Office codes (paying entities)

To add a new Office Code:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Payroll Settings > Office Codes, then select Add Code.
2. Enter the following information:
   • Label - The name of the office code. 
   • Address - The address of the business. 
   • Contact Name - The point of contact for this business. 
   • Contact Number - The contact number for the point of contact. 
   • Default Super Fund - The super fund that is used for employees who choose to sign up with the default fund during their onboarding. 
   • Reply to Email - The reply-to email address used when emailing payslips to employees. 
   • WHM Employer Registration Status - If your business is registered to employ Working Holiday Makers, enable this toggle.
     • When enabled - Employees who declare WHM status on their TFN declaration will be taxed at 15% on income up to $45,000.  After this threshold is reached, the platform will automatically apply the relevant progressive tax rates for Working Holiday Makers.
     • When disabled - WHM employees will be taxed at 32.5%.
3. To finalise your changes, select Save. 

The new office code can now be applied to employees and operations as required. Please refer to the appropriate accordion below for more information. 

When creating office codes, it’s important to decide how your payroll and reporting structure should be set up from the start. Some platforms will require only a single office code under a single ABN, while others may require multiple office codes to reflect different business areas, reporting requirements, or operational separation.

There are 2 types of office codes for paying entities:

• Default office code – Included with every platform and always set up as a paying entity.
• Additional office codes – Extra paying entities created to suit your business and payroll structure.

The Default office code must have its details completed, even if it is not actively used on your platform, as it serves as a fallback to ensure all payroll and reporting requirements are met.

Additional office codes can be created for a range of operational and reporting needs, including:

• You operate multiple businesses with different ABNs.
• You do not want to use the Default office code, as its name cannot be customised.
• You want to pay different groups of employees from the same ABN, but from different bank accounts.
• You want to apply admin search restrictions or separate reporting between areas of the business.
• You operate multiple business areas under the same ABN, but require different business names or payslip logos.

To add a new office code:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Payroll Settings > Office Codes, then select Add Code.
2. Enter the following information:
   • Label - The name of the office code. Default office codes cannot have their name changed. 
   • Address - The address of the business. 
   • Contact Name - The point of contact for this business. 
   • Contact Number - The contact number for the point of contact. 
   • Default Super Fund - The super fund used for employees who choose to sign up with the default fund during their onboarding. 
   • Reply to Email - The reply-to email address used when emailing payslips to employees. 
   • WHM Employer Registration Status - If your business is registered to employ Working Holiday Makers, enable this toggle.
     • When enabled - Employees who declare WHM status on their TFN declaration will be taxed at 15% on income up to $45,000.  After this threshold is reached, the platform will automatically apply the relevant progressive tax rates for Working Holiday Makers.
     • When disabled - WHM employees will be taxed at 32.5%.
3. Select the 'Paying Entity' checkbox. 
4. Enter the Tax Declaration details:
   • PDF Logo - The logo displayed on the employee's payslip. Please use a 300 x 100 image. 
   • ABN - The ABN of the paying entity. This information is displayed on the employee payslip and sent to the ATO through STP. 
   • SSID - Software Subscription ID (SSID). Each SSID is unique to each ABN on your platform and must be added for each office code that uses it.
   • ACN - the ACN of the paying entity. 
   • Branch - When lodging reports, your SBR-enabled business software may require a branch number. This is located next to your account description in Online Services for Business or ATO Online.
   • Website - Company website.
   • Company Name - Displayed in the header of employee payslips. This information is also sent to the ATO through STP. 
   • Company Number - Displayed in the header of employee payslips. 
   • Email - Displayed in the header of employee payslips.
5. Enter Invoice Payment details:
   The following fields only need to be filled out if you use invoicing through foundU. All of the information below will be displayed on your invoices. 
   • Mail Address (Cheque) - Your address that clients can send cheques to. 
   • Account Name - Your bank account name. 
   • BSB - Your bank account BSB. 
   • Account Number - Your bank account number. 
   • Account Email - Email provided on the invoice for clients to send remittances to. 
   • Additional Information on Invoice - Any additional information you'd like displayed on invoices. This information will be positioned at the bottom of the invoice. 
6. Enter additional Payslip Information:
   • Additional Information Title on Payslip - Title for additional information that can be displayed at the end of employee payslips. 
   • Additional Information on Payslip - Any additional information you'd like displayed on employee payslips. This information will be positioned at the bottom of the payslip. 
7. Select Save.

