03 Adopting Single Touch Payroll

What do you need to do to start using Single Touch Payroll in Synergetic?

In order to commence using Single Touch Payroll in Synergetic:

1) Upgrade to Synergetic V69: Single Touch Payroll requires your organisation to be using Synergetic V69.

2) Review your pay codes and ensure that they are mapped correctly to the new Pay Code Types and Reporting Categories.

Steps involved in implementing the pay code chages for STP
1	Make sure you have paycodes that can be mapped to a single STP reporting category	This step can be done before you upgrade to V69 and is certainly encouraged to do at the start of the new financial year. It will make your life easier when you do upgrade if you do not have to split pay codes on V69 upgrade.
2	Make sure the pay codes are linked to the correct pay code type	These steps can only be done when you upgrade to V69 as the new pay code types and reporting categories will not be available before the upgrade.
3	Make sure they pay code types are linked to the correct reporting category

3) Review the superannuation calculation methods of employees. The ATO have indicated that superannuation liability should be reported with the pay where it became a liability meaning those employees whose superannuation was processed through the Monthly Superannuation Calculation method will need to be changed to one of two other methods - the existing per-pay calculation or the new in-pay calendar month calculation. There are no changes to when and how Superannuation is forwarded to Clearing Houses, only the reporting of the superannuation liability has changed.

4) Update Standard Pay Details to reflect changes to pay codes if necessary

5) (optional) If you have a custom payslip, have it updated for the new pay code types.

6) (optional) Update custom reports where needed to include the new pay codes (e.g. site superannuation reports)

7) Close off any payroll posting whose posting day has passed so that the system does not think they should be submitted by STP when you switch on STP.

8) Update the configuration settings provided to you by Synergetic at the time of the upgrade: This will include a unique client ID for your organisation that will enable the sending service provider to know who is sending the STP transmission and forward it to the ATO.

6) Enable STP in Finance Configuration Maintenance/Payroll Maintenance

7) Use Finalise Pay program to process your next Payroll Posting. If you have employees that have already been terminated in the financial year, you can use STP maintenance to send an update event to the ATO to notify them of the payroll details of those employees.

When choosing a time to upgrade to V69 and turn on STP, you may want to consider:

Upcoming pay dates: Consider upgrading to V69 straight after a pay where there is a gap to review and update pay codes and become familiar with new pay process before next pay.
Timing of PAYG summaries for 2017/18 Financial year
Do you need to customise the new Pay Slip?
Are existing pays finalised and don’t need amendment?

Synergetic's Vendor Deferral

The ATO has granted existing Synergetic Payroll Customers extra time to start using STP (until end January 2019). This was applied for and granted to allow our existing payroll clients adequate time to go through their change management procedures and have us deploy an STP enabled version to them at a suitable time. There would be a reasonable expectation that there may be some time after V69 deployment while the employer configures and tests their upgraded system before going live with STP. The ATO however has been clear that the deferral is not designed to just postpone going live because an employer doesn’t want to or it’s inconvenient.

Important to know about the deferral:

you do not need to wait to adopt STP if you are ready to switch.
If you need longer than January 2019 to be ready to adopt STP then you will need to apply to the ATO for an employer initiated deferral.