Why is there no option to issue payment summaries to my employees when STP is not even turned ON?

Hi , 

We have an exemption of STP for 2019-20 FY, hence we did not report payroll using STP. 

But why can't we still generate payment summaries. 

Hi AAsija,

In order to generate payment summaries, you need a) to have an exemption from the ATO and b) the employees need to be marked as closely held in payroll:

1. Go to the Employees tab.
2. Then click on the Employee Name.
3. Go to Pay Run Defaults.
4. Scroll till the end and Tick ON "Closely Held Employee"
5. Hit Save.

Once this has been done, you should be able to generate the payment summaries for the employees. See below for some more resources on payment summaries if needed:

Creating Payment Summaries

Creating/Lodging PAYG Payment Summary Reports

EOFY Payroll Reconciliation using Payment Summaries

-Kass

Hi,

We have lodged using STP and have completed the finalisation for a number of clients. The amounts in the finalisation screen in QuickBooks is correct but some amounts are not being reflected correctly by the ATO.

There needs to be an option to produce Payment Summaries for employees as a confirmation of what we have paid them.

The STP system at the ATO's end is full of issues and people need to ability to verify the the amounts that are in their MyGov accounts is correct.

Users of QuickBooks need the ability to produce Payment Summaries.  

Hi Charlie32, 

Only businesses that are exempted from STP reporting and have marked their employees as 'Closely Held' in their Pay Run Defaults are able to generate and provide payment summaries to their employees; as per the new ATO requirements, all employees whose earnings are reported through STP must now access their summaries (now known as income statements) via their MyGov accounts. For a guide on the different requirements see here. 

If you do not have this setup in payroll you can still run various reports to show the employees' total earnings and provide this to them as needed. As an example, the Gross to Net Report (found in the Employees > Reports section) is quite similar to a payment summary in that it shows the employee's total earnings, super, PAYG, other deductions etc. Depending on what exactly you want the report to show, you could customise this or other reports to export and provide to the employees.

If all earnings for the business are being reported through STP, the figures in ATO should be a direct replication of what has been reported in QuickBooks Online pay/finalisation events. Once a Finalisation event has been successfully submitted, you can export a YTD report from the event and compare this to the figures held with the ATO as there may be amounts on this report that don't show on the main Finalisation event screen (an example could be Union Fee Deductions or other deductions). To do so:

1. Go to Employees, then Reports.
2. Select Single Touch Payroll (under the ATO Reporting subheading).
3. Select the correct financial year and click on the event to open it. 
4. Select Actions, then Excel (YTD).

We understand it would be concerning to find these amounts don't match, and you are more than welcome to contact us to confirm the Finalisation Event has been submitted correctly or how to process an Amended Finalisation if changes have been made. If you are confident the figures in QuickBooks Online are correct, we would also recommend you contact the ATO directly to determine why the correct figures aren't displayed.

-Kass