Submit PBJ in iQIES. Then verify what CMS accepted.

Need the new login or help getting facility access? Start with our iQIES and HARP login guide, including PBJ roles and PSO approval.

Download the free iQIES PBJ handoff sheet (CSV). Record the facility, quarter, approved revision, intended submission action, submitter, submission ID, and validation result in one place. Store completed copies with your private filing evidence.

Worked example: a fictional submission contains 100 staffing records. If the report accepts 98 and rejects two, the upload is not the end of the job. Identify the rejected records, resolve their causes, confirm the appropriate correction action, and compare the resulting CMS records with the intended quarter. Do not resend accepted records blindly.

The September 11, 2026 CMS update points to policy manual version 2.8 and an updated FAQ for the iQIES transition. CMS says these are clarifications, with no changes to PBJ policies. Use the current policy manual alongside the iQIES instructions below.

• Confirm the facility identifier, federal fiscal quarter, and approved filing revision.
• Resolve blocking findings and document decisions that required facility judgment.
• Save the XML, reconciliation workbook, and audit package together.
• Record whether the submission is intended to merge with existing records or replace the quarter, and confirm the file’s settings match that intention.
• For employee linking, keep the administration file and its old-to-new ID crosswalk distinct from the staffing-hours export.

Replacement check: do not prepare a full-quarter replacement from an isolated correction file. First assemble and reconcile the complete intended quarter, including agency sources. Review what already exists in CMS before changing it.

CMS’s legacy QIES PBJ service became read-only on August 17, 2026 and retired on September 15, 2026. Use current iQIES instructions rather than an old CASPER upload walkthrough. CMS system transition notice.

The July 2026 iQIES PBJ manual documents this sequence. Screen labels and limits can change, so use the current CMS manual, sections 3–4, alongside your session.

1. In iQIES, open PBJ → Submissions and choose Upload File.
2. Complete the facility and quarter information. Confirm it agrees with your filing.
3. Attach the submission ZIP. The manual specifies ZIP attachments with a maximum size of 5 MB. Package the intended XML submission, not the entire audit workbook and evidence bundle.
4. Upload, then locate the entry in My Recent Submissions and expand its details.
5. Open Submission History → View Report for the Final Validation Report when available.

Keep the submission identifier, exact uploaded file, upload time, and report together. If someone else performs the upload, have that person return the report and identifier to the filing owner.

iQIES can accept some records and reject others within the same submission. A successful upload does not mean every record was accepted. Read the record counts and errors in the report. CMS manual, section 3.

For a partial rejection, identify each rejected record, trace it to the source, document the correction, and export a new reviewed revision. Decide how the correction should interact with records already accepted. Keep both reports so the sequence can be reconstructed.

If the report is missing, belongs to a different facility or quarter, or cannot be matched to your exported revision, leave the result pending. Do not mark the filing accepted from a screenshot that only confirms the file upload.

Compare record details as well as totals. An extra eight-hour record for one employee and a missing eight-hour record for another can cancel out in the grand total while leaving both records wrong.

EasyPBJ lets your team attach submission evidence and compare CMS records against the exported revision. Keep the result unresolved until the evidence matches. Return to the deadline checklist while there is still time to investigate and correct differences.