fortax-when-a-step-failslisted

# When a step fails ## Stop the line The moment something does not go as expected: 1. **Pause.** Do not retry blindly, do not move to the next client, do not carry on with the rest of the job until you know why. 2. **Keep the evidence.** A screenshot of the screen as it is, and the portal's (or the engine's) error text quoted exactly, in its own words. Paraphrasing an error destroys the one clue you have. 3. **Work out the cause** using the ladder below. 4. **Fix the cause**, not the symptom. 5. **Write the trap down** so the next run does not hit it. 6. **Only then carry on.** A blind retry is the most expensive thing you can do here. On a government portal the same action twice is not harmless: it can produce two applications, two challans, or a second return against a period that already has one. ## The rule that outranks everything else **If the failed step was a Submit, a File, a Pay, or anything after the CA's authentication (OTP, EVC, DSC), do not touch it again. At all.** You do not know from the error whether it went through. A timeout after a submit very often means the filing succeeded and only the response was lost. Retrying produces a duplicate, and a duplicate return or a duplicate payment takes a letter and weeks to undo. Stop, and tell the CA in plain words: > The submit for GSTR-1, Sharma Traders, August 2026, timed out. It may or may not have gone through. > Please check the return status on the portal before anything else is done for this cli