Superannuation clearing house

Colin Harrison
Colin Harrison Member Posts: 1
edited January 2020 in Reckon Accounts (Desktop)
My default super fund is offering a free clearing house service. How can I organise payroll in my Reckon Accounts Enterprise 2014 to produce one report and make one payment and still retain the employee's super details?

Comments

  • Judy Shepherd_6970740
    Judy Shepherd_6970740 Member Posts: 7
    edited February 2015
    Col, I wanted to laugh, but got a little hysterical instead.

    Have just spent an hour on the phone to help-desk but no joy - there is not the capacity at the moment to create an appropriate report containing all the details to enable me to export a file so that I too can send it free through my default fund instead of paying the annual fee to do it through Reckon.

    As the risk of being cynical - this inability to pick up the Fund Bank/Transfer details for each employee seems to be a concerted effort by Reckon and previously Quicken to ensure that users have no choice but to pay more

    Time for Reckon to help Users meet their obligations in the way they choose not funnel them into a more expensive option!!
  • John G
    John G Reckon Staff Posts: 1,570 Reckon Staff
    edited February 2017
    Hi Colin & Judy,

    Welcome to the Reckon Community.

    Reckon has for some time provided an electronic means of submitting your Super contributions through SuperLink which pays Super contributions directly to the Super funds.
      
    Changes in Super reporting are underway this year under the SuperStream initiative of the recent Super Reform package. In this system contributions must be passed through a SuperStream Provider (who in many cases will also be a Super Clearing House).  Reckon is partnering with the NAB to provide this facility.

    Payroll Premier 2014/15 has already been converted to the new requirements and is producing a SuperStream compliant export file to NAB specifications.  Accounts Business will be upgraded later in 2014.

    One of the difficulties for software producers is there is no agreed file format for export files - like there is for bank transactions in ABA files.  We cannot guarantee that the SuperStream export file that Payroll Premier produces, and Accounts Business will produce, will be fully compatible with other SuperStream providers.  

    In many cases our SuperStream export file will be usable by other SuperStream providers, but this is something each user will need to check with their SuperStream provider.  Where there is no compatibility, users will need to follow the instructions of their SuperStream provider.  

    See our latest blog on SuperStream: http://www.reckon.com.au/blog/viewpost.aspx?id=172&cid=  
    (at the bottom there is a link to a fact sheet that worth's looking at)

    For your immediate needs you should ask your Clearing House for a sample upload file they need.  You may find that it contains a lot of generic information that won't change from pay to pay.  The changeable information you will be able to get from a Super Report by Fund or a Super Report by Employee.  These reports can be exported to an Excel or CSV file.  

    Hope this helps understanding the new super environment.  


    regards,
    John


  • Bernadette F
    Bernadette F Member Posts: 1
    edited January 2020
    Thanks John

    Superstream is keeping me awake at night! Where is the best place to find out using the NAB platform for users of Payroll Premier.

    Bernie
  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
  • Rosemary Harrison
    Rosemary Harrison Member Posts: 20 ✭✭
    edited March 2016
    Apparently the ATO preferred Superstream csv type file is a SAFF file and my clearing house will accept this. Is Reckon Accounts or Payroll Premier going to put out a Superexport file in this format in the future?
  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Hi Rosemary, Reckon Ltd has partnered with the NAB for processing superannuation contributions from our products.  The file structure of the export file meets NAB requirements.  We cannot guarantee that this file structure will be acceptable to other SuperStream Gateways as there is no agreed file structure among them.   Payroll Premier is already using the new format and Reckon Accounts Business and Hosted will be upgraded for SuperStream later in November.  For more information see our SuperStream blog at http://www.reckon.com.au/blog/viewpost.aspx?id=172&cid


  • Matt Hoysted
    Matt Hoysted Member Posts: 1
    edited October 2014
    Mirko,

    will there be an announcement when the update is released?

    Thanks
  • Rosemary Harrison
    Rosemary Harrison Member Posts: 20 ✭✭
    edited March 2016
    Hi Mirko, according to the ATO the whole point of the SuperStream push is to make all the reporting the same for all the clearing houses and funds.  that is, all export files for super are supposed to eventually be in an identical format (the SAFF format).  Can you confirm that the export from Payroll Premier which is compliant with the NAB requirements is in the SAFF format or is it just complying with NAB current requirements?
  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Hey Rosemary, I've done some further research. Superstream runs of a set of 'mandatory' bits of data that needs to be present in the export file. SAFF includes these and other bits of information. Each gateway has their required bits of information, as ATO themselves run a gateway SAFF would be their preferred file format. Payroll Premier and RAB will produce a file that complies with Superstream mandatory requirements and the NAB format, which is not SAFF. We will also include SAFF export functionality in future releases. ^Mirko.
  • Jean Giles
    Jean Giles Member Posts: 3
    edited November 2014
    Hi Mirko, Further to your comment to Rosemary regarding the last sentence "We will also include SAFF export functionality in future releases".  When is this likely to occur as we are having to prepare for the deadline of 30/6/15 and not having this ability stops  us getting ready.   We do not want to use the NAB as they will be charging for this service and our default fund will not so it makes sense to use our default fund. I have reviewed the reports within Reckon and there is no report that will allow me to get all the information required by our default fund to be able to ran in excel then change to CSV and sent to them.  Can Reckon look at least in having a generic report that allows us to get the information that we require?  I hear what you are saying regarding not one format for clearing houses to use but I agree with Rosemary as it was also my understanding that there was suppose to be one format which is what our default fund has stated to us. 
  • Reckon FAQs
    Reckon FAQs Reckon Staff Posts: 357 Reckon Staff
    edited June 2015
    Hi Jean,

