Have you Finalised your STP for 2023? All you need to know about End of Year STP Finalisation with STP2

If your business has opted into Single Touch Payroll (STP), you are no longer required to produce individual payment summaries for your employees. Instead, your payroll data is finalised by making an STP finalisation declaration which needs to be lodged by 14^th July and is done through your accounting software.

Here are some of our top tips as you finalise your STP for the year:

• Employees will be able to access their yearly payroll figures through their myGov account where it will show as an ‘income statement’.  These figures are automatically pre-filled from the information your business has provided.
• Both active employees and any employees who have left or been terminated during the financial year should be included in the end of year process.
• Your employee’s payroll information should already be updated to comply with STP2, but if it isn’t then you will need to update this first.
• Check that all pay runs done during the payroll year have been filed and accepted by the ATO.  In Xero the pay runs should show as ‘filed’ and in Myob ‘accepted’.  If you have missed sending any STP reports during the financial year, then update the missed pay runs. If this stage is not done, then employee’s year-to-date amounts will be incorrect.
• Ensure that all pay runs up to 30th June have been completed.   Pay runs recorded with a July payment date will not be included in the year you are finalising, even if some days in June are included in the pay run.
• Before you move onto the STP2 finalisation process you will need review the payroll transactions and check that total earnings, total super, and total tax match to your general ledger.
• Myob and Xero each have well-structured guides to STP finalisation:
  • End of year finalisation with Single Touch Payroll reporting – MYOB AccountRight – MYOB Help Centre
  • Finalise Single Touch Payroll data – Xero Central

• Remember also that you can lodge an ‘update event’ if you need to amend details after making a finalisation declaration. Just keep in mind that when the STP finalisation is submitted to the ATO it can take up to 72 hours for the status to update in the accounting software.

Happy End of Payroll Year and if you experience any problems please give us a call.

– Louise Hogg

Posted 10.07.2023

This article is compiled as a helpful guide for your private information and is subject to copyright. We suggest that you do not act solely on the basis of material contained in this article because items are of general nature only and may be liable to misinterpretation in particular circumstances. We recommend that our advice be sought before acting on any of these crucial areas.