Overview
This article explains what actions you must complete to close off the 2023/24 financial year and prepare your system for the 2024/25 financial year. This information only applies to users of the Payroll module in Astute with Australian entities.
Please read this article all the way through before you start your EOFY preparations. More information is available on specific topics in the linked Help Centre articles.
NOTE: This article contains general advice and recommendations relating to the configuration and EOFY processes in the Astute payroll system. It is not qualified tax or legal advice and should not be relied upon or used as such.
If you have any questions relating to the correct configuration of the system for your business, you will need to contact a qualified adviser.
Before You Start
You won’t need to close off the 2023/24 financial year before you process pay runs in the new financial year. Pay runs with a Payment Date of 1 July 2024 onwards will automatically be recorded in the new financial year.
Important Information Regarding Your STP Report Settings
Astute Payroll reports your STP data to the ATO in the STP2 file format. The process for finalising STP for the end of the financial year has not changed from last year to this year; you may notice some differences in the reconciliation process compared to previous years when STP 2.0 was not enabled.
You will need to ensure that you have configured the STP Report Settings for all of your pay, superannuation, and deduction items correctly.
The STP Report Settings are included in the STP messages that you submit to the ATO, to categorise the earnings for your employees and contractors. Once a pay, deduction, or superannuation item is included in a pay run marked as Paid, the associated STP Report Settings cannot be updated.
Items that have been configured with the incorrect STP Report Settings will need to be manually adjusted. Any items that you create when processing an adjustment must be configured with the STP Report Settings BEFORE you include them in a pay run.
For more information on configuring your STP Reporting Settings, please see this Help Centre article, and refer to step 4 in the checklist for closing off this financial year.
NOTE: Astute Payroll cannot provide advice on how your pay, deduction, or superannuation items should be configured. For any clarification on this beyond the information provided above, you will need to speak to your accountant, or financial adviser, or contact the ATO directly.
What's New in 2024/25
Superannuation Guarantee Contribution (SGC) is Increasing
From 1 July 2024, SGC will increase to 11.5%. You’ll need to update your superannuation item configuration with a new rate to apply the new rate to employees who have been assigned your SGC item, as long as their profile is using the default values.
IMPORTANT: Rate changes that you add to a superannuation item in Config will only apply to employees who have been assigned a superannuation item and who are configured with the system’s default values in their employee profile. If you have added custom values for any employees, you will need to check for and update these manually.
You may also need to consider whether your pay and charge rates need to be updated to reflect the change to the SGC rate.
A Reminder about Superannuation Contribution Eligibility
At the end of FY 2021/22, the Minimum Monthly Threshold for SGC was removed, with employees entitled to accrue superannuation regardless of their minimum earnings.
If you’ve already updated your relevant superannuation items with a Minimum Monthly Threshold of $0, you won’t need to take any further action. You may like to check that this has been updated to ensure that superannuation is calculated correctly for your employees.
Payroll Tax Rates
Payroll Tax rates are now managed internally by your administrative teams.
Any changes to Payroll Tax rates that are announced by the relevant State Revenue Offices will need to be updated by an administrator for your portal in Config > Payroll > Payroll Tax. These rates will no longer be updated by Astute Payroll on your portal’s behalf.
If no changes need to be made to the Payroll Tax rate for the new financial year, you won’t need to create a new rate for the new financial year. The Financial Year and Effective Date will automatically be updated to reflect the new financial year, and the current Tax Rate that you have set for each state and territory will continue to apply.
For steps on updating a Payroll Tax Rate, please see this Help Centre article.
EOFY Frequently Asked Questions
For quick troubleshooting and support, refer to our EOFY FAQs article, covering some of the more common issues that arise during EOFY processing.
Please familiarise yourself with the content in this article, as the answer you need may be there. If your question isn’t covered by the article, please contact our Support Team, providing as much information in your original query as you can so that we can assist you as efficiently as possible.
EOFY Checklist
The following tables outline the steps to close off the 2023/24 financial year and prepare the system for 2024/25.
