Keeping files offline and safe

[LH2808]

Hi 

I am wanting to know if myob has been able to manage a way to report stp phase 2 to the ATO without being online.  We don't want our file online - you only have to look at how many companies are being hacked - 300,000 latitude accounts being the latest.  I am responsible for keeping our employees information safe and do not trust online filing.

Please help MYOB so we don't have to.

[gavin12345]

Hi @LH2808 

Requiring the company file to be online is purely a choice by MYOB - nothing to do with technical issues etc. MYOB want all users online so they can get everyone using the Browser version. Forcing you to go online in order to use Phase 2 is a tactic to achieve this. You may have noticed they have stopped developing the desktop version and any new feature are released only in the browser version.

If you want to comply with Phase 2 and keep your file offline, you can, however you would need to use a different STP solution. Many AR2023 uses are starting to use a program called STP Creator - this was developed specifically for MYOB company files (offline) and works with v19 and AR2023. It is not free and cost is around $110 for up to 4 employees or around $220 for up to 20 employees.

After processing payroll in MYOB (without needing to sign into MYOB's Payroll Reporting centre), you run STP Creator, this extracts the current payroll data and prepares the STP Report as required by the ATO.  The software is quite flexible and importantly shows you exactly what it is sending to the ATO BEFORE you send, so you can abort before sending if something is not right, edit the payroll or the mapping to correct the error and then lodge - this is not available in MYOB's STP.

Some bookkeepers use STP Creator once a year just to correct reporting errors they can't correct in their existing STP software.

There are numerous other solutions, however they all require you to re-enter payroll into an online portal etc.

Using an alternative STP solution is the only way to comply with Phase 2 without storing your company file online.

Regards

Gavin

[LH2808]

Thanks for the info Gavin.  I am going to look into it today - a cost of $220 annually would be worth it to keep our files offline.