So, to steal a line from Foxtel advertising is not very original, but relevant nonetheless. Time flies doesn't it?

The end of financial year is upon us again, and this is the end of our first financial year, so I thought I'd run you through a few steps to get organised and compliant with Paycycle.

If you're using Xero, there are 5 things that you should do on, or shortly after, the 1st of July.

1) Reconcile Total Earnings.

Within Paycycle, you need to print a Payroll Activity Summary for the last financial year. You can do this on Reports, in the Dashboard.

Then, under Payroll Reports, you will find the "Payroll Activity Summary last financial year". Then, compare the figures with those in Xero. For instance, your Total Earnings in Paycycle's report should match the total of the Wages Expense account in Xero.

2) Reconcile Total Tax.

This time, the Total Tax in the Payroll Activity Summary (from within Paycycle) should match the Total Credit entries within the PAYG Withholdings Payable Transactions in Xero.

One way of finding this report is by going to the Balance Sheet under Reports. You will find the PAYG Withholdings Payable under Liabilities. Click on one of the total figures which will take you to the corresponding transaction report. Make sure that the dates at the top of the page are for the full year.

You don't need to worry about Net Pay. That wouldn't be a very good use of your time!

3) Reconcile Superannuation.

If you haven't lost interest or had too much wine by this point, great. We're getting there.

So the Super is similar to your Total Earnings, in that the Total Super in Paycycle should match the total Super Expense account in Xero. Make sure you look at the Expense account, not the Super Liability account because your payments will alter the balance of this account. You probably don't need to over complicate it by doing this.We're all about keeping it simple.

So, basically, all those numbers should match. But what if they don't? Panic! There are probably all kinds of reasons, and it'd be much easier if you just finish off that wine and call your accountant in the morning. At least you won't have to stuff around with sending them your MYOB file! Which version was that again? They'll be able to help you sort it out quickly. If you're still having troubles, feel free to get in touch.

4) Print your Payment Summaries.

Within Pacycyle, go to Payruns, Payment Summaries. For each employee, you need to check that the Gross Pay, Allowances and Reportable Fringe Benefits are correct. Your Gross Pay should match the Earnings for each staff member. Allowances should be reported as those that you've recorded within your pays.

If you think you have Reportable Fringe Benefits then the best thing to do is talk to your accountant about this as they can be extremely complex. You can blame Paul Keating for that. However, if you're having trouble sleeping here is a lot more information. As a rule of thumb, if you did an FBT return as at 31 March, you should have the details to complete this section.

Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions are those above the legislated amount. Generally, this would be those contributions above the 9% superannuation guarantee and where an employee has directed the employer to paymore superannuation on their behalf. More information can be found here.

Once you've completed the above for all employees we provide a nice neat PDF for you to print, and you can do that by hitting the Print Payment Summaries under the Actions menu on the right.

5) Provide Payment Summaries to the ATO.

You might have heard of the ATO's prefilled report for employees. The information that you supply to the ATO based on the payment summaries is what provides them with this data. The other thing is that the law says you need to provide the ATO with your payment summaries before the 14 July.

The easiest way to do this is via the Export Annual Report. This gives you what is known as an EMPDUPE file. Using ECI is defiietly the easiest way to send these reports. I'd highly recommend it.

The other way is to fill in the paper version of the PAYG payment summary - individual non-business from the ATO. You need to order a printed copy, from the ATO which includes a copy of the instructions by phoning 13 28 66 and ask for the necessary stationery for reporting 2009-10 PAYG withholding obligations. After you've done all that, I'll personally send you a congratulations in the mail because that's as likely as the Socceroos winning the World Cup.

Ok, so that's it. If you are scared, overwhelmed, or confused, contact us.

Happy EOFY!