End of year finalisation with Single Touch Payroll reporting

Compare payroll reports before the first pay in the new payroll year

Before processing the first pay of the new payroll year, you should confirm that the amounts you've paid your employees in MYOB match the amounts that are listed against each employee's record. This will identify if any amounts have been incorrectly entered against an employee's pay history instead of being paid via payroll.

You'll do this by running and comparing the Payroll register and Payroll activity reports.

Here's a quick overview:

1. Go to the Reporting menu > Reports.
2. Click the Payroll tab.

3. Click to run the Payroll register and Payroll activity reports.

   Make it easy to compare these reports Right-click each report and choose to Open link in new tab to display the reports on separate browser tabs.

   

4. Set the date range of each report as the entire payroll year, e.g. 1 July 2022 - 30 June 2023.
5. Compare the totals at the bottom of each report. If they match, great! You're ready to continue with your finalisation process as described in the next task.

If the reports don't match

This means an employee's pay history has been manually changed in their contact record. This might have occurred if you started using payroll part-way through the payroll year, and you've entered your employees' year-to-date payroll totals.

Otherwise, it means an employee's pay history has been manually updated in error – usually in an attempt to fix their pay amounts. Instead, you should only ever fix a pay by changing or deleting the pay.

Providing you have not processed the first pay for the new payroll year, you'll need to identify which employee this impacts, then fix their pay history.

Identify the affected employee

1. Compare the above two reports again, and find the employee whose totals on the reports don't match. For example, check the Salary and wages columns in both reports to see where the amounts differ for an employee. Then move to the Deductions column and so on.
2. Click the dropdown arrow for that employee on both reports. This shows a breakdown of the amounts paid to the employee per pay item.
3. Identify the affected pay item. This will help you identify what has likely been changed in the employee's pay history.
4. You can then update the employee's pay history to undo whatever manual change has been made (Payroll menu > Employees > click to open the employee's contact record > Payroll details tab > Pay history tab).
5. Once you've fixed the employee's pay history, send an update event to the ATO.
6. Once the update event has been accepted by the ATO (check the report status to find out), run the above reports again to confirm the totals match.

Need help fixing an employee's pay history? We recommend speaking with your accounting advisor.

Confirm the STP amounts you've reported to the ATO

Before finalising, you should confirm that the year-to-date (YTD) amounts you've sent to the ATO for the payroll year match the payroll figures in MYOB.

Do this by comparing two reports to ensure they match:

• the YTD verification report in the Payroll Reporting Centre—this shows the YTD amounts you've reported to the ATO
• the Payroll summary report in MYOB—this shows the YTD amounts you've processed through payroll in MYOB

Notify the ATO of terminated employees

As part of processing an employee's final pay, you need to notify the ATO. This lets the ATO know the employee's termination date and any ETP components in their final pay.

You might have completed these steps when you processed the employee's final pay. If you didn't, complete these steps for each employee you terminated in the payroll year.

The steps for notifying the ATO of a terminated employee are slightly different for STP Phase 1 and STP Phase 2 – so choose the steps that apply to you.

To notify the ATO of terminated employees

Finalise your Single Touch Payroll payroll information

Finalising your Single Touch Payroll information is done in just a few clicks. You need to do it before the ATO's finalisation deadline, which is typically July 14.

1. Go to the Payroll menu and choose Single Touch Payroll reporting.
2. Click the EOFY finalisation tab and choose the Payroll year you're finalising.
   

3. If you need to report fringe benefits for an employee (what is this?):

   If you're on STP Phase 1

   Click the ellipsis button for the employee and choose Enter RFBA. Enter in both the: Reportable fringe benefits amount $ Reportable fringe benefits amount exempt from FBT under section 57A $ The combined value of these must be above the thresholds set by the ATO. Click Add amounts.

   If you're on STP Phase 2

   Select the option Enable RFBA at the top of the screen. Columns for RFBA ($) and Section 57A ($) appear. For each employee with fringe benefit amounts, enter the reportable values. The combined value of these must be above the thresholds set by the ATO. RFBA ($) - these are reportable fringe benefit amounts Section 57A ($) - these are fringe benefit amounts exempt from FBT under section 57A (see the FAQ below for details). Note that the entered values won't display at the top of the screen until you've completed the finalisation.

4. Select each employee you want to finalise, then
   • if you're on STP Phase 1, click Set as Final
   • if you're on STP Phase 2, click Finalise and notify the ATO.
5. When prompted to send your payroll information to the ATO, enter your details and click Send.

What's next?

Each employee that has been finalised will have the Final indicator ticked in the payroll reporting centre. You can let these employees know that they can now sign in to myGov to complete their tax returns or view their income statement. That's right—you don't need to prepare payment summaries or group certificates for them!

