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Standard & Advanced Payroll Activity Report (SPAR/ APAR)

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Home of your post-payroll reporting

For your post-payroll reporting needs, the key go-to reports are the Payroll Activity reports, also referred to as PAYG or payroll reports. These reports are essential for tracking and analysing payroll-related data.

When it comes to payroll activity reports, you have two options to choose from:

  • Standard Payroll Activity Report (SPAR)
    • For a quick, high-level overview of your payroll reporting, this is most beneficial for smaller businesses.
  • Advanced Payroll Activity Report (APAR)
    • A versatile report with additional grouping and filters helps to further break down your data. This report is highly customisable to meet your business needs.

This article will cover:

  • Considerations before you start
  • Using the Payroll Activity Reports
  • Payroll Costs per Cost Centre (Rosters)
  • Costing per Employee
  • Payroll Reporting using Cash Basis
  • Breaking Costs per Line Item (shift, leave, super, and allowance breakdowns)

  If you need to review your pre-payroll labour costs, please consult our article on using the Labour Management Report (LMR).

Using the Payroll Activity Reports

Before you start

After you finish processing your payroll, it's important to choose the payroll activity report that best fits your needs, as each report has unique functionalities.

Below are the distinctive features of each report so you can determine which one suits your specific requirements.

Standard Payroll Activity Report

The Standard Report is your go-to report for a concise overview of your payroll costs or to view payroll adjustments. this is a great report for your start-up businesses. 

This report is most commonly used in the following scenarios:

    • To produce a report of your total wages by office code/ per entity.
      • For example, to view total wages for Office 1 vs Office 2. 
    • To review any adjustments made are highlighted; this is a useful tool when balancing your accounting.



    • If you had any terminations, you're also able to choose a report that either includes:
      • Payslips with Leave Terminations
      • Payslips without Leave Terminations

 

Advanced Payroll Activity Report

The Advanced Report is the go-to post-payroll report due to its wide range of customisability, especially with the available grouping and filtering options.

This report is most commonly used in the following scenarios:

    • To externally cost staff working across multiple paying entities.
    • To complete your end of financial year reconciliations when comparing against the STP Report.
    • To provide Payroll Tax information to the ATO in the required format is helpful for troubleshooting any payroll tax not balancing.
    • To produce a WorkCover reports grouped by state or viewing the WorkCover liability.
    • For Labour Hire, it's also helpful for job costing and viewing total ways per Operation.
    • To view costs per Roster and Cost Centre.
    • For Post pay reporting. This can then be used for reporting for your accounting system. 

  Hot tip: For our customers using MYOB or Xero for accounting, you can map and export your payroll leger in foundU. For further reading, please refer to our articles for MYOB and Xero.   

Running the Payroll Activity Reports

Payroll Activity Reports are valuable reports that can be generated after payroll processing. These reports use data from generated payslips, allowing you to create a report that will include payslip edits, weekly allowances, and on-costs. 

The following items are included in your Payroll Activity Reports:

    • Employee hours
    • Gross Wages and Net Pay
    • Allowances, Deductions, and Reimbursements
    • PAYG Withholding
    • Superannuation

When generating these reports, you'll see 2 columns that show an employee's total earnings: Gross Pay and Taxable Total.

Each of these columns employs a different method to calculate an employee's earnings. Please refer below for each calculation method to ensure you're choosing the right one for your reporting needs.

  • Gross Pay = Wages + Taxable Allowances + Non Taxable Allowances
    • This field will be available for reports from FY 23/24 and blank for reports prior.
  • Taxable Total = Wages + Taxable Allowances - Gross Deductions - Super Salary Sacrifice
    • This field will be available for reports for FY 22/23 and earlier.

To run the Payroll Activity Reports:

