Single Touch Payroll (STP)

This article is about Humanforce Payroll. For help with Humanforce Workforce Management, start here.

This article covers tasks related to Single Touch Payroll (STP), including how to:

• Set up the Single Touch Payroll Declarer
• Categorise Itemised Allowances for Single Touch Payroll
• Download a Single Touch Payroll Reconciliation Report
• Check the Status of Single Touch Payroll XML file sent to ATO
• Resolve Single Touch Payroll Errors
• Generate a YTD Single Touch Payroll Reconciliation Report

For most customers, there will no additional requirements that you need to do for STP as Humanforce Payroll will automatically send the files to the ATO on Pay Authorisation.

Set up the Single Touch Payroll Declarer

For STP reporting the ATO requires a Reporting Party Declarer to be listed on each Pay Event that is submitted. The Reporting Party Declarer is declaring that the information that has been submitted to the ATO is true and correct. The declarer may be within your business and in most instances, it will be the same person as the Tax Signatory as shown in the Customer Business Record. However, they might not be paid via Humanforce Payroll (for example, if using an external contractor). If they are not an employee, you will need to set this person up via Contact Maintenance first.

To set up the STP Declarer:

1. Go to Customer > General > Customer Stakeholder or search Customer Stakeholder via the menu search bar.
2. In the list of Customer Stakeholders, select STP Declarer.
3. Above the list of Customer Stakeholder Identity, click the + icon
4. If it is a different person per Payroll, then select the Payroll from the drop-down menu and then select the Person. If it is the same person across all Payrolls, then leave the Payroll blank and select the Person.
5. Click Create

Categorise Itemised Allowances for Single Touch Payroll

Itemised Allowances must be categorised for STP.

To check and update categories, go to Customer > Customer Pay Element. 

Any Allowances that are flagged as an Itemised Allowance in the Payment Summary Section must have an Itemised Allowance Type selected.

The STP 1 categories are:

1. Car – Car expense allowance
2. Transport – Award transport payments up to reasonable amounts
3. Laundry – Laundry allowance
4. Meals – Award overtime meal allowance
5. Travel – Domestic or overseas travel allowance above the reasonable limit ad all overseas accommodation allowances
6. Other – All other allowances for expected deductible expenses

The STP 2 categories are:

1. CD – Cents Per KM
2. AD – Award Transport Payments
3. LD – Laundry
4. MD – Overtime Meal Allowance
5. RD – Domestic or Overseas Travel Allowances or Overseas Accommodation Allowance
6. OD – Other Allowance
7. TD – Tool Allowance
8. KN – Tasks
9. QN – Qualifications/Certificates

For further clarification on these items visit the ATO website.

Download a Single Touch Payroll Reconciliation Report

This STP Reconciliation Report is a CSV version of the XML file that is transmitted to the ATO. 

Once a payroll has been processed, to download the report:

1. Go to RMS > RMS View By Process
2. Select the Payroll and the Process Number and the
3. Click on STP Reconciliation (CSV) to download the report.

The information in the report will match the Pay Journal for this Process. In the header section of the STP Reconciliation Report:

• the Payer Total PAYGW Amount will match the Gross and
• the Payer Total Gross Payments will match the Total Tax.

Check the Status of Single Touch Payroll XML file sent to ATO

To check the Status of Single Touch Payroll XML file sent to ATO, go to STP Management.

The steps involved with sending the data is as follows:

1. Payroll is Authorised and XML file is sent to MessageXchange
2. MessageXchange will validate the file
3. MessageXchange will send the file to the ATO
4. ATO will validate the file
5. ATO will approve or return an error for the file

If this screen is blank, then there are no errors and no action is required. If you tick Show All the file will be listed. The Follow Up Action will show Completed with the Return Status of Success. This means the file has successfully been approved by the ATO.

Please note that this process may take some time as the file needs to be validated by 
MessageXchange and the ATO and then approved so a Completed status may not appear 
immediately after you have Authorised a Payroll.

If there are any errors returned a Workflow Notification will be emailed to Payroll Manager Stakeholder along with a copy of the error file.

Resolve Single Touch Payroll Errors

If there are any errors returned a Workflow Notification will be emailed to Payroll Manager Stakeholder along with a copy of the error file.

When the Workflow Notification is received either:

• view the file attached to the Workflow Notification email or
• go to STP Management and click on the icon in the Returned Details column to view details of the error/s and what needs to be actioned.

The error message comes directly from the ATO. You may need to resend a Pay Event from time-to-time, due to a full error.  If you are having trouble interpreting the error message, log a support ticket with a screen shot of the message. 

To ATO requires data be received by the ATO within 24 hours, so it's important that 
error notifications are actioned promptly.

YTD errors and notifications

If there is a YTD error in the transmission to the ATO, a Workflow Notification will be emailed to the person specified in the Customer Workflow.

To add or change the person who should receive this notification:

1. Go to Customer > Customer Workflow
2. Click on STP Exception Notification Workflow
3. Click in the relevant State to open up the notification settings.
4. In the Workflow State Recipient header, click the + icon
5. Enter the details, as relevant and click Create
6. When returned to Edit Workflow State, click Update
7. When returned to the Edit Workflow, click Update.

An example of a YTD error in the transmission to the ATO, is where Super Guarantee Charge YTD (SGC YTD) is in negative, or where Ordinary Time Earnings (total of) is in negative, which the ATO do not permit.

These scenarios could come about from entry in a Pay Adjustment.

For example:

• SGC YTD Period End 12/05/19$450
• Pay Adjustment to SGCPeriod End 19/05/19(-$500)
• SGC YTDPeriod End 19/05/19(-$50)

Generate a YTD Single Touch Payroll Reconciliation Report

You can generate a YTD STP Reconciliation Report at any point in time. It contains all employee payments made in the year, including Terminations. It is useful for reconciling your STP Reports with your YTD Pay Journal.

If you don't have STP Reconciliation in your menu, head to Menu Construction to add it and/or assign to the 
relevant Roles first.

To generate a YTD STP Reconciliation Report:

1. Go to STP Reconciliation
2. Select the Payroll, the relevant Financial Year and the STP version
3. Click Export.