Payday Super: How to manage super during the changeover

 

What you need to do in 2026

This information will help employers manage the changeover to Payday Super. Here are the key things to know from 1 July 2026.

• Employers pay super guarantee for each payday, instead of quarterly.
• Payments are due in employees' super accounts within 7 business days after payday (unless longer applies, such as for new employees).
• The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) will be closed. You need to download your SBSCH records and switch to an alternative provider before it shuts down permanently on 30 June 2026.
• For the quarter ending June, you will continue to pay super guarantee in full, on time and to the right fund, by the quarterly due date. This way, you will avoid the super guarantee charge. The final quarterly payment (June quarter) is due in employees' super accounts by 28 July.
  • If you miss the 28 July due date, you will need to lodge a super guarantee charge (SGC) statement and pay the SGC for the quarter ending 30 June 2026.
  • The late payment offset won't be available for the final June quarterly payment.

For a comparison of the differences between the current system and the changes from 1 July 2026, see About Payday Super.

How to pay super during the June–July changeover

Quarter ending 30 June 2026

For the quarter ending 30 June 2026, you continue to calculate, pay and report super guarantee for your employees (including eligible contractors) under the existing quarterly super guarantee rules. This means you:

• calculate super based on the ordinary time earnings you've paid to your employees between 1 April and 30 June
• pay before the due date of 28 July to allow time for super funds to receive and allocate the money to employees' accounts.

Be sure to finalise your June quarter payments by 28 July 2026 (or earlier).

If you miss this deadline:

• you must lodge a super guarantee charge statement by 28 August and pay the SGC to us for the June quarter
• the late payment offset is not available
• any super payments received on or after 29 July will be applied under the new Payday Super rules, even if you intended these payments to be made for any super you owe for the June quarter.

Pay runs from 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026 you calculate, pay and report super guarantee for your employees (including eligible contractors) under the Payday Super rules.

This means you:

• calculate super based on the qualifying earnings you pay to your employees from 1 July (even if the work that earned this pay was done before 1 July)
• pay super guarantee for each payday so the money is in your employees' super accounts within 7 business days after payday (unless longer applies, such as for new employees).

Super for pay runs in July may be due before your final quarterly super payment is due on 28 July. Contributions received on or before 28 July will reduce any super owing for the June quarter first. If there is any remainder, contributions will then be used under Payday Super. If you pay on time for quarterly and Payday Super you don’t risk incurring penalties.

Managing your cash flow

You may have multiple super payments due during July 2026, including:

• super payments for each payday
• the final quarterly super payment due 28 July.

You should review your expected pay cycles for July to understand the impacts of paying super each payday. You may consider setting aside additional funds to make sure you can meet your obligations. For more information, see Manage your business cash flow.

If your cashflow permits, you can pay your June quarter super on or before your first payday in July. If you do this, your business will have:

• a more seamless changeover to the Payday Super system
• time to correct any rejected payments before the 28 July deadline.

How often to pay wages

The Fair Work Ombudsman provides information about when and how to pay your employees.

Most awards or agreements will set out when employees must be paid:

• weekly
• fortnightly, or
• monthly.

If it doesn't, employees must be paid at least monthly. For more information, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman’s websiteExternal Link.

How to report super in Single Touch Payroll

From 1 July 2026, employers must report the year-to-date amount of qualifying earnings (QE) for each employee through their Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting each payday. Qualifying earnings is a new term for the types of payments you make to employees that are used to calculate the super guarantee under Payday Super.

Employers will also have to report the year-to-date super liability for each employee.

Employers can't report QE prior to 1 July 2026. Until then, employers must report either OTE or super liability in STP to be compliant.

You should review your STP software and prepare to correctly map pay codes now. This will help you meet reporting obligations and ensure readiness when updated payroll software is available.

For more information, see When to start reporting QE in STP.

If you don't use Single Touch Payroll yet

All employers should now be STP reporting and transitioned to STP Phase 2 reporting unless covered by a deferral or exemption.

If you are required to report using Single Touch Payroll (STP), you must report accurately and on time. Failing to report using STP may result in penalties. For further information, see draft PS LA 2026/D2: Administration of penalties for failure to comply with Single Touch Payroll reporting obligations.

