exact numbers (like 123.4 hours; you need to round it to 123 or it will not be accepted for that person).

6. SAVE YOUR WORK!!!

7. Do the file upload and, GOD willing, it will read the data and tell you if there are any errors. The good thing here is that it tells you which line and what item is in error. You can go back to your file, correct it and upload again.

Now, if the DUA had taken a couple simple steps, I would have been done last week.

First, they should put a bold note next to the “Manual” data entry selection to tell you that no more than 100 employees can be entered that way. “For employers with 101 or more employees, you must select File Upload”.

Second, the data template that we need to use should be clearly mentioned and linked when we choose “delimited” file upload. Instead, it’s a side-bar on a completely different web page. If you don’t know it’s there, you’ll never think to look for it.

Third, the template should clearly state to make sure all cells are in text format (Format-Cells-text) and not just tell us to save it as .csv or .txt. They should also clearly state that hours worked must be rounded up to a whole number.

I hope this all makes sense. If any of these ideas show up on their web page in the near future, I want full credit emblazoned across the page, plus a consulting fee paid to me for becoming a mind-reader.

Now, in the event you think I’m done, I’m not. Vengence is mine!! I’m going to call them again on Friday and stay on hold as long as it takes to tell them what assholes they are. If they hang up, I’m going to call back. The war is on!

So, now not only can I not manually enter the data, my file upload is not accepted. Give me a fax number and I’ll send you the data and you can deal with it. I’m sick of this. I have now been on hold for five days. Today, from 9:00 to 12:00 (so far) no one has picked up. Monday, when I did get a human, she was less than helpful. Then, she reminds me the due date is the 16th!! Like I care. At this point, you’ll take it when you straighten out this garbage.