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Spinifexit at mastering SAP HR and payroll 2019
Mastering SAP HR & Payroll | March 19-20, 2019
 Mastering SAP HR & Payroll | March 19-20, 2019 810 450 SpinifexIT

Meet SpinifexIT’s SAP HCM and SAP Payroll Experts at the Mastering SAP HR & Payroll Conference on March 19-20, 2019 in Sydney!

SpinifexIT will be joining this year’s Mastering SAP HR & Payroll Conference for the third time in a row. We’re looking forward to sharing our exciting new solutions updates which help organisation from around the world to:
  • Optimise their existing HR & Payroll end-to-end processes which includes HCM document generation, reporting and payroll reconciliation
  • Improve risk mitigation & compliance
  • Maximise their existing SAP HCM and SuccessFactors investments while future-proofing their systems and processes
  • Take advantage of real-time data-driven analytics to make better business decisions.
We’re inviting you to drop by our booth so we can catch up and talk about how we can work together to solve your top HCM and Payroll puzzles.  

Ask us about our Simple but Powerful Single Touch Payroll Solution

Many of our new and existing customers have started using Easy STP, our powerful reporting and reconciliation solution for the Australian Single Touch Payroll requirement which went live last October, to streamline their own single touch payroll reporting process. We’re now in the process of releasing an improved and updated version of Easy STP which includes new features and functionalities based on our customers’ initial feedback and suggestions. This new version includes several new reports, small changes to existing reconciliation reports, and two of the most top requested features which we’d be glad to share with you on the conference.

SpinifexIT’s Easy Single Touch Payroll Resources

View the latest news about Easy STP, the go-to solution for Australian Single Touch Payroll Reconciliation
 
  1. Meet Easy STP – Watch our Webinar and see SpinifexIT’s Single Touch Payroll solution in action. If you have any questions about this session or if you’d like to request a separate demonstration for you and your team, email us at [email protected].
  2. Single Touch Payroll is Nearly Here for SAP Payroll – a handy blog post that summarizes the Single Touch Payroll Process and how SpinifexIT’s Easy STP solution can help optimize this
  3. Are You Ready For SAP’s STP Deployment – What are the required steps that you need to take to prepare for the STP roll out? Read the blog to learn more
  4. Reconciling Single Touch Payroll – Published 1 day before SAP’s STP roll out. I’m sharing some considerations during Go Live and how our Easy STP solution fits in the process.
  5. Your go-to solution for Australian Single Touch Payroll Reconciliation Just Got Better – We’ve implemented two major features for Easy STP. Find out how these new functionalities can make your STP process so much simpler.

Meet Our Team

Blair Ross

Neil Young

Kim Rawlings

Tony Vitelli

Sam Kanti

SpinifexIT webinar meet Easy STP
Webinar: Meet Easy STP – A Single Touch Payroll solution by SpinifexIT | December 14, 2018
 Webinar: Meet Easy STP – A Single Touch Payroll solution by SpinifexIT | December 14, 2018 1024 512 SpinifexIT

We’re inviting you to join our FREE webinar about our newest solution for Australian Payroll Reconciliation and Single Touch Payroll, Easy STP. The webinar will go live this Friday, December 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM AEDT. Our SpinifexIT Consulting Team Member Tony Vitelli will discuss the following topics in this 20-minute session:

    • What is the STP process and how Easy STP can add some value
    • What is Easy STP and how it can help expedite your full payroll process
    • How Easy STP can help you stay compliant with the ATO
    • What kind of documents can you produce with Easy STP
  • See Easy STP in action (live demo)

Please click here to register and reserve a slot.

If you cannot make it to the webinar due to schedule conflicts,  you can still register to receive a copy of the session within 48 hours. The session will also be posted on our Customer Care Portal under the Easy STP section in Zendesk.

If you have any additional questions before or during the webinar, please send us your inquiries at [email protected].

SpinifexIT Australia Team

[email protected]

SpinifexIT blog Are you ready for saps stp deployment
Are you ready for SAP’s STP Deployment?
 Are you ready for SAP’s STP Deployment? 1024 512 SpinifexIT

In my previous blog, I’ve shared some of my views about SAP’s Single Touch Payroll (STP) solution and some considerations to keep in mind whilst implementing it to your existing payroll process.

