Reckon has released a free Single Touch Payroll Mobile App, ahead of new Australian Tax Office (ATO) regulation that comes into effect on 1 July.

Current Single Touch Payroll (STP) rules, which require employers with 20 or more staff to send super and income tax data directly to the ATO at each pay run, will be extended to businesses with 19 employees or less on 1 July 2019.

To submit STP reports directly to the ATO, employers will need to purchase or enable the payroll component of their existing accounting software.

The STP App was created in partnership with UX, design and development specialists Thinkmill primarily for Australia's 450,000 microbusinesses (1-4 employees).

It is available today on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for businesses of any size.

The ATO registered app means small businesses can lodge STP reports on their smartphone, without the need for a laptop or desktop computer.

Fully designed and developed in Australia, with Australian businesses in mind, the Reckon Single Touch Payroll app is the only purpose-built smartphone app that allows quick and easy STP reporting for small businesses.

By giving customers a smartphone-based option, and using a simple and easy to use design, Reckon is improving the accessibility of ATO compliant STP software.

As part of the app's creation, Reckon has built a new front-end platform on its existing infrastructure to support additional mobile-first accounting solutions that will launch soon.

ReckonSingle Touch Payroll app users can easily integrate their data into Reckon's wider accounting software functions, such as invoicing and point of sale, if they choose to subscribe to those services.

“Single Touch Payroll is widely considered as the biggest change for employers since the introduction of GST almost 20 years ago,” says Reckon CEO Sam Allert.

“Many microbusinesses are still doing ‘shoebox accounting' while overlooking payroll software that can save time and money. This might be because they're reluctant to digitise their operations due to limited capabilities, internet access, or cost.

Small business owners have enough to worry about without the distraction of admin and red tape, so we designed a simple, free and STP-compliant app that can run on the devices that most people have in their pockets,” Allert adds.

Reckon's recent In the Zone research found 21% of Australian microbusinesses don't believe or don't know if their business meets all existing compliance requirements.

The research sought to investigate the benefits and barriers to achieving peak performance – or being ‘in the zone' – at work. It also revealed almost half (47%) of microbusinesses say that admin and red tape is ‘killing the dream' that made them start a business in the first place.

Allert also highlights the app's scalability, and how growing businesses can easily migrate to other solutions in the Reckon ecosystem should their needs change.