Overview

A Pay Event represents a single payroll run for an employer. It contains the pay period dates, a collection of employee pay items, and is ultimately submitted to the ATO as an STP report (PAYEVNT.0004).

Creating a Pay Event

Click New Pay Event and fill in:

  • Employer — select which employer this pay run is for
  • Pay Period Start / End — the dates the pay period covers
  • Payment Date — the date employees are paid
  • Pay Frequency — weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or quarterly
  • Event Type — Submit (standard), Amendment, or Full File Replacement

Adding Employee Pay Items

Once a pay event is created, add individual employee pay items. Each item captures the full STP Phase 2 disaggregated breakdown:

Gross Amounts

  • Gross Payment — total gross payment
  • OTE (Ordinary Time Earnings) — base earnings
  • Overtime — overtime payments
  • Bonuses & Commissions — bonus and commission amounts
  • Directors Fees — for company directors
  • Salary Sacrifice (Super) — salary sacrificed to superannuation
  • Salary Sacrifice (Other) — salary sacrificed to other benefits
  • Paid Leave — leave payments at ordinary rate
  • Lump Sum W — return-to-work payments

Tax

  • PAYG Withholding — tax withheld from the employee's pay
  • Foreign Tax Paid — tax paid to foreign jurisdictions

Superannuation

  • SG Amount — Superannuation Guarantee contribution
  • Salary Sacrifice (Super) — super from salary sacrifice
  • Employer Additional — voluntary employer contributions
  • RESC — Reportable Employer Super Contributions

Leave

  • Annual Leave — accrued annual leave value
  • Personal/Carer's Leave — sick/carer's leave value
  • Long Service Leave — LSL accrued value
  • Community Service Leave — jury duty, emergency service, etc.

Lump Sums & ETPs

  • Lump Sum A/B/D/E — various lump sum payment types
  • ETP Taxable/Tax-Free — Employment Termination Payments
  • ETP Code — the ETP type code (R, O, S, P, D, N, B, T)

Other

  • FBT Reportable — Fringe Benefits Tax reportable amount
  • Allowances — itemised allowances (car, travel, meals, etc.)
  • Deductions — itemised deductions (union fees, workplace giving, etc.)

Pay Event Status

Pay events move through these statuses:

Status Description
Draft Being prepared — can add/edit/remove items
Ready Marked as ready for submission — locked for editing
Submitted Sent to the ATO — awaiting response
Accepted ATO has accepted the submission
Rejected ATO has rejected — review errors and resubmit
Error A system error occurred during submission

Workflow

  1. Create a pay event with period dates and employer
  2. Add items for each employee being paid this period
  3. Review the totals and verify everything is correct
  4. Mark as Ready to lock the pay event for submission
  5. Submit to ATO to lodge the STP report

Important Notes

  • You can only edit pay items while the event is in Draft status
  • Once marked as Ready, the event is locked — you must revert to Draft to make changes
  • The system automatically calculates totals from individual pay items
  • Amendments and Full File Replacements reference a previous pay event
  • YTD amounts are accumulated automatically when a pay event is accepted