For today’s entry, I will share some technical details for SAP’s STP solution which includes its minimum system requirements, configuration and implementation.

SAP have been talking about the upcoming STP solution and its system requirements in the past 12 months, and now that it’s almost here, it is confirmed that customers are indeed required to be on a minimum SAP HR Support Pack Level in order to load up this new solution.

For customers who are a long way behind on their SAP version, now is the time to start planning for this work. The table below gives you a guide on the minimum level you need to be in based on your existing SAP release. In all cases, the May 10th sync point is the minimum HR level requirement.

Additional Requirements

SAP is delivering the STP solution to their customers as part of their normal upgrade process. However, this is not the complete solution as does not include the ability to physically transmit the file to the ATO via a secure encrypted process.

In order to meet this requirement, additional functionality will be required. SAP’s recommended approach is to use their SAP Cloud Platform Integration (SCPI) solution. You may learn more about SCPI and check out their standard pricing here.  However SAP have agreed on special pricing to enable customers to quickly migrate to STP.  You should speak to your sales representative or partner to discuss this further.

While the ATO does not require the use of SCPI, organisations are expected to comply with its requirement: transmissions and communication should be secure and encrypted following the EbMS3/AS4 protocol. Should you decide to take up SCPI, you will likely need a Test and Production SCPI system as the minimum requirement.

As you can see, the few steps listed above can quickly start to be a larger project. For most customers, this will involve preparing for the following requirements:

Development Environment

The development environment is where you will initially install the system upgrades and configure the new STP solution. The following gives you some high-level guidelines of what will need to be done here.

  • Upgrade system to minimum HR Support levels
  • Install STP solution.  NOTE: If you upgrade the system to the latest HRSP level, then you will not need to install a separate STP update
  • Modify your Schemas, Wagetypes, ABN Details and Setup connections to the SAP Cloud Platform Integration solution
  • Development Unit Testing of the above
  • Test Migration of Clusters to create new STP data
  • Testing of the Payroll runs
  • Testing of the STP Data Creation Reports
  • Once happy with the solution, plan to migrate these changes to Test

Test Environment

The Test environment is where you can test the STP solution with more up to date employee data. It would be a good idea to factor in a copy of your production environment prior to commencing this project so that you can test the entire process including the payroll results conversion on your recent (2019) data. Otherwise, you may be needing to create test data to simulate what will occur in production.

  • Copy the production system or Clone data from production (If you have a tool to do this)
  • Upgrade the environment to the latest support packs (As per development)
  • Import configuration transports
  • Conversion of the payroll clusters
  • Test the STP file creation process
  • Setup of the SAP Cloud Platform Integration solution and liking this to test
  • Test the encrypted transmission to the ATO
  • Test the execution of Payroll runs
  • Retest the STP file creation
  • Retest the transmission to the ATO

Production – Go Live

Once everything is completely tested, you will then have the option to go live with STP.  This will often be done across a weekend as there is the need to upgrade the SAP environment, convert the payroll clusters and perform some additional testing. During go live, you will have steps such as the following:

  • Upgrade the environment to the latest support packs
  • Import Configuration Transports
  • Convert the Payroll Clusters to be ready for STP
  • Perform Additional Testing

The remaining steps then will be part of your normal payroll process.  For example: Next payroll run, you will create the first STP file for transmission to the ATO and transmit it.  

Upgrading your HR Support packs as well as configuring and testing STP may not be a huge change but it will involve some time and effort to complete. Planning ahead is vital to streamline this process. As part of this preparation, we recommend that you also look into the following key activities:

  • Review and modify your payroll business process
  • Plan for your STP project’s resource with consideration to variables such as configuration, data validation, testing reporting, and finalisation
  • Check your SAP HR support pack level and planning for the upgrade if required
  • Explore and finalise your file transmission options:
  • SAP Cloud Platform Integration (SCPI) is the easiest option
  • You can also explore the services provided by your clearing house such as Click Super and Plum
  • Find out more about ATO compliant gateways

Upgrading the HR Support Packs can also bring in a lot of new functionality on top of the STP solution. This may also require more extensive testing to ensure that there will be no impact on your production payroll.

