Update Phase 1 - Removing Not Latest as a Status Type to make sure all batches are submitted to the ATO.
With the introduction of STP2, a submission is required to the ATO ON OR BEFORE PAYMENT IS MADE TO THE EMPLOYEES FOR EVERY PAY. This is mandatory.
With STP2:
All batches must be submitted and must be submitted in the correct order.
In Phase One of this process (As of 12th December 2023), any batch processed after your last submitted ATO Confirmed Batch will be required to be submitted to the ATO.
Any batches processed before your last ATO Confirmed batch will also be required to be submitted, However, we are formulating a simplified way to handle this process in a second phase, to be completed in 2024.
In order to help our valued clients with their compliance we have identified that the existing status of Not Latest has been causing confusion for users. To make it easier for clients to understand that all batches must be submitted the not latest status has been removed.
Therefore, we are left with 6 statuses:
Ready to submit – when a payroll has been completed, STP2 submission has been created and is ready for submission. Each STP2 file should be submitted on or before payday. If for any reason you have more than one ready to submit file – you must submit them in the order that the payrolls have been processed.
Errors Detected – when the batch is being submitted, it is scanned on the Attaché side for any errors. If an error is found, it indicates what it is, so you can fix it before submission.
ATO Pending – Once a file has been submitted, it is reported as ATO pending until the ATO has finished processing it
ATO Confirmed – a batch that has successfully reached the ATO and been processed.
ATO Rejected – the file was sent to the ATO, but the ATO have found an error not detected by our internal systems. The ATO have rejected an element of the submission that needs correction and resubmission.
Not required – you have found an error in the payroll data and have restored data to fix it. Therefore, you might not require this submission, as it will be replaced by the restored data file.
📌Notes:
While we do not recommend setting up the filters, in case you miss something important. If you want to set up filters – removing the ATO Confirmed status, does unclutter the screen.
The new changes to STP2 will only apply to the 2023-24 financial year. Batches in previous financial years may show as Ready to Submit. Please ignore these batches, they do NOT need to be submitted. In this case, we would recommend filtering out the previous financial years.
How will the STP listing page look moving forward
All batches that haven’t been submitted will now change from 'Not Latest' to 'Ready to Submit'. During this phase, you will only be able to submit a batch that has been processed later than the last ATO Confirmed batch displayed in your STP Batch listing page.
You will see the following message displayed when a user has two or more batches with a status of 'ready to submit' that were processed LATER than your last ATO Confirmed Batch.
To be able to submit these batches, see: Submit STP batches that are in Ready to Submit status but get message "A previous batch is unconfirmed..."
You will see the following message displayed for Ready to Submit Batches processed PRIOR to the last ATO Confirmed Batch. You will NOT be able to submit these batches until the work for the Update Phase 2 in early 2024 has been completed.
Update Phase 2 - Additional information around the Single Touch Payroll Batch information
The FY2024 Tool as to submit batches processed PRIOR to the last ATO Confirmed Batch (as per screen shot above) will be available in this phase. More details will be release and updated at the time of the Phase 2 release to the production environment.
We have had some customer feedback around understanding or knowing what type of Single Touch Payroll Submission you are completing when submitting your batch to the ATO. Users will now see a new heading and type depending on the journey the batch submission is going on. Previously Support and Professional services would of seen this information in the event logs under the admin portal.
Single Touch payroll has 2 event types, a Pay Event (PayEvent) or an Update event.
This will now be displayed in the STP Batch Details page and when completing the declaration to the ATO via the sign and submit function.
We have also added additional information about where the W1 and W2 Pre-Fill information is located on the STP Batch Details page. This has been added due to feedback from our clients about where the values being reported to the BAS are from. Users also have the ability to select question mark to view more information and understand how the values will be calculated.
Update 3 - Improve the Single Touch Payroll Listing Page time to load
As more clients continue to submit STP Events to the ATO, we are finding the performance in loading the STP Listing Batch was starting to become slower than normal for some clients.
We have added pagination to load the screen faster and more efficiently for our clients to provide them a better experience when submitting STP values to the Australian Tax Office.
When will the new updates be available in Single Touch Payroll?
From Monday 11th December, users will see the update batches inside the Attaché Online system via an online deployment.
For STP Billing updates, these were deployed in November 2023 and apply for all batches processed in December 2023 onwards.