Create and lodge a finalisation event

Once you’ve successfully lodged your last pay run for the financial year, you can begin the finalisation process.

1. Select Employees from the left navigation.
2. Select the Reports tab, then select Single Touch Payroll.
3. Select Start Finalisation Process.
4. Select the relevant Pay Schedule and Financial Year.
5. Select Next.\

Note: Even if employees have been paid using multiple pay schedules throughout the financial year, you only need to complete the finalisation event for the default pay schedule the employee is assigned to. E.g., if an employee is assigned to a fortnightly pay schedule but was also paid in an 'Adhoc' pay schedule, such as for back payments, all the employee's year-to-date earnings will be reported in the fortnightly pay schedule's finalisation event.

1. Make sure the year-to-date earnings are correct
2. Selecting Actions and then Excel (YTD) to download an excel document containing all employees' year-to-date payroll data and compare these with the earnings.
3. Fix any validation warnings for STP events 
4. Refresh the data in this step by selecting Actions, then Refresh Data.
5. Select Next to continue

Important to note: The finalisation event automatically marks all employees in the event as Is Final. This is to indicate that no further payments will be made to employees in this financial year.

This step is only applicable if you need to enter a reportable FBT. If not, move to step 4.

There are two methods to enter FBT:

Important to note:

• If you have multiple pay schedules, there will be separate tabs in the excel document for each pay schedule and the employees will be listed in their relevant tab (based on their pay schedule).
• Use whole dollar amounts when reporting FBT. Do not enter any cents.
• Do not include FBT amounts in the employee's gross earnings.
• The amount entered should be the Year to Date amount. If an FBT amount has been previously entered in other events, the amount will already be included in the export. If you need to update an employee's YTD amount simply edit the relevant field.
• You must only enter the grossed-up taxable value of these benefits.

If you’re not a tax/BAS agent, you can move on to step 5.

This option will only appear for businesses who have indicated that a registered tax/BAS agent will be lodging their reports to the ATO (based on what has been set up under the ATO Settings).

You will need to obtain authorisation from your client before proceeding. You can assign one or more approvers and then add a note to indicate the purpose of the amended finalisation event. The user/s will be notified via email that there is a finalisation event waiting to be actioned.

Select Save for later, while you wait for the approval.

If you have set up Email me when a pay event is approved or rejected through My Notifications you'll receive an email when the STP event approver has provided authorisation otherwise you can return to this later once the authorisation has occurred.

The next step is to complete a declaration. Read the declaration then select Lodge Finalisation Event.

Note: If you have the notification setting Email me when there is a Lodgement error switched on (located in My Notifications), you will be sent an email if there is an error with the lodgement.

Once the finalisation event has been successfully lodged with the ATO, you will have the ability to send system generated email notifications to the employees involved in that event. To do this:

1. Select Employees from the menu.
2. Select the Reports tab and then select Single Touch Payroll. 
3. Open the event by selecting the ID number of the finalisation event.
4. Select Actions, then select Send Notifications.

If at any time, you selected Save for later in the finalisation event process, you can easily navigate back t continue your lodgement:

1. Select Employees from the menu.
2. Select the Reports tab and then select Single Touch Payroll.
3. Select Continue Finalisation.

If, after having successfully lodged a finalisation event for a specific pay schedule, you realise that an adjustment or adhoc pay needs to be processed, you will need tocreate an amended finalisation event as soon as possible.

Learn how to create and lodge an amended finalisation event here. If you're unsure of when you'll be able to do this, we strongly suggest you create and lodge an update event for the employee and mark as Is not final so that the status of the employee's Income Statement is no longer 'Tax ready'.