Enabling STP2

Once you upgrade , you will be able to continue submit using STP1 until such time that you choose to enable the STP2 functionality. 

The software will ship with the STP2 functionality disabled for the application.  The software can be configured to disable STP2 at the application level, or at the practice (office) level, or at the individual job level.

Note

If you submit STP2 for a job you cannot revert to STP1 and submit to the ATO for that job.

To enable STP2:

1. Navigate to a Application Settings
2. From the Tax Settings tab, Untick "Disable STP2"

Disable STP2

Once STP2 is enabled application wide, you can disable STP2 at the individual practice level.  This means that any jobs belonging to disabled practices will not be able to submit via STP2. 

If STP2 is enabled at the practice level, there is still the option to disable STP2 at the job level.

To disable:

1. Navigate to a job
2. From the menu bar select Jobs > Job Settings
   
   

Why is STP2 Disabled?

There is no specific reason to disable STP2, but the new version ships with it disabled to allow clients the ability to check the requirements and consciously decide to start submitting via STP2.

Since STP1 is a subset of STP2 all accounts configured for STP1 will automatically migrate their settings to the equivalent STP2 settings.  All accounts will also retain their STP1 settings so comparisons can be done if necessary.

If a job is NOT paying post appointment wages, no manual intervention should be required, and STP2 submissions could commence immediately.

If a job is paying post appointment wages, then the following would need to be checked:

• Are there any payment types that require additional STP2 breakdowns to be made? Further information will be provided below, but if these requirements apply to a job, then additional accounts may need to be configured and prior payments made in the current financial year reviewed to ensure the correct level of detail.  The most likely candidate here would be child support payments where a garnishee has been applied.  Users would need to check that the child support accounts are correctly configured to distinguish between voluntary and garnishee child support deductions and that where both occur, the necessary detail has been coded into the transactions.
• Leave payments. Under STP1, payments of post appointment leave were reported under gross.  Under STP2, they are now reported separately.  As part of the software upgrade, the system will automatically attempt to migrate any leave related payroll accounts to the correct STP2 settings.  However, if a leave payroll account did not contain the word “leave”, the upgrade would not be able to automatically upgrade the account settings.
• The same logic would also apply to the following payment types: Overtime, bonuses and commissions and directors fees.  Unless the account name contains the appropriate keyword, the account settings cannot be automatically upgraded.

All other payment types Eg:  Wages. Lump Sum Payments, ETP’s, Allowances, Exempt foreign income, Foreign tax withheld, Salary sacrifice, Deductions and FBT will be correctly migrated (provided of course that the accounts were correctly configured in the first place).

Note:

If there are any unfinalised STP updates with respect to the 2020/2021 financial year, then these must be finalised under STP1 before enabling STP2.

Similarly, if there are any jobs that are in a position to have their STP finalised for the 2021/2022 financial year, then it is preferable, but not mandatory for these jobs to be finalised for STP1 before enabling STP2.

Once a STP2 submission has been accepted by the ATO, the job cannot revert to STP1.  This is not enforced by the application, however, the ATO will reject the STP1 submission.