STP - How to create a Pay Event and Lodge

Creating & Lodging a Pay Event

Whenever an employer makes a payment (that is, creates a pay run) to an employee that is subject to withholding, they are required to lodge a pay event with the ATO on or before the date the payment is made.  

Step 1 - Create a Pay Event

Pay event can only be created upon finalizing a Payrun. You will see the following options when finalizing a pay run in relation to creating a pay event:

On the Create pay event section, you'll be asked to select the appropriate option. (see image below)

Create pay event manually at a later date ( You can use this method)

• If you selected this option and clicked on the Finalise button, the Payrun will be finalised as per the standard process.

• If the "later date" has already arrived and you want to proceed with creating your pay event, you may simply create the associated pay event & Lodge, you may simply follow the process enumerated below:

  • 1. Access the Payrun you recently finalised.

  • 2. Click on Lodge Payrun with ATO.

  • 3. After that, you'll be redirected to the Create Pay Event Lodgement Screen.

Create Pay Event Immediately

1. If you selected this option, you will be directed to the Create Pay Event Lodgement Screen directly.



Step 2 - Review and edit pay event

 Create Pay Event Lodgement Screen

A list of all employees with payment details attached to that pay run will appear on the screen along with their year to date details:

• Enumerated below are few things that need attention when a Pay Event is created:

  • 1. Filtering your view-you can filter your view by searching for a specific employee. 

    • NOTE: When the event is lodged, it will be lodged for ALL employees in that pay event; which only means that FILTERING does not FILTER the data lodged with ATO.

  • 2. Employees who have changed between a working holiday maker (where Type = H) and a non-working holiday maker (where Type = S) during the financial year will have a row of data per tax change;

  • 3. Terminated employees who have received an ETP will still appear in the event with the 'Is Final' checkbox automatically ticked;

  • 4. You can choose to view the payroll figures pertaining to the actual pay run in addition to the YTD figures by clicking on 'Show figures from this pay run'. The screen view will update to include the pay run figures, highlighted in blue (see below);  

  • Totals for each column will appear at the bottom of the event. Separate pay run only totals will also appear when the 'Show figures from this pay run' option is selected:
     

Editing Information contained in a Pay Event

If you wish to edit some information in a Pay Event, be aware that you can only edit two (2) items.

1. Reportable Fringe Benefits Amount (RFBA)

• Reporting: You can choose to report employee RFBA on an ongoing basis or at the end of the financial year. 

  • 1. To edit an employee RFBA. Click on the Pencil icon under the RFBA column for the specific employee. 

  • 2.  Enter the grossed-up RFBA value and then click on the green tick icon. 

  • 3. If you choose to enter RFBA on an ongoing basis, you must enter the amount as a YTD value.

  • NOTE A: If you're eligible and have selected the appropriate options at the bottom of the ATO settings page, you can separate the RFBA reported into Entertainment RFBA and Non-Entertainment RFBA.

  • NOTE B: Just enter the RFBA Amount and the system will separate the exempt and non-exempt amounts in the event based on the "FBT exempt organization type" selected.

• Is Final: 

  • 1. If an employee has terminated employment and a termination pay has been processed, the "Is Final" checkbox will be ticked automatically. 

  • 2. If the employee has not been terminated within a payrun but 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. 

  • 3. If an employee is reinstated and the same employee payroll ID is used, you will need to untick the "Is Final" checkbox.

Pay Event Actions

On the right side of the event table, you will notice that there is an 'Actions' option where you can undertake the following actions.

Step 3 - Lodging the Pay Event

1. To Lodge a Pay event, click on "Lodge with ATO".

NOTE: At this stage, if Two-Factor Authentication has been set up, you will be required to enter the verification code sent to you before you can proceed any further. You know this will be required when the following popup appears: 

2. A lodgement declaration will appear in a popup that needs to be completed before the lodgement is complete.  

3. Tick the declaration checkbox and then click on "Lodge Pay Event". The lodgement is then queued for ATO submission.

Pay event has been completed

Deleting a Pay Event

1. A Pay event can only be deleted if their status is "Created", "Waiting on Client Authority", "Client Authorised" or "Failed". 

2. To delete a Pay Event, just simply click on the "Delete Pay event" option from within the pay event > Lodgement details tab,

3. To confirm, click on Delete.

4. Once the pay event has been deleted it will be removed from the Single Touch Payroll page > events list. 

5. The associated pay run will NOT also be deleted. Only the pay event that was created from the pay run will be deleted. 

6. Once the pay event is deleted you can go back into the pay run and click on the 'Lodge Pay Run with ATO' option to create the pay event again if required.