Answer
Single Touch Payroll (STP) is an initiative for reporting your employees' pay, tax and super information to the ATO. It is mandatory for all businesses to be using STP from the 1st of July, 2019, and has been available in our program since that time. STP Phase 2 was then also introduced into Lightning Payroll in late 2021, in preparation for its mandatory start date of January 1, 2022.
STP is built into Lightning Payroll, and simply requires a valid ATO Machine Credential installed on your computer for desktop users of the program, or the registration of your SSID via the ATO Access Manager for online/mobile users.
STP allows you to report the rolling year-to-date (YTD) figures for each employee at the end of every pay period, and is also now the way that your end of financial year submission is processed. It doesn't change how you pay your employees or how you make their superannuation contributions. STP is a reporting tool only.
For more information, you can visit the ATO's STP page here.