What is Single Touch Payroll?
STP is a government initiative to streamline business reporting obligations. Employers or their intermediary will be able to report payments such as salaries and wages, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding and super information directly to the ATO from their payroll solution, at the same time they pay their employees. Entire Software is to provide STP through SBR2 – ebMS3. Employers with 20 or more employees will need to report through STP from 1 July 2018 under the law.
To download the EntireHR STP Manual, Please click on this link: Single Touch Payroll Manual.pdf
Table of Contents
Glossary
Definitions
What is Single Touch Payroll?
Payroll Payments
a. Regular Pay Cycle
b. Allowances and Deductions
c. Full File Replacement
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Single Touch Payroll
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a. Employer already using EntireHR from the beginning of Financial Year:-
b. b. Employer started using EntireHR during the Financial Year
Commencement of a new employee
a. Existing electronic TFN declaration services/channels – SBR and Business Portal
b. TFN declaration in a pay event including the employee declaration.
EntireHR defined STP Status Definition during the process run for submission:-
STP Data Error
STP File Error
STP File Success
STP Validate Error
STP Validate Success
STP Submission Error
STP Submission Success
STP Response Error
STP Response Received
STP Completed
STP Data Success
Understanding Roles
Declarations Rule by ATO
10. End of Year / STP Masters Settings
a. Allowances Master
b. Additions / Deductions Master
c. Allowances Mapping:-
11. Single Touch Payroll Process Run:-
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Step 1
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b. Step 2
c. Step 3.
d. Submission Responses
e. Final Step
13. STP Reporting
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:
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Select Period Ending Date for STP Submission.
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The below screenshot shows Period Ending Date selection along with STP Status
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Screen Parameters Details:-
Period Ending Date: Regular or Financial year Pay Run Date.
Period Start Date: Default as per Weekly or Fortnightly pay run duration set in system
Submission ID: System generated unique identifier for STP Submission. Please use this Identifier for any STP related communication to ATO
Resubmit Pay event: This is needed when you would like to resubmit the already submitted STP for a period due to any reason. For Example: If an Employer has done a mistake in the pay process & submitted the same to ATO. Then after, if Entire Software is reversing the pay run as per Employer requests then it is a mandatory requirement to resubmit the Pay Event. In this scenario, Employer has to tick this flag so that ATO system will override old STP files with new one.
Staff Submitting data on behalf of Payer: Logged in user who is declaring employee’s pay to ATO. By Default, it is a logged in user name.
Payer Declaration Date: It is a date of signing the above declaration & submitting the pay run.
Payment Date by Entity: This is a date of payment to employees. By Default, system shows the date of finalizing the pay run but it can be changed from the screen as per Employer payment rules.
Is this week’s Payroll is the final Payroll of this financial year: This is an automatic prefilled flag set according to the Payroll Financial year settings. If true tells to ATO to close the books of financial year & report all members year to date details to ATO who have worked during the year.
Declarations: It is must to read & agree all declaration shown above for the STP Submission.
Step 2
Once screen data has been entered, Press Next button to move to the next step of Data processing & File Creation.
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1. Check STP Date Settings: Optional Step to print a report to view STP settings before Submission. Report sample shown below.
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Check TFN, Member Name & Member Address: This is a mandatory step to ensure successful STP transmission.
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1. Process Pay Event Data (Mandatory Step): At this step, system calls the back end program to extract all Pay Run employees Year to Data figures.
There are 2 outcomes after its execution:-
a. Data Successfully Created:- After successful processing of Pay Event Data, next mandatory step of “Generate ATO Files” will get activated & the status of STP Submission process will change to “Date generated Successfully”.
b. Date Processing failed: This outcome is rare. In this scenario, please contact Entire Software Development Team.
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Generate ATO Files (Mandatory Step):
At this step, system will create ATO required XML Header & Employees files at the set system directory location. On success, next step of “Validating ATO generated Files syntax” will get enabled & STP submission status will change to “Files Generated Successfully”
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To view all generated files, click the link “Files generatedsuccessfully” as shown above. On click, system will take you to the physical file location as shown below:-
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Final step before the submission – Validate ATO generated Files Syntax (Mandatory Step):
Till now, ATO Files has been generated by EntireHR. Next step is to validate the created files according to ATO standards to ensure correct files format submission. To do this step, the system calls the backend programs to go through all created files in system directory.
The outcome of this validation are:-
a. Passed: Move to final step of validated files submission to ATO
b. Failed: Please contact Entire Software with details of error.
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Step 3
Tick Declarations and then Next
Step 2: Click in Order from 1-6 to follow the process
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Step 3: Submit validated files to SSP for ATO submission
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Submission Responses
1. Queued
If the Message response is set to Queued then it means ATO files has been put in Queue to SSP for pushing to ATO Database.
2. Pushed
If the Message response is set to Pushed then it means ATO files has been successfully pushed to ATO from SSP& waiting for their verification.
3. Responded
On every poll to get response, system shows the API status as responded.
4. Transmission Unsuccessful
This is anerror response received from ATO along with details of errors. Please refer to error details & push the files back to ATO. Please note: you may need to generate the files & push it back again until it gets successful.
5. Transmission Successful
This is a positive response received from ATO. This means all files have been passed & successfully transmitted for further data checks.
6. Data Success
This is a final status which denotes for data has been successful updated in ATO System.
Message response Screenshots as sample for reference.
Screenshot: Queued
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Screenshot: Pushed
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Screenshot: Transmission Unsuccessful
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On the transmission unsuccessful, the following will happen for further action You will get notified automatically from SSP or you can poll through EntireHR as shown below with the error response details. Please see the screenshot below.
Screenshot showing Error Response Details from ATO
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Please Note: On Unsuccessful Transmisssion, you are requested to contact Entire OnHire Support(Suppprt@entiresoftware.com) for resubmission of STP unsuccessful event.
Final Step
Poll ATO Response for Submission finalisation (Mandatory Step)
Please view image below to see how you can poll though EntireHR to get response details
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Screenshot showing Error Response details stored in system directory after polling through EntireHR – On click “Open Response File”.
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After receiving the error details, please perform the below steps:-
Step 1: If errors are related to employees missing information then please fix all errors or contact Entire Software with details of error.
Step 2: After fixes, return to Step 2 for ATO Files generation and validation. Then continue with the process of files submission until you get “Files Transmission Successful”.
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Screenshot: Transmission Successful
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FAQ
How long does it take to get a transmission status back?After you send your STP files and the Message Status shows "QUEUED," it might take up to 7 days for the ATO to reply.
Do I need to keep checking for updates?
No, you don't have to keep checking manually. The response will be sent to your email address. Once you receive the email notification, you can log in and check the response. Avoid frequent manual checks if you haven't received the email yet, as it uses data unnecessarily.
Final Step: Poll ATO Response for Submission Finalization
After receiving any error details, follow these steps:
If errors relate to missing employee information, fix the errors or contact Entire OnHire for assistance.
To understand errors in-depth - Possible STP Errors and Solutions
Return to Step 2 for ATO File generation and validation.
Continue the file submission process until you receive a "Files Transmission Successful" status.
Feel free to contact our support team at Support@entiresoftware.com for any assistance with STP.
This simplified explanation should help your clients better understand Single Touch Payroll and the process involved.