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Close Off FY 2023/24 |
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| 1. Check your employees' details | Confirm that your employees’ details are complete and correct:
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Update incorrect or incomplete employee details by:
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| 2. Check your entity's details | Confirm that the following entity details are complete and correct:
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Confirm that your myGovID Machine (M2M) Credential is set up and valid. You will need to repeat this process for each entity in your portal. |
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| 3. Check your Suppliers' details, if required for TPAR reporting |
Check that any Suppliers that need to be reported under TPAR are configured in your portal. Applicable Supplier profiles should have:
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| 4. Ensure that your pay, deduction, superannuation, and leave items have been correctly configured for reporting through STP |
Review the configuration for the following items to ensure that they are configured completely and accurately in your portal so that you can correctly report to the ATO via STP: All leave categories must be configured with a unique Pay Item (eg Annual Leave is paid with a pay item called ‘Annual Leave’, rather than a standard Base Hourly items). Leave categories with an Accrual Method of Percentage of Time Worked should have the following items selected for inclusion in the accrual calculation:
IMPORTANT: The STP Report Settings fields for any of the above items cannot be changed once the item is included in a pay run marked as Paid. If an item has been configured with the incorrect STP Report Settings, you will need to manually adjust any pays that contain incorrectly configured items using lump sum pays prior to finalising your STP for the financial year. |
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| 5. Process final pay runs for FY 2023/24 |
Following your existing payroll processes, complete any outstanding pay runs that need to be paid on or before 30 June 2024. These pay runs must be processed and marked as Paid so that your payroll activity and employees’ STP data have complete pay and tax information. |
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Process any outstanding for the financial year. To include an ETP in the 2022/23 financial year, you will need to set the pay period on or before 30 June 2024. |
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| Submit STP Update Event Finalisation | ||
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| If STP is enabled, and you have made STP submissions to the ATO in FY 2023/24: | ||
| 1. Check your STP Submissions for FY 2023/24 and reconcile your payroll activity against STP Updates |
Check that your financial data for payroll, PAYG tax, Superannuation and STP Update is correct. IMPORTANT: You'll need to regenerate the STP Update report first to make sure that the values are current and up to date. |
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| 2. Lock 2023/24 financial year | Ensure that payroll for FY 2023/24 year is locked. This means that no further pay runs can be processed with a Pay Date on or before 30 June 2024. | ⬜ |
| 3. Prepare and submit your STP finalisation update event |
Ensure that STP Update Finalisation information for all relevant employees is correct, and that all reportable FBAs are entered and saved. Mark all employee STP Updates as Finalised once this is done. |
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Submit a STP Update Event Finalisation message has been sent for all relevant employees and submitted to the ATO by 14 July 2024. You will need to repeat this process for each entity in your portal. |
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| 4. Prepare and submit TPAR, if required. | If you have TPAR reportable suppliers, run the Taxable Payments Annual Report (TPAR) and generate a TPAR file to upload into the ATO portal by 28 August 2024. | ⬜ |
| Prepare your portal for FY 2024/25 | ||
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| Once the current financial year is closed off, follow the steps below to prepare your system for the new financial year. | ||
| 1. Update your Payroll Tax Rates |
Confirm if there are any upcoming changes to the Payroll Tax rates for states and territories, and update any rates as required. You can view the active rates associated with each state in Config > Payroll > Payroll Tax. IMPORTANT: Astute Payroll will not make changes to Payroll Tax rates in your portal on your behalf. This process will need to be managed manually by your internal administrative team. |
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| 2. Update pay and charge rates |
Confirm that pay and charge rates have been updated on jobs and/or rate cards. You'll need to consider whether any increases to Payroll Tax and superannuation will impact your oncost and charge rates. |
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| 3. Update superannuation rates and settings |
Ensure that your superannuation items are configured with the correct rates and settings. If you currently use a percentage-based superannuation item for SGC at 11%, you can add a new rate to the existing item in Config to account for the increase to 11.5% (effective 1 July 2024). When you save the new rate, any employee who is assigned that superannuation item and uses the default values will automatically have their profile updated. To update the rate associated with a superannuation item:
The system will apply the new rate to any pays for relevant employees with a Pay Date on or after the Start Date you configure for the new rate. A new rate can be future-dated, so you can do this at any time to come into effect on 1 July 2024. REMINDER: Updates made in Config > Payroll > Superannuation to a specific item will only apply to any employee who has a default value entered on their profile. If your employees have been assigned custom superannuation rates in their Pay Items tab, the changes that you apply in Config will not flow through. You will need to review and update these values manually in each impacted employee’s profile. You can search the User Updates Report to assist with identifying any employees who have a manually entered super rate on their profile. |
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