This is an important and mandatory release, it includes:
- Important changes to support payment and calculation of payroll components, including pay rates, loadings, allowances, superannuation,
- Changes and enhancements to support superannuation reporting,
- Changes and new features to support STP Reporting, and reporting generally,
- Other general product fixes and enhancements.
Note on 2020/21 Tax Table changes
This release also includes updated Australian Tax Scales for the 2020/21 financial year, in
line with changes announced in the deferred Federal Budget delivered on 6 October 2020.
These tax changes, once loaded, are effective immediately, with any transactions processed
having tax calculated at the new and correct rates. The updated tax rates apply to the whole
2020/21 financial year. Guidance from the ATO is that the difference in what employees
have paid in tax from July-October 2020 and what they would have paid if taxed according to
the new tax rates will be resolved when they submit their 2020/21 tax returns.
https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/Tax-tables/
What’s in this Wagemaster release?
Database changes
- Superannuation – Express Super – new Express Super SuperStream Alternative file
format option and URL - SuperStream Alternative File Format (SAFF) – enhanced reporting to SuperStream
Alternative File Format (SAFF) - STP Reporting - Update Event Payment date and end of year reporting enhancement
- End of Financial Year – traditional PAYG reporting availability
General changes
- Allowances – option to include taxed allowance additions in SG (super) gross
- Reporting – department lump sum payments report enhanced
- Payments – enhanced accuracy of rounding of shift (loadings) and pay rates
- ESS – replacement of Send detail information file with screen grid
- Pegg – in product assistant update
- Diagnostic reporting – additional detail and solution process enhancement
- Correction to SG (superannuation) tracking when payslip is deleted and reprocessed
- Block Times Award – change to normal times start/finish functionality
- Upgrade process – process enhancement
Superannuation Changes
New portal and file format for Express Super
SuperChoice, Wagemaster's clearinghouse provider, has changed to a new portal for Express Super
processing and is now using the SAFF file format. In Wagemaster this means you will see
- New contribution file Express Super SuperStream Alternative File Format (SAFF)
- Link to new Express Super portal
- Super Clearing Identifiers (SCIDs) should no longer be used, instead replaced with Unique
Superannuation Identifiers (USIs) or Electronic Service Address (ESA), as applicable.
NEW superannuation file format for Express Super SuperStream Alternative (SAFF) option in
Super>Super Fund>Delivery – File Format
New URL for SuperChoice portal, Reports>Superannuation>Export File
More information about Wagemaster Express Super
Enhanced SAFF reporting with additional field population
Where a SAFF file format for superannuation contribution reporting is selected, either Express
Super SuperStream Alternative or Super SuperStream Alternative, the output file will now populate
- Location ID – for population of different company entities with the same ABN, as entered
within Superannuation fund setup Super>Super Fund>General>Location ID
Organisational Name Text – SAFF output file field for Organisational Name Text Sender,
Payer, Employer (Company Details>Trading Name) Payee/Receiver (Super Fund>Fund Name),
fields increase to 59 characters 
STP Reporting - Update Event
Final STP Update Event Payment date has been changed to default to 30/06 in the financial year
when the Taxation Year Boundary End Date has been extended into July. When a July pay period
is paid in June (paid in advance), the End Date for the financial year has been changed to include
that pay in the current financial year. In such instances, we have changed the Payment Date on
the Final STP Update Event to 30/06 of that financial year. With this change, the correct financial
year is reported in STP.
File>Company Details>Configuration>Period End
STP>STP Update>Financial Year>Print Report – Payment Date
End of Financial Year reporting – traditional PAYG reporting availability
Reports>ATO Payment Summaries>Print Individual ATO Payment Summaries and Export
File
A code change to extend ATO Payment Summary production beyond the financial year 2020
General changes
Allowances – option to include taxed allowance additions in SG (super) gross
The option to select, for Allowance Additions to ‘Include in SG Gross’ for superannuation calculation/threshold, added
Under the Superannuation guarantee, employers required to pay superannuation contributions of
9.5% of an employee’s ordinary time earnings if:
- An employee is paid $450 or more before tax in a month
Where earnings are not paid ‘for the performance of work,’ eg. JobKeeper, there is no obligation to pay super on these earnings.
