What is Single Touch Payroll (STP)?

Product Updates    |   

Big upcoming leave management upgrade

We’re working on some big improvements to the Tanda leave management module we thought you might like to hear about. After a lot of feedback from our customers, we’ve found three reasons to build a fully fledged leave management module. Leave is universal. All permanent staff take leave. It’s a core, but often poorly managed, interaction between businesses and employees. It’s expensive, but all too easy, to poorly plan and administer leave. What are we building? Here’s a mockup from one of our designers, which should give you an idea of some of the features we’re working on… For Managers and Business Owners One place for all leave requests, that integrates with timesheets and rosters. Contextual information to help you decide if you should approve or deny a leave request. You’ll be able to edit leave details (like dates, hours, and the tag to export to payroll) when approving leave requests. A simple way to email the reason for approving or rejecting the leave request from inside Tanda. For Payroll Managers One place to review all leave for the current pay period. Easy to make corrections to leave before you export it to your payroll system. Gives you a full audit trail, with reasons and notes on every leave request. For Employees Saves you filling out a paper form to request time off. Gives you the best chance of having the time off you want approved. Prevents you from being rostered on when you are on leave. What aren’t we building? We aren’t tracking how much leave employees are entitled to (also known as leave balances). Your payroll system needs to be the single source of truth for this information. That said, if you use MYOB AccountRight Live or Xero, we are able to import a copy of the leave balance at the end of the last pay run, so at least you’ll have that as a guide. We also have lots of ideas on how to make rostering around leave easier, which we plan on building once this approvals queue is done! When is this coming? Keep an eye out over the coming months for details on how you can see previews of proposed changes. In the meantime, we would love to hear and feedback you may have about the current leave management process. You can either email this through to support@tanda.co or email your Tanda account manager.

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How to be compliant for Single Touch Payroll

The new Federal Government initiative of Single Touch Payroll will aim to streamline business reporting obligations regarding certain taxes and wage information. Legislated on the 16 September 2016 under the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Act 2016, Single Touch Payroll (STP) will become mandatory July 1 2018, for employers with 20 or more employees. Single Touch Payroll will be available to employers July 1 2017, for those who wish to begin voluntary reporting earlier. Under the legislation, employers will be required to report ordinary time earnings, staff wages, Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) withholding information, and superannuation contributions directly to the ATO, at each payroll cycle.  What do you need to do? In order to report the necessary information to the ATO businesses with 20 or more staff (as of April 1 2018) will be required to implement Single Touch Payroll compliant payroll solutions in their business, prior to July 1 2018. Payroll solutions refers to the accounting software, business management solutions or payroll software that you use to process payroll. Already have a payroll solution? Business with 20 or more employees (as of April 1 2018), that are already using a payroll solution will be required to update their software to be Single Touch Payroll compliant before July 1 2018. The ATO has advised that they are working closely with payroll providers to ensure that their products are ready for Single Touch Payroll in 2018. Don’t have a payroll solution? Businesses with 20 or more employees (as of April 1 2018), who don’t have a payroll solution in place, will need to implement one ahead of July 1, that is compliant with Single Touch Payroll. There is currently no requirement for employers with 19 or less employees (as of April 1 2018) to begin reporting through Single Touch Payroll. However, businesses can choose to implement a compliant Single Touch Payroll system if they wish to utilise Single Touch Payroll reporting. Someone else does your payroll? If you have a Tax or BAS agent or third party, who lodges your relevant paperwork your behalf, they will be required to report through Single Touch Payroll from July 1 2018. The ATO is working closely with Tax and BAS agents to ensure they are ready for Single Touch Payroll. Individuals should however check with their agent before July 1 2018, to confirm that they are compliant and ready for Single Touch Payroll. Benefits of updating your Payroll solution Upgrading or implementing a STP compliant system is a great excuse to evaluate the other business systems you have in place, and upgrade them where necessary. Integrating core business systems such as payroll, workforce management, POS, inventory, record keeping and reporting, can be hugely beneficial in streamlining business efficiencies. Not only does its result is greater oversight and compliance, but it also provides a more wholesome and in-depth overview of the entire business, which can help you to make smarter more informed decisions for the whole business. For more information about how to be compliant with Single Touch Payroll, chat to your accountant or visit the ATO website.  

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What You Need to Look for in Payroll Software

Payroll software takes away the hassles of manual calculation of each employee’s pay. It drastically cuts down processing time and errors, which means that your staff always get paid for the right amount at the right time. A quick Google search for “payroll software” shows that there are tons to choose from. But what exactly should you look for when choosing a payroll software for your business? Here are some of the items you need to consider before buying: Easy to Use The reason why you’re buying payroll software is to make things easier for you. That’s why, first and foremost, it has to be easy to setup and use. It should have a convenient method of adding information to the software and it shouldn’t be confusing to use. For added convenience, consider purchasing cloud-based payroll solutions over traditional, desktop-based software. They allow you to access your account via the internet anytime, anywhere, on any device — including mobile. Some cloud-based software also offers an employee portal, which lets your staff see how much they are earning, as well as other important info. Secure Payroll software handles a lot of sensitive information. Needless to say, it has to be secure. If considering a desktop-based solution, make sure that it encrypts the data inside the computer — although you might have to take additional steps to further secure the computer itself. Also, make sure that it has password protection and permission levels. While cloud-based software takes away most of the stress of securing the data on your end, make sure to ask how they are properly safeguarding your data on their servers. Make sure that they connect to you on a secure layer (ex. the address starts with https instead of http.) In addition, find a cloud-based software that uses a secure password and two-factor authentication. Scalable Every business wants to grow. And your payroll software has to be ready to handle a growing number of employees. It has to handle multiple sites at the same time, accounting for each site’s different requirements. Handles Taxes and Benefits Payroll isn’t just about calculating employees’ paychecks, it also handles their taxes and other benefits. Whatever payroll software you choose, it must be able to accurately calculate deductions for tax, social security, healthcare, and other benefits such as superannuation. In addition, it must be able to update itself whenever new rates are released. Reporting and Cost Tracking Whatever payroll software you select, make sure that it automatically generates reports for you. It should show you important information such as individual paycheck history, deposit detail, deduction history, and more. In addition, it should help you track overall costs to help you manage each cost centre. Back Pay Support Calculating and settling former employees’ back pay is very tricky. Make sure that the payroll solution you’re purchasing can handle back pay on your behalf, ensuring that it is settled quickly and accurately. Integration Being able to work seamlessly with other programs is a big plus for a payroll systems. Check if it seamlessly integrates with your accounting software, your enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, and other programs. This allows you to have a bigger picture insight on your business with data exchanged across these solutions.   Tanda works well with the world’s leading payroll software, whether they are cloud-based or desktop-based. Its payroll integration feature it exports approved timesheets with gross wage calculation straight to your payroll software with one click. This means that it can further cut down your payroll processing time from hours down to minutes. Click here to find out which payroll software works with Tanda.