By Freya Purnell
ERP solutions provider Presence of IT has forged a strategic alliance with superannuation e-commerce provider ClickSuper, to assist employers to comply with the Federal Government’s forthcoming SuperStream initiative.
From November, SuperStream introduces a new set of electronic standards to streamline the way employers communicate with super funds, including self-managed superannuation funds, though employers with less than 20 employees have until July 2015 to comply.
Under the standard, superannuation payments and contribution data must be transferred from employers to super funds electronically using a common set of standards (XBRL ebMS 3.0/AS4).
Clicksuper CEO Robin Beauchamp urged companies to begin preparing if they have not already done so.
“Large employers that haven’t yet started the process of moving to the new standards will need to start now if they are to achieve compliance by November and will face financial penalties if they fail to comply,” Beauchamp said.
He added there is a major paradigm shift underway in the industry, which has “clung onto outdated modes of processing”.
“Large employers have had to deal with a number of super funds, each with their own requirements for processing employee data and payments. This resulted in poor data quality, processing delays, manual and disparate processes, as well as a lack of transparency and misalignment of the contribution and pay cycle,” Beauchamp said.
The alliance will provide employers with full automation services, helping to streamline the communication of data and payments between employers and super funds.
Shaun Flannery, chief technical officer, Presence of IT, said there are two issues that large ERP vendors may find it difficult to support.
“That is the transformation of the data file to XBRL, and the packaging and sending of transactions using the secure protocol,” he said.
“By working with employers running SAP or Oracle ERP systems, we can help them build a roadmap to compliance across both financial and payroll applications. The process can be fully automated, thereby eliminating the need to re-enter employee data, or jump into a separate payment mechanism for superannuation contributions.”
Being able to consolidate ERP data from the financial and payroll applications electronically means that data and payments will be sent to the super fund on the same day, ensuring matching of transaction information.
ClickSuper is a founding member of the Superannuation Transaction Network Working Group established to guide the implementation of SuperStream Gateways, and is one of only seven active SuperStream Gateways.
