Contribution Implementation Working
Group (CIWG) - Record of Meeting
Title:
Contribution Implementation Working Group (CIWG)
Venue:
Teleconference: 1800888453 - Access Code 81274141
Event date:
20 April 2017
Next meeting:
Start: 2:30pm
Finish: 3:15pm
4 May 2017
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION
Topic:
Led by:
1 - Welcome
Julene Vanthoff
 The CIWG meeting was not held on 6th April as the Industry Engagement Forum took place in Sydney.
We have now published the detailed Contributions information pack provided at the forum on the
SuperStream Readiness & Implementation Let’s Talk page. Other presentations from the day are published
on the Super Community Let’s Talk page.

1.
Previous action items from last CIWG meeting (23 Mar):
ATO to provide a link to CIWG members the new Let’s Talk page – completed 6th April.
http://lets-talk.ato.gov.au/SSRI
2.
ATO to email links to the Industry Engagement Forum Live stream session – completed early April
No further actions were listed from last meeting.
Topic:
Led by:


Deployment of EPFv2 will occur on the morning of 1 May with a controlled release of EPF requests
being released throughout the day.
EPFv2 deployment will be a hard cutover with no transition period as there can only be one version of
EPF in production.
If there are issues encountered on the day, ATO will suspend EPFs in production and liaise with
gateways before we replay any EPFs in backlog.
A CRT alert will be issued if we encounter problems
If funds and gateways encounter issues with EPFv2 in production please contact your software
provider and /or Gateway provider in the first instance, and contact the ATO through your
Onboarding Team representative who will determine the appropriate course of action
Topic:
Led by:

2 - EPF v2 Cutover
Michael Cooper
3 - Contributions Testing Update
Michael Cooper
The Contributions V2 testing and cutover guidance has been published on ATO Software Developers
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
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web page at: http://softwaredevelopers.ato.gov.au/sites/default/files/resourceattachments/Contributions_V2_Testing_and_Cutover_Guidance_V0.6.pdf
A link to the document is also on the SuperStream readiness & implementation Let’s Talk page
Michael Cooper provided a walk-through of this document and some key points from the presentation
are below:
The test process has been designed to meet the requirements of the Contributions V2.0 Conformance
Testing Guide.
Funds have nominated readiness dates for testing and the ATO has used these dates to schedule
resources to provide tests as they are requested. Please advise if your testing schedule has changed
11 test messages have been developed that Funds and Gateways are able to request, receive and
process, to simulate different Government contributions scenarios.
Tests 1 to 4 are mandatory and tests 5 to 11 are recommended, but are at the funds discretion.
6 of the 11 messages will require a response message.
The test scenarios range in complexity from very simple and single member message/tests to more
complex scenarios of multimember and multiproduct.
Funds must be satisfied they have successfully performed sufficient testing before updating their
certification value and will only considered as ready for production after Fund Details Register has
been updated (10 day period applies) and production readiness checklists have been received by the
ATO.
The production readiness checklist will be published in early May
Industry Questions on testing:
Colonial First State
Q. Will messages only contain one product type?
A: ATO has no plans to send more than one.
IRESS
Q: Should developers have built their contributions solutions in order to receive multiple
amendments for the same member for different periods (in the one message)?
A: GCTR and GCTAR are both designed based on B2B contribution patterns – the technical
structure of these messages allows the ATO to include the same member (with different pay
period dates) multiple times in message (but in different contexts).
Topic:
Led by:
4 - Contributions Readiness and Implementation
Julene Vanthoff
ATO Business Deployment Verification (BDV) and Production cutover approach
Note: The BDV presentation attached to the meeting agenda has been published separately on the
SuperStream Readiness and Implementation Let’s Talk web page.
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Key points on BDV:
The ATO will be deploying both the Eligible Portability Form version 2 and Government Contributions
functionality into production over the weekend 29 and 30 April.
From the morning of the 1st of May, EPF version 2 will replace EPF version 1
From this day also the ATO can commence sending Government Contributions in the Data and
Payment Standard
BDV aims to confirm EPFv2 is working in production AND provide end to end confirmation payments
are correctly distributed via each of the four Government contribution products – Low income Super
contributions, Co-contributions, Superannuation Holding Account and Super Guarantee; and
associated amendment requests.
Regression testing will be performed if required to ensure our existing processes are still working.
BDV for EPFv2 commences on 1st May and for Government Contributions will commence on the 30th
of May, being the date of the earliest adopter coming onboard.
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Govt. Contributions BDV commences from 30 May (the date of the earliest adopter deploying
Contributions v2)
There are 3 gateways and 8 funds involved in the ATOs BDV which will run for a 4-6 week period.
Prior to BDV, the ATO will host meetings with all BDV participants in mid-May to run through
expectations and support processes, including issue resolution.
From the 30 May, weekly triage meetings will be held with BDV participants to confirm receipt and
processing of Contributions transactions and to address any issues.
We are leveraging off the natural payment and recovery cycle that the ATO runs for the four
contributions products and we will be providing BDV participants the ATO Contribution Payment
Schedule for May and June which will show specifically where their fund deploys and what and when
contributions transactions they can expect to receive during the BDV period.
The ATO Contributions Payment Schedule for July and August 2017 will be available in early May to
assist funds in their cutover planning. We will notify CIWG members when this document becomes
available.
Communications on the progress of the ATOs BDV to the broader group will be via our regular
fortnightly CIWG meetings unless significant issues arise in which case a CRT alert will be sent out.
Information about any production issues will also be shared through ‘Latest news’ on the Let’s Talk
web page.
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Production cutover – post BDV period:
 It is not necessary for funds to participate in ATO’s BDV exercise before they cutover to production
 A change to FVS certification details which is done on completion of your testing that will signal the
fund is ready to receive Government contributions in the Standard.
 We would like to remind funds NOT to update the Fund Details Register with a date prior to your
readiness date unless you are ready to cutover to production.
 Once a fund has updated to the GCON2.0-X certification they will receive any Government
contributions in the Standard.
 If a fund experiences difficulties in production then they should contact the ATO immediately to
determine a resolution.
 If you believe there may be a technical issue during your deployment, please speak to your solution
provider and/or gateway in the first instance.
 Specific contact points into the ATO have been set up for issues in production and are your relevant
Onboarding Team Account Manager or emailing either the [email protected] or
[email protected]
Agenda Item:
Led by:
5 - Industry Update
Natasha Cox
 Natasha mentioned that there was an issue with one of the gateways and asked if this had been
rectified. This issue is currently being addressed.
 Natasha also asked if the ATO are ready for shakedown testing with NAB next week - Michael Cooper
confirmed EVTE will be available by Monday 24 April.
Agenda Item:
Led by:
6 - Other Business
Ty Winmill / Julene Vanthoff


