Is reckon accounts superstream ready

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Joan Barber
Joan Barber Member Posts: 1 ✭
edited February 2017 in Reckon Accounts (Desktop)

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  • Adrian_6974554
    Adrian_6974554 Member Posts: 191 ✭✭
    edited February 2017
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    Reckon Accounts is Superstream ready.

    You need to configure your super payroll items and employee details correctly.

    Reckon uses NAB as its clearing house, which you pay for.

    You can use other Clearing Houses some that charge and some that do not charge fees.

    The question is are the superfunds ready for Superstream. Some are, some are not. Even the ATO clearing house does not have the ability to import in a data file. So it is still a manual process to complete online, and subject to keying errors.

    The ATO stuffed up when having Superstream implemented as they did not apply a standardised data file format for every clearing house to use. It was up to each clearing house to say what data they want in the file.

    This makes it hard on software companies like Reckon to have data files that suit every clearing house.

    You can export out a SAFF (Superannuation Alternative File Format) data file from Reckon but depending on the clearing house you use you will have to modify the exported file to remove unnecessary columns or rows, and rename headers. Some clearing houses are good you can send them a test data file and they work out what they need to do to import it themselves with no changes by you.

    So something that was supposed to simplify things, has not really turned out to be true.

    So as Reckon Professional Partners we have to be able to help our clients with this implementation as some business owners are still struggling to know what to do.

    The Reckon setup is straight forward and easy to implement. We have to know pretty much each of the clearing house quirks to be able to help our clients implement Superstream with the less amount for fuss.

    Well that is my rant, but it has been a frustrating process, not from Reckon's end but from the clearing house end.

    Adrian


  • John G
    John G Reckon Staff Posts: 1,570 Reckon Staff
    edited February 2017
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    Thanks Adrian, you summed up the situation pretty well.  Nice to hear some people are actively supporting the file.

    I'd just like to elaborate a little bit on the SAFF - a file format developed by the ATO (but not accepted by its Small Business Clearing House) and being "adopted" by the industry as the default format. The hope is that Clearing Houses will accept this alternative with their preferred formats, so your comments are a little concerning that many Clearing Houses don't accept this alternative. I guess the onus is on the user to check with their Clearing Huose first, and perhaps "shop around".

    Secondly, you must be very careful opening a SuperStream export file as doing so may lose the specific formatting some of the fields have and make the file unusable by the Clearing House.. 

    If you must open it and make adjustments, do it in Notepad which will not affect the formatting. I'd suggest you make a couple of copies first, and keep one as the backup, open one in Excel where the fields are more readable, work out what needs to be changed, and then open another in Notepad and make the changes.    

    regards,
    John


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