So, here’s Part 2 of my 3-part blog series. Once again, if you’d like to view Part 1, click here. We’re publishing Part 3 next week, where I’ll talk about the importance of STP reconciliation and how SpinifexIT’s Easy STP solution can make this process faster, better & easier.

Are you a current Easy Payment Summaries user?

We’ve got great news for you! You can avail of our Easy STP upgrade for absolutely NO COST! Our Easy STP solution will be available after October 11, 2018 once SAP releases their STP solution. E-mail us at [email protected] or message our support team through our Customer Care Portal to learn more about the update.

 
SpinifexIT blog single touch SAP payroll is here
Single Touch Payroll is Nearly Here for SAP Payroll
 Single Touch Payroll is Nearly Here for SAP Payroll 1024 512 SpinifexIT

After attending the latest SAP Single Touch Payroll (STP) update session this week and also after using the pilot STP solution, I thought I would write up some detail on what I think of it.

What is Single Touch Payroll?

Single Touch Payroll is a new initiative by the ATO to effectively replace the Year-End Payment Summary process with a new process that reports payments on a per pay period basis.

This means that there needs to be an STP transmission file containing all of the employees’ pay details created per pay period. This file is then transmitted to the ATO using a Secure Transmission. For this part, SAP are proposing to use their SAP Cloud Integrationsolution.

STP was set to go live on 1st July 2018 for organisations with more than 20 employees, however, SAP have obtained an exemption for their existing SAP Payroll customers until the 31st of May 2019 – which is roughly 8 months away.

SAP STP Design

After working with SAP Payment Summaries for over 20 years, I was very interested in what is new with Single Touch Payroll and what the impact for existing customers would be to transition to this. I was initially wondering if this would be a large transition for existing customers, or a large implementation.

Luckily the STP solution seems to have been designed with this in mind.  For an existing customer already configured and using Payment Summaries, the transition work should be minimal. There are a few key differences however and these are important to consider during an implementation

Configuration

  • Wagetype Configuration.  STP, like Payment Summaries, requires you to nominate the specific wagetypes that are to be reported during the STP. Previously, for Payment Summaries, this used an Evaluation Class 11 to identify these wagetypes. Using a similar approach, STP will use a new Evaluation Class 13.  The wagetypes must also be culminating to the CRT (Year to Date table) in SAP. These wagetypes need to be reviewed and set up correctly before running the new STP process.
  • ABN Details.  SAP have kept the same approach as the Payment Summary solution here and have reused the same table (T5QGP) to hold the ABN details for the company.  Some additional fields have been including Intermediary Details. We would suggest reviewing all of your ABN details as part of the transition to STP.
  • STP Transmission Settings.  New settings have been added for the transmission side of STP.  These are held in the table view (V_T50BK). Items such as the Auskey ABN, BMS identifier and ports for the transmission need to be setup here.
  • Payroll Schemas. STP will now be calculated during the payroll processing and the results will be stored in new Payroll Cluster tables:

SABN – Holds the ABN Details when running the payroll

ACRT – Holds the Year to Date values at ABN level

AETP – Holds any ETP Payments calculated Year to Date

STP Processing

The wagetypes to be used during the STP processing are stored during the payroll process. This updates the SABN, ACRT and AETP tables.

