What Single Touch Payroll is
Single Touch Payroll, usually shortened to STP, is the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) arrangement under which employers report payroll information to the ATO each time they pay their staff. The information reported includes salaries and wages, the tax withheld and superannuation, sent as part of the normal payroll cycle rather than in a separate year-end process.
For employers, STP changed the rhythm of payroll reporting. Because the data goes to the ATO each pay run, the underlying payroll figures need to be accurate and consistent every time, rather than only at the end of the year. That puts a premium on getting hours, leave and timesheets right before pay is processed, because errors surface sooner.
This page describes STP in general terms. Employers should confirm how their obligations apply with the ATO or a registered tax or BAS agent.
Single Touch Payroll in the Cohiva platform
Cohiva Culture is an HRIS built for shift-based, multi-location operators. It covers onboarding, rostering, leave, timesheets and payroll export, so the hours that drive pay are captured cleanly and the resulting figures are ready for payroll.
Culture helps you keep payroll data accurate by tying the roster and timesheets to the figures that feed payroll, and those figures flow into Crunch for finance. To see how it works, explore Culture.