Single Touch Payroll is Coming


Last Updated: June 24, 2018


Single Touch Payroll (STP) is the next step in streamlining your payroll reporting. It will change the way you report your employees’ payroll information to the ATO. It starts from 1 July 2018 for employers with 20 or more employees.

You will report payments such as salaries and wages, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding and super information to the ATO when you pay your employees.

You can do this through your existing payroll software (such as accounting software) as long as it is updated to offer Single Touch Payroll reporting. Payroll software providers are updating their products now. Talk to your provider to find out how and when your product will be ready.

9 tips to ensure you are STP ready

  1. Manage your cash flow carefully. STP will give the Tax Office the knowledge if super or tax has been paid, or not paid. Super companies will also be reporting to the ATO when they receive payments. This of course means that if cash is a little short, you won’t be able to ‘hold off’ and ‘catch up later’. Talk to your accountant or bookkeeper about how to make sure there is enough cash to pay tax and Super as they fall due.
  2. Have everyone at your organisation register for MyGov, which can be found at the Department of Human Resources website. This will ensure that when you change over to STP your employees will be able to access their data.  Now is a very good time to update your employee information: things such as Tax File Number, address etc.
  3. Check your software provider is STP ready, or when they expect to be.
  4. Monitor your accounts payable. Not all bills are due at the end of the month. Perhaps you have trouble remembering to pay when they fall due? You know how you feel when your accounts are not paid, and your suppliers feel the same, not to mention the reputational loss that can occur. A simple excel spreadsheet can be set up to show suppliers details, date, amount due etc, even refunds or overpayments. The whole month at a glance, and gives a handy easy lookup record, if there is a query. This can save a lot of time trawling through bank statements!
  5. Be on the alert for scams. Verbally confirm all emails and calls from suppliers, or even someone in your company, before doing any account changes or urgent payment requests. Be particularly suspicious about urgent payments, even from people in your own organisation. Scammers may have obtained their email, sent a fake bill with payment details; you pay and the money has gone! Even small amounts can be suspect: scammers use these as a ‘trial run’ to see if you will take the bait!
  6. Use a multi-step review process for online payments. Use multiple users for approvals of payments. Have users set up with multi-factor authentications such as token or SMS code.
  7. Review payee details before authorising or submitting payments or files. Unfortunately this slows the whole process down and negates some of the time benefits of the internet, but it really is better to be safe than sorry. In the context of your business, the costs of neglecting to check, could put you out of business!
  8. Regularly check the payee account details are current and that changes are verified. We all depend on the stored information, but as above, a failure to check, particularly under time pressure or in the name of efficiency could be very, very costly. Scammers rely on the fact that we are busy and will not double check.
  9. Ask your staff to sign up to scam alert services such as Scamwatch.gov.au, or staysmartonline.gov.au. This will provide alerts when large scam campaigns are targeting Australians. They give an added layer of protection, but do not stop scammers from trying.