The addition allows for allowance additions to be included (or excluded) from the SG Gross threshold for
monthly payments and therefore superannuation contributions.
Reporting - department lump sum payments report enhanced
Department Lump Sum Payment report correction – allocation of lump sum payment to employees’
default department only.
Where an employee works across multiple departments and paid a Lump Sum Payment
(Wages>Adjustment>Lump Sum), the lump sum will be reported in a single instance in the
Department Lump Sum payment report against the employees’ default department.
Payments – enhanced accuracy of rounding of shift (loadings) and pay rates
Pay rate and shift loading rounding change to round up and not down or truncate.
Better accuracy in payslip and reporting totals.
ESS – replacement of Send detail information file with screen grid
ESS Dashboard – View Log replaced with a grid
Report detail is no longer saved to the Wagemaster installation folder where there could be user
access issues.
ESS>ESS Dashboard>View Log
Chat with Pegg link updated to access the latest version
A new version of Pegg is available and in Wagemaster V 7.4, the Chat with Pegg link is
automatically updated to point to the new version. The change does not affect how you access
Pegg, you can continue to click on the Pegg icon in the main menu bar to open the chat window and
ask questions.
Some of the changes you will see in the latest Pegg version include:
- A new chat window layout
- Enhancements to support better responses:
- A wider list of suggested answers will now be offered if a user indicates that the
provided answer was not helpful - Hyperlinks now reference the title of the linked resource instead of using the generic
test, Click here.
- A wider list of suggested answers will now be offered if a user indicates that the
Diagnostic reporting – additional detail and solution process enhancement.
Diagnostic messaging – additional resolution detail added to initial messaging.
Diagnostic Report Send – Added detail to email subject sent to Wagemaster Support now
includes Client Number.
Correction to SG (superannuation) tracking
Superannuation contribution tracking issue where deleted payslips with before tax deductions,
when deleted, did not fully clear out super tracking.
This resulted in an underpayment in the super being calculated when a new payslip was entered
within the month.
Employee>Payments>Superannuation> [Award] Employer Award>Monthly Tracking
Block Times Award – change to normal times start/finish functionality
Award Interpreter - Block Times and Timesheet Shift Times, where start and finish times are set
the same, incorrect payments resulted because of duplicated finish time in both settings.
A code change to Award Interpreter for Block Times Awards to remove random entry and correct shift
payment result.
Upgrade process – process enhancement
An enhancement has been made to the upgrade process where a database contains many
planned leave records.
Where these records have no corresponding payslip, the entry is removed as part of the upgrade.
Custom ABA file for Fiji Westpac Quickpay – additional bank added
HFC Bank, Bank Code and Branch Code added to output (aba) file.
Australian Tax Table Update October 2020
Updated PDL file included with release for personal income tax threshold changes to apply to
payments made on and from 13 October 2020. Changes provide tax cuts of up to $2745 to single
low and middle-income earners and up to $5490 for dual-income families.
Instructions to load this Tax Table update in Wagemaster can be found here
What’s changing?
Multiple changes to weekly earnings thresholds including tax-free threshold and coefficient values,
including something new, a negative coefficient!
- The upper threshold of the 19% marginal rate will increase to $45000, ie. From $18 201 -
$37 000 as at 1 July 2020 to $18 201 - $45 000 - The upper threshold of the 32.5% marginal rate will increase to $120 000, i.e. From $37 001
- $90 000 as at 1 July 2020 to $45 001 - $120 000 - Flat Rate Threshold in the Working holiday maker flat rate (annual) threshold increase from
$37 000 to $45 000
After you Upgrade
After the upgrade is installed, you should check that the correct software and database versions are
displayed. If the latest version numbers are not as displayed below, Wagemaster may not have
been successfully upgraded.
To check the version of Wagemaster:
The version number is displayed on the bottom right-hand corner of the main Wagemaster
screen.
After you have upgraded and opened your database, you can also check the version
number by going to Help > About Wage Easy payroll.
Your new database version number after the upgrade should be 7.4.0.8267
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