Single Touch Payroll

Hi Jen,

There is still a massive amount of work that needs to be conducted from wide number of our teams across our product range on this. In regard to timeframes, there is nothing set in stone at the moment but obviously compliance is the priority.

Also, training sessions/webinars are in the pipeline to help everyone get accustomed to new processes and also documentation will be available with the new releases.

Its early days at the moment and further updates/info will be made as we progress.

Cheers
Rav

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Jen Beveridge

Thanks Rav for your reply. That sounds great. The government is starting to send out quite alot of information so maybe something on the Reckon website to say that this is underway would be helpful ??
Also it would also be helpful if the support centre didn't give the wrong information as that is the date they told me. I did ask to speak to a supervisor to ask if this date could potentially change ( as the support person said it wouldn't ) and they were going to call me back but they didn't.

Jen Beveridge

Hi Kevin, thanks for your reply. I am not panicking I am just trying to be prepared.

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[Deleted User]

Kevin, very nice of you to sound comforting, but I do have my reservations too.

When the ATO changed the ruling on the super being paid via a clearing house, I carefully updated all of my staff records within Quick books, to include the SPIN and employee membership number. Along came the next software upgrade, and Intuit had completely rewritten this part. All my hard work got wiped out, and with 70 employees that was a lot of my time wasted.

I, like Jen Beveridge have my reservations.

I have also been using Quick books on line / in the cloud and find this to be quite clumsy. Now, I seem to be double handling all of the data, I seem to be filing things twice over, once into a temporary file and then a second time when I have matched everything up. I have been using Quick books for over 20 years, and they have some fantastic features, but are they really making it better?

Jen McKenzie

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GoatyMcGoatBoat

Considering there are Reckon support tickets for very simple things that are YEARS old, I have my reservations about their ability to implement something like this in six months.

The ATO has dropped Single Touch Payroll on small businesses today - we received an email stating we need to be ready to go on 1 July. As a small business operator with 37 employees, running everything by myself, learning some new system or payroll process is something that I simply cannot do in a short timeframe.

There really needs to be a trial run or a dummy setup in place earlier so that actual end users (as opposed to accountants and bookkeepers who use the software all day every day) can get their heads around it in time to be compliant.

Simon Hutchinson_8164484

Hi Goaty,

Thank you for the post. We have been involved with Single Touch Payroll with the ATO since 2015 when it was first announced by the Finance Minister as a new way for businesses to interact with the ATO (yes, this has been around since 2015 as a proposed legislative requirement which has now made it through the parliament.). We are part of the Australian Business Software Association who are basically co-designing this system and have been privy to many details during the design phase.

Whilst we are not ready to go into final details as yet as to how this will all work (primarily because there are still some things not finalised on the ATO end for software developers), we have been working on this project for a number of months now and are deep into our design. There is obviously four products from Reckon that need to connect to the STP Service; Payroll Premier, Accounts Hosted, Accounts Desktop and Reckon One and each of those have differing requirements and systems within them on how they deal with payroll.

We agree that having to change payroll processes is a potential nightmare, but a basic summary of the STP system is that a digital report needs to be sent to the ATO after each payroll event (that is, each time you complete a pay run, a digital message needs to be sent to the ATO to update their systems about the pay, the employees involved and various other details). Ultimately it becomes a situation where instead of providing a EMPDUPE summary once a year, it is provided after each pay run.

We are working hard to ensure that the disruption to payroll processes within the applications are minimal. Our anticipation is that within your current software setup, you would finalise a pay in the same manner that you already are so no change there but have to complete one additional step to submit the data to the ATO for processing. Single Touch Payroll does not change the way that payrolls are conducted or the requirements around processing a pay, it adds a additional step of reporting to the ATO what occurred in a payroll event and when. So instead of the ATO getting that data once a year, they will get it 52, 26, 12 or even more times per year. The benefit being that as long as you comply with the STP requirements, INB and other payment summaries can become a thing of the past and EOFY processes potentially less intensive and time consuming.

In terms of testing and being able to try things early from the posts above, due to the way the ATO systems work, you will only be able to send 'real' data to the ATO systems. However it must be made clear that for a system to operate within the single touch payroll environment the ATO has constructed, that it must pass a compliance test from the ATO, and the ATO must be comfortable that the system is acting as per legislative requirements. Therefore, the STP software you will use will have been through this ATO certification.

