Xero EOFY Payroll Checklist

Reduce filing errors by reviewing key information before you report any information to the ATO.

• Review organisational details – check the Legal/Trading name, ABN and postal address including postcode are correct.
• Review payroll settings – ensure earning and deduction pay items have been set up with the correct category.
• Review employees – run the Employee Contact Details report to check each employee entry for accuracy, focusing on date of birth and postcode.

• Check all pay runs for the financial year have been posted and have a payment date within the financial year.
• Check all wages have been paid through the business bank account.
• Check all payroll related transactions such as wages, PAYG and superannuation have been reconciled.
• Run the Payroll Activity Summary report. Review the pay item totals and the Activity Statement column.
• Run the General Ledger report and check that all wage transactions like superannuation have been reconciled correctly.
• Compare the totals on the Payroll Activity Summary report with the General Ledger report to ensure amounts match.

Finalise Single Touch Payroll Data

Businesses using Single Touch Payroll (STP) will need to finalise employee wages, PAYG and superannuation for the financial year by completing an STP finalisation.

To begin, navigate to the Finalisation screen from the Single Touch Payroll menu.

• Click the Finalisation tab.
• Check the Tax Year is set to correct financial year, i.e. 2019/20
• Toggle the Show terminated employees for RFBA switch if they are to be included in this finalisation.
• Ensure all employees that require STP Finalisation are appearing in the list.
• Review each employee’s year to date summary for accuracy, and enter any required reportable fringe benefits  amounts (RFBA).
• Select employees to finalise and if required, export the data to CSV by clicking Export to CSV.
• Click Finalise and submit to ATO.
• Read the authorisation to file declaration. Select the checkbox to accept and authorise the file, then click Submit to ATO.
• Check the Status column in the Finalisation screen to confirm finalised employees.

If adjustments are required, here are two recommended options;

• Process an unscheduled pay run.
• Revert the last posted pay run per pay calendar to draft, edit, and post again.

If you are finalising via STP, simply make the adjustment and file that pay run to the ATO. Then repeat the finalisation process again for the affected employees only.

For detailed instructions on fixing a STP filing error, click here.

If you are filing payment summaries, first unpublish the employee’s payment summary to include them in the adjustment. If  needed, mark the payment summary as amended and submit the PSAR report to the ATO. For detailed instructions on correcting payment summary errors, click here.