At the end of each financial year, one of the tasks payroll administrators start preparing for is generating individual non-business payment summaries (aka group certificates) for their employees.
If you have been reporting to the ATO for Single Touch Payroll you may not be required to provide your employees with a Payment Summary! This article will give you the details on whether you do have to generate payment summaries.
The good news is, what was previously a time consuming process, can now be completed in a few simple clicks by following these steps:
NOTE- Electronic submission of payment summaries will not be allowed when payee address details are incomplete, or when they have supplied an invalid TFN.
- Log in and ensure that all pay runs have been finalised for the current financial year.
- Once all pay runs and housekeeping tasks have been finalised, click on the 'Reports' tab on the payroll dashboard > under the 'ATO Reporting' section, click on the 'Payment Summaries' link:
- From the payment summaries screen, select the financial year you wish to generate payment summaries. You can also filter the payment summaries by Employing Entity and Location:
N.B. If you have multiple employing entities set up in your account, ensure you filter by entity accordingly to allow lodgement:
- You can then click on 'Show Payment Summaries' to generate payment summaries for all employees in the business or chosen employing entity:
- If you see the following message on your screen, take note that the payment summaries will still generate but will NOT include wages data contained in unfinalised pay runs so we strongly suggest you finalise all pay runs prior to continuing further:
- Once your payment summaries are generated you can download an excel report that contains all data displayed on your screen. This is a great report to use to ensure all data is reconciled and figures are correct prior to publishing the payment summaries. To generate this report, click on 'Excel':
- To view a single payment summary, click the 'Actions' menu next to a particular employee, then click 'Download':
- Once you are happy with the payment summaries, you can publish them by clicking on 'Actions' > 'Publish x payment summaries':
Or to publish an individual payment summary > click on 'Actions' > 'Publish' button on the payment summary you want to publish:
- To preview all published payment summaries, click on 'PDF':
- Lodge your payment summaries (with the ATO) - if you haven't set up electronic lodgement with
the ATO yet just click here to see an article that will step you through this process.
To lodge the payment summaries electronically you will need to click on Lodge (from the top menu):
This screen will show you the details of the payment summaries you are about to lodge. You will then need to read and accept the authorisation:
NOTE: If any new pay runs are created for that financial year or any changes are made, the payment summaries must be re-generated for any changes to take effect.
How do I enter the Reportable Fringe Benefits amount?
Once the payment summaries are generated, you are able to enter the Reportable Fringe Benefits Amounts (RFBA). To do so, click the 'Actions' button next to the payment summary and click 'Edit':
The Reportable Fringe Benefits Amount (RFBA) field is open to enter in a dollar amount > save:
Please ensure you:
- Enter the 'grossed-up' taxable value of these benefits;
- Do not enter any cents; and
- Do not include this amount in the 'Gross Payments' field.
You may need to seek advice on which FBT deductions are reportable. Further information on FBT can be found here.
How do I change the payment period on a payment summary
You can change the payment period for a payment summary by following these steps:
- Ensure the payment summary has not been published
- Click on the 'Actions' -> 'Edit' button on the payment summary you want to change the payment period for:
- The payment period dates are now editable. Enter in the dates for the payment period and click 'Save':
What happens when I publish payment summaries?
Once you publish the payment summaries, they become available to the employees for download via the self-service portal or the WorkZone app. If you would like to send the employees an email notification to let them know that their payment summaries are generated, click the 'Send Notifications' button:
What if I need to change the values in the payment summaries after I’ve published and lodged them
You will first need to unpublish the payment summary/s > make the adjustment/s > mark them as 'amended' (if they have already been lodged with the ATO) > re-publish and re-lodge them again.
UNPUBLISH
There are two options available to unpublish the payment summaries:
- You can unpublish an individual payment summary by clicking on the Actions button next to the relevant employee > 'Un-publish':
- You can unpublish ALL payment summaries by clicking on 'Actions' (top menu) button >
'Un-Publish x payment summaries':
Once you have unpublished the payment summaries, they will no longer be available for download by employees in the employee self-service portal.
CHANGES/ADJUSTMENTS
You can now make any necessary changes to the pay runs or create a new pay run, then re-generate the payment summary/summaries.
MARK AS AMENDED
If you have already issued the payment summaries to the employees/ATO, you may need to mark the new payment summaries as 'Amended'.
To do this for individual payment summaries > Click on the 'Actions' -> 'Edit' button on the payment summary you want to mark as amended:
Tick the 'Amended' option > save:
If you need to mark ALL the payment summaries as amended this can be done in bulk when you go to publish them again. See the next step for details.
PUBLISH 'AMENDED' PAYMENT SUMMARIES
You can now re-publish the amended payment summaries again.
To do this for an individual payment summary> Click on the 'Actions' -> 'Publish' button on the amended payment summary:
To do this, for ALL payment summaries click the check-box to mark ALL payment summaries as 'Amended' on the Publish Payment Summaries screen:
LODGE 'AMENDED' PAYMENT SUMMARIES:
If you had previously lodged the payment summaries you have just amended you will need to re-lodge them now they have been marked as amended.
To do this - click on Lodge (from the top menu):
Only payment summaries that have been marked as 'Amended' will re-lodge.
NOTE -
The following areas are the only sections you are able to 'edit' on the payment summary itself - changes to earnings and other aspects must be made in the pay runs:
Payment Period Start date, Payment Period End date, RFBA field and Amended field:
Can EMPDUPE files be generated for the ATO?
Yes (although this is not required if you 'lodge' the payment summaries)! To find out more about generating EMPDUPE files click here.
If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know via support@yourpayroll.com.au