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How to Lodge an STP reset event to fix incorrectly reported business or employee settings

SOLVED•by QuickBooks•12•Updated January 17, 2024

Learn how to use an Earnings Reset Event to reset STP events lodged to the ATO, and fix incorrectly reported information to be re-lodged to the ATO.

An earnings reset event can reset incorrectly reported data such as:

An incorrect employing entity specified for an employee
An incorrect ABN specified in the Business Details, ATO Settings, or Employing Entities sections
An incorrect ABN branch number or no branch number set up in the ATO Settings or Employing Entities sections
An incorrect BMS ID: the incorrect BMS ID set up in the Electronic Lodgement & STP section (located in ATO Settings) or Employing Entities section when transferring over to QuickBooks Payroll powered by Employment Hero
An incorrect employee STP Payroll ID assigned to an employee in the employee’s Opening Balances (STP tab) when transferring over to QuickBooks Payroll powered by Employment Hero

Step 1: Lodge an Earnings Reset Event

Select Payroll from the left menu.
Select the Reports tab, then select Single Touch Payroll in the ATO Reporting section.
Select the arrow dropdown icon next to Create Update Event, then select Create Earnings Reset Event.
- Note: If the Create Earnings Reset Event option is greyed out, it means you have not lodged any successful events for that financial year. Therefore, you cannot create an earnings reset event as there is no information to reset.
Read the information box that explains the purpose of an earnings reset event, then select Continue.
Select the Financial Year, employing entity and, if applicable, the specific employees you wish to create a reset event for, then select Create.
The Earnings Reset Event will appear, with all earnings set to $0. This is what will be reported to the ATO once lodged.
Select Lodge with ATO.

Once successfully lodged, the next step is to fix the business or employee settings and re-lodge this with the ATO.

Step 2: Fix incorrect payroll settings and re-lodge to the ATO

Important: For all scenarios detailed below:

Do not correct the issues until after the reset event is successfully lodged.
Create and lodge an update event immediately after you have corrected the issues.
If you have completed a Finalisation Event for this financial year then you will need to lodge an amended finalisation event instead of an update event.

How to correct lodging STP events for an employee attached to the incorrect employing entity

Lodge the Earnings Reset Event successfully with the ATO.
Select Payroll from the left menu.
Select the employee’s name, then select Tax File Declaration from the left menu.
Select Change in the Employing Entity section.
Update the New Employing Entity from the dropdown menu.
Select the employee's start date or custom (if changed which employing entity they worked at a later point in time) from the As of dropdown.
Select Change Employing Entity.
Repeat this process for all other affected employees.
Lodge an update event to send all updated data to the ATO.

How to correct lodging STP events when the wrong ABN was used

Lodge the Earnings Reset Event successfully with the ATO.
Select Payroll from the left menu.
Select the Payroll Settings tab.
Select Details under Business Settings.
Update the ABN and select Save.
Lodge an update event to send all updated data to the ATO.

(If applicable) To update the ABN for an Employing Entity:

Select the Payroll Settings tab.
Select Employing Entities under Business Settings.
Select the name of the employing entity, then update the ABN and select Save.
Lodge an update event to send all updated data to the ATO.

Notes:

Ensure the new ABN is integrated with the ATO for STP reporting or lodgements will fail. Learn how to enable STP.
If you receive the error “Your submission was not processed. We were unable to process your submission because you have not reported using Single Touch Payroll for that financial year", you will need to lodge a pay event first before lodging an update event. This pay event can be any not-yet-lodged pay event, or an ad-hoc pay run to be lodged as a pay event.

How to correct lodging STP events when the incorrect branch number or no branch number was used

Lodge the Earnings Reset Event successfully with the ATO.
Select Payroll from the left menu.
Select the Payroll Settings tab.
Select ATO Settings under Business Settings.
Navigate to the Branch Number field and update the branch number.
Select Save.
Lodge an update event to send all updated data to the ATO.

Note: Not all business entities have branch numbers by default. The ATO provides businesses with branch numbers which can be found on the ATO Portal.

How to tell if you've entered your branch number in QuickBooks Payroll:

If the ABN for an employing entity is 11111111111/003, the branch number is 003. The number before the “/” is your ABN. Therefore you will need to specify the 003 in your Payroll Settings or your STP lodgements will be lodged incorrectly.
If the number after your ABN is /001, then it means you don’t have a branch number. Therefore you can leave the Branch Number fields in your entity settings blank. If you have already entered 001, there is no need to remove it.

How to correct lodging STP events when the incorrect BMS ID was used

Lodge the Earnings Reset Event successfully with the ATO.
Select Payroll from the left menu.
Select the Payroll Settings tab.
Select ATO Settings under Business Settings.
Select the Electronic Lodgement & STP tab.
Under the Business Management Software (BMS) ID section, tick the box next to I want to use my previous payroll software’s BMS ID.
Read the confirmation message, type “continue” in the text box and select Confirm.
Select Change next to the BMS ID.
Update the BMS ID and select Save.
Check that your employees' STP Payroll IDs are correct, then lodge an update event to send all updated data to the ATO.

Note: This scenario should only occur if you have transferred payroll systems during the financial year. An incorrect BMS ID will likely cause duplicate records or overstated earnings being reported to the ATO.

If you want to migrate year-to-date payroll information and use the previous system’s BMS ID to report STP going forward, both the BMS ID and employee STP Payroll ID need to change. Learn how to update the STP Payroll ID in the next section.

How to correct lodging STP events when the incorrect STP Payroll ID was used for an employee

Lodge the Earnings Reset Event successfully with the ATO.
Update your BMS ID by following the instructions in the previous section - this is important as once updated, the option to change an employee’s STP Payroll ID will appear.
Select Payroll from the left menu.
Select the employee’s name, then select Opening Balances from the left menu.
Select the STP tab.
Select Change next to the STP Payroll ID. If the option does not appear, you need to update your BMS ID.
Update the STP Payroll ID then select Update.
Lodge an update event to send all updated data to the ATO.

Note: By default, QuickBooks Payroll uses the employee’s Employee ID as the STP Payroll ID.

How do I reverse an earnings reset event?

To reverse an earnings reset event reported to the ATO, lodge an update event for the relevant Pay Schedule. This will resend the current year-to-date earnings for all employees in that Pay Schedule.

Additional Information about the Earnings Reset Event

There is no ability to edit the RFBA column. This is by design so all earnings, including previously reported RFBA, are “wiped out”.
When an earnings reset event is created after the lodgement of a finalisation event or amended finalisation event, any employees that were included in these events will automatically be marked as “Is Final”.
If you create an earnings reset event for an employee that has been terminated in a pay run and the associated pay event was lodged, that employee will automatically be marked as “Is Final”.
The Actions button includes the following:
- Mark all as Is Final: this allows you to bulk mark all employees as “Is Final”.
- Mark all as Not Final: this will appear if all employees are marked as “Is Final” and allows you to bulk mark all employees as “Not Final”.
- Add Employee: use this function if you want to add additional employees to the earnings reset event
- Request Client Authority: this will appear if the business is using a registered tax/BAS agent to lodge events. As with any event type, you will need to obtain authorisation from your client before proceeding with lodging this event.
Excel reports are not available for earnings reset events as the information contained in them is zero.

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