Everything to know (and do) for the final stage of Xero’s STP Phase 2 roll out

By now, you’re likely familiar with Xero’s approach to getting your payroll data ready for Single Touch Payroll Phase 2. This will see your business build on its existing STP reporting to share more information with the ATO and other government agencies each time you process a pay run. And the good news is, we’re now arriving at stage three – the final stage of Xero’s transition to STP Phase 2.

The three stages of your transition to STP Phase 2 in Xero

Stage one – Delivered in August: The first part of this process is transitioning your existing employee profiles to be STP Phase 2 compliant. This stage also includes providing additional information when onboarding new employees to Xero Payroll.

Stage two – Delivered in September: You’ll need to identify and update certain pay items with the new earnings categories defined by the ATO for STP Phase 2 reporting. 

Stage three – Rolling out from late October: This is the final stage in the STP Phase 2 transition which will break down paid leave into additional subcategories. We’ll support you with a guided experience in payroll so you can easily update existing paid leave types to meet the new ATO reporting requirements. 

Stage three involves the introduction of new paid leave categories

STP Phase 2 introduces a set of new ATO reporting categories for use in your leave pay items. You will now need to categorise any existing paid leave types you have set up in Xero Payroll. The categories available include:

Other paid leave (Type O)

• Annual leave
• Compassionate and bereavement leave
• Family and domestic violence leave
• Long service leave
• Personal (sick/carer’s) leave
• Rostered day off
• Special paid leave
• Study leave
• Time off in lieu

Ancillary and defence leave (Type A)

• Community service leave
• Defence reserve leave
• Jury duty leave

When these types of leave payments are correctly categorised in your STP filing, the data can be more easily shared across government departments (like Services Australia). You can learn more about the process of updating your leave categories in Xero Payroll here:

We’ll be launching the leave pay item transition tool to help you with this final stage

Xero has built a transition tool to assist you with easily categorising your existing leave pay items to meet STP Phase 2 reporting requirements. We’ve also been rolling out changes to Xero Payroll in preparation for STP Phase 2 for some time. As a result, it’s likely that some of your leave pay items may already have the correct reporting category assigned.

Here’s what you need to do now

Head to the STP 2 Portal in Xero Payroll and progress through each stage of the transition process to get your payroll data ready for Phase 2 reporting.

Stage one: Updating employee records to meet the new STP Phase 2 filing requirements.

Stage two: Updating income pay items to the new STP Phase 2 filing requirements.

Stage three: Categorising your existing paid leave types to the new filing requirements. 

Once you’ve completed all three stages, your business will be ready to switch over to STP 2 later in the financial year.

Don’t wait – get started on transitioning your payroll data as soon as possible

While you’ll have time to make all relevant changes, the best approach is to get started now. This might require some planning to ensure you have all the information you need. If you’re unsure about updating your payroll data for STP Phase 2, speak to your advisor.

We’ll start reporting STP Phase 2 to the government later this year

Xero will be ready to report your updated payroll data to the ATO by mid-December 2022. While there is a deferral until 31 March 2022, we strongly recommend that you get your data ready for the transition as early as possible.

Xero’s educational resources and transition tools will help you through the process