Forum Discussion

Cover User

7 months ago

Single Touch Payroll - Updated Event or Payroll Event

I recorded a payroll (paid and reported via STP), then a few days later, realised there was some error on one payroll (wrong amount). I reversed the wrong payroll, and recorded the pay again with the correct amount with the original date of payment (i.e. past-dated), then reported as "Updated Event" via STP.

Now I am processing BAS for the quarter, and I find the BAS has wrong prefilled amount for W1 (total salary) and W2 (PAYGW), because reporting as "Updated Event" updates only YTD figures and does not send the gross and PAYGW amounts. I read the MYOB community help, and understand that I can just manually correct the prefilled figure on BAS.

My question is --- When I make similar payroll corrections in the future, should I report them as "Pay Event", or "Update Event"? As "Update Event" resulted in wrong prefilled amount on BAS, I thought I would use "Pay Event" in the future, but then I found the MYOB support page saying I should use "Update Event" for past-dated pays --- See Example 1 on the page below.

https://www.myob.com/au/support/myob-business/payroll/single-touch-payroll-reporting/reporting-past-dated-pays-for-single-touch-payroll

I appreciate if someone could let me know which is the correct way.

Thanks.

Mami

gavin12345
7 months ago
Hi mamit

An Update event is used when you are wanting to correct employee YTD amounts previously reported and is focused purely on the employee's Income Statement. It is also used for things like Finalising the STP and end of year (making Income Statement Tax Ready).

A Pay Event is used when reporting the payment of a wages etc to your employees. The information sent is the same as for an Update Event, however it also includes the W1 and W2 amounts for this payrun. The ATO use these W1 and W2 amounts to prefill online Activity Statements. The ATO accumulates the W1 and W2 for the reporting period.

Employee YTD totals are sent with every Pay Event and Update Event. The ATO replaces all previous YTD totals each time an STP Report is submitted, it does not accummulate.

After reporting the initial pay as a Pay Event, you reversed that. Once the reversal was reported, the W1 and W2 amounts previously reported for this employees were also reversed. So when you processed the adjusted pay for this employee, it should have been reported as a Pay Event.

MYOB confuses things by defaulting to an Update Event without consulting you whenever the Payment Date is no today's date, so some assume this is the correct approach. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Spend some time reading the forum, you will find many have been caught out by this, complaining about $0 Gross and $0 PAYG being reported.

Regards
Gavin

gavin12345
Ultimate User
7 months ago
Hi mamit

An Update event is used when you are wanting to correct employee YTD amounts previously reported and is focused purely on the employee's Income Statement. It is also used for things like Finalising the STP and end of year (making Income Statement Tax Ready).

A Pay Event is used when reporting the payment of a wages etc to your employees. The information sent is the same as for an Update Event, however it also includes the W1 and W2 amounts for this payrun. The ATO use these W1 and W2 amounts to prefill online Activity Statements. The ATO accumulates the W1 and W2 for the reporting period.

Employee YTD totals are sent with every Pay Event and Update Event. The ATO replaces all previous YTD totals each time an STP Report is submitted, it does not accummulate.

After reporting the initial pay as a Pay Event, you reversed that. Once the reversal was reported, the W1 and W2 amounts previously reported for this employees were also reversed. So when you processed the adjusted pay for this employee, it should have been reported as a Pay Event.

MYOB confuses things by defaulting to an Update Event without consulting you whenever the Payment Date is no today's date, so some assume this is the correct approach. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Spend some time reading the forum, you will find many have been caught out by this, complaining about $0 Gross and $0 PAYG being reported.

Regards
Gavin
- mamit
  Cover User
  7 months ago
  Hi Gavin,
  
  Thanks a lot !!
  
  Mami
  - Doreen_P
    MYOB Moderator
    7 months ago
    Hi mamit,
    
    Thanks for your post.
    
    We're glad that the resolution provided by gavin12345 answered your query. Feel free to post again if you encounter issues in the future.
    
    gavin12345, thank you for helping the Community Forum. We truly appreciate it!
    
    Best regards,
    
    Doreen
- kda
  Cover User
  4 months ago
  hi Gavin,
  just wondering if you can help my situation, my eoy reports such as payroll summary report, payroll activity report and single touch payroll summary of payments all balance to the correct amount,
  however when i went to pay the final 4th qrt BAS the payg amount was less than the amount I should be paying (it worked out to be two weeks payg amounts) the single touch payroll report has them accept with a nil amount, yet the reports all include the figures for those weeks
  regards Kim
christiev
Contributing User
5 months ago
Hi I have the same problem, last year some reversals and pay events went through as update event. Now my accountant tells me that the ATO has different STP figures to my myob. I went through it all and all the pays that accidentally went through as update event didn't not register with ATO yet they did register correctly on Myob I checked all pays ytd was correct. So how do I update the errors to match the ato. I I try run a new pay event and enter the date I paid the wage, it won't allow it it tries to do an update event, and concerned I could end up with same issue. Problem is the pay never went through as a pay event to begin with, it went as update event....hope this makes sense
- CJST
  Experienced Cover User
  2 months ago
  Hello Christiev
  
  Did MYOB reply to you?
  What you mention is happening all the time, clients reverse an incorrect pay event and click the updated and the ATO STP details will not match.
  From what I have read, a lot of the information being given is not correct.
  I am very interested in what MYOB has to say.
  - christiev
    Contributing User
    30 days ago
    Myob helped me with absolutely nothing, it appeared that everyone I spoke with was answering off a script, I had to go through all the transactions, then I asked each employee if their end-of-year figure that was listed on their mygov matched what I had on my end of year myob and it did. I rang the ATO and that was a simialr scenario answering as if reading from a book and I explained to them my accountant saw that my myob and there (ATO) stp figures were different. I was advised by ATO if the employees end of year shown on their mygov was the same I can submit finalisation and it should update. I did that and I have not heard from ATO advising any issues. So long story short if it happens again I would simple ask employees to advise me their total and if mine is the same I will submit, in the meantime at the end of each month I contact my accountant and ask the STP for that month matchs with the ATO. Cheers
- Doreen_P
  MYOB Moderator
  2 months ago
  Hey christiev,
  
  Even if a pay event is submitted as an update event and is showing as zero gross, the correct year-to-date (YTD) amounts will still be reflected in the Single Touch Payroll (STP) reports. You can verify this by checking your payroll reports such as the Payroll Register, Payroll Activity, and YTD Verification Report. If these reports match, you can send an update event to ensure that the correct YTD figures are updated in both MYOB and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). This will help ensure that the figures are consistent.
  
  Best regards,
  
  Doreen