PinvoiceR migration

STP (AU)

Within the STP data sent to the ATO is a field that identifies the software system providing it. It is called the BMS ID. If you move to a new payroll solution from the start of a financial year then this is not an issue as all reported employee income for the year will be reported via the same BMS ID. However, if you change payroll software during the financial year there is a potential problem:

• if you transfer the current YTD balances from your old system into the new one as "starting balances" it means your new system will have the correct YTD values for all reporting and for what will appear on the employees' payslips. Unfortunately, the first STP submission from the new system will include those YTD values for each employee and the ATO will then add those on to the values it already has for those employees. This is because it recognises a different BMS ID, hence another system in use, and keeps the information separate. This effectively doubles what the employees appear to have earnt up to this date.

• if you start the new payroll system with zero balances for the employees then the ATO will have the correct amount earnt under each system, but reporting in the new system - and the YTD values on the employees' payslips - will be wrong.

The ATO states that the correct procedure when a client changes BMS IDs is for the ATO to reverse the employees' data as submitted with the previous payroll system for the current year so that submissions through your new payroll system will not “double up” their data.

The employer must contact the ATO for assistance (not the payroll provider)

Contact details for the ATO Service Delivery team:

Call 13 28 66

Select option 3, then option 2

Have ready the following details for identification:

• Your ABN or ABNs
• Your previous payroll provider details including old BMS ID if you have it
• Your new payroll provider details including new BMS ID
• If asked for SSID (Software Subscription ID), tell them you use OZEDI as a Sending Service Provider (this is the service PinvoiceR uses) and therefore do not require or have an SSID

What NOT to do:

Please do not try to reverse the previous BMS ID data by manually editing an STP file. This is causing quite a lot of problems at the ATO end; problems include malformed XML and bad data.