Every pay run you pay is reported to the ATO through Single Touch Payroll (STP). You lodge it from the pay run's Complete Payrun menu once the pay run is locked, on or before its Payment Date.

Required plan	All plans
Required access	Payroll - Full Access or Payroll - Medium Access

This guide covers how to:

Lodge a normal pay run.
Choose the submission type and the event type.
Review the STP data and fix validation errors.
Check the result of a lodgement.
Lodge a correction to a pay run you've already lodged.

Before you lodge a pay run with STP

STP is set up. Your Software ID is added in the ATO's Access Manager and your ABN details are complete. See Set Up Single Touch Payroll. Until your first successful lodgement, the Software ID Setup steps show at the top of the lodgement page.
The pay run is locked. On 1. Pay Your Team, under Lock the Payrun, click Lock & Continue. Until then, 2. Submit to ATO only shows "The Payrun must be Locked first".
The Payment Date is right. STP reports the pay run on its Payment Date, and the Payment Date decides which financial year the pay run belongs to.
You can sign the declaration. The declaration is made in your name, so the person lodging must be authorised to make it for the business.

Lodge a normal pay run with STP

Navigate to Menu > Payroll > Payruns > Payslips > Complete Payrun.

Click 2. Submit to ATO. The Single Touch Payroll ATO Lodgement page opens.
Under Prepare to Lodge STP, in STP Submission type, choose Normal Payrun.
Under What Event Type is being lodged?, leave Submit selected.
Click Review Data. Microkeeper checks the data and shows "Data passed validation, review data and you're ready to lodge" with a table of what will be sent.
Check the table, then click I have reviewed data below it.
Under Sign ATO Agreement, read the declaration and tick the box to sign it with your username.
Click Lodge STP. Microkeeper shows "Lodgement Triggered".

Lodge every pay run this way. Each lodgement sends year-to-date amounts, and reports only the staff in that pay run, except a Final lodgement.

Choose the STP submission type

STP Submission type tells the ATO whether this is an ordinary pay run or the last one of the financial year. The two Final Zero options are under Show Advanced Options.

Submission type	When to use it
Normal Payrun	Every pay run during the year.
Final Payrun	The last pay run of the financial year. It includes every employee paid in the financial year, not only those in this pay run. A Final lodgement must be made before 14 July each year.
Final Zero Payrun - All Staff	A Final lodgement that reports zero in every field for all staff, for example when you change ABN part way through the year.
Final Zero Payrun - Payrun Only	The same, for only the staff in this pay run.

For the last pay run of the year, see STP End of Financial Year.

Choose Submit or Update as the event type

The event type under What Event Type is being lodged? tells the ATO whether the lodgement is on time for the pay run or made out of cycle.

Event type	When to use it
Submit	The normal lodgement for a pay run, on or before its Payment Date. A pay run can have one successful Submit. Microkeeper offers Submit until 30 days after the Payment Date.
Update	An out-of-cycle lodgement, such as correcting a pay run you've already lodged, lodging more than 30 days after the Payment Date, or lodging in July for the previous financial year. Update is available from the Payment Date onwards.

Microkeeper turns off the option you can't use and says why:

"When a Submit event is present only Update is eligible": the pay run already has a successful Submit, so lodge again with Update.
"A Submit event must be within 30 days of the Payment Date": the pay run was never lodged and is more than 30 days old, so use Update. For a June Payment Date, the message also offers Ignore 30 day limit for June submission.
"Update event will be eligible after the Payment Date": the Payment Date is still in the future, so wait until then.

Review STP data and fix validation errors

Review Data appears once you've chosen a submission type and an event type. It checks the business details and every employee's details before anything is sent to the ATO.

Fix STP validation errors

If something is missing or invalid, Review Data lists every problem instead of the table, with the employee it belongs to. For example, "Business Postcode not set", "Given name missing" or "The Tax File Number is not valid". Each item links to where you fix it: Global Settings, ABN and Pay Cycles, or the employee's profile.

Open each link and fix the detail.
Click Review Data again.
Repeat until the data passes validation. I have reviewed data and Lodge STP don't appear until it does.

Every payment must also have the right STP classification. See STP Reporting Codes.

Check the STP data before you lodge

When the data passes, Employee STP Data shows one row per employee with their details and year-to-date amounts, such as PAYG tax, OTE gross, leave, allowances and super, with totals at the bottom. Click an employee's username to open their profile. Show Business Data shows the ABN, business name and contact details being sent, and CSV Export downloads the same data as a spreadsheet.

