2023/24 Payment Summaries don't reconcile

Kathryn_8729731

Gross wages on the Payroll totals report doesn't match the PAYG Payment Summary print out. Difference is Annual and Personal Leave. It appears something has changed and these payroll items are now showing as "Leave- Other Paid Leave (O)".

Was there a reason these were changed in an update? I do not process the payroll but do the annual reconciliations at EOFY and have just picked up this difference.

Rav

Hi @Kathryn_8729731

Leave is no longer attributed to gross pay under STP Phase 2. Instead paid leave items such as annual and personal leave have been disaggregated from gross and this would have occurred when you switched over to STP Phase 2 last year using the STP Phase 2 Migration Assistant in Reckon Accounts Hosted.

There's more info on the tax tracking changes under STP Phase 2 here 👇

https://help.reckon.com/article/12kbjcx6g4

Kathryn_8729731

Thanks Rav

I understand the change to the classifications with the STP migration we did. For old school employees who would still like a PAYG Payment Summary printed, why don't these amounts reflect accordingly.

The system still gives you the option to print or email a PAYG payment summary for the current financial year. If the figures are not accurate why would this still be an available option.

Rav

The new reporting requirements introduced under STP Phase 2 weren't part of the old Payment Summary (or EMPDUPE) lodgement process, therefore, if you view the Payment Summary for a financial year that contains one or more STP Phase 2 lodgements, you will find the amounts don't match.

When STP1 first rolled out back in 2018 and more recently the expansion into Phase 2 as well, payment summaries have been outdated for a while now and replaced by Income Statements in an individual's MyGov account. Income statements can be printed directly from the respective MyGov account by the employee if a paper copy is required.

As for why the functionality is still in the software, that's a fair question and I don't have the answer for that but I'll speak with the product team about it.

Barbara Allen-Guthrie

https://community.reckon.com/discussion/comment/20646830#Comment_20646830

I am searching the same answers, I download and save to my system the PAYG Payment Summaries as I have some employees that ask me for them. But the Payroll Summary Report and the PAYG's do not match and yes they are all out by the O Leave, how frustrating, it does not look right to me (yes old school).

Barbara Allen-Guthrie

https://community.reckon.com/discussion/comment/20646831#Comment_20646831

I would like to know this also when you talk to your team Rav.

Acctd4

@Barbara Allen-Guthrie They’ll still display correctly IF you only have basic gross wages & PAYG Tax ☺️

Rav

Hi all,

Adding a little more context after speaking with some colleagues, the old payment summaries functionality remained in the software after STP Phase 1 rolled out for a few reasons. First, there was a staggered adoption of STP for businesses with less or more than 20 employees and secondly, there was feedback from users and partners that they wanted to retain it for familiarity.

With that said, now that STP Phase 2 has taken effect its a bit of a different story. As mentioned previously, the reporting requirements that have been introduced under Phase 2 weren't a part of the old payment summary process so they are no longer going to be accurate.

That being so, there is no longer any need to use payment summaries and there hasn't been for a fair while now, (even prior to STP Phase 2) so I'd encourage moving on from this particular functionality and instead advise employees to review their income statements which provide a more up-to-date and detailed breakdown of pay balances.

The team may look to disable or remove this functionality in a future release provided doing so doesn't have other adverse effects or impacts in other areas of the software.