Super

Payday Super 2026: What Every Australian Employer Must Do Before 1 July

From 1 July 2026, super must reach your employees' funds within 7 business days of every payday — not quarterly. A plain-English guide for small employers and bookkeepers: what changes, who's affected, the deadlines, and exactly what to do before the SBSCH closes 30 June 2026.

If you run payroll for a small business — or you're the bookkeeper who does — 1 July 2026 is the date that changes your month. From that day, you can no longer batch super up and pay it quarterly. Every payday, the super you owe has to land in your employees' funds within a tight window. This guide is written for the people who actually have to make that happen: small employers and the bookkeepers and BAS agents who run their pay. It walks through what's changing, who's caught, the exact deadlines, and a clear list of what to do before the cutover — using only figures confirmed against the ATO, Treasury and the legislation.

General information only — not financial, tax, superannuation, or legal advice. Confirm every requirement with the ATO (ato.gov.au), the Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au), or a registered tax or BAS agent before acting.

The decision you're making

You have one decision to make before 1 July 2026: can your payroll process get the right super amount, calculated the new way, received by every employee's fund within 7 business days of each payday — and can your cashflow handle super leaving with every pay run instead of every quarter?

Everything below exists to help you answer that. If the answer is "not yet," the fix is operational, not complicated — but it has a deadline, and a second deadline (the clearing-house shutdown) sits a day earlier.

Jump to the free cashflow calculator → — see your super-per-payday and the working-capital shift in a few seconds, no email required.

What changes on 1 July 2026

Today, many employers pay the Super Guarantee quarterly. From 1 July 2026, payday super requires super to be paid on payday — the same time as wages. It is now law: the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 (and the companion Superannuation Guarantee Charge Amendment Act 2025) received Royal Assent on 6 November 2025 and applies from 1 July 2026.

Four things change in practice:

The rate does not change. The Super Guarantee reached its final legislated level of 12% on 1 July 2025, and there is no further increase scheduled. What changes is the cadence, the base it's calculated on, and the reporting. Read the ATO's overview of payday super for the official summary.

The 7-business-day rule — received, not sent

This is the rule most likely to catch a careful employer out. A contribution is on time **only if it is received by the employee's super fund — with all the information the fund needs to allocate it to the member's account — within 7 business days** after the qualifying-earnings payday.

Two words do the damage:

• Received, not sent. The clock is about when the fund has the money and can allocate it, not when you click "pay." A slow clearing house can blow the deadline even when you paid on time.
• Business days, never calendar days. Weekends and public holidays don't count toward the 7.

There's one important easing: for a new employee, or the first contribution to a new fund, the deadline is extended to 20 business days after the payday (this also covers exceptional-circumstances determinations). The ATO sets out the full detail on its payment deadlines for payday super page. There's a matching squeeze on funds, too: super funds must allocate (or return un-allocatable) contributions within 3 business days — down from 20 — so there's less slack in the system on both sides.

Qualifying Earnings vs OTE — the base is changing

From 1 July 2026, SG (and the SGC) is calculated on Qualifying Earnings (QE) on each payday, not OTE per quarter. The good news: what counts as OTE doesn't change. QE is OTE plus certain other payments:

• OTE — ordinary-hours pay, including certain paid leave, allowances, bonuses and lump sums.
• All commissions — including commissions earned solely for work outside ordinary hours.
• Salary-sacrificed amounts that would otherwise have been Qualifying Earnings.

Overtime is not OTE and not QE — where the ordinary hours are clearly identified in the award or agreement. The ATO's explaining qualifying earnings resource is the reference if a pay item is borderline.

Who's affected

Every employer. There is no small-employer exemption. The obligation applies regardless of business size, and it extends to independent contractors who are paid mainly for their labour (who are treated as employees for super purposes). If you pay anyone super today, payday super applies to you on 1 July 2026.

That makes this guide squarely relevant if you are:

• A small employer — a cafe, trades business, retailer, clinic or cleaning company running weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay.
• A bookkeeper or BAS agent running pay runs for clients — you'll be the one who has to make every client's process compliant, and the one clients call when a contribution is late.

What to do before 1 July 2026

Here's the practical changeover list. Work top to bottom; most of it can be done in an afternoon once you know your software is ready.