We also recommend using a report pack to generate a set of key payroll reports for the finalised year. You should print or save these reports as a point-in-time record of your payroll data for the whole payroll year.

You're now ready to start processing pays from 1 July for the new payroll year. The latest tax tables will automatically apply so you don't have to worry about downloading them. Also learn about the new option in MYOB to keep you compliant with super guarantee rate increases.

Can I record a pay in July before finalising?

Yes, you can record a pay in July before finalising - BUT FIRST make sure you've compared your payroll reports to identify and fix any discrepancies. Then, you can record a pay with a July Date of payment before finalising.

Because the July pay is dated in the new payroll year, it won't be included in the payroll year you're yet to finalise.

Why do the amounts in the STP reporting centre look wrong?

When you look at the EOFY finalisation tab or the YTD verification report in the STP reporting centre for the current or last payroll year, you might notice the values don't look right. This can happen if you've recently moved to STP Phase 2.

You can easily fix this by sending an update event. If needed you can do this for the current and previous payroll years.

1. In the STP reporting centre, click the STP reports tab.
2. Choose the Payroll year (for the year where the values don't look right).
3. Click Send update event.
4. When prompted to send your payroll information to the ATO, enter your details and click Send.

How do I send an update event to the ATO?

You can sync your payroll totals in MYOB with the figures held by the ATO. This is a quick way of ensuring the ATO has the current year to date payroll figures for your employees.

If you're reporting via STP Phase 2, you can send an update event from the STP reporting centre. Otherwise you'll need to record a zero dollar ($0) pay for each employee whose year to date payroll totals you want to send to the ATO.

I've processed a pay dated on or before 30 June - why is it showing as a $0 update event in the STP reporting centre?

If you process a pay in the new payroll year (e.g. 1 July or later) but the Date of payment is in the pervious payroll year (e.g. 30 June or earlier), the ATO will treat the pay as an update event. Even if the pay contains amounts that you're reporting to the ATO, they'll consider it an update event (and not a pay event) because it's related to the previous payroll year.

But don't worry, even though the pay run shows as a $0 update event in the STP reporting centre, the updated year-to-date payroll totals (for last payroll year) for the employees in the pay run will still be reported to the ATO.

Why don't my STP reports match the ATO's Business Portal?

Each STP report sent to the ATO includes the employer pay period information and the employee year-to-date (YTD) amounts.

As the ATO doesn't allow you to delete these reports, the Business Portal will show every pay run declared through STP, including ones that you have deleted or reversed in your software.

So, in most cases, if you've made payroll adjustments the Business Portal may not match your STP reports. And that's OK. Just make sure you check year-to-date totals in MYOB before finalising.

Will my YTD totals be correct if I've only started reporting part of the way into the financial year?

The ATO does not receive the details of individual pay runs, only the year-to-date payroll amounts. So, provided you've submitted a pay after setting up STP, the latest year-to-date totals will be submitted. Still, we recommend you check your YTD amounts prior to finalising.

How do I undo a finalisation?

You can undo an individual employee's finalisation. When you do, the employee's income statement in myGov will no longer be Tax ready so they won't be able to pre-fill and lodge their tax return.

1. Go to the Payroll menu and choose Single Touch Payroll reporting.
2. Click the EOFY finalisation tab.
3. Choose the Payroll year.
4. Select the employee whose finalsation you want to undo.
5. Remove the finalisation. How you do this depends on what you see.
   1. If there's an ellipsis button next to the employee, click it and choose Remove finalisation.
   2. If there is no ellipsis button, select the employee and click Remove finalisation and notify the ATO.
6. When prompted to send your payroll information to the ATO, enter your details and click Send. The Final indicator tick is removed for the employee. If it's still there, click a different tab then return to the EOFY finalisation tab.
7. When you're ready, you can finalise the employee again.

How do I set up an EOPY report pack?

You can set up a report pack containing key EOPY reports. Once you've set it up, you can generate all your EOPY reports at once – with just a few clicks. And you can re-use the report pack to generate the same group of reports each year.

Start by creating a report pack template. You only need to do this once to select the reports to include in the template. Here are the reports to include, as they appear when creating the template:

• Payroll summary
• Payroll register summary
• Payroll register detail
• Accrual by fund summary
• Accrual by fund (detail) summary
• Superannuation payments detail
• Superannuation payments summary
• Leave balance (detail) summary
• Leave balance (detail) detail

Then, at the end of each payroll year:

• Create a report pack using the template you've created. This is where you set the date range for the reports, which will be 1 July to 30 June for the payroll year you're reporting on.
• Download the report pack to create a PDF containing each of the EOPY reports.

Learn all about report packs.