We’ve been inundated with questions about STP now that it is mandatory for small businesses with 1-9 employees – unless you’re a closely-held employee. 

Is that you? Are you closely held? Here are

• some providers of FREE STP software,
• great software features (like invoice signing), and
• links to the ATO website where you can dig deeper. 

What is a closely held employee?

A closely held employee is directly related to the entity from which they receive payments, including family members of a family business, directors of a company, and shareholders or beneficiaries.

Here’s the ATO information about it.

Many small and micro businesses pay themselves and family members on an adhoc basis – more money one week, less another based on how their cashflow is looking. This information is often reported at each quarterly BAS or with the end of year reporting. 

ATO Closely Held Employees

You can learn how to process and code adhoc payroll transactions in these courses:

• Xero GST, Reporting and BAS Course,
• QuickBooks GST, Reporting and BAS Course,
• MYOB Accountright GST, Reporting and BAS Course,
• MYOB Essentials GST, Reporting and BAS Course

As long as you pay the correct amount of tax, super and other entitlements you can code is separately. 

If you’re not closely held you’re an arms-length away

As an arms-length employee you fit into the category that the ATO wants to protect in this years STP update and it’s such a big issue that most of the accounting software companies have come out with a payroll solution just to help small businesses manage their STP obligations. 

If you’re looking for a Payroll Administration Accounts Job you’ll need to know how to perform all the required tasks for that job and you can learn those tasks in our Payroll Courses for Xero, MYOB & QuickBooks.

No-cost and low-cost STP solutions currently available

The ATO has created an information page which lists software providers of low-cost or no-cost STP solutions and the standout for me was Payroller from Bookipi.

It was a standout because they are a Sydney based software business that was established in 2016. Just like I mentioned about Westpac entering the invoicing game with their Biz Invoicing, this company has two products which are squarely targeted at Micro-businesses. 

While I was at the site I tried their chatbot automated marketing system and you can see how they’re targeting two features that I recently heard that QuickBooks Online can actually help with too!

1. Getting paid through the software, and
2. having customers sign the invoice (ideal as confirmation that the work has been completed or a package received). 

I’ll cover these topics in a future post.

FREE accounting software

I’ve written often about the different free accounting software options and this accounting startup is a classic example of the competitive pressure that most companies face. 

I personally use WaveApps software for one project I work with and have found no issue in working with my accountant but most businesses are willing to continue to pay for a good quality product like MYOB, Xero and QuickBooks.

FREE updates and additions

Current EzyLearn students or LIFETIME members for Xero and MYOB will be happy to discover that we’ve added some new training content to these courses to cover information about Single Touch Payroll. 

FREE MYOB & Xero Training

We love FREE because it takes away the financial risk to try something.

We offer FREE micro courses and other training resources in:

• MYOB AccountRight,
• Xero Accounts Receivable,
• Microsoft Excel Beginners,
• Bookkeeping Beginners, and
• Digital Marketing 

Sign in for instant free access and see why 10’s of thousands of students have trusted Ezylearn for over 20 years.