Standard Pay

Standard Pay lets you store recurring pay components for each employee — allowances, post-tax deductions, pre-tax salary sacrifice, and reportable employer super (RESC). When a new pay run is created, those components are automatically pre-filled into each employee’s pay item so you only need to review exceptions, not re-enter the same values every period.

Navigation path

Team → Team Members → [member] → Standard Pay tab

You must have admin or payroll access to view and edit Standard Pay.

What you can store

Not in Standard Pay (one-off items): overtime, bonuses, commissions, lump sums, ETP, RFBA, directors fees. These are entered directly in the pay-run editor.

Setting up Standard Pay for an employee

1. Go to Team → Team Members and open the employee.
2. Click the Standard Pay tab.
3. Use + Add line in each section to enter recurring items.
4. For Allowances, choose the STP type (e.g. CD — Car, AD — Award Transport) and enter the per-period amount. Leave “Include in super calculation” ticked unless the line is a genuine expense reimbursement your award does not count toward super — see Allowances and super for details.
5. For Deductions, choose the type (D — Child support deduction, G — Garnishee, U — Union fees, etc.) and enter the per-period amount.
6. For Salary sacrifice and RESC, enter the dollar amount per period.
7. Click Save Standard Pay.

Changes take effect on the next new pay run created after saving. Existing draft pay items are not retroactively updated.

How it auto-populates

When a pay run is created (or an employee is added to an existing draft run), the system:

1. Reads the employee’s Standard Pay template.
2. Merges the allowance, deduction, salary sacrifice, and RESC lines into the pay item.
3. Recalculates gross pay (base salary + allowances), PAYG tax, super, and net pay from those values.
4. Stores the deduction total so the pay-run card shows Deductions (after tax) and the correct net figure immediately — you do not need to open and save the modal for the numbers to be correct.

Items pre-filled from Standard Pay are labelled “Pre-filled from Standard Pay template” in the pay-run editor.

What you see on the pay-run Review Employees card

Allowances and super

Each allowance line in Standard Pay has an Include in super calculation checkbox (shown with a short tooltip explaining when to untick).

• Default: ticked — the allowance is counted toward super when a pay run is created from this employee’s Standard Pay.
• Flow-through: whatever you set here flows into every new pay run that uses Standard Pay, for every period. You can still override the setting on a single pay run without changing the template (see Overriding pre-filled values below).
• Untick only when the line is a genuine expense reimbursement your modern award does not count toward super — most commonly CD (cents per km at the ATO rate), LD (laundry), MD (overtime meal), or RD (travel/accommodation at the ATO rate).

Important: This checkbox only changes super. It does not change the STP code reported to the ATO, the gross on the payslip, or PAYG tax. See Superannuation → Allowances and super for the full compliance explanation, including the “all-purpose” award caveat (e.g. tool allowance in the Building & Construction General On-site Award) where the line must stay ticked.

If you’re unsure, leave it ticked. Overpaying super by a small amount is recoverable by the employee; underpaying creates a Super Guarantee shortfall and ATO penalties for the business.

Overriding pre-filled values

Standard Pay is a default, not a lock. For any pay run:

1. Click the edit pencil on an employee’s pay-run card.
2. In the pay-run editor, modify or remove any pre-filled line.
3. Click Save Changes — amounts are recalculated and saved.

Changes made inside a pay run do not affect the employee’s Standard Pay template. To permanently change a recurring amount, update it on the Standard Pay tab.

STP and deduction types

Deductions in Standard Pay use the same STP codes the ATO requires:

The correct code is important — it determines how the amount is reported in Single Touch Payroll. If you are unsure which code applies, check with your payroll adviser before saving.

Salary sacrifice types S (super) and O (other benefits) are STP PAYEVNTEMP266 fields. They are pre-tax and are reported separately from regular employer super contributions.

RESC (Reportable Employer Super) is reported on the STP event when set. It covers employer contributions above the SG rate — for example, voluntary contributions above 12%.

Clearing Standard Pay

To remove all recurring components for an employee:

1. Go to Team → Team Members → [member] → Standard Pay.
2. Remove each line using the Remove button, or leave fields at zero.
3. Click Save Standard Pay.

Future pay runs will not include those amounts. Existing processed pay runs are not affected.

Common issues

Issue: Standard Pay amounts not appearing on a new pay run

• Symptom: Employee’s pay-run card shows base salary only; allowances or deductions from Standard Pay are missing.
• Likely cause: Standard Pay was saved after the pay run was created, or the pay run was created before today’s backend changes.
• Resolution: Open the pay-run editor for that employee, verify the lines, add them manually if needed, and save. For future pay runs the template will apply automatically.
• Escalate if: Standard Pay was saved before the pay run was created and the lines still do not appear.

Issue: Deductions show in the modal but not on the pay-run card

• Symptom: The pay-run editor shows the deduction line with the correct amount, but the employee card on the Review Employees page shows $0 deductions.
• Likely cause: The pay item was created before deduction-column syncing was added (prior to 14 April 2026).
• Resolution: Open and save the pay item from the modal — this recalculates and saves the deduction and net totals correctly.
• Escalate if: Saving the modal does not update the card.

Issue: Deductions reducing gross pay instead of net pay

• Symptom: Gross pay is lower than expected when deductions are set.
• Likely cause: Allowances or deductions are being counted in the wrong place.
• Resolution: Deductions in Standard Pay are post-tax; they reduce net pay, not gross. Only allowances affect gross. Verify the component is in the Deductions section, not accidentally entered as a negative allowance.
• Escalate if: The gross on the pay item is materially different from base salary + allowances after saving.

Issue: STP deduction type seems wrong

• Symptom: Child support appears as type F (fees) instead of D or G.
• Likely cause: Wrong STP code selected when the deduction was added to Standard Pay.
• Resolution: Edit the Standard Pay template, change the type to D or G, save, then re-check the next pay run.
• Escalate if: The correct code is selected but the STP submission reports a different code.

Issue: Salary sacrifice S/O not reducing taxable income

• Symptom: Tax withheld appears higher than expected for an employee with salary sacrifice.
• Likely cause: Salary sacrifice amounts are stored in the STP fields but PAYG tax on the pay item is calculated from gross. Pre-tax treatment depends on how the pay item gross is defined.
• Escalate if: This appears to affect an approved or lodged pay run — escalate to technical payroll review.

Agent triage checklist

1. Confirm Standard Pay tab is visible on the employee (requires payroll access).
2. Confirm the template was saved before the pay run in question was created.
3. Check the pay-run editor for that employee — are the lines present?
4. If lines are present but card totals are wrong, ask the user to save the pay item from the modal.
5. If lines are absent from the editor, check the Standard Pay template — were the amounts saved and non-zero?
6. Check the STP code on any deduction lines that need to be reported to the ATO.

Escalate when

Escalate to technical review if:

• Standard Pay is saved but lines do not appear on new pay runs consistently,
• STP deduction types are mismatched after correct codes were set,
• Gross pay, tax, or net pay do not reconcile with expected values after saving the modal,
• A lodged STP event reports deduction or sacrifice amounts that differ from what was in the pay item.

Related pages

• Payroll — pay run lifecycle, Review Employees, Pay & Lodge
• Team Members — employee profiles and the Standard Pay tab location
• STP Overview — STP income types, deduction codes, and lodgement
• Settings — pay cycle and payroll configuration