Answer
Single Touch Payroll messages can be sent from Lightning Payroll under three capacities:
- Submitting from a company directly (most common, the default submission type).
- Submitting as a Business Intermediary - a business with the authorisation to act on behalf of another business.
- Submitting as a Registered Agent - such as a BAS agent or a tax agent.
If you wish to submit as either a Business Intermediary or a Registered Agent, tick Submit as a third party/tax agent? on the first screen in the STP area (Pays >> Single Touch >> Submit Payroll To ATO).
Next, select your submission capacity: Submit as a Registered Agent or Submit as a Business Intermediary. Supplier company/agent details must be entered into the program under Settings >> Supplier Information. Agents must include an agent number; Business Intermediaries do not require one.
In the online app, a submission lodged as an agent or intermediary is checked before it is sent and will be blocked if these supplier details are incomplete. Four fields are required: ABN, Name, Email and Phone. If any are missing, an error names the missing fields and the submission will not proceed until they are filled in. The Supplier Information screen does not force these fields when you save, so it is worth checking them before your first lodgement. The online app also requires the ATO payer declaration to be accepted for the client company before an agent submission is sent. The wizard normally handles this for you; if a submission is blocked with a declaration message, accept the declaration at the bottom of the Company >> Details screen for that company, or restart the submission and accept it when prompted.
Submitting as a third party or supplier also requires that you are authorised to submit on behalf of your clients. The two supplier modes have two different means of authorising clients.
Registered Agents must add client links for either the BAS role or STP role with the ATO (these authorisations usually already exist) via the Online Services for Agents page.
Business Intermediaries must have the child/client ABN nominate the parent/intermediary ABN for STP authorisations by:
- Logging into the Access Manager website.
- Selecting Who has access to my business on the left-hand side.
- Clicking Appoint new business and entering the ABN of the parent/intermediary business to act on their behalf.
- Pressing Continue and setting the permissions (for STP, make sure the View and Lodge permissions for Payroll Event Form are ticked).
- Using Select all and Clear all to select or clear all available permissions.
- Clicking Save to preserve the changes.
- To check it has worked, logging into the Access Manager website as the intermediary/parent company and clicking Whose business I can access on the left-hand side to confirm your client's business details are displayed.