If you can't report qualifying earnings and super liability from 1 July 2026, you should begin reporting these amounts as soon as possible after that date. From 1 July 2027, if you don't report these amounts, we'll reject your reporting and penalties may apply.

You don't need to request a deferral if you can start reporting qualifying earnings during the 2026–27 financial year.

If you don't use SuperStream

SuperStream is the way businesses must pay employee superannuation guarantee contributions to super funds.

If you pay direct to a fund and don't use SuperStream for super payments, you may receive returned payments without error codes.

If you use SuperStream, you can contact the super fund or clearing house (if you use one) directly to find out more about where to find errors.

Common errors include:

• incorrect USI or member number
• ABN mismatch
• incorrect fund details
• inactive electronic service address (for payments to self-managed super funds)
• incorrect contribution amounts.

You should also speak with your clearing house (if you use one) and your employees' super fund to make sure that you are using a SuperStream compliant method.

Remember, employers must ensure super payments reach employees’ super funds within 7 business days after payday (some longer timeframes may apply).

Preparing to meet the 7 day timeframe for Payday Super

Payments can take time to reach super funds. Sometimes errors occur and this adds additional processing time. When Payday Super starts, your payments must be received (and have enough information to be allocated) by super funds within 7 business days after payday to avoid the super guarantee charge (SGC). This timeframe needs to take into account the time it takes for processing and for errors to be rectified.

To make sure you're ready to meet this 7 business day timeframe, speak with your payroll provider, clearing house (if you use one) and your employees' super fund to understand:

• how long your clearing house takes to process payments
• whether payments are processed via the New Payments Platform (which is almost immediate)
• where you can find error messages (in your payroll product, clearing house portal, or from the fund)
• how long it takes for a payment to return if rejected (funds have 3 business days to allocate or return contributions to you if they're unable to be allocated).

For steps you can follow to prepare for 1 July, see our Payday Super checklist for employers. We have released our compliance approach for the first year of payday super, for employers who may have difficulty changing over.

 

Member verification request

A new member verification request (MVR) allows you to use your payroll or software solution to verify an employees’ super fund details before the contribution is made. An MVR can be used:

• before making a contribution to a super fund for the first time
• where there has been a change in employee information (such as name)
• where a contribution has previously been rejected.

To reduce errors from 1 July, speak to your payroll provider about how you can access the MVR.

Getting your records from the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House

The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) closes permanently from 1 July 2026. After this date you won't have access to it to process payments or to download your records.

If you are currently using the SBSCH:

• you should change to an alternative provider
• download your super records before 11:59 pm AEST on 30 June 2026
• the March quarter payment (due 28 April) is the last payment you can make through the SBSCH
• you won't be able to make a payment using the SBSCH for the June quarter (due 28 July), unless it is made on or before 30 June.

Use this checklist to transition out of the SBSCH before it closes.

How to tell your employees about Payday Super

Your staff may have questions or concerns about Payday Super. You can tell them:

• super will be paid every payday, instead of every quarter
• the super payment will still be shown on their payslip
• the super payment will be received by their fund within 7 business days after payday, however it may not be visible in their account straight away (depends on how often the fund updates information)
• there is no change to the amount of super they will receive (unless their pay changes)
• they must keep their contact details up to date with the ATO, the super fund and their employer to avoid errors when paying their super.

Concessional contributions cap

Changes have been announced to avoid employees exceeding their concessional contributions cap in 2026–27, where this is a result of having additional super payments made due to Payday Super starting. The cap is the maximum super you can receive each year at a lower tax rate. For the 2026–27 year, the concessional contributions cap is $32,500.

This is not yet law.

If you have difficulty changing over to Payday Super

If you start paying super for each payday from 1 July, but some payments are received late (for example, due to incorrect details and the super fund rejecting payments and you fix the error quickly) you're likely to be considered low risk by the ATO.

Our compliance approach

We have released a practical compliance guideline to outline our approach to compliance during the first year of Payday Super. Under this compliance guideline, you won't be the focus of ATO compliance action as long as you:

• make your payments for each payday on time
• fix any errors as soon as possible.

We will take a firmer approach to:

• serious or deliberate cases of non-compliance
• employers not attempting to pay super guarantee for each payday.