  1. In the quick menu, navigate to Reports > Financial and select either Standard or Advanced.
  2. Select a specific date for your report or a custom date range by adding a start and end date.
  3. Select your Groupings (data columns to display). Select + Add Grouping for multiple groupings. The groupings available are:
    • Groupings available for both reports
      • Period End
      • Payslip
      • Employee ID
      • Office Code ID
      • Month
      • Batch
    • Groupings available for the Advanced Payroll Activity Report
      • Line Item
      • Batch ID
      • Batch Label
      • Employment Type (available from FY20/21 onwards).
      • Workcover code
      • Payroll Tax State
      • Cost Code/ Purchase order
      • Office Code
      • Operation - This will display the Operation Name and ID as separate columns. 
      • Operation Office Code
      • Paying Entity
      • Position
      • Income Type (SAW, WHM, FEI)
      • State
      • Payment Date
  4. Apply any other filters or leave them blank to show all.
  5. You can also select the below checkboxes:
    • Checkboxes available for both reports
      • Cash Basis - Sorts data by payment date instead of by period. 
      • Separate Superannuation Contribution Types - Separates superannuation by type (Salary Sacrifice, Employer/ Employee Super Contributions).
      • Split Deductions - Separates into gross/ net deductions columns.
      • Exclude totals in export - Excludes totals when exporting. 
    • Checkboxes available for the Standard Payroll Activity Report
      • List Accruals - Includes the value of each leave type accrued. 
      • Split Pay Items - Lists taxable and non-taxable pay items. 
      • Show Adjustments - Shows any adjustments made in that time period (e.g. over-payments/ under-payments).
    • Checkboxes available for the Advanced Payroll Activity Report
      • Show ABN - Includes ABN when grouping by Office Code.
      • Display Non-Reported STP Amount Separately - Includes fields for Non-Reported STP Totals and Deductions. 
      • Show Salaried Only - Filters report to include only salaried employees. 
  6. Select Submit to run the report
  7. You can also export the data as a CSV, PDF or Print as needed.

  Hot tip: The Search function on the left also allows you to see a specific employee, for example, in a larger list.

Common Advanced Payroll Activity Report Scenarios

Costing per Cost Centre (Roster)

One of the most common ways to view the Advanced Payroll Activity Report is per cost centre, as this allows you to break down your report per specific departments, jobs, and clients, depending on the configuration of your platform.

Breaking down costs per cost centre can include:

    • Per Operation
    • By Paying Entity
    • Employee's/ Operation's Office Code
    • Per Cost Code/ Purchase Order 
      • By default, your roster names are your Cost Code/ Purchase Orders.

  Hot tip: To customise your roster's cost centres further, you can use shift costing to apply multiple cost codes to a shift. Alternatively, day costing can be used to override the cost codes for all shifts on a roster for a day. For further reading, please refer to our article on Cost Codes/ Purchase Orders. 

How to filter by Cost Centre: 

  1. Within the Advanced Payroll Activity Report, specify your Date Range. 
  2. In the Group by menu, select Cost Code/ Purchase Order.
  3. To filter for specific cost centres, select from the options in the following filter fields:
    • Cost Code/ Purchase Order
    • Operation
    • Paying Entity
  4. Select Submit.

  Hot tip: You can further customise your report to suit your needs by applying additional groupings and filters, such as Employee ID, Operation, or Paying Entity. 

Below is an example that shows the data grouped by Cost Code/ Purchase Order. The report has also been filtered to view only FOH and BOH cost centres.

  Warning: You may notice 2 columns relating to employee earnings. Taxable Total shows up in reports for FY 22/23 and earlier, while Gross Pay is used for periods thereafter. 

Costing per Employee

The Advanced Payroll Activity Report can be used to group employees, which may be preferable for the following circumstances:

    • Checking a payslip/ pay history.

    • Indentifying individual employee costs. 

    • Viewing leave paid to an employee (when also grouped by line item).

How to filter by Employee: 

  1. Within the Advanced Payroll Activity Report, specify your Date Range. 
  2. In the Group by menu, select Employee ID.
  3. To filter for superannuation and deductions, select the Separate Superannuation Contribution Types and Split Deductions checkboxes. 
  4. Select Submit.

  Hot tip: You can further customise your report to suit your needs by applying additional groupings and filters, such as Payslip, Operation or Cost Code/ Purchase Order. 

Below is an example that shows the data grouped by Employee ID. 

  Warning: You may notice 2 columns relating to employee earnings. Taxable Total shows up in reports for FY 22/23 and earlier, while Gross Pay is used for periods thereafter. 

Costing with Cash Basis

When creating a financial report in foundU, the platform can organise your payroll data for the selected period in two ways:

    • Accrual Basis - Reports based on your period end dates.
    • Cash Basis - Reports based on your payment dates.

Below, we will discuss these methods in more detail.

Accrual Basis

Generating a financial report on an Accrual Basis means that the report will display payroll information for your chosen period end, regardless of when it was processed/ paid to an employee.

