Submitting STP in foundU

The process of Single Touch Payroll (STP) means that every time a payslip, adjustment or payslip edit is generated in foundU, an STP file is created, ready to be sent to the ATO.

When the ATO introduced STP Phase 2, this introduced greater visibility on STP reporting categories that flow through to the ATO. These reporting categories are reflected in your foundU platform.

In this article, we will cover:

  • Understanding STP and how STP reports to the ATO
  • Submitting STP after processing payroll
  • Troubleshooting Errors on the STP page

  The scope of this guide covers submitting STP, for more information on finalising your STP data, please refer to our EOFY Single Touch Payroll (STP) finalisation article.

Understanding STP

Each time you submit STP through your foundU platform, this pay data flows to the ATO where the ATO will report this to the relevant government agencies.

The ATO receives visibility of what employees have been paid but also reduces and streamlines interactions for both employee and employer. 

In their myGov account, your employees will be able to see their year-to-date tax and super information in their income statement. Their data is updated every time you report through STP. For most employers, this will be each pay day.

Throughout your platform, you'll see specific STP reporting categories that flow directly to the ATO for reporting purposes. This will occur each time you submit STP.

STP categories in your platform are marked with a blue ATO badge.  Blue ATO badge.png

STP categories in your platform include:

  • Income types
  • Paid leave types
  • Salary sacrifice
  • Deductions
  • Allowances and pay items
  • Lump sums payments

  Visit the ATO website for more information on STP reporting guidelines

At the end of the financial year, you'll need to finalise your STP data. This means you are making a declaration that you have completed your reporting for the financial year.

Once you finalise your data, your employees' Income statement in ATO online services will be marked as 'Tax ready'. The employee, or their registered agent, will use the Income statement to lodge their tax return.

  For more information on finalising your STP data, please refer to our EOFY Single Touch Payroll (STP) finalisation article. 

Submitting STP

An STP file will be created and ready for you to submit each time a payslip, adjustment or payslip edit is generated in foundU. You can easily manage your STP lodgements through your platform's Single Touch Payroll page.

The functionality of the STP page will give you the ability to:

  • Easily find an STP submission with filters of pay date, paying entity or employee.
  • Use the coloured badges to easily view the status of STP submission (Blocked, Overdue, Due and Completed).
  • Submit STP submissions singularly or in bulk depending on your preferences.
  • Need to review an STP submission? Easily view the data on screen or via the download option.

  Tip: Each time a processed payslip is edited, a new STP packet is created. If there are multiple edits, multiple STP packets will be created. This process helps create a more robust audit history. Please use the bulk submit feature explained below to submit all the STP packets. 

To make an STP submission: 

  1. Navigate to Payroll > Single Touch Payroll.
  2. The STP page will default to show pending STP submissions ready for submission. They will be displayed in chronological order by payment date ready to be reviewed and submitted to the ATO.
    • Each STP submission will display the following information:
      • ID - Select to reorder if necessary
      • Event - Type of STP event (i.e. P = Pay Event, U = Update event, Z = Zero out) & number of Employees- Employees included in the associated STP submission
      • ABN 
      • Branch 
      • Paying entity - Paying entity
      • Pay date- The date the pay event was created
      • ATO ID - Unique Identifier of the STP submission at the ATO
      • Status - Status of STP submission (Error, Overdue, Due or Completed)
  3. Prior to submitting, you may like to select the Event to review the employees and details.

     Tip: Optionally, select an employee's name from the drawer and you'll be redirected back to the Employee Profile. You can select the financial tab > YTD to see the employee's earnings.


  4. To submit, you'll have the option to select a single submission or do them in bulk:
    • A single submission- Select the Blue Submit button on the right.
    • Multiple submissions- Use the tick boxes on the left to select multiple.

       Tip: You can submit your STP submissions in any order.
  5. You'll now have progressed from the STP submission to the Review submission step. By selecting the relevant submission at the top of the screen, you'll be able to see all employees and their relevant income details that make up that submission.
  6. Select Details to review the employee's STP data. In the details pop-up you'll see:
    • The employee's pay period data-  This will list all reportable STP category items.
    • An option to export via the CSV for YTD button, this will export all YTD details for the employee.

  7. Once you have reviewed the data in the STP submission, tick the declaration and 'Submit to ATO'.


Once the submission is lodged, you'll be redirected back to the main STP Submissions page, your STP submission will show a status as 'Generating', and Complete once it has been completed. The status of 'Completed' indicates that your submissions have been received by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) successfully.

  Watch the below gif to see how to submit an STP submission. You'll also see how to view the details of that STP submission (per employee) using the 'Details' option, or how to download all employee YTD data to CSV if you choose.

 

Viewing completed STP Submissions

To view a completed STP submission: 

  1. Select the green completed badge on the main Single Touch Payroll page to view all completed submissions.
  2. Filter by pay date, paying entity or employee to locate the completed STP submission you're after. 
  3. To view the submission you'll have 2 options:
    • Select View - You'll be redirected to the View submission screen where you can view all data on screen without downloading.
    • Select the down arrow > Download CSV - This will download the selected CSV.

 Tip: Here you can export your submitted/completed STP submissions to a CSV file or filter to the relevant employee or Paying entity to help with STP reconciliation.

Addressing blocked STP submissions

In the unlikely event that your data fails validation, you will see a 'Blocked' status of the submission. This means the ATO has returned your lodged data in an error state.

When a submission is blocked, you will need to resolve it by making the appropriate changes in the platform.

Items that may cause a blocked submission could include:

  • Changes to the Employee Profile (e.g. address, TFN details, etc).
  • Missing STP categories from pay items, allowances, leave items or deductions
  • Edits or Adjustments to payslips that result in a YTD less than 0
  • Timeout issue with the ATO
  • Invalid or missing paying entity data

To view STP errors:

  1. In Pay > Single Touch Payroll, for any submission that has a status of blocked, select Review to see the STP error.

  2. Errors will always be listed with the ATO code and error details that will advise what needs to be corrected in the platform for the STP submission to be lodged.
    • Platform admins can often remedy error types if they display a 'Fix Now' button. Select the button to be taken to the part of your platform to address the error.



    • Instructions will indicate errors requiring action from a foundU team member.

  3. Once the relevant changes have been made, return to the main Single Touch Payroll page to review and select Regenerate on the relevant submission.
  4. This will reprocess your STP packet in our platform and it will be returned in a 'ready to submit' state if the errors are resolved. Please Submit this packet as normal.

  Tip: Errors without a 'Fix Now' option to self-remedy the problem should be a much rarer occurrence than they have been with our recent changes to STP in March 2024, you can also check out our STP Troubleshooting guide. However, if you are having issues with resolving any STP errors, please contact help@foundu.com.au for further assistance.