Do you need to go digital for Single Touch Payroll?
Despite living in a digital age, many employers are still using paper or spreadsheets to manage payroll. In fact, global small business accounting platform Xero has released research showing that “nearly one in five Australian small businesses are processing payroll without using any software.” Digital timesheets not only save precious time and money for businesses but soon they will be mandatory with the introduction of Single Touch Payroll.
Here’s everything you need to know about the introduction of Single Touch Payroll:
What is Single Touch Payroll?
Single Touch Payroll is a new regulation introduced by the Australia Taxation Office that changes when and how small businesses report their payroll activity. Historically this information was only reported to the ATO annually, now it is required to be reported digitally after each payday. Single Touch Payroll is a simpler way to report your employee’s payroll information, such as salaries and wages, super information and PAYG withholding.
What’s the benefit of Single Touch Payroll?
Single Touch Payroll increases the ease and efficiency of reporting payroll activity to the ATO, eliminating messy paper forms, instead of requiring the information to be submitted online. Single Touch Payroll also gets rid of the need to prepare an annual payment summary as you will be reporting to the ATO on pay by pay basis, you will just need to inform the ATO of when you’ve made your last pay run of the financial year. Payment summaries will also no longer need to be sent to employees, so employers won’t need to spend time preparing them.
Single Touch Payroll drastically reduces the compliance burden on small businesses, moving them towards introducing digital timesheets and automated software that allows them to spend less time on administrative tasks, and more time on running and growing their business.
Does Single Touch Payroll apply to my business?
At present, it is now compulsory by law for employers with 20 or more employees to use Single Touch Payroll. Single Touch Payroll is expected to be introduced to all employers from the 1st of July 2019.
What do I need to do to be ready for Single Touch Payroll?
There are a few things you can do now to be sure you are ready for the introduction of Single Touch Payroll. If you are already using online payroll software, just make sure that it can produce ATO-compliant reports.
If you are using desktop payroll software, now is the time to find a service that is able to upload your payroll reports, convert them into the format required by the ATO and submit them on your business’s behalf.
If you are using spreadsheets or paper payroll systems, you will need to find a service that can convert this data into the format required by the ATO and submit them on your business’s behalf. Now could also be the time to do a general payroll audit and ensure you are paying your employees correctly, calculating your employee’s super entitlements correctly and maintaining correct employee information.
How can a digital timesheet solution help?
If you have been thinking about implementing digital timesheets and time and attendance management system, now is the time to do so and be ready for the roll-out of Single Touch payroll.
At Aussie Time Sheets we aim to simplify and streamline your payroll process, by offering easy and effective time and attendance systems for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. Our systems generate digital timesheets, automate your payroll processes and allow you to have live and up to date records of employee timesheets and automatically generate overtime, sick leave, public holidays and annual leave. Our time and attendance management systems seamlessly integrate with your payroll system, saving you time and money by reducing your cost of administrative tasks.
While change can seem daunting, digitising and automating your business’s backend processes is a positive move. Digital timesheets not only saving time and resources in preparing payroll information, but automated systems allow business owners to move beyond simply administering their business and instead move towards growing the business.
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