QuickBooksForum.com.au

New PAYG Income tax tables have been drawn up by the Australian Taxation Office, and come into effect on the 1st of July 2009.

While the Quickbooks update page does not show this updated tax data yet. i have no doubt we will receive an email informing us of its availability shortly (Provided they have your email address).

Be sure to run the update (when it is released) before performing any payroll actions on or after 1st of July 2009.

This isn't quite correct....

If you use the EMPDUPE files to submit your payroll summary to the ATO (either online or via CD etc...) you MUST load the 2008/09 tax year EMPDUPE patch first.

Please follow the instructions at the Quicken update site - it is very important to get the upgrade procedure just right.

PLEASE NOTE
Service Patch 1 (SP1) which includes the new tax tables, contains the EMPDUPE format for the 09/10 tax year (as changed by the ATO).

You must load the 08/09 EMPDUPE patch first, produce group certs, created the EMPDUPE file, then proceed to SP1.

As I said, please follow the instructions at the Quicken site - including when the re-boot, when to rebuild your QuickBooks database and so on.

And its prob worth noting that SP1 is not a free upgrade  unless you're covered under Advantage

If you have purchased or have been sent QBooks 2009/10, then you will have access to the patch regardless of your Advantage Membership status (ie. If you have a Direct Subscription). If anyone has issues please contact me directly.

Can the new tax tables be applied if you do not upgrade from 08/09,  the cost is just to high for a non profit organisation to carry every year, so it has been dicided not to upgrade.is there a way to istall the current tables?
Thnak you

Unfortunatley no.

I let my clients decide on their own whether to upgrade or not when all they are after is the tax scales. It usually depends on the size of the employee base as to whether it is cost effective.

For example, ask yourself how long you spend changing the PAYG tax on each employee per pay run. If it's a large employee base, say 50, it may be say 15 secs per employee (doesn't sound much right??) which is approx 13 mins. 13 mins x 52 pay weeks is 11hrs (approx).

Admin (part time) staff costs approx $20 (depending on grade) incl super/workers comp, excl leave/sick lost days etc...

11 x 20 = $220

Now... do you electronically lodge the payment summary and print group certs from QBooks? If NO for 50 employees, then add another few hours. If yes, has the ATO changed the EmpDupe format as they have in the last 2 years? Has the group cert format changed for 09/10? (yes).

Has any other functions been added that will save time (say payslip editing in the 08/09 version).

Also consider human error in manual data entry and Group Cert creation.

As you can see this is a light-hearted/basic approach to the subject, however it's easy to see how it's a no brainer for most businesses to upgrade or NOT upgrade.

If undecided, maybe look at cheaper alternatives like SUBSCRIPTION or UPGRADE when Reckon offers one years free advantage membership.



Regards,

Jason
www.quickbooksolutions.com.au

I have this current tax table issue, I am currently changing the payg and manually calculating it.

I feel they should reconsider there policy on Tax Table updates!

This can cause major problems for there customers and at the least inconvenience.

Tax table is the simplest of upgrades and does not justify the expense or reason for upgrading. To find out your software you purchased no longer does 100% of what is was intended for makes you feel like you wasted money paying for that feature in the first place.

This could be a consumer rights issue with the ACCC?

See my post on what could be the problem with your tax scales - hopefully it helps - if not I will asisst you to define and fix the problem.

As I am 3rd generation self-employed I can empathise with your thoughts on the expense of an upgrade.

However, the decision as to the benefit of an upgrade is always the choice of the consumer. Some years I do - some years I don't.

I would suspect (remember - I don't work for Reckon) that the reason a tax table upgrade isn't provided as a standalone patch is two-fold.

1. Because the program is upgraded yearly - a patch would need to be written for EVERY version of QBooks ever released, and I don't just mean 05/06, 06/07, 07/08, 08/09 etc... I mean 08/09 R1, R2, R6, R7, R8 and so on.

2. Reckon need to "sunset" older versions, and therefore need to provide an incentive for users to upgrade. I personally don't support anyone on 2006/07 or earlier. Why? Because the product changes so much I just can't provide expert support across such a range of product changes.

Obviously this is just my opinion. All I am saying is I understand the need to only develop the current product. For example, 6 months was spent at Reckon this year enabling the new RESC features that came into effect. I would much rather that occur, than have developers create patches for the last 12 versions, and all the sub-version within those. It just can't be done.

If you would like, you can contact me offline and I can pass your details on to management at Reckon for you to discuss further.


Kind regards,

Jason Hollis
www.quickbooksolutions.com.au

I agree with only supporting current software but,

I ran into this issue with Version 08/09 R8P, in less than 12 months of receiving the software from Reckon as a free upgrade.

I contacted Reckon regarding the Tax Tables prior to the change of Finacial Year, and they advised me that there is already a new version 09/10 and that there is no update available for the 08/09 version. And that I just need to renew my Advantage Membership then upgrade to 09/10.

Hi,

I whole heartably agree with Jason's posts and thought I would also add my two cents worth.

Reckon offer a financial incentive to update your software on an annual basis, and this is in the form of subscription.  The price of an (annual) subscription is usually about one third of the price of the full version of the software, and less than an upgrade, and is in fact a full version of the software.  You don't miss out on anything by subscribing to QuickBooks.

A copy of QuickBooks Premier annual subscription has a RRP of $575.00, for 5 users.  Divide that by 365 days a year, and it costs not quite 32 cents per day per user to remain up to date and compliant.  That's not a bad software investment for a business.

Reckon develops the software to continually improve the software and add new features - many suggested by new users, and most importantly to remain compliant.  If the tax tables were not updated in line with the new tax laws, and new super laws etc, then each small business owner is at risk of not reporting properly, or accurately.

Businesses may argue that they only have 2 or 4 or 10 employees and it's not worth the price; I would argue that these businesses still have the same legal obligations as if they had 200 employees, and to work out the cost of all the manual alterations (see detailed in Jason's post).

If a tax table patch doesn't apply properly, the techniccal support staff at Reckon are very experienced and very patient.  They will assist you in rectifying any problems, and moving forward.

If you don't need all the bells and whistles, maybe you should evaluate whether you are using the right level of QuickBooks for your business.  A comparison can be found here.  http://www.quicken.com.au/prdcompare/product_compare_2008.aspx#

In closing, I'd like to mention Reckon's Sunset Policy where they offer technical support for the most current version of the software and the next latest version (currently 2009/10 and 2008/09).  We also have this Sunset Policy in our business, because ethically, how can we support software that we can not get support for?  Our Clients don't have a problem with this and respect our honesty.

I hope this helps, Sue

the software could easily be written to to accommodate a single file that could be downloaded with income tax data formulas and you simply point QB to that file for tax calculations. and not be version specific.

the following year you download the the new file and remain compliant and have up to date tax formulas.

reckons subscription business model is for making money and money making only.

if you want new features and up dated software it should be your personal choice to upgrade. not for a tax table.

thats just my 2 cents as the software is buggy to say the least and we are lucky if we get one service pack per release and only if it is critical the hundreds of other bugs go unfixed untill the new version is released.

It means that we need to have the 08/09 EMPDUPE patch before installing the new sp 1. Anyway, does the next payroll tax tables for the year 11/12 need the sp 1 too? If yes then it is pretty obvious that we need to update every release to use the next time.