STP End of Financial Year
At the end of each financial year you tell the ATO that your employees' Single Touch Payroll (STP) figures are complete. This is called finalisation, and in Microkeeper it's a Final lodgement of your last pay run of the year.
| Required plan | All plans |
|---|---|
| Required access | Payroll - Full Access or Payroll - Medium Access |
This guide covers how to:
- Lodge your last pay run of the year as Final.
- Finalise after your last pay run was already lodged as Normal.
- Choose between the Final Zero options.
- Include staff who left during the year.
- Add earnings from before you started using Microkeeper.
What the Final STP lodgement does
A normal STP lodgement only reports the employees in that pay run. A Final lodgement reports every employee paid in the financial year, including staff who have left, and marks them all as Final.
It covers every pay cycle under the same ABN, from 1 July up to the Payment Date of the pay run you lodge it from.
This is the most important lodgement of the year: your employees complete their tax returns with it.
Warning
A Final STP submission must be made before 14 July each year.
Before you lodge your Final STP
- Microkeeper is added as your hosted software in the ATO's Access Manager. See the STP set up guide.
- Every pay run for the year is processed and locked. Your last one has a Payment Date on or before 30 June, since the Payment Date decides which financial year a pay run is reported in.
- If you started using Microkeeper part way through the year, you've added the earlier earnings. See Add earnings from before you started using Microkeeper.
- The year's total tax and total pay match your accounting software.
Lodge your last pay run of the year as Final
Lodge the Final from your last pay run of the year, in place of its normal lodgement.
- Process and lock your last pay run of the year as usual.
- In the Complete Payrun menu, click 2. Submit to ATO.
- Under STP Submission type, choose Final Payrun.
- Under What Event Type is being lodged?, choose Submit.
- Click Review Data. Microkeeper checks every employee paid this financial year and lists anything missing.
- Check the details, then click I have reviewed data.
- Tick the declaration and click Lodge STP.
The lodgement appears in the STP Log on the same page, with "Final" in the Final column. Once the ATO accepts it, the pay run shows Complete on the Processed tab of Payruns.
If you have more than one pay cycle, lodge the last pay run of each pay cycle as Final Payrun.
Finalise after your last pay run was lodged as Normal
If you lodged your last pay run of the year as Normal Payrun, lodge the same pay run again as an Update marked Final. You can do this in July for the previous financial year, as long as it's before 14 July.
Navigate to Menu > Payroll > Payruns.
- On the Processed tab, click View on the last pay run with a Payment Date in June.
- Click Complete Payrun, then 2. Submit to ATO.
- Under STP Submission type, choose Final Payrun.
- Under What Event Type is being lodged?, choose Update.
- Click Review Data, then I have reviewed data.
- Tick the declaration and click Lodge STP.
Update is only available after the pay run's Payment Date. An Update sends each employee's year-to-date amounts, but not the tax and gross totals for that pay run.
When to use the Final Zero Payrun options
Under STP Submission type, click Show Advanced Options to see two more options. Both are Final lodgements that report zero for every amount.
| Option | Who it reports | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Final Zero Payrun - All Staff | Every employee paid in the financial year under this ABN, with zero for all amounts | When you need to clear an ABN's reporting, for example when changing ABNs mid year |
| Final Zero Payrun - Payrun Only | Only the employees in this pay run, with zero for all amounts | When only the employees in this pay run need to be reported as zero |
Warning
Don't use a Final Zero option to finalise a normal year. It reports zero year-to-date amounts for those employees. To finalise after a Normal lodgement, lodge the last pay run again as Final Payrun with Update.
Include staff who left during the year
You don't need to add staff who left to your last pay run. The Final lodgement includes every employee paid in the financial year, including terminated staff.
During the year, a terminated employee is marked Final in the lodgement for the pay run they're in. If you terminate someone after their last pay run was lodged, they aren't in later pay runs, so the ATO receives their Final with your Final lodgement at the end of the year.
Each terminated employee needs a Termination Date and a Cessation Type. Review Data lists anyone missing them, with a link to their profile. For how to terminate an employee, see Staff Changes in Single Touch Payroll.
Add earnings from before you started using Microkeeper
If your previous system didn't lodge Single Touch Payroll for the earlier part of the financial year, enter those earnings in Microkeeper before your Final lodgement.
Navigate to Menu > Payroll > Payruns.
- Click Ad Hoc Payrun and choose your pay cycle.
- Under Ad hoc, keep Ad hoc - Blank Payslips. This creates blank payslips ready for you to fill in.
- Choose the Year and a Run for a period before you started using Microkeeper.
- Set a Payment Date in this financial year, before the Payment Date of your last pay run, then click Payrun.
- Open each payslip and add the before tax payment so it matches the total paid earlier in the year.
- Edit the tax so it matches the total PAYG tax withheld earlier in the year.
- Lock the pay run, then continue with your Final lodgement.
The Final lodgement adds these amounts to each employee's year-to-date figures.
What your employees see after the Final lodgement
Once the ATO accepts your Final lodgement, your employees can see their income statement in their myGov account. They use it to complete their tax return.