I urge all newsagents with employees to use accounting software for managing pays and producing payslips. The structure offered through this process could help you avoid issues down the track as the software creates and manages a paper trail.
There is a situation in our channel right now where a paper trail would have been helpful. No paper pay slips were issued, allowing for a Fair Work complaint that resolving is likely to be expensive for the business owner.
Payroll software or accounting software with payroll is not expensive in the overall compliance cost for business.
Getting this right matters in terms of employer obligations to employees, being able to respond to fair Work queries, for taxation purposes and to satisfy questions from franchisors as they navigate their reporting and knowledge requirements under the relatively new federal legislation that came out of the 7-Eleven pay scandal.
Click here to access the advice from the Fair Work Ombudsman website on pay slips.
It’s 35 years since I first used a personal computer in a work situation. I remember the old IBM with its floppy well. It speaks volumes that manual payrolls, hand written magazine stickers and fax machines are still evident in newsagencies.
Hi Mark, with the Single Touch Payroll legislation coming into effect as of 1 July 2019 for businesses with less than 20 employees, and it already being in effect for businesses with more than 20 employees, then it is essential that all employers use compliant payroll software. If you have less than 4 employees then the requirement is a little less onerous, as you can get away with entering the payroll data into a Business Portal, or getting your accountant or bookkeeper to enter it into the BAS or Tax Agents Portal, or using cheap stand alone payroll software. It is a legal requirement to issue payslips, however they don’t have to be paper based, they can be electronic by email, or if you are STP compliant then via an employees myGov account. I was a distibution agent for 10 years so appreciate the time and cash constraints of doing these things properly, but now that I am working as an accountant / bookkeeper again I undertsand the penalties for getting it wrong.
One of the most serious issue employers get wrong is not paying superannuation on time or at all. The consequences for not paying superannuation on time is more severe than any other expense – fines, interest and loss of tax deductions harsher than not paying your tax on time.
And, Dean, the ATO does not forgive super penalties.
Colin, I agree 100%.