Top tips from FastTrack experts on running End of Financial Year payroll
The end of the financial year is here, and it’s important to make sure that you have everything in order. Max Ciereszko and Amit Jain have both been at FastTrack for a little while now, and have experienced multiple end of financial years. Both Max and Amit have highlighted that one of the big things that businesses need to understand heading into the next financial year is Single Touch Payroll.
While many businesses are already Single Touch Payroll reporting, if your business has not already been STP reporting, it’s imperative that you begin these processes, otherwise you will be behind the 8-ball, according to Max and Amit.
“STP has been legislated for businesses with more than 20 employees since July 1, 2018 and for everyone else from July 1, 2019. So, if you are not STP reporting now, by the end of the financial year you’ll be a lot more behind the 8 ball with the ATO.”
Making sure that you are across how to STP report, as well as what is required to report from your business, will go a long way to ensuring that your EOFY processes go as smoothly as possible.
Max and Amit also pointed out that for some companies, time and resources can be an issue in terms of changing processes, but that’s precisely why they provide information, training and advice to help bridge these knowledge and resource gaps for your business.
“It’s a question of time management and resources. If you’re used to doing something a certain way, it can take a bit of adjustment to a new process. However, feedback from our clients is that STP is much easier in FastTrack360 than expected.”
“We’d also encourage everyone to read all the information available, this will help answer any questions you have.”
Post-end of financial year, Max and Amit will do a review with the Customer Support team, ascertaining what are the most common questions asked about the EOFY process. Having completed this process last year there are a couple of items that stood out.
“End of year is a simple process when following the steps in sequential order. Where some people come unstuck is not sticking to the steps. Our team are always here to help, and we encourage everyone to review the process steps before they get started.”
Melanie Duval, who has been in the FastTrack Customer Suppor team for 8 years, echoed the same sentiments as Max and Amit, stressing the importance of reviewing the EOFY processes to make it easier for you and your team.
“Customer who have been through the process before find it easy to manage, it’s commonly new customers running the EOFY process for the first time that have more question.”
“I’d also recommend that you give yourself time, the sooner you start the process the more time you have to work through the process and get the help you need”
End of financial year is a standard business process and doesn’t need to be an added stress to your business. There are a comprehensive range of resources FastTrack make available to help customers including free updated tax tables each and every year; an easy online how-to guide; plus a recording of the EOFY education webinar and instructional video to help you automatically update agreement pay rates from a future date hosted by our Professional Services experts.
End of Financial Year Top Tips
We asked each of our resident experts for their three top tips to make the End of Financial year easier.
Mel’s were:
- Ensure you’ve downloaded the new Tax tables at least by the last week of June, then added all your Pay Period weeks, Super Contribution and Employee Benefit periods so when processing your first pay batch in the new financial year, you are ready to go.
- Reconcile reports as soon as possible, so processing your first pay run in new Financial year is seamless – the sooner you do that and pick up any variations, the sooner they can be resolved and if need be, please log a support case so we can assist.
- Check that all your Payee Types are correct – for example, ensure Payees that should have an Income Type of ‘Individual Non-Business’ are setup with a Payee Type of ‘Individual Non-Business’ on their Payee records, rather than Labour Hire; plus check that Allowances are correctly set up, either to be included in Gross on Payment Summaries, or as a separate item on Payment Summaries.
Amit’s were:
- Ensure you have started STP reporting before you start EOFY process for this financial year.
- Ensure STP EOFY submissions for all pay companies to the ATO are completed before 14 July 2020.
- Ensure your payees are aware that they have to log in to myGov to download their Income Statement (Formerly known as Payment Summary).
Max’s were:
- Make sure you are familiar with the STP EOFY process.
- Refer to the EOFY process in the FastTrack360 Online Help to make sure you’ve you know what to do at each step in advance.
- If you commenced STP reporting part-way through the financial year, make sure you do not submit a Payment Summary Annual Report (PSAR) for the period you have been reporting through STP to avoid double-reporting.
If you’re not a FastTrack360 customer and your End of Financial Year is more stressful than it needs to be, it might be time to upgrade to an automated online payroll solution. FastTrack360 provides a unique end-to-end recruitment, timesheet, payroll and billing online platform to streamline your business from advert to invoice. Or you can just use the FastTrack360 Back Office to integrate with your existing front office to streamline your business’ cash flow.
To help select software that’s right for your business check out our ultimate guide to selecting the best software for your business or get in touch with our team today to find out more.