Important notice: Information provided by Deputy is intended for general guidance purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal or financial advice. Deputy does not accept liability for actions taken based on this information. Employers are responsible for ensuring their employees are paid correctly in line with the applicable award/s, industrial instrument/s and relevant employment agreements. For specific issues or if you are unsure about your employee/s’ entitlements, please consult a legal, financial or employment relations specialist. Deputy does not offer advice on employment law or taxation matters, including payroll specifics. |
When switching between Payroll systems mid-way through a financial year, there are several factors to consider. While some of the general considerations are set out below, you should consider obtaining professional advice for the specific circumstances of your business.
IMPORTANT: Every payroll solution generates your Single Touch Payroll (STP) report for your pay cycle by ABN, Branch Code and Business Management Software Identifier (BMS ID), like a report title. The ATO uses this combination of information or report title to create an income statement for the taxpayer (i.e. your employee). If any one element of this report title changes, a separate income statement will be created for the taxpayer.
When you start reporting your STP to the ATO through Deputy Payroll, you will be prompted to register your new BMS ID. The BMS ID acts like a serial number to tell the ATO which payroll software solution sent the STP report. A separate income statement will now be created for the taxpayer with the information you are reporting through Deputy Payroll, therefore creating two income statements for the employee from your business.
All amounts reported through Deputy Payroll via your STP reports will be applied to this new income statement for the taxpayer (i.e. employee). The income statement for the taxpayer from your previous payroll software will still be active and needs your consideration. This will generally be the year-to-date amount of the last STP report you sent using your previous payroll software. You may need to finalise this record as per ATO requirements. Read more on the ATO website at Finalising your STP data.
Deputy does not support transferring the STP year-to-date amounts from your previous payroll software. This decision is based on customer feedback regarding the risk of errors and duplicating reported amounts to the ATO. Instead, we offer the ability to enter the:
- Gross
- Tax
- Net
- Leave balances
of all your team members into Deputy payroll to be applied only to the employee's pay slip. You can update the YTD leave balances for multiple team members at once using the bulk update payroll tool.
If you choose to take up this option, the amounts you enter here are added in the background each pay run to the YTD amounts Deputy payroll produces. This amount is shown on the team member's pay slip. The result is that the team member will see the YTD amount of the total of both income statement records they should have in their ATO account. The team member will also see the actual amounts that have been paid through Deputy payroll.
When setting up your employees in Deputy Payroll, you can use the bulk update payroll tool to specifically update the following fields for your employees.
Data Field Name | Mandatory | Note | Validation | Example |
Gross Year To Date | ❌ | The financial year to date gross amount already paid to the employee for the current financial year | number to 2 decimal places | 54131.28 |
PAYG Year To Date | ❌ | The financial year to date amount already paid in PAYG for the employee for the current financial year | number to 2 decimal places | 10432 |
Super Year To Date | ❌ | The financial year to date amount already paid for super for the employee in the current financial year | number to 2 decimal places | 1866.36 |
Net Year To Date | ❌ | The financial year to date amount of the net wages (after tax) paid to the employee in the current financial year | number to 2 decimal places | 43.699.28 |
Financial Year |
✅ If any of the year to date amounts are entered |
The financial year the above imports should apply to | 2024/2025 2023/2024 | 2024/2025 |
Annual Leave | ❌ | The amount of annual leave to import as a year to date annual leave in the employee's profile | number up to 3 decimal places | 84.8 |
Personal Leave | ❌ | The amount of personal leave to import as a year to date personal leave in the employee's profile | number up to 3 decimal places | 100 |
Long Service Leave | ❌ | The amount of long service leave to import as a year to date long service leave in the employee's profile | number up to 3 decimal places | 101.668 |
Alternatively, you can directly enter the values in their profile.
However, please note that these amounts, entered either using the bulk update tool or individually in the employee's profile, will only update the employee profile and be used in the payslip YTD information, but NOT sent to the ATO for a STP submission from the first Deputy pay run you complete. As noted above, you are required to ensure that you separately finalise your STP reporting obligations in respect of your previous payroll software.