This article applies to any employer who starts reporting STP events from the Payroll classic platform because:
- The employer gained a deferral and so was not required to report on 1st July, or
- A change in the Payroll classic platform has occurred part-way through the financial year.
- A change in the Payroll classic platform has occurred between financial years.
We will provide you with options and instructions on how to report based on the relevant scenario.
Scenario 1: The employer gained a deferral
Refer here to access the ATO's information on deferrals. The ATO can only authorise this and we cannot provide any information on whether an employer can defer STP reporting. To clarify, our Payroll classic software has been ready for STP reporting from 1 July 2018 and we will not grant employers a deferral from the ATO for reasons pertaining to the software not being ready.
If you gain a deferral, and you will start reporting during the financial year rather than on the first pay after 1 July, then you will need to report your employees' year-to-date (YTD) data, via an update event, before you submit your first pay even. The reason for this is twofold:
- First, an update event includes all employees, i.e. active and terminated and summarises their YTD data. A pay event will only include employees who had a payment processed in the pay run and so will exclude previously terminated employees and employees not paid in the pay run/period you are lodging.
- Second, you must lodge all events with the ATO in chronological order. You must lodge the update event first to record the initial YTD data and then you can begin lodging pay events after pay run finalisation.
Scenario 2: Changing during the financial year
If you change to a different payroll software during the financial year, the transition process depends on a couple of things:
- Were you reporting STP in your previous software?
- If you were, would you use the same BMS ID from your previous software?
- Do you want to migrate YTD figures to your new payroll software?
The correct process here will make sure any information reported for STP will pre-fill the employee’s income statements at the ATO accurately.
Click the Option 1 drop-down if you have not been reporting STP in your previous system.
- Import YTD figures for both active and terminated employees into your new payroll software using the Opening Balances feature
- Create and lodge an update event.
- Continue to create and lodge pay events as normal.
Click the Option 2 drop-down if you have been reporting STP from a previous system, want to migrate YTD figures and use the original BMS ID to report STP from now on.
- Change the BMS ID in your current payroll system to match your previous system's BMS ID.
- Copy over the employees' payroll ID used in your previous payroll system over to the STP Payroll ID field in your new system.
Helpful Hint
If you do not have access to the employees' payroll ID, you can ask the employee to access their MyGov account and follow these steps:
- Click the Employment button.
- Click on Income Statements button.
- Click on the Actions drop-down.
- Retrieve their employee number.
- Import YTD figures into our payroll system using the Opening Balances feature;
- Lodge an update event to report the YTD totals.
Helpful Hint
Alternatively, you can just wait to lodge your first pay event, as this will include the imported YTD totals for the employees within that pay run.
Click the Option 3 drop-down if you have been reporting STP in previous system and you want to migrate your YTD figures using the new BMS ID.
- Import your YTD figures for both active and terminated employees from your old payroll to your new payroll software using the Opening Balances feature.
- Clear the employee YTD values from your BMS ID.
- Send this update to the ATO via an update event in your old system for each employee.
Helpful Hint
This will notify the ATO that there will be no further payments for these employees from your old BMS ID.
- You can do an update event to report the YTD totals imported or just continue to create and lodge pay events as normal as the first pay event will include the YTD totals.
Click the Option 4 drop-down if you have been reporting STP from your previous system, do not want to migrate YTD figures and want to use the new BMS ID
- Use the Mark as Final feature for all employees when lodging the last pay event in your previous system using the original BMS ID.
Helpful Hint
This will notify the ATO that there will be no further payments for these employees from your old BMS ID.
- Do not import YTD earnings into our system.
- We recommend adding leave balances. If leave balances are not imported, employee leave balance will not be correct when imported.
- You do not need to run an update event, and can start reporting STP from your first pay run.
Helpful Hint
This will be the next consecutive pay period after the last one that was reported in your old payroll system.
Scenario 3: Changing between financial years
Finishing up with one payroll software provider at the end of one financial year and starting afresh with a new provider at the beginning of the new financial year is perfect timing because each financial year is separate at the ATO. Just make sure you have finalised your STP reporting for the old financial year in your previous payroll system, then you just need to add your employees and input leave balances into your new payroll software via the Opening Balances feature.
Remember, there is no need to input any earnings details into opening balances because all employee earnings are reset, i.e. start from $0, each 1st of July. Then you can just start reporting STP from the first pay run. Which will be the next consecutive pay period after the last one that was reported in the old system.
There is no need to continue using the BMS ID from your previous provider, as it's a new financial year. You can just use the BMS ID created automatically when you turn on STP in your new payroll account. However, you must let the ATO know you have changed payroll providers.
Explore related content
- Employee leave history reporting on Payroll classic Learn more about how to understand and use your employee leave history data on the Payroll classic platform.
- Unpaid employees reporting on Payroll classic Learn more about how to report on the last date your non-terminated employees received payment on the Payroll classic platform.