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Create and lodge a quarterly pay event for closely held employees

SOLVED•by QuickBooks•10•Updated September 18, 2023

Before you begin: Have you set up your employees as closely held in QuickBooks Online Payroll powered by Employment Hero? Learn how to set up closely held employees for STP here.

How to lodge a quarterly pay event via STP

  1. Select Payroll from the left menu.
  2. Select Reports, then select Single Touch Payroll under ATO Reporting.
  3. Select Report closely held employees quarterly.
    • This button only appears for businesses that have finalised pay runs with employees classified as closely held AND are using the quarterly basis reporting method. If closely held employees are being reported on a per pay run basis then this button will not appear. More information on setup can be found here.
  4. Select the Financial year and the quarter you want to report, then select Create.
    quarterlypayevent_QBOP_AU_EXT_230821.gif

In the pay event, you will see the accumulated year-to-date amounts up to the last pay date within the quarter being reported in the pay event.

For example, if a business is reporting a pay event for the July to Sept quarter (first quarter of the financial year), earnings from all pay runs with a date paid on or from 1 July 2021 up to 30 Sept 2021 will be included in this event. This includes any adhoc pay runs using different pay schedules with a date paid of 1 July 2021 to 30 Sept 2021.

When a business then lodges their October to December quarterly pay event, earnings from all pay runs with a date paid on or from 1 July 2021 up to 31 December 2021 will be included in this event. This includes any adhoc pay runs using different pay schedules with a date paid of 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Can I edit any information contained in a Pay Event?

There are only 2 items that can be edited in a pay event - Reportable Fringe Benefits Amount (RFBA) or Is Final.

RFBA

To edit an employee RFBA:

  1. Select the pencil icon under the RFBA column for the specific employee.
  2. Enter the gross RFBA amount and select the green tick icon to save it.

Is Final

If an employee has terminated employment and 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.

What to do if the quarterly figures in the Pay Event are incorrect
The figures that show up in the Pay Event are calculated by adding up all finalised pay runs during the quarter. If the figures don't add up, it is recommended to check the Detailed Activity Report to find out if there are missing or duplicated pay runs that could be causing it.

To access the Detailed Activity Report:
1. Within Employees, select the Reports tab.
2. Under the Payroll column, select Detailed Activity Report.
3. In the Date range drop-down menu, select the date range of the quarter.
Select Run report.

Expand the report to see a breakdown per employee. Click on the employee name to see a pay run breakdown and identify individual pay runs that could affect the total earnings.

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 have completed your final pay run for the financial year, the pay event can be marked as final.  Making this declaration will update the employee's myGov display to show the STP information from the employer is final for the financial year. You can do this step in lieu of submitting a finalisation event.
  • 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, thereby denoting that the employees will still be receiving payments in 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. When you click on Add Employee you will be given 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). A Client Authority may be required if:
    • there is no Standing Authority, or;
    • this event does not cover a standard pay cycle and so the employer must provide a declaration to the agent approving the lodgement.
  • When selecting Request Client Authority, you will 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.

If your STP settings are set to lodging reports to the ATO as a registered Tax/BAS agent, an assigned client authority will be notified that they are required to action a pay event via email. The email will include a link to the pay 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 will 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 cannot 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 popup,
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.

Lodging a Pay Event

The steps to lodging a pay event are different depending on your ATO Settings:

  1. Select Lodge with ATO
  2. Tick the declaration checkbox and then select Lodge Pay Event

The lodgement is now queued for ATO submission.

  1. Select Lodge with ATO
  2. Select the options for Lodge As and Using authority options
  3. Tick the declaration checkbox and then select Lodge Pay 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.

The following popup will appear:

  1. Select Lodge with ATO
  2. Tick the declaration checkbox and then select Lodge Update Event

The lodgement is now queued for ATO submission.

Quarterly STP reporting due dates

The quarterly STP event must be successfully lodged on or before the due date of your quarterly activity statements. If your activity statement is due later than the regular due date (for example, because you are entitled to a concession or have a deferral), then the quarterly STP event must be lodged by your later activity statement due date.

If you report your PAYG withholding on monthly activity statements, your quarterly STP report, including amounts paid to your closely held payees, is due on the same day as your activity statement for the final month of the quarter. If your activity statement is due later than the regular due date (for example, because you are entitled to a concession or have a deferral) then your quarterly STP report is still due by your later activity statement due date.

If you are reporting actual payments on a quarterly basis, you only need to lodge an STP event in the quarters where you have made a payment that you need to report. For example, if you only make a payment that you need to report through STP in the December and June quarters, you only need to lodge an STP event for those two quarters (and finalise your STP reporting at the end of the financial year).

If you have chosen to report estimates on a quarterly basis, you must lodge an STP event in each quarter of the financial year.

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