Note: From October 1st, 2025, we introduced new plans that better reflect how our customers use Deputy: Lite, Core, and Pro. If you're an existing customer, look out for an email with all the details you’ll need. Learn more about the new plans and what this change means for you .

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 legislation, 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.

This article will help you understand the difference between an STP Submit event and an Update event, and how the payment date will affect which of the lodgement types you can choose in Deputy payroll (AU).

Before you read

Target audience: This article is for System Administrators and users who manage payroll.
Plan restrictions: This information applies only to customers using Deputy Payroll (AU).

This article covers

Understanding STP Submit events vs Update events
How this works in Deputy
What happens if I've sent the STP file as an Update when it should have been a Submit?

Understanding STP Submit events vs Update events

The ATO guidance on STP reporting advises the following:

Submit event (Pay Event)

When to use: You must lodge a Submit event every single time you pay an employee money that is subject to tax withholding.
What it does: It reports the precise physical amounts paid during that specific period to the ATO alongside the newly updated, cumulative employee year-to-date (YTD) balances.
BAS Impact: Because it includes your total employer-level gross wages (W1) and total tax withheld (W2), the ATO uses this file to automatically pre-fill your monthly or quarterly BAS.

Update event

When to use: Use an Update event when you discover a historical payroll error (such as a misclassified allowance), when transitioning between software providers, or during End of Financial Year (EOFY) finalisation to lock in your final tax-ready income statements.
What it does: It pushes a completely fresh snapshot of employee-level YTD amounts directly to the ATO. It tells the ATO, "Please replace the old employee records with these correct figures."
BAS Impact: It contains no employer-level gross pay or withholding totals. Lodging an update event will show up as a $0 summary line on your ATO Online Services for Business history and will not break or change your existing BAS totals.

Quick comparison (as per ATO guidance)

Feature	Submit Event (Pay Event)	Update Event
Primary Purpose	Reporting regular wages when employees are physically paid.	Correcting or finalising year-to-date (YTD) employee data.
Timing	Must be lodged on or before the employee payment date.	Can be lodged at any time, outside of a physical pay run.
Employer Totals (W1 & W2)	Included. Contains employer-level gross pay and PAYG withholding.	Excluded. Reported as $0 employer-level totals.
Activity Statement Pre-fill	Prefills the W1 and W2 fields on your Business Activity Statement (BAS).	Does not affect or prefill your BAS.
Employee YTD Figures (Income statement)	Included and overwritten at the ATO.	Included and overwritten at the ATO.

How this works in Deputy Payroll

Below is a view of the Prepare to Lodge STP screen.

The Payment Date of the pay file is also considered as the payment date for STP reporting.

Note: In order to select Submit in Deputy Payroll, the Payment Date must be within 30 days of the current date. If the Payment Date is outside of 30 days, the submit option will be unavailable.

What if I have sent the STP file as an Update when it should have been a Submit?

The file will not contain any employer-level gross pay or withholding totals and will show up as a $0 summary line on your ATO Online Services for Business history. It will not have changed your existing BAS totals either.

You should consult your finance team or tax agent to address any concerns where Submit events were not lodged at the time of payment. Your finance professional should be able to help if you have not met your STP obligations for those periods and you need to seek an operational deferral for periods of non-reporting. They should also be able to assist in correcting PAYGW via the BAS amendment process.

Read more about in this ATO guide for STP reporting issues and errors.