Source: SAP Payroll Webinar by Vikas Pandey

After the payroll process, there are a few additional steps:

  • Generate Reporting Data – This transaction (PC00_M13_STP_GEN) is used to generate the data that is used to create the transmission file to the ATO.  This will read the SABN, ACRT and AETP tables and then create both a company and Employee files containing the information summarised and ready to be transmitted to the ATO.  This report allows you to view the Employer, Employee, Allowance details and any error messages that are generated during the STP run. The following tables are updated by this process:
  1. T5Q_STP_ER – Employer Details
  2. T5Q_STP_EE – Employee Details
  3. T5Q_STP_PAY – Allowance Details
  • STP Declaration and Submission – This transaction (PC00_M13_STP_VIEW) allows you to select the run from the above step, view the details going into the STP run and create the Declaration that these values are correct.  This Declaration needs to be completed before proceeding to transmitting the data and is a required step by the ATO.
  • Transmission to the ATO – The final step is the Business to Authority transmission (Transaction PB2A).  This is where you will transmit the STP data to the Tax Authority using the SCI (SAP Cloud Integration) solution.  It not only allows for transmission, but also receives any errors back from the ATO after the file has been validated.

Summary

In summary, the SAP STP solution is not far away.

 With a planned release date of October 11th, now is the time for customers to start to plan for the solution’s upgrade and implementation. Whilst you do have the option to defer until the 31st of May 2019, we would not recommend waiting too long as there is still a lot of work to do.

I will follow up this blog with a further overview of the System Requirements, Configuration, some considerations when upgrading. I will also talk about SpinifexIT’s newest solution, Easy STP, and how it enhances the usability of the standard SAP STP solution.

#ComeSeeSpinifexIT

Are you a SpinifexIT Customer who would like to learn more about our Easy STP solution first hand? If so, I’m inviting you to join our Customer Days scheduled across October and November. You may click here to view the schedules and agenda. Customer Days are FREE events for SpinifexIT Customers. Visit the link now and register to reserve your spot if you haven’t yet.

SpinifexIT Kim Rawlings joins bloody long walk challenge
SpinifexIT’s Kim Rawlings joins this year’s Bloody Long Walk
 SpinifexIT’s Kim Rawlings joins this year’s Bloody Long Walk 1024 512 SpinifexIT

Kim Rawlings, SpinifexIT’s National Consulting Manager based in Australia shares her experience after participating in this year’s Bloody Long Walk, a fundraising event held annually to raise awareness about Mitochondrial disease and a challenge to find a cure for it. You may learn more about the Bloody Long Walk and what it aims to accomplish by visiting their about page. Kim recounts her experience below.

Kim Joins the Bloody Long Walk as part of “Nikki’s Army”

I participated as a part of a small team in the #BloodyLongWalk event last Sunday, August 26, 2018. It is a 35-Kilometre walk which started at Yarra Bend, going through Fairfield, and then finally finishing at the iconic St. Kilda Sea Baths. These events are held annually in each state of Australia. “Nikki’s Army”, our team of four, raised over $2,600, with SpinifexIT contributing $300 towards that goal. 

Not only was this a personal challenge for myself but the main focus was to raise awareness and much needed funds for the Mito foundation that supports sufferers and their families affected by Mitochondrial disease. Never heard of it? Please read on….

What is Mitochondrial Disease?

Mitochondrial disease (also known as “Mito”) affects 1 in 5,000 people, making it the second most commonly diagnosed, serious genetic disease after cystic fibrosis.

In fact, one in 200 people, or more than 120,000 Australians, may carry genetic mutations that put them at risk for developing mito or other related symptoms such as diabetes, deafness or seizures during their lifetimes. Many of these people are symptomatic but undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, some are not yet symptomatic, and others are unknowingly at risk of passing the disease on to their children. This is why The Bloody Long Walk is so important, not only does the event raise vital funds, it also raises awareness of this debilitating disease.

There are many forms of mitochondrial disease; it is highly complex and can affect anyone of any age.

The Mito Foundation supports sufferers and their families and raises funds for the essential research into the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of mitochondrial disorders. Their goal is to also increase the awareness and education about this devastating disease.

The money we, and many other participants raised through The Bloody Long Walk, will help people like affected Alana and Tom, and will enable AMDF to continue its vital work .

The Bloody Long Walk is owned and operated by AMDF.

Visit Mito.org.au for more information about Mito.

Catch Kim and the rest of the SpinifexIT Australia Team this October & November for SpinifexIT’s Australia Customer Days!

Click the image below to learn more about our Annual Customer Days and to view our schedules. Watch this space for more updates in the coming weeks.