This article only applies to Brands and/or Partners who lodge STP events on behalf of their clients, i.e. are lodging as a registered Tax/BAS Agent.
As you would be aware, payroll bureaus/bookkeepers/tax agents/BAS Agents providing a payroll service ("a registered agent") and lodging STP on behalf of their clients have to register the business' software ID with the ATO. Additionally, each individual business setup in the payroll platform has a unique software ID, by default.
The ATO imposes a limit on the number of unique software IDs that can be registered against a registered agent's ABN - this limit is 200 software IDs. As such, brand admins and Partners can now elect to use the brand's software ID or the Partner's software ID, as opposed to using the business' software ID when lodging as a Tax/BAS Agent.
What this means is that each business listed under a specific brand whose ATO Settings are configured as 'lodging as a registered Tax/BAS Agent', will share the same software ID across the brand.
N.B. Those businesses listed under a brand whose ATO Settings are configured as either lodging 'as the employer' or 'as an intermediary for multiple Employing Entities' will continue to have their own unique business software ID, regardless if the brand is configured to use the brand's or the Partner's software ID. The reason for this is because the business is lodging their own STP events rather than using a registered agent and so need to connect to the ATO against their own ABN.
Firstly, the only user types who can potentially perform this configuration change is either a Partner or a Brand admin. Business managers or employee managers do not have the authority to access or change these settings.
Configuring the Software ID as a Brand Admin User
This functionality is not currently available for a brand access users to "do-it-yourself" (we hope to offer it shortly). In the meantime, please contact us and ask our friendly support team to enable this in your brand settings.
Once that's done you'll see your brand software ID on the ATO settings page of any payroll account under your brand where the lodge as Tax/BAS Agent setting is in place
N.B. All Brand software IDs will be prefixed with '99'
Configuring the Software ID as a Partner
This user type can access the brand settings screen via the Partner Dashboard > click the 'brand' icon on the left side panel to access Brand Management > click on the relevant brand name.
Click on "Details" from the left navigation menu and scroll down to the Tax Agent Electronic Lodgement setting. Click on that field so the 3 options appear:
The default setting uses the individual business' software ID. To change this so that the brand's software ID is referenced instead for businesses using a registered agent, click on '..... use this brand's software ID' and
Click on Save.
If you want to apply the same software ID to businesses using a registered agent regardless of brand, click on '..... use this partner's software ID' and then click Save. This option is beneficial if you have multiple brands set up and don't require a unique software ID on a per brand basis, as the registered agent is not different for each brand. If there is a different registered agent per brand do NOT select this option.
If you do select the partner's software ID option, please note that this does not automatically update ALL brands under the partner's access to use the same Tax Agent Electronic Lodgement option - you will need to configure this for each brand.
The Tax Agent Electronic Lodgement setting will then display as follows:
N.B. All partner software IDs will be prefixed with '999'.
Displaying the Software ID within a Business
At an individual business level, the software ID can be found from Payroll Settings > ATO Settings > 'Electronic Lodgement & STP' tab. As stated above, any business listed under a brand:
- where the brand is configured to use the brand's or partner's (where applicable) software ID; AND
- where a registered agent is lodging STP events for the business (as configured in the ATO Settings screen)
will now display the brand (or partner's) software ID:
Take note of the message appearing under the software ID. The purpose of this message is to remind the registered agent that if the software ID has already been registered with the ATO (because, for e.g. it applies to another business the registered agent provides services to) then it does not need to be registered again. This is because the software ID is being registered against the registered agent's ABN as opposed to the business' ABN.