The new office code can now be applied to employees and operations as required. Please refer to the appropriate accordion below for more information. 

In most cases, you won't need to create a new office code. These are typically required only for major structural changes, such as adding a new ABN, a business acquisition, or when key non-editable fields need to be changed.

Fields that cannot be edited include:

• ABN / ACN
• Branch number
• SSID

Office codes (both paying and non-paying) can be edited for all other updates, such as:

• Updating payroll contact and company details
• Changing the logo for new branding or other payslip comments
• Business address changes
• Providing a new account for invoicing details
   

To edit an office code:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Payroll Settings > Office Codes, then select the edit icon to the right of the office code. 
   
   
2. Edit the following information:
   • Label - The name of the office code. 
   • Address - The address of the business. 
   • Contact Name - The point of contact for this business. 
   • Contact Number - The contact number for the point of contact. 
   • Default Super Fund - The super fund used for employees who choose to sign up with the default fund during their onboarding. 
   • Reply to Email - The reply-to email address used when emailing payslips to employees. 
   • WHM Employer Registration Status - If your business is registered to employ Working Holiday Makers, enable this toggle.
     • When enabled - Employees who declare WHM status on their TFN declaration will be taxed at 15% on income up to $45,000.  After this threshold is reached, the platform will automatically apply the relevant progressive tax rates for Working Holiday Makers.
     • When disabled - WHM employees will be taxed at 32.5%.
3. Edit the Tax Declaration details:
   • PDF Logo - The logo displayed on the employee's payslip. Please use a 300 x 100 image. 
   • ABN - This field cannot be edited; you will need to create a new office code. 
   • SSID - This field cannot be edited; you will need to create a new office code. 
   • ACN - This field cannot be edited; you will need to create a new office code. 
     
       Please note: If creating a new office code to update these fields, you will likely also need to update the office code on employee profiles. See our section below for steps.
      
   • Branch - This field cannot be edited; you will need to create a new office code.
     • If your Branch code has been closed by the ATO, you will need to create a new office code and apply it to all affected employees in your business by following the steps outlined in the section below. 
       
         Please note: Once updated, do not submit the STP packets. Instead, contact our support team for assistance in finalising the change.
   • Website - Company website
   • Company Name - Displayed in the header of employee payslips. This information is also sent to the ATO through STP. 
   • Company Number - Displayed in the header of employee payslips. 
   • Email - Displayed in the header of employee payslips.
4. Edit Invoice Payment details:
   All of the information below will be displayed on your invoices. 
   • Mail Address (Cheque) - Your address that clients can send cheques to. 
   • Account Name - Your bank account name. 
   • BSB - Your bank account BSB. 
   • Account Number - Your bank account number. 
   • Account Email - Email provided on the invoice for clients to send remittances to. 
   • Additional Information on Invoice - Any additional information you'd like displayed on invoices. This information will be positioned at the bottom of the invoice. 
5. Edit additional Payslip Information:
   • Additional Information Title on Payslip - Title for additional information that can be displayed at the end of employee payslips. 
   • Additional Information on Payslip - Any additional information you'd like displayed on employee payslips. This information will be positioned at the bottom of the payslip. 
6. Select Save.

ABA payment settings are configured per paying office code, giving you the flexibility to use either the same or different banking details across your office codes, depending on how your business is structured. This allows you to align payments to a single bank account for simplicity, or separate accounts where different entities, cost centres, or financial arrangements are required.

The information set here is used in conjunction with your office code details to generate ABA files for pay processing, ensuring employee payments are correctly grouped and paid from the appropriate account.

Using different ABA settings per office code can help with:

• Separating payroll payments across different business entities or bank accounts
• Improving financial tracking and reconciliation at an office code level
• Reducing manual corrections by ensuring ABA files are automatically aligned to the correct bank account from the outset

Best practice is to update your ABA payment settings as soon as a new office code is created, ensuring pay runs are correctly configured from the outset.

  Please see our ABA payment settings article for information on how to update your ABA payment settings. 

To assign an office code to an Operation:

1. Navigate to Operations > Approved Operations.
2. Select the Operation name you'd like to add or change an office code for. 
3. On the overview tab, locate Office Code > then edit (pencil icon).
4. Select your new office code. You will then receive a notification that your new code has been applied. 

