Sending service providers (SSPs) are considered to be digital service providers (DSPs) which enable other DSPs to transmit data to the ATO via the ATO Standard Business Reporting (SBR) ebMS3 messaging standard. They carry out the following actions on behalf of another DSP:
- facilitate the transformation of STP compliant data received from a STP compliant product
- transmit STP conforming data to the ATO.
A product is considered STP compliant if it has been developed in compliance with the Single Touch Payroll: Business implementation guide (STP BIG). The output data of a STP product is categorised into two groups:
- STP compliant data - Complies with the STP BIG. All necessary data required to meet the schema needs of the Payroll Event (PAYEVNT). STP compliant data can be in any proprietary format such as CSV, TXT or XML.
- STP conforming data - STP compliant data is used to undertake validation using the ATO issued schema and validation rules.
On this page:
Registering as a SSP
If you are a SSP, or interested in becoming a SSP, you will need to register with the ATO in order to use the SSP authorisation model (see diagram 1 in DSP guide – Using a SSP to meet STP reporting obligations).
Contact the Digital Partnership Office (DPO) via DPO@ato.gov.au and a member of DPO will be assigned to guide you through the SSP registration process, including on-boarding, in line with the Service model for DSPs.
This will include:
- meeting the applicable requirements as established through the DSP Operational Framework, addressing the high leverage user base.
- meeting additional requirements on the security of your service, including any application programming interfaces (APIs) or portals.
You will also receive additional technical information on changes you will need to make to your ebMS3 implementation.
Advising employers to use a SSP
If you are a DSP and have advised your employer clients to use a SSP to meet STP reporting obligations you need to provide them with a registered STP compliant product.
Your product will also need to:
- be capable of producing an output file that can be consumed by one of the various SBR solutions available from a registered SSP.
- have SSP connectivity capability where it provides relevant information for using the SSP authorisation model
- provide support in making the appropriate declarations for using the SSP authorisation model to submit STP reports to the ATO.
An employer may need to register their STP compliant product as a new product with the ATO if the:
- STP compliant product is not registered (does not come with an active and registered product ID) or the product has been customised
- STP compliant product does not provide SSP connectivity capability and a build needs to be undertaken to allow it.
Contact DPO@ato.gov.au to ensure the required actions are completed.
See also:
Links and documents
- DSP guide – Using a SSP to meet STP reporting obligations v1.3 (PDF, 308KB)
- STP Authorisations and Declarations: API and SSP Portal Upload Models (PDF, 458KB)
Contact us
For further information and to provide feedback email DPO@ato.gov.au.