Storage area network (SAN) migration
The storage area network (SAN) migration over the Easter weekend was successfully completed and
all internal and external systems are operating as normal. ATO system maintenance in April and May
will ensure we provide resilient and stable systems for Tax Time and we are confident the hardware
will offer a better system for the future and enable us to provide a high quality experience for the
community.

FVS update to Perpetual administered SAFs
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FVS updates have been applied to 503 SAFs managed by Perpetual. The ‘ROLL2.0-X’ and ‘GROL2.0-X’
certifications was effective from 13 April 2017
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
SuperStream readiness & implementation Let’s Talk page
ATO issued an email on the 6th April advising the SuperStream Readiness and Implementation Let’s
Talk page is now live.
Some of the features on this page include tabs for latest news and Q&A
We encourage CIWG members to subscribe to this page to stay informed of future updates. You will
first need to register your details with Let’s Talk in order to subscribe to this page.


Agenda Item:
Led by:
7 – Industry Questions
All
UNISUPER
Q: When will ATO publish Contributions V2 Summary of Change document?
A: This is currently being finalised and should be published by end of month
NAB
Q: Will there be ATO support for BDV over the weekend of 3 -4 June?
A: No there will not be specific support over the weekend, however, to mitigate, the messages will not
leave the ATO until Monday 5 June.
NAB (action item AI20170903_04: ATO)
Q: As the first lot of transactions will be a full load and is unable to be broken down, we’d like
to know at the point of receiving the files, how many transactions are expected to be
processed i.e. if there are 100 transactions for the co-contributions batch then we can then
verify through our systems that we’ve processed 100 transactions (whether they’re all
allocated, or some are refunded/rejected). This would help us for the first batch we are due
to receive.
A: Answer was provided out of session to NAB.
A summary of the response is below and is only applicable to the BDV period:
After the payment run there is a report the ATO can access to obtain volumes for the run, however
this is dependent on the ATOs data warehouse updating the relevant data tables, and no system
issues that would prevent access to the report. So all being well we should be able to provide you
with the required information by the morning that you receive the data messages. There are two
products however that we won’t be able to provide information on in the BDV period:
- SHAsa remittance as this aggregates and issues on the same day and
- SG Recovery and Remittance aggregation data as this runs on the Queen’s Birthday public holiday on
12th June (for all states bar WA) so there will not be any ATO staff available to run the report on the
Monday and it is likely the fund will receive the data messages before we can access the report.
Agenda Item:
Led by:

8 – Closing and Action Items
Julene Vanthoff
Next CIWG meeting 4th May
AI20170903_04: ATO - Response to question from NAB at 20 April CIWG meeting ANSWERED
AI20170903_05: ATO - Notify CIWG members when the ATO Contributions Payment Schedule for July and
August 2017 will be available.
AI20170903_06: ATO - Contributions V2 Summary of Change document to be published.
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