An update event is used to report any changes to employee year-to-date (YTD) amounts previously reported to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
You’ll need to create and lodge an update event if:
- You want to finalise payroll and make adjustments for the end of the financial year.
- You have recently moved your payroll data from another software and need to align the details of a pay event.
- You need to update the details of a pay event recently reported to the ATO.
- You’re transitioning from Single Touch Payroll (STP) Phase 1 to STP Phase 2.
Note: Update events are not associated with any pay runs and can only be created when an employee payment has not been made.
Step 1: Create an update event
- Select Payroll from the left navigation.
- Select the Reports tab.
- Select Single Touch Payroll (found in the ATO Reporting column).
- Select Create update event.
- Select the appropriate Financial year and Pay schedule, then select Create.
All list of all employees related to that pay schedule will appear along with their year-to-date payroll details.
When an update event is generated:
- You can filter your view by searching for a specific employee or by the employing entity (if you have more than one employing entity set up in the business). When the event is lodged, it'll lodge for all employees in that pay schedule.
- Employees who have been employed by more than one employing entity during the financial year will have a row of data per employing entity.
- Employees who have changed between a working holiday maker (Type: H) and a non-working holiday maker (Type: S) during the financial year will have a row of data per tax change.
- Terminated employees who have received an employment termination payment (ETP) will still appear in the event with the Is Final checkbox automatically ticked.
Can I edit any information in an update event?
You can only edit the Reportable Fringe Benefits Amounts (RFBA) and Is Final items on the update event.
To edit an employee RFBA:
- Select the pencil icon under the RFBA column for the specific employee.
- Enter the gross RFBA amount and select the green tick icon.
To edit Is Final:
If an employee has terminated employment and a termination pay has been processed, the Is Final checkbox will be ticked automatically.
If the employee has not been terminated within a pay run and there will be no further payments for that employee in the financial year, you can tick the Is Final checkbox. This will indicate to the ATO that no further payments for this employee will be made.
If an employee is reinstated, and the same employee payroll ID is used, you'll need to untick the Is Final checkbox.
Update event actions overview
Under the Actions button on the right-hand side you'll find a number of options:
- Excel: Select this option to generate an excel report of the data contained in the update event.
- Mark all as final: After you've completed your final pay run for the financial year, the pay event can be marked as final. By completing the finalisation declaration, you'll replace the need to provide the employee with a part-year payment summary. Making this declaration will update the employee's myGov display to show the STP information from the employer is final for the financial year.
- Mark all as not final: This action will only appear if there are employees in the event marked as Is Final. Selecting this option will remove the checkbox from those employees, indicating that the employees will still be receiving payments for that financial year.
- Add Employee: This action allows you to add employees missing from the update event. You may need to create an update event to rectify the issue of having incorrectly marked all employees as Is Final in a previous event. In this instance, when you select Add Employee, you'll have the option of adding all employees previously marked as final.
- Request Client Authority: This option will only appear to businesses that are using Tax/BAS Agents to submit STP information to the ATO (based on your ATO Settings). If there's no Standing Authority or this event doesn’t cover a standard pay cycle, a Client Authority is required. The employer must provide a declaration to the agent approving the lodgement. When you select Request Client Authority, you'll need to fill in the following information:
- User: When you select the User field, a dropdown list of full access users and users with STP Pay Event Approver permission will appear. You can select one or more of these users to request Client Authority from. However, only one person is required to approve the event lodgement.
- Notes: You can enter any notes here that you want the Client Authority to read when they are sent the request notification email.
- Note: When you select Submit Request, a notification email will be sent to the assigned Client Authority, and the lodgement status will change from Created to Waiting on client authority.
- Refresh Data: Refreshes the payroll data in your update event to include the most recent pay run information.
Client Authority required to action an update event
This only applies to update events lodged with the ATO as a registered tax or BAS agent.
An assigned client authority will be notified that they are required to action an update event via email. The email will include a link to the update event.
The authoriser will see the same information as the user who made the request but can only perform the following actions:
- Approve lodgement
- Reject lodgement
- Export an excel report of the update event
If the authoriser rejects the lodgement, they'll need to add a reason for the rejection. Once this is done, you will be notified by email.
If you sent a request to more than one client authority, there is still the opportunity that another client authority approves the lodgement. However, if you have not, you will need to send another client authority request.
Note: You can't send the request again to the same client authority who rejected the lodgement.
When the authoriser approves the lodgement, they will be required to complete a declaration that will appear in the form of a pop-up.
The client authority will need to tick the checkbox and then select Approve Update Event. Once this is done, you will be notified by email. The lodgement status will change from Waiting on client authority to Client Authorised and you can now start the lodgement process.
Step 2: Lodge the update event
The steps to lodging an update event are different depending on your ATO Settings:
I am lodging reports to the ATO as a registered Tax/BAS Agent
- Select Lodge with ATO.
- Select the options for Lodge As and Using authority options.
- Tick the declaration checkbox and then select Lodge Update Event.
The lodgement is now queued for ATO submission.
Note: If there is no Standing Authority or Client Authority who has approved the lodgement, you cannot proceed with the lodgement and will need to obtain that authority beforehand.
Delete an update event
You can only delete update events if they have not yet been lodged with the ATO. To delete an update event:
- Select the Delete Update Event button.
- Select Delete.
Content sourced from Employment Hero
