How can I enter a base pay amount which is paid regardless of hours worked?

Gary_10249884

How can I enter a base pay amount which is paid regardless of hours worked?

ie: An employee earns the same amount each week regardless of hours worked. Is there an earnings item that doesn't need hours and rate entered?

swakhlu01 .

@Zappy keen to understand how the salary is used as input for creating employee payrun in Reckon Payroll app. I am not able to find the instructions for this.

Ian Gomez

@Zappy - I am having the issue as @swakhlu01 . There doesn't seem to be an obvious salary option in the payroll app. If we are missing something please could you point us in the right direction?

@Rav - I think there are some of us in the same boat here. I want to set-up my pay runs to just be monthly amounts regardless of hours worked but am struggling to see how to do this (apart from a fudge of putting in 1 hour at $11,000 for example, which just seems an intuitively wrong thing to do). If you could let us know if there is an alternative that would be greatly appreciated.

Rav

The Payroll App is a fair bit different from the STP app and works by creating actual pay runs and sending this data to the ATO via your STP submissions. This will be particularly important when the ATO's Single Touch Payroll phase 2 kicks in which requires stricter itemization of certain pays and what they are made up of.

If you were using the STP app previously, its reporting method of just entering in a balance in manually will no longer be compliant under STP phase 2 and as such we need a payroll-centric solution in order for our users to remain compliant with their reporting.

I'd recommend checking out the info in the help guide below, it will assist in getting you started with how to create a pay run in the Payroll App -

https://help.reckon.com/article/20el8yr42i-reckon-payroll-app-creating-a-pay-run

Ian Gomez

Thanks @Rav . I cannot see in the revised STP rules that hours and hourly rate are going to be required by the ATO. Is there an issue that the tool maybe forcing us into making false declarations to the ATO by forcing us to include hours and rate (rather than the more accurate position of a standard monthly salary regardless of hours worked)? If so, surely a standard salary option in the payroll app is a must have.

Janelle Robertson

I also am unable to report a monthly salary without "fudging" it. I either have to class it as a bonus payment or as previously mentioned put in the whole monthly earning under 1 hour. Any help as to how to correctly report it would be appreciated.

swakhlu01 .

Traditionally most payroll systems work off hourly rates. I remember way back in my corporate days the payslip would show hourly rates to two decimal places and hours worked to two decimal places like 7.38 hours per day. I don't think Reckon payroll app is for STP reports only but is primarily a payroll app. However the most recent update to accommodate payroll calculation to more decimal places might solve the rounding issues.

Brilkey

Can anyone advise if the Salary issue has been addressed?

Rav

https://community.reckon.com/discussion/comment/20622525#Comment_20622525

https://community.reckon.com/discussion/comment/20623103#Comment_20623103

@Ian Gomez @Brilkey

Jus to add some additional context here. No, I'm not suggesting that all ordinary earnings will have to be based on time parameters due to STP phase 2 however it (STP phase 2) is indeed one of the key drivers behind our decision to retire the STP app and replace it with the Payroll App to remain compliant.

The Payroll App performs actual payroll functions and as such it needs to derive/calculate pay figures based on certain elements that make up a pay run and the make up of an employee eg. hours, tax scale, employment type, leave etc. I'd venture a guess to say this is most common method that a business uses to track pay although I can't say that I'm any authority on that front one way or the other.

This is something that the STP app did not do and rather it was essentially just a 'form' to fill out for the minimum requirements of STP submissions for micro-businesses which was compliant at the time but soon won't be. In order to deliver on the requirements of STP phase 2, we need to have a payroll-centric solution that will cater to the specific requirements that it entails.

I understand this is a marked difference in terms of the former reporting method on the old STP app and there will be a phase of sitting down to think about 'making it work' based on your individual circumstances. On the other hand, and we'd hate for it to be the case, it might be not what you're looking for.

Brilkey

Thanks Rav.

Can you explain why when I try to 'Add other earning item' and enter Salary, I receive a window stating 'Pay item cannot be created. An item of this name already exists'

Can you tell me where I can find the Salary item?

Ian Gomez

Thanks @Rav. I appreciate the rational for retiring STP and also that as a free service we should expect some limitations. I also agree hourly rates are the most common approach for wages. Unfortunately, the exception is for microbusinesses where it may just be the business owners drawing a salary and no need to worry about leave balances, etc..

I'm reluctant to move to a different toolset as I really like the interface and the fantastic user community Reckon has built up (thanks mainly to yourself). For these reasons, I am sticking with Reckon and have reverse engineered hours to get the amount we want to pay ourselves, but a salary option would make me feel more comfortable.

Think of it as a suggestion for the future to make a good toolset even better rather than a demand. (o:

Rav

https://community.reckon.com/discussion/comment/20623105#Comment_20623105

Go into Settings ➡️ Manage Earning & Leave Items ➡️ Go through the list to see if you have an item named Salary already.

Rav

https://community.reckon.com/discussion/comment/20623106#Comment_20623106

Really great to hear Ian. Glad to hear you've made it work for you and yes I'm having frequent conversations with the app team to feed back a lot of the comments, ideas, and issues that have come through from users. This will certainly be another topic of conversation that I'll put forward.

Brilkey

Hi Rav,

Thanks for the feedback. That was the first area I check and there is no Salary item listed. I also check the Employee details to see if there was an option there that I missed but there isn't. I am unable to find Salary anywhere but it still won't let me create it. I created an XYZ item which worked fine and then I deleted it but still no luck with Salary.

Rav

@Brilkey I just did some testing and can replicate what you're experiencing. I've had a word with the devs about it and there's a fairly technical backend reason for why it won't accept the name 'Salary' for a custom earnings item but essentially if you name the item anything else eg. Salary 1 then it should go through without a hitch.

Brilkey

Hi Rav,

Thank you for your speedy response.

Your response is exactly what I thought may be the reason. Salary is already in the programming for what ever reason so can't be used.

Salary 1 works for me.