What are the payroll period details?¶

Every Single Touch Payroll (STP) report carries some dates. They may look like small details, but they do important work. They tell the Australian Taxation Office (the ATO) which financial year the report belongs to, which report holds the latest figures, and which period the pay covers.

Why this matters¶

STP reports do not always reach the ATO in the order they were made. The ATO notes that many payroll timings can lead to files arriving out of sequence. The dating fields let the ATO sort out which figures are the most current, so each employee's totals stay right.

What you will learn¶

• The dating fields carried in an STP report
• How the Pay/Update Date sets the financial year
• Why the Run Date/Time Stamp decides which record is the latest

Understanding the concept¶

The ATO describes these dating fields:

• Pay/Update Date — the ATO uses this date to work out which financial year the report applies to. For a submit action, this is the payday. For a current-year update action, it is the date the new or corrected data was created. For a prior-year update action, it is 30 June of the relevant financial year.
• Run Date/Time Stamp — this points to the latest year-to-date (YTD) record. The ATO says the ATO uses it to identify the latest YTD amount to show on each employee's income statement, and Services Australia uses it to put files in order. For a submit action, it is the moment the YTD amount was worked out by the pay run — not when the file was created or sent — and it cannot be later than the Pay/Update Date.
• Pay period start and end — the start and end of the pay cycle the report covers. The ATO notes this refers to the pay cycle period, not the financial year.

The Pay/Update Date and the Run Date/Time Stamp work together. One sets the year; the other decides which report holds the newest figures for that year.

Example¶

A business pays fortnightly for the period 21 June to 4 July, with payday on 4 July. On the STP report, the Pay/Update Date is 4 July, so the ATO knows the pay belongs to the new financial year. The Run Date/Time Stamp records when the pay run worked out the year-to-date amounts. Later, if a corrected report for the same period arrives, its Run Date/Time Stamp tells the ATO which set of figures is the latest to show.

Common mistakes¶

• Confusing the Pay/Update Date with the pay period — the Pay/Update Date sets the financial year, while the pay period is the cycle the pay covers.
• Thinking the Run Date/Time Stamp is when the file was sent — the ATO says, for a submit action, it is when the pay run worked out the YTD amounts.
• Assuming reports are processed in the order they were sent — they can arrive out of sequence, which is exactly why these dates matter.

How this works in myaccountant¶

Key points¶

• STP carries a Pay/Update Date, a Run Date/Time Stamp and the pay period.
• The ATO uses the Pay/Update Date to work out the financial year.
• The Run Date/Time Stamp points to the latest YTD record.
• For a submit action, the Run Date/Time Stamp is when the pay run worked out the YTD amounts, and cannot be later than the Pay/Update Date.
• The pay period start and end describe the pay cycle, not the financial year.
• Sequencing matters because reports can reach the ATO out of order.

Learn next¶

• What is a pay event?
• The key identifiers in STP
• What is an update event?

General information only — not tax, super or financial advice.