The end of financial year is on our doorstep, which means payroll departments across the country will be getting their numbers in order for the ATO.
Now that you have spent some time checking the data in your payroll system and eliminating anything that will upset the EMPDUPE file such as full stops or commas in address fields, you will be ready to start reconciling your payroll following your last June payroll.
You will also have carefully checked that any overpayments that have been made in the current financial year are recouped by June 30.
Firstly reconcile your total gross wages with your year-to-date payment summary totals. If there are any errors here you will need to work back to find out which payments have been made but not included or which payments have been included that shouldn’t be in total gross wages. Do not include amounts that have been salary sacrificed in “gross payments”.
Check that your PAYG Withholding paid for the year equals the amount on your year to date payroll summary of YTD payments.
Also check the PAYG Withholding paid for the month and the quarter equals the amount on your month and quarter to date reports.
It is best practice to do these reconciliations monthly, which makes the end of year process a lot easier.
You should then reconcile outstanding superannuation liability and compare this to unpaid superannuation for the current month and quarter.
The last reconciliation you must complete is to compare your total payroll tax for the year to the monthly payroll tax paid figures.
Once your payroll is reconciled, print your year to date payroll summary and your payroll entitlements balance as at 30 June 2014.
Now you are ready to print your payment summaries.
Tracy Angwin is the founder and managing director of the Australian Payroll Association.
Tracy is the founder and chief executive officer at the Australian Payroll Association and the director of Payroll HQ.
