Preparing Payroll for End of Financial Year

With 30 June fast approaching now is the time to ensure your payroll house is in order.
 
Payment Summaries (also known as group certificates) are required to be sent out to all employees by 14 July. This doesn’t give you much time to work through any anomalies that may arise, especially if you have other year-end accounting duties that need to be completed.
 
You need to start thinking about the following:

• Sending out a bulk email to all staff to find out if anyone has changed email or postal addresses during the year. This needs to be checked against the details you have in your payroll system.
• Do a comprehensive reconciliation of all payroll related GL accounts - Wages Expense, Super Expense, Wages Payable, Super Payable, PAYG Withheld, FBT Payable etc.
• Make sure your payroll figures match what has been submitted on your BAS.
• Ensure you have the correct Super fund and Member number details.
• Are you missing Tax File Number Declarations from anyone and have they been filed with the ATO?
• Was there any Fringe Benefits Tax that needs to be included on the payment summaries?

              Note the FBT year runs from 1 April to 31 March.

• Has there been any salary packaging or reportable super contributions?
• Were there any lump sum termination payments?
• Did anything unusual happen or was there an error on a payment that needs to be corrected before June 30?
• Check entitlement balances in detail and ensure that anyone who left during the year has a nil Annual Leave balance.

 
As you can see there is a lot to be thinking about and it is a much easier (not to mention less stressful) to have these things sorted before the end of financial year.
 
Work out a plan, tick tasks off as you go and you will be in a good position for a nice, smooth year end.
 
If you’re not sure, it pays to seek advice. The last thing you want is for employees to be using the wrong figures on their tax returns.
 
Happy EOFY!