One key benefit of using the Accrual Basis is that the report will be updated to include any edits, adjustments, or early/late payments made to employees because they still apply to the same pay period.

In foundU, the Accrual Basis is the default setting for the Advanced Payroll Activity Report.

SCENARIO

We will use the following example to see how the Advanced Payroll Activity Report can be generated on an Accrual Basis.      

Cassandra, a Payroll Officer, is looking to run a post-payroll report for their recent pay period the fortnight of 06/05/2024 - 19/05/2024.

  • In this report, she will need to see the labour and payroll costs associated with each employee with this pay period.

How can Cassandra use the Advanced Payroll Activity Report to achieve this?

  • The Advanced Payroll Activity Report can be grouped by Employee ID for the period 06/05/2024 - 19/05/2024, to see costs per employee. 
  • When generating this report, the Cash Basis checkbox is not selected; as such, it is being generated by Accrual Basis. 

As shown in the image below, this report has additionally been grouped by Payment Date. This demonstrates that when using an Accrual Basis,  payroll costs for the period include payslip edits and adjustments and early/ late payroll processing. 

You will notice that in the image above, we have multiple payment dates; however, all period end dates are the same.

 

Cash Basis 

When generating a financial report on a Cash Basis, the Advanced Payroll Activity Report will display the pay processed/ paid during your chosen period of time, regardless of the pay period it relates to.

Some key benefits of using Cash Basis are that:

    • Helpful when creating a BAS report.
    • Searching for a specific payslip paid.
    • Checking which pays in a financial year. 
    • Reconciling Super Payments (Cash Basis).
    • Tracing the history of pay adjustments.

SCENARIO

We will use the following example to show how the Advanced Payroll Activity Report can be generated on a Cash Basis.      

Cassandra is looking to run another post-payroll report, this time to see what was paid for the fortnight of 06/05/2024 - 19/05/2024.

  • In this report, she will need to see what pay was processed for each employee within this period.

How can Cassandra use the Advanced Payroll Activity Report to achieve this?

  • The Advanced Payroll Activity Report can be grouped by Employee ID for the period 06/05/2024 - 19/05/2024 to see pay per employee. 
  • When generating this report, select the Cash Basis checkbox to generate by Cash Basis. 

As shown in the image below, this report has additionally been grouped by Payment Date. This demonstrates that when using a Cash Basis,  the report will show all pay processed regardless of the period the payslip is for. 

You will notice that in the image above, we have multiple period end dates; however, all payment dates are between 06/05/2024 and 19/05/2024.

How to filter by Cash Basis: 

  1. Within the Advanced Payroll Activity Report, specify your Date Range. 
  2. In the Group by menu, select your preferred groupings.
  3. To filter for cash basis, select the Cash Basis checkbox. 
  4. Select Submit.

  Hot tip: You can further customise your report to suit your needs by applying additional groupings and filters, such as Paying Entity, Employee ID/ Operation or Cost Code/ Purchase Order. 

Costing per Line Item

One of the best ways to filter the Advanced Payroll Activity Report is by breaking it down by Line Item. Some key benefits of filtering by Line Item include separating:

    • Ordinary, Weekend, Public Holiday, and Overtime amounts.
    • Allowances and shift penalties.
    • Leave types.

  Hot tip: You can further break down this report for superannuation and deductions by selecting the appropriate checkboxes. When using the Advanced Payroll Activity Report, allowances will be automatically split between taxable and non-taxable.

How to filter by Line Item: 

  1. Within the Advanced Payroll Activity Report, specify your Date Range. 
  2. In the Group by menu, select Line Item.
  3. To filter for superannuation and deductions, select the Separate Superannuation Contribution Types and Split Deductions checkboxes. 
  4. Select Submit.

  Hot tip: You can further customise your report to suit your needs by applying additional groupings and filters, such as Paying Entity, Employee ID/ Operation or Cost Code/ Purchase Order. 

Below is an example that shows the data grouped by Line Item.

Filters for Separate Superannuation Contribution Types and Split Deductions have been applied to further break down the payroll data.

  Warning: You may notice 2 columns relating to employee earnings. Taxable Total shows up in reports for FY 22/23 and earlier, while Gross Pay is used for periods thereafter. 

We have included a copy of the Advanced Payroll Activity Report exported to CSV, grouped by Employee ID and Line Item.

      

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