Single Touch Payroll – 5 reasons to act now

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Are you Single Touch Payroll ready? Probably not – a recent poll conducted by Accountants Daily found that less than 10% of accountants’ clients are ready for the shift to STP. The dead line for STP is July 01 2018, but here are five reasons why you should act now on STP implementation.

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1. Threat or opportunity?

STP takes effect on 1 July 2018 and compliance is mandatory for those with 20 or more staff. It is a ticking time bomb. Medium businesses are impacted the most – those with $2m to $100m in revenue. But if you get in early, STP presents a golden opportunity to undertake a proper business review and upgrade or replace your solution with software that improves other areas of your business at the same time.

 

2. Every payroll package must be upgraded or replaced

STP reporting involves payroll information being sent electronically to the ATO at the end of every pay run. It is this direct connection to the ATO that makes this no simple software update. My estimate is that over 60% of the payroll packages in use today will need to be replaced.

 

3. UK employers wished they had more time

The UK moved all employers to a similar model four years ago. I think the ATO approach is much better. By initially limiting STP to businesses with 20 or more staff it reduces the impact from 800,000 employers down to 100,000, accounting for about two thirds of all employees between them. Also, the payroll data that is sent to the ATO is ‘year-to-date’ (rather than just for that pay period) so it’s easier to correct if initial issues occur. About 10% of the 100,000 are large employers who are typically aware of their obligations. But it’s the medium businesses I’m worried about. The overwhelming regret from UK businesses was they left it too late – most wished they had more time.

 

4. Small employers are likely to also opt in

And there is a twist. The number of businesses with less than 20 staff who decide to opt in to STP I believe will be high, creating even more urgency for medium businesses to act now. The 100,000 businesses moving to STP could double or triple. The smaller businesses will see the benefits that STP brings, like streamlined reporting and online forms. And for some it will avoid them upgrading in two steps – once before 30 June 2018 to access the new payment summary v12 and tax file declarations v3.0 and then again for STP when it’s extended to all employers from 1 July 2019.

 

5. Avoid a panic decision that impacts your business

Closer to 1 July 2018 we’ll see panic decisions to replace old multi-user software suites. We saw it with the introduction of GST and we’ll see it again with STP. For many, the functionality on their accounting side will go backwards or be vastly inferior to what they could have gotten. If your revenue is under $2 million you probably suit a small cloud system, but over 70% of medium and large businesses have or are moving to hybrid systems – in-house software with embedded cloud applications, i.e. the best of both worlds. It’s the medium businesses with 10+ staff I am most worried about, especially those with stock and debtors (like wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers). These are the ones who have the most to lose or gain.

Where can I get some STP guidance?

Attaché has developed a free video brochure to help you review your options whether you are a payroll manager or advisor. It targets medium businesses employing 10 or more staff, with stock and debtors (e.g. wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers) as well as businesses with 20 or more staff in areas like aged care or with industry or ERP software. Visit attachesoftware.com/single-touch-payroll or call 1300 288 224 for more information. You can also visit the ATO’s STP information portal.

You can also reach out to us at CR&T, with our dedicated team of Australian Payroll Association accredited advisers.

SuperStream deadline is approaching

Get started now so you are ready by 30 June
If you are an employer it’s important you know about some changes in the way you pay super and that you take action now.

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All employers need to use SuperStream when paying super. This means paying super and sending employee information electronically in a standard format.

A key SuperStream requirement is electronic payment and reporting. In essence, this means you have to use a clearing house or similar service provider for your super lodgements.

Typically these service providers require you to submit a SuperStream-compliant data file containing your employee, fund and payment details. You can use the SuperStream Alternate File Format (SAFF) in compliant Payroll solutions to create this file.

If you are not already paying super using SuperStream it’s important you get started soon. The next quarterly super payment cycle is due in April and that is a good opportunity for you to start using SuperStream so you can ensure everything is in place by the 30 June 2016 deadline.

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Please contact us if you would like assistance in becoming SuperStream Complaint
02 68845922

The number one thing you should be doing with your computer today

Being an all round computering champion, people often ask me “David, what’s the most important thing I should be doing with my computer?” and my answer is “Clear your internet history.”

And then I talk about backup. We have a saying in the office:

“There are two kinds of people. Those who have lost data, and those who are about to.”

It’s amazing how lax most people are regarding backup, and it makes no sense! How silly would you feel having to re-key hours of data due to a lost file? How devastated would you be losing precious photos due to a failed hard drive? You wouldn’t be able to make the ultimate hipster Christmas present, Then and Now Recreated Photos! How destroyed would you feel losing your entire business due to encryption malware?

The good news is backup does not need to be expensive! Typically speaking the more you spend, the quicker you will get back up (zing!) and running. A basic backup program is included in Professional and Server versions of Windows. Spend some more money and you can do granular file restoration and SQL database backup with BackupAssist. More still and you have the Rolls-Royce, Veeam, which has Instant VM Recovery – you can start a virtual server directly from a backup file, giving a truly amazing RTO – Recovery Time Objective.

One more step up and you are moving away from backup and towards Availability. By using redundant hardware in a Microsoft Failover Cluster, a physical server can fail and virtual machines will migrate in real time to other servers in the cluster. So where other organisations would be reaching for the backup drive, users in a Failover Cluster (or otherwise referred to as Highly Available) environment don’t even notice a hardware failure – but backup is still very important in these configurations.

For businesses, the conversation is simply one of finances.

“How much does it cost my business when the computers are down?”

If your business will die due to missed deliverables, zero staff productivity without computers or no way to get orders in, it makes sense to spend some money to avoid that. If your business can handle being down for a couple of days then the cost of a HA system or sophisticated backup software is not justified.

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We’re not much into selling on the blog but I highly recommend you get an expert to evaluate your backup plan. Not just your backup software, but the whole plan surrounding it – the number of drives you backup to, do you take them off-site each night, what is the process when a restore is needed, the entire enchilada. Your data is one of your business’ most critical assets and not easily replaced.

In fact, it is so important I’m willing to put my money Arthur’s money where my mouth his mouth is. Email me (it’s already formatted just enter your name and phone number) and we’ll organise a free, no obligation chat about your current backup situation and identify any potential pitfalls.

Introducing Cel-Fi

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Banish terrible mobile reception

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If you live rurally or have drawn the proverbial shortstraw and ended up with mobile deadspots in your home you know the frustration poor reception can cause.

You miss important calls. You have to do a handstand near the right window just to make a call. You have to talk to that boy you like in the lounge room in front of your parents (ew).

Cel-Fi is a personal mobile repeater that solves these problems for you.

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So how does it work?

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In order to give you the best possible result, we typically install the Cel-Fi with a YAGI antenna on your roof to capture the mobile reception. It’s worth noting that the antenna and the Cel-Fi are locked to a particular carrier (eg Telstra).

The antenna connects to the “Window Unit”, which if the signal was strong enough could be used without the antenna and sit, wait for it, at a window where there is good signal.

The Window Unit connects to a “Coverage Unit” via wireless link. It can be up to 30m away from the Window Unit, so usually it sits in the middle of the house and dispurses mobile reception loveliness around the whole home/office. If you can work out why it is called a Coverage Unit please email me.

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Benefits

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Reliable, Consistent Reception

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Faster Data Speeds

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Batteries Last Longer

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There are lots of options to get more information. Start a Live Chat from the bottom corner right now, call on 02 6884 5922, email team@crt.net.au or comment with your Facebook account below.