If a registered agent lodges for you, the declaration also includes the agent's statements. See Lodge STP as a Registered Agent.

Check the STP lodgement result

The STP Log, on the same page above Prepare to Lodge STP, lists every lodgement for this pay run with its Final type, Event, Timestamp, Reference ID and Status. Reload the page to see the latest status, and click View to read the ATO's message.

Status	What it means
Ready	Microkeeper has received your request to lodge.
Submitting	The lodgement is being sent to the ATO. This is usually done within 5 minutes, but can take up to 72 hours.
Unreachable	The ATO didn't receive the data. Lodge again with the same data.
Validating	The ATO received the data but hasn't validated it yet.
Invalid	The ATO received the data but it didn't pass their validation. The ATO's message lists the errors to fix before you lodge again.
Successful	The ATO received the data and it passed validation.

Each pay run's status also shows on Menu > Payroll > Payruns, on the Processed tab:

Status	What it means
Processing	The pay run isn't locked yet.
STP Pending	The pay run is locked but hasn't been lodged. Hover over it for a link to the lodgement page.
STP Processing	The lodgement is being processed.
Complete	The pay run is locked and lodged successfully.
STP Failed	The lodgement failed. Open the lodgement page to see why in the STP Log.
Compliant	This pay run wasn't lodged successfully, but a more recent pay run in the same pay cycle was.

A summary of each successful lodgement is also in the ATO Business Portal under Employees > STP Reporting.

Correct a pay run you've already lodged with STP

To change a pay run after it's lodged, unlock it, fix it and lodge it again as an Update.

In the pay run's Complete Payrun menu, on 1. Pay Your Team, click Unlock.
In Unlock Payrun Warning, click Download Backup, then Confirm Unlock.
Fix the payslips.
On 1. Pay Your Team, click Lock & Continue.
Click 2. Submit to ATO, choose the same submission type, choose Update, then review and lodge as usual.

Warning

Unlocking lets you change payslips, but it doesn't change payments, super or STP information that's already been processed. Lodge the Update, and pay or correct any difference separately. If you're paying an extra amount, use an ad hoc pay run instead.

What to do after you lodge the pay run

When the STP Log shows Successful, carry on in the Complete Payrun menu. Send the pay run to your accounting software from 3. Export, and pay your staff's super from 4. Pay Super. See Paying Super.

Lodging STP troubleshooting

Why does 2. Submit to ATO say the pay run must be locked first?

A pay run is lodged only once it's final. On 1. Pay Your Team, download the ABA file if you need it, then click Lock & Continue.

Why can't I lodge? Review Data shows errors.

Review Data blocks the lodgement until every required detail is valid. Fix each item in the list using its link, then click Review Data again. See Fix STP validation errors.

Why does STP say my business postcode isn't set?

Nothing asks for the business postcode and phone, or each ABN's address, phone and email, until STP needs them. Add the business details in Global Settings and each ABN's details in ABN and Pay Cycles; the link in the error opens the right one. An ABN added by ATO lookup has no email, so add one. See Set Up Single Touch Payroll.

Why is Submit not available for an old pay run?

A Submit must be made within 30 days of the Payment Date, and a pay run can have only one successful Submit. Lodge the pay run with Update instead.

Why can't I choose Update?

Update is only available from the pay run's Payment Date. Before then, lodge with Submit, or wait until the Payment Date if the pay run already has a successful Submit.

Why does it say there is a pending submission?

You can't lodge again while a lodgement is still Submitting. It usually finishes within 5 minutes but can take up to 72 hours. Reload the page to check the STP Log. After 72 hours it shows as Unreachable, and you can lodge again.

Why does it say the payment date can't be future dated?

The pay run's Payment Date is more than a month away. Change the Payment Date to the day your staff are paid, or lodge on that day.

Why can't I lodge a Final Payrun with a July payment date?

A pay run with a Payment Date in July belongs to the new financial year. Lodge the last pay run of the old year, by Payment Date, as an Update with Final Payrun. See STP End of Financial Year.

Related STP guides

Single Touch Payroll: what STP is and how the chapters fit together.
Set Up Single Touch Payroll: the Software ID and ABN details.
Lodge STP as a Registered Agent: lodging for a client.
STP End of Financial Year: the Final lodgement and finalising the year.
Staff Changes in Single Touch Payroll: terminating, rehiring and other changes.

Guides

Lodge a Pay Run with STP