Applying office codes in bulk

If you manage multiple Operations that use the same paying entity details, you can assign an office code to them in bulk instead of updating each Operation individually. 

This is useful when setting up new Operations, restructuring entities, or applying consistent payroll and invoicing details across multiple areas of the platform at once.
 

To do so:

1. Navigate to Operations > Approved Operations.
2. Select the desired Operations > Bulk actions > Assign Office Code to Selected.
3. Select the office code and select Assign.

Office codes assigned to employees determine the paying entity responsible for paying the employee and reporting their earnings. As every employee must be linked to an office code, the details stored under that code are used for payroll, STP, and superannuation reporting.

An employee can only be assigned to one office code at a time. Regardless of which Operations or shifts they work, the following will always be linked to their assigned office code:

• All earnings and leave payments are paid from the office code’s linked bank account.
• The office code’s ABN is used to report earnings to the ATO through STP reporting.
• The office code’s ABN is used to report superannuation obligations to the ATO.

When recruiting and onboarding new employees, an office code can be assigned at two different stages. For Pending People, an office code must be assigned during onboarding before they can be approved, ensuring the correct paying entity is set from the start. 

These stages are:

• Adding employees - When an admin user adds a new employee, they can assign an office code while entering the employee’s details. Providing an office code at this stage is not mandatory, and it can be assigned later if required.
  
    Please note: This option is only available when admins add employees to the platform and is not available to employees who self-register.

• Approving employees - When approving pending employees, an office code is required as part of the approval workflow to ensure the employee is linked to the correct paying entity before they can be rostered and paid.

Assigning an employee to an office code is necessary because it determines which paying entity is responsible for paying the employee. By assigning an employee to a specific office code, the employer can ensure that the correct financial and tax information is used for that employee's payroll. 

There may be occasions when it becomes necessary to change an employee's office code. This could be due to:

• The employee is changing venues or locations
• The employee is changing departments within your business

  Please note: The process for changing the office code for an employee is the same for both paying & non-paying entities. You will need to update employees' office codes individually from their Employee Profile as there isn't an option to update this in bulk.

There are 2 ways to update an employee's office code. These are:

• Update the office code for future pay periods, leaving past pay periods as the previous office code. 
• Update the office code for selected past pay periods. 

We will now cover the details of both options below using the Office code change tool. Please note that the tool to change the office code is intended to correct STP and Payroll reporting data only. You will need to take separate action to update the PDF versions of the generated payslips.
 

Change an employee's office code for future pay periods

To do so:

1. Process the employee's final pay under the old office code.
2. Submit all STP submissions for this employee located in Payroll > Single Touch Payroll.
3. Navigate to the Employee Profile and select the pencil to edit the existing office code. Choose a new office code from the drop-down menu and Save.
   
   

Change an employee's office code for past pay periods

To do so:

1. Navigate to the relevant employee profile via People > Approved People or from the global search function. 
   
     Please note: Before making any office code changes, please ensure that all pending STP submissions for the employee have been submitted. When the payslip is updated, a new STP submission will be created with updated year-to-date data for you to submit to the ATO.
2. Within the employee profile, navigate to Financial > YTD and select Edit history > Office code.

3. Within the Edit office code tool, select the new office code from the drop-down list, choose the relevant payslips that must be changed and select Save changes.

   

4. You'll now see the relevant payslips listed under the new office code in the drawer.
5. Upon reviewing the PDF of payslips that have changed office codes, you'll notice that it still lists the previous office code. Please reload the PDFs of these generated payslips from the Pay page to update the PDFs. (see demo below).

  Please note: Office code changes that are for the same paying entity will show no change in the employee's YTD information and will require no STP submission. Office code changes that are for a different paying entity will show in the employee's YTD information and will require an STP submission.

Both paying & non-paying entity office code changes will show in your payroll reporting.

  For information on submitting STP submissions, please refer to our Single Touch Payroll article here. 
 

Important next steps

After changing the office code for an employee, make sure to follow the next steps to ensure that the process is completed effectively.

• For the Payroll team - If there are any existing upcoming draft payslips for the employee whose office code has been changed, these should be reprocessed so that the new office code details are used.
• For the employee - Encourage your employees to log in to their Employee App and simply re-save their TFN Declaration. When the next payroll is generated, it updates the ATO with the relevant information.