STP2 - Submission of Payments

STP2 - Submission of Payments

Once the pays are entered correctly go to the Single Touch Payroll tab and start the New Report.
Reporting Responsibility
The ATO requires reporting to occur on or before the Date of Payment.  It is not possible to report correctly retrospectively. 
Pays can be entered into Cashbook in advance and reported at on the same date as the entry even if they are not physically paid yet. 
Changes to pays already reported can be easily performed through either a Full File Replacement or an Update Event.

Event Categories
There are three different types of Report.  Each pay period needs to reported as a Pay Event.  

Pay Events
Each pay needs to be reported firstly as a Pay Event.  This means that both the Payer and Payee's Grosses are being sent to the ATO as mandated.  



Changes to submitted pay details can be done by Full File Replacements, or Update Events in the same financial year.
Full-file Replacement
If changes are made to the last pay, then a Full File Replacement can be used to update these details. 
A full file replacement can only be done if the last report was a Pay Event. The the gross amounts for both the Payer and Payee are also updated. 
If the last pay event was an Update Event, a Full File Replacement cannot be performed and the option will be greyed out.

Update Event
If changes are made to pays prior to the last pay, these need to be recorded by doing an Update Event. 
No Gross amounts will be changed with this type of event.  Gross amounts will only be changed in the next Pay Event.

Update Events are also used to finalise single touch payroll at the end of the year by ticking all employees to signify that this was their last pay for the year.  This is the equivalent of a group certificate that need to be generated pre-single touch payroll.  Once this is performed at the end of the year, all payees are able to report their own tax.

Submitting Pay Details
1.  Select the appropriate type of reporting by clicking on New Event to choose Pay Event, Full File Replacement or Update Event.
2.  Verify that your dates match the pay period.
3.  Select Default Pay Cycle: This can be set to Weekly / Fortnightly / Monthly or Other.
Setting the Pay Cycle to a specific type of reporting requires reporting precisely on time.
If your reporting is not regular, select "Other" which will allow Cashbook to pick up the computer's date and avoid reporting too far in advance, i.e. into the next pay period, making it difficult to then submit the next payment on time.

3.  Verify the Employees Summary Screen 



4.  Click on the View Employee Submission to verify that the details for each employee are reported correctly.  Scroll through each payee using the arrow at the bottom of the screen.



If you spot issues, click back into the Employee's pay record and fix them up before doing the submission - it is not too late!  
Remember to Refresh or Cancel the Event to restart to make the changes to the STP submission.

6.  Lastly, verify that the Employer / Payer Gross is calculated correctly.



7.  Once you are happy with the submission, continue to Start the Lodgement.
If you get any errors at Submission an information window will supply detail on what needs fixing.  Once this is done, you can retry for a successful submission.

Event History
It is a good idea to to check previous submissions have a square green tick, or possible errors.  Clicking on the Issue will reveal the error.



Understanding ATO Gross Amounts for the Employee & Employer in the submission.
This information is dictated by your pay type in the Setup Lists and used in the Default Pay Rates or just added to a pay. 

Each rates and information contained in each one, you need to be aware of what has been ticked to include super, be taxable or included in the BAS/PAYG.   

Employee’s Gross = Pays at award rate and any un-itemised information

  1. Pay rates, Leave, Salary Sacrifice, Overtime, Lump Sums, Allowances, Deductions and ETPs all need to be itemised individually according to that employee’s requirements.
  2. Any items that are not specifically required to be itemised by the ATO will be calculated in the Gross for Pay Rates.
  3. Verify what should be taxable and/or included in super.
  4. There are specific Deductions and Employee Termination Payments need to be itemised too.
            Be sure to check any details you don’t know for sure with your Accountant, especially when enabling the Include with PAYG/BAS tick box.  Practical Systems cannot give you advice on your Employee's Data but we are very happy to assist you with entering the information correctly.


Employers Gross can be calculated by 
Adding the Wages/Salary (less Salary Sacrificed/RESC amounts)

+ Allowances (less Lump Sum D (redundancy))

= Employer’s Gross