Rest assured Reckon is well aware of single touch payroll, what employees and employers will need to do in this new world, and are working to implement a system which changes the payroll system processes in a way that makes sense and does not significantly disrupt the current flows.

The various bookkeeping assocations such as ICB and ABN have also been very involved with single touch payroll and may have information and guides available in terms of business process impact. They also may be a port of call if you would like to register concern with the ATO about the lack of time before the commencement date of July 1.

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GoatyMcGoatBoat

Thanks Simon, I'll keep an eye on it in the leadup to EOFY. EOFY is a good time to change accounting software if desired and to be honest I've been nothing but unhappy with Reckon's support since I started using the software, so a poor implementation of STP support will almost definitely be the straw that breaks this already overloaded camel's back. If it's as simple as Reckon sending off that data in the background then that's great, but if it's a clunky process like sending payslips (i.e. I don't understand why payslips aren't automatically? emailed as part of the payroll process) then I can see myself jumping ship quick smart.

@Kevin, I am not discussing the STP system. I am discussing Reckon's implementation of support for that system, which I'm fairly sure is an issue my local member would tell me they have no control over.

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Hi all, has there been any updates on STP? I have not seen anything come through from RECKON yet with updates on its progress

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Still very much a work in progress at the moment Gemma and I'd strongly say is #1 on the priority list in terms of work currently being performed by a range of teams internally.

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Okay fair enough. Will just have to have calm the farm down pills at June/July:)

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Anti stress medication:)

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Garry Dunn

Is it possible for 'Reckon' to communicate to users about the process for single touch payroll. We are being sent emails and messages about this from the tax office but absolutely nothing from our service provider.

Garry Dunn
Business Manager

I strongly agree with your comment. I hope Reckon is not just saying it will have it available and then say "Oh sorry" we cant get it to work... Then where will we be??

Hi all,
We'll be getting in touch with all customers in regard to Single Touch Payroll (STP) via email late this week/Monday next week at the latest.

In the meantime, we've got information and resources for Single Touch Payroll on our website HERE which I'd strongly recommend checking out, including the ability to register for updates on launch.

Thanks Rav. I think i am happier now we know it is all happening.

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Sharyn Gaunt

Contact ATO and request deferred start date for STP.

Robyn Kelly (Partner)

If you are already using Reckon Accounts desktop (current version) or Reckon Accounts Hosted; there are a few things you can start checking now to be prepared:

1. Check to make sure each Employee's details are in the Employee information correctly:

a) DOB

b) TFN (should be there already)

c) Full address

d) Full name

e) Start Date

f) Emp. No.

2. Check payroll setup:

a) Take note of allowances; you will need to seaparte these for STP (once software is updated)

b) Superannuation setup correctly with all information including USI, fund name, member number etc

3. Company setup:

a) Company name correct for payroll

b) Payroll Conatct

c) Company ABN - INCLUDING Branch ID

Hope this helps a little and will ease the burden of your first pay event in July.

Regards, Robyn Kelly

Hi Robyn, why is 1f required? Does each of our Employees need to be given a number?
Thanks Gemma

Robyn Kelly (Partner)

Gemma from the conferences & webinars I have been attending it has been suggested the ATO may require this field when lodging pay events; although as mentioned above the file requirements have not yet been finalised. I feel it would be just as easy to complete now while checking other details for each employee in my opinion.

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Thanks Robyn

Phillip Job

Hi Rav. Could you tell me when Accounts Desktop & Hosted will be released with STP please?
Regards
Phil

Paula Hajek

I totally disagree with Kevin Russell MYOB an Xero have already commenced modifying and testing their software for STP. Thank goodness i only have one client which uses Reckon which to me is very amateurish and unprofessional in both its attitude and its product. How can it possibly think it can compete wiht other accounting/payroll products is beyond me.

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Simon Hutchinson_8164484

The ATO does require this field

Felicity Van

Can anyone give an indication of when Reckon Accounts Enterprise will have the STP release? I haven't heard a thing at all from Reckon about this, but I seem to get lots of emails about it from the ATO & super funds!

I know right. so many other programs are trying to get me to switch over as they say they ready to go with STP... only 6 weeks to go Reckon.