    Yes, its unfortunate the SuperStream Gateways have not been able to agree on a standard format for export files; the content of the files is mandated by legislation and therefore will be the same.  

    Until our SAFF export is ready, try the following:

    Create a Super Export File.  Open it in Excel and compare it to your Fund's upload file.  Most likely the files will differ by only a column or two and maybe in the order of the columns.  You will also find that it contains a lot of generic information that won't change from pay to pay, so you can setup a default file with the generic information and then copy the changeable data (the amounts of super contributions) from reports like the Super Report by Fund or a Super Report by Employee.  These reports can be exported to an Excel or CSV file.   

    Check with your Fund whether there are any restrictions on how their upload file and be opened and manipulated and follow their guidelines.


    Hope this creates an acceptable interim procedure that you can follow.  


    regards,
    John



  • Robin_7036558
    Robin_7036558 Member Posts: 38
    edited November 2014
    Hi, Just an FYI. My Default super clearing house (Mercer Spectrum), accepts an Excel export that I create from Reckon Hosted.

    Basically I gave them a sample of what i can export and they made their system accept my format.

    In fact they set everything up in their end for all my 45 staff.

    Now each month I just log on to their web site and upload my Super file, just a few minutes work.

    Once the initial setup of employees has been created in their syste, then Realistically all they need from my report is:
    Employee payroll Number
    Amount being paid

    That's it.
  • Michael Gould
    Michael Gould Member Posts: 17
    edited April 2015

    Hi

    Our default fund, HESTA has a free clearing house solution (HESTA QuickSuper provided by Westpac).

    Due to the issues with the file exported from Reckon Accounts Premier we have chosen to complete the superannuation details manually online (time consuming but not as time consuming as logging into 12 individual super fund and inputting the super details).

    My questions are:

    How do I get Reckon Accounts to produce an ABA file with all the super payments combined to pay HESTA QuickSuper? 

    Do I have to change all the banking account details for the individual super funds to the HESTA QuickSuper bank account details or is there another way?

    Any assistance would be much appreciated.

    Regards

    Michael Gould

  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Create new supplier as HESTA, Agency it's paid to: Hesta. You can leave the other super funds as is, as they will no longer be used - the clearing house will do the rest.

    To make it easier, created Pay Roll Liabilities Sub Account named Hesta, so every pay you run, the amounts accumulate in that account.
  • Datarec_ReckonLtd
    Datarec_ReckonLtd Reckon Staff Posts: 1,039 Reckon Staff
    edited December 2016
    Mirko,

    Can you create a nice community post with a step-by-step procedure :)


    * Create a new Supplier name = "HESTA"
    - add banking details that will be used in the ABA file


    * Create a new Other Current Liability sub-account = "HESTA"
    - Example: Payroll Liabilities:HESTA

    * Create a new Payroll Item 
    - with a payroll item type = "Super Contribution"
    - with a name such as "HESTA Super Fund"
    - assign it to the Supplier name = "HESTA" as the agency the liability is paid to
    * Data Recovery Team *
  • Edward_7487951
    Edward_7487951 Member Posts: 1
    edited April 2015
    Will Reckon provide a file to inteface with the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) that is a free service for employers with 19 or fewer employees.
  • Mirko
    Mirko Alumni Posts: 1,258 ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Hey Edward, not at this point in time. The only file format that Reckon products export are optimised for NAB SuperPay. See John's post above for converting to other clearing houses criteria.
  • Michael Gould
    Michael Gould Member Posts: 17
    edited January 2020
    Thanks Mirko and Data Rec - I'll give that a go.  Regards
  • Virginia O'Hare
    Virginia O'Hare Member Posts: 2
    edited July 2019
    Hi we have just enrolled for Nab Super pay and are currently using Payroll Premier 2014/2015 I export our super file and when I try to upload it I get the following error message 
    Upload Error. No. of columns in upload file does not match with required in selected template.  We are using phase 2.1 and the NAB are telling me I need 37 columns and to contact Reckon as I will need to create more columns for my CSV file to be upload but when I speak to Reckon they tell me that it is compatible with NAB super pay and it is a NAB problem, when I try and count the columns (which is confusing in itself) I think I have 32, does anyone have a sugestion???  How do I know what columns are missing? Thanks