STP and MYOB software

The buzzword of the payroll officers at businesses with more than 20 employees is single touch payroll, a.k.a. STP. But what is it? And how do you enable it in your software? We break up the questions in a simple and easy-to-understand article, and if you need more help, we are available to take your calls and email queries.

1.   What is single touch payroll, or STP? 

Single Touch Payroll (STP) is an ATO initiative to streamline payroll reporting. You’ll be able to report payroll and super information directly to the ATO when you process a pay run in MYOB Essentials or AccountRight Live (ARL). Because of this change, you may no longer need to complete payment summaries at the end of the financial year, as your employees’ payroll information will be available through myGov.

2.   Who needs STP?

You need to do a headcount of your employees as of 1 April 2018.

Did you have 20 or more employees on 1 April 2018?

• Yes: You’ll need to start reporting payroll and super information using Single Touch Payroll from 1 July 2018. See Set up Single Touch Payroll reporting.
• No: You don’t need to use STP reporting now; it’s optional. All employers may need to start reporting using STP from 1 July 2019, subject to new legislation being passed.

From July 1, 2018, if you have 20 or more employees, you must have STP enabled in your software (If you have 19 or fewer, you have until July 1, 2019 to have STP enabled in your business). If you are using the latest version of AccountRight Live, the feature to set up STP is already enabled. You just need to complete some simple tasks to finalise the setup, and you are ready to go. Click here for the setup support notes.

3.   What if I am using V19 Premiere or earlier versions? What do I do to enable STP?

The only answer is to upgrade your file to the latest version of ARL. Some companies feel confident to complete this task themselves, and others seek the assistance of an MYOB Certified Consultant (in our team we have two certified consultants at SouthEast IT) to migrate the file. Some reasons to use an MYOB Certified Consultant might be some of the following,

• Clean-up of data – Messy data means a big file, and anyone who knows ARL knows there is no opportunity to purge or optimise your file after the file has been migrated.
• Upgrade corruptions – At SouthEast IT, we have tools to ensure the file will migrate without the file failing in the process which could cause data corruptions in the file. We ensure the file checks are done for the smoothest migration of data.
• Software installation – We find out about your business, so we can recommend the best setup for your file. We know the software options for configuring for onsite network setups or online data migrations. We help you with the new permissions structure and setting up your staff user profiles.
• Form migration – Many organisations do not know how to migrate the forms into ARL, or if they do, the forms are not usable. We have a best practice migration tool that usually enables companies to get going straight away and are able to train staff on creating new forms in the latest version of ARL. If you do not have the resources, we can complete new forms on your behalf to get a result that is the same (or perhaps better) than what you were previously using.
• Setup of bank feeds and PaySuper – We can guide you through both of these setups, including training to set up both these fantastic time-saving functions.

4.   How do you defer the requirement of having STP enabled software?

Clients who are unable to move to an STP enabled version of AccountRight, because they are currently using multi-currency, negative inventory, multi location inventory, M-Powered Payment or ODBC and those using AccountEdge, have been granted an STP reporting deferral until 31 May 2019.

MYOB are working hard with consultants like SouthEast IT to enable companies to start the migration process. For these companies you have an extension until 31^st May 2019. At the moment the only way to migrate is a new company file setup which we are experienced to assist companies with should they choose this option. Some reasons companies may decide to start a new company file might be

• Companies do not want to use the multi-currency feature in the new file
• Data heavy, great opportunity to call data from the file and start again

However, we are working closely with MYOB and waiting for the release of their new migration tool for clients with multi-currency enabled. Exciting times, as those wanting to continue to use the multi-currency feature within MYOB, with more capability than ever before the multi-currency function has enhanced flexibility in ARL compared to its v19 predecessor.

5.   Do I need an Auskey enabled on the computer I am sending the STP information from?

This step is still being finalised between MYOB and the ATO; however, we would advise to have an Auskey setup ready if it is required. Word on the street is that it will be needed, so do yourself a favour, as it can take some time. Get it completed by going to this site.

Some useful STP links:

http://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ea/Single+Touch+Payroll
http://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ea/Set+up+Single+Touch+Payroll+reporting
http://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ea/Task+1+-+Check+payroll+details+for+Single+Touch+Payroll+reporting
http://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ea/Task+2+-+Connect+to+the+ATO+for+Single+Touch+Payroll+reporting
http://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ea/ATO+reporting+categories+for+Single+Touch+Payroll