AccountRight: Payment Summary FAQs

Haydes · June 2018

Hi Everyone,

It's that time of year where we all have to start running our Payment Summaries. To make this EOFY as smooth as we can, we've collected our most Frequently Asked Questions surrounding the Payment Summaries.

Need help preparing the Summaries? There are some great resources to check out, see these:

Video: Preparing payment summaries and closing a payroll year
Support Note: Payment summaries: Introduction
Website: MYOB Partner Search (Helpful for checking over setups and onsite training)

If you're looking for information on Empdupe files, Steven from the Moderator team has made a great post detailing the Empdupe file, see: EMPDUPE files

Not seeing something in the Support Notes? See below for a list of the main FAQ's we get for Payment Summaries:

Helpful tip: Use Ctrl + F on your keyboard to search keywords on this page.

Q. Can I email the Payment Summaries to our employees directly?

A. Yes! Since AccountRight 2016.2 you can now email out your Payment Summaries on Step 7. Review the Payment Summaries.

For details on how to email your Payment Summaries, see this forum post: Emailing the Payment Summaries

Using AccountEdge or an older version of AccountRight? You'll need to save a PDF copy of the payment summaries and attach them to the emails you send to your employees.

Emails not sending or Red Cross showing when emailing? This can happen if the Subject, Body or both are blank. Please enter a value in both fields, such as "Payment Summary for 2018 Payroll Year".

Q. How do I reprint or re-send a payment summary?

A. When preparing the Payment Summaries, we always recommend saving the Summaries as PDFs and storing them on a computer or storage medium for later use.

This is due to the fact that the Payroll Register is cleared when rolling over each Payroll year and therefore the Payment Summary information is cleared each year to make way for the new Payroll data.

Don't have a PDF Copy? There are still ways you can do this, see: Reprinting or resending a Payment Summary

Q. Why does my Payment Summary figures look wrong?

A. The most common reasons for this is due to the fields not being set up correctly or your Payroll Register reports aren't correct. We have 2 great forum posts that go into these reasons in detail, see them below:

Forum Post: The Payment Summary fields are not set up as expected.
Forum Post: The Payroll Activity & Payroll Register reports do not match.

Q. How do I get RFB (Reportable fringe benefit) to show on the Payment Summaries?

A. When running through the Payment Summary Assistant, on Step 6. Reportable Fringe Benefit, we can enter the relevant RFB amounts on this screen. Here are some great links to look at for this:

Help Article: Payment summaries: Reportable fringe benefit
Forum Post: FBT on payment summary

FBT not showing after entering it? We'll need to refresh the Payment Summary amounts.

This is done in Step 7. Review the Payment Summaries, open the relevant Employee and click "Reset all" at the top of the window. This should force-update the FBT amount to display.

Getting a message about the FBT limits? Check out the great information on this forum post: Reportable FBT - HELP

Have an Employee with Zero Income but FBT amounts? Check out the FAQ's on this support note: Payment summaries: Reportable fringe benefit

Enquiring about FBT Yes / No box? If you do not have any reportable fringe benefits amount to report, the software will leave these fields blank as per ATO Spec. For details on this box, see: The FBT exemption "Yes" and "No" boxes

Q. Why is my name not showing in the Authorised person field?

A. This can happen when your name is showing in the Contact's name field but not the Authorised person field, just double check Step 2. Company Information:

Q. If my last pay ends in July, will this pay show on the Payment Summary?

A. Payment Summaries will include amounts that employees were paid in a financial year, so if the last pay for the current FY ends in the new FY, it would presumably be paid in the new FY and so not be included in the current FY.

The best way of looking at this is by determining the Payment Date of the pay run, if you'll be paying the Employee on June 30 or beforehand it should be included in the Payment Summary. If it lands on 01/07 or after, it is counted as next years earnings.

Q. What is the Type field next to Gross Payments?

A. This was a change the ATO put in place in the 2017 Financial Year, this field denotes what type the payment summary is. With "S" being "Salary and Wages" or "Standard Tax Employee" and "H" being "Working Holiday Maker". This information is based on the Tax Table being chosen in the Employee Card.

We have a post that goes through this in more detail, check out: Payment Type field on Payment Summaries

Q. I'm getting an error when trying to run my Payment Summaries. How do I fix this?

A. We recognise that some Users have experienced errors when running their Payment Summaries. Depending on the error really depends on how we can fix it.

Just click on the error that's closest to the one you received:

Something's gone wrong - When running Payment Summaries (This is coming...)
There is no electronic payment reporting specification available for this payroll year
Payment summary asking for a description to be entered although a description is entered (This is coming...)

Not seeing your error? Please feel free to Start a new Post in the top right and detail your error and the Community will be happy to help.

Q. How do I produce a Payment Summary for more than 1 ABN branch?

A. You'll need to run through the Payment Summary Assistant a few times for the different ABN branches. When on Step 2. Company Information, you can enter the ABN Branch number:

We have a great support note that can take you through the details of this, see: Payment summaries for multiple ABN branches

Q. Why isn't there a payment summary for some, or all, of my employees?

A. There are 2 reasons why this could be:

There is no Pay History for that Employee Card File.
The Employment Basis for the Employee is set to Other, not Individual or Labour Hire.

For details on checking this, see this thread: Employees not showing in Payment Summary Assistant

Q. What Super amounts do I need to show on the Payment Summary?

A. Superannuation contributions that exceed the superannuation guarantee amount are reportable, for example salary sacrifice and some salary packaged amounts.

Superannuation guarantee payments (the compulsory employer contributions) are not reportable.

For details on how to set this up, check out this support note: Payment summaries: Reportable employer super

Q. What do I do if my Employee has no TFN?

A. There does need to be a TFN specified when preparing the Payment Summaries. You would need to specify a relevant TFN in the Payment Summaries for the relevant Employees.

I recommend looking at this support note: Review the payment summaries - Tax File Numbers

Q. I have some Backpackers (Working Holiday Makers), do I need to do anything?

A. If you have set up the relevant Tax Table for your Employee Cards, you don't need to do anything extra. AccountRight will publish the Working Holiday Maker Payment Summary for you.

For information on what Tax Table to use, see this support note: Working holiday makers

No registered to employ working holiday makers? You'll need to use the applicable Foreign Resident tax table for working holiday makers. If you withhold 15% for working holiday makers without registering, you may be penalised by the ATO. Learn about registering with the ATO

Does your backpacker have no TFN? You must withhold 47% from payments to working holiday makers if:

They have not provided you with their tax file number (TFN),
have not claimed an exemption from quoting their TFN, or
have not advised that they have applied for a TFN.

Q. I've made an error in my Payment Summaries and I need to amend it, how do I do this?

A. In the current AccountRight Live software, you are able to create amended Payment Summaries through the Prepare Payment Summaries window. When on Step 7. Review the Payment Summaries, simply tick "These are amendments" to generate accordingly.

For details on how to do this for each product, see this forum post: Payment Summary Amendments

Q. I need to enter pays for the new payroll year but can't print my payment summaries yet. What should I do?

A. To enter pays for the new payroll year you'll need to close the old payroll year. But if you don't have time to print the payment summaries before entering your first pays for the new year, make a backup of your company file once you know that all payroll information has been entered for all employees. Store it in a safe place on CD/DVD or other external media.

You can then close the payroll year and enter the pays for July. When you're ready to print your payment summaries, restore the backup that you made and use that file to prepare them. If you restore a backup, only use it to prepare and send your payment summaries. Don't use this company file for recording pays or other transactions.