1. Confirm your payroll/accounting software is payday-super ready. It must calculate 12% of Qualifying Earnings each payday and report YTD QE and YTD super liability per employee via STP. Ask your provider directly.
2. Check your clearing-house or fund turnaround beats 7 business days. Because the deadline is received-by, a slow remittance path is now a compliance risk. Confirm the service-level turnaround in business days.
3. Map which pay items are now Qualifying Earnings. Walk your pay codes against QE: OTE, all commissions, salary-sacrificed amounts that would be QE. Confirm overtime is excluded where ordinary hours are clearly identified.
4. Migrate off the SBSCH before it closes. If you use the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, you must move to an alternative before 1 July 2026 (see below).
5. Confirm every employee's fund details are current. Missing or wrong fund details are the fastest way to miss the window — the fund can't allocate what it can't match.
6. Review your cashflow timing. Super now leaves with each pay run instead of sitting until the next quarterly remittance. Model the working-capital shift before it hits.
7. Run a dummy pay cycle before 1 July. Test the full path — calculate, submit, confirm received, STP report, reconcile — so the first live run isn't your first real test.

Check yourself against the full 12-point readiness list → and download the free Payday Super readiness checklist while you're there.

The earlier deadline: the SBSCH closes 30 June 2026

If you pay super through the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH), your hard deadline is actually a day earlier than the reform. The SBSCH:

• Closed to new registrants from 1 October 2025.
• Can be used by existing users only until 11:59pm AEST on 30 June 2026.
• From 1 July 2026 can no longer make payments or download records.

You must migrate before 1 July 2026 to an alternative: the super functions built into your payroll/accounting software, a commercial clearing house, or a super-fund option. The ATO's pages on preparing for SBSCH closing and how to transition from the SBSCH walk through the options. Don't leave records behind — once it closes you can't download them. The full step-by-step is in our guide: the ATO clearing house closes 30 June 2026 — what to do now.

What it does to your cashflow

For most small employers, the single biggest real-world impact isn't compliance paperwork — it's cash timing. Today, if you pay super quarterly, that super accrues and sits in your account between remittances. From 1 July 2026, the super for each payday has to clear within 7 business days, so that cash leaves with every pay run.

There's also a one-off catch-up effect at the changeover: the super that would have sat in your account until the next quarterly run now goes out earlier, so the transition month carries more outflow than a settled month. It's a timing shift, not an extra cost — but if your buffer is thin, the timing is what bites.

The free calculator below turns this into your actual numbers. Enter your pay cycle and gross OTE per pay, and it shows your super per payday, your annualised super, and an illustrative working-capital timing shift — the cash that used to sit between batched remittances and now leaves within 7 business days of each payday.

Open the free Payday Super cashflow calculator → (no email, runs in your browser). For the deeper walkthrough including the one-off catch-up hit, see what payday super does to your cashflow.

What happens if you miss the window

Miss the 7-business-day window and the new Super Guarantee Charge (SGC) applies. For each qualifying-earnings day it has four components:

1. Your individual final SG shortfall.
2. Notional earnings — a general-interest-charge rate applied to the base SG shortfall, compounded daily.
3. An administrative uplift — initially 60% of total individual final SG shortfalls plus total notional earnings for that QE day.
4. A choice loading — 25% of the contribution value where the choice-of-fund rules weren't met.

On top of the SGC, there's a separate penalty layer to understand:

If the SGC in a Notice to Pay isn't paid within 28 days of the notice date, a late-payment penalty of 25% of the outstanding amount applies (50% if you were liable for the same penalty in the past 24 months); this penalty can't be remitted. A separate Part 7 penalty of up to 200% of the SGC may also apply and can be remitted in full or part at the ATO's discretion.

The ATO sets out the mechanics on its new Super Guarantee Charge page. Our full breakdown of the charge and penalties — with the 60% uplift worked through — is in missing the 7-day window: the new SG charge, 60% uplift and penalties.

A softer first year (but only the first year)

The ATO has confirmed an education-first approach for the first year under PCG 2026/1, finalised 28 January 2026. It covers QE days from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 inclusive: employers who try to do the right thing and fix issues quickly won't be the focus of ATO compliance action. It does not apply to QE days on or after 1 July 2027. The ATO's notice on the first-year compliance approach has the detail. Treat it as breathing room to get the process right — not as a reason to delay setting it up.

Where to go next

Use these to act on the part that's most pressing for you:

• See your numbers → Payday Super cashflow calculator (free, no email)
• Check you're ready → Am I ready for payday super? The 12-point check + free readiness checklist
• Understand the deadline → The 7-business-day rule: received, not sent
• Plan the cash → What payday super does to your cashflow
• Know the penalties → The new SG charge, 60% uplift and penalties
• Sort your pay items → Qualifying Earnings vs OTE: every pay item that changed
• Beat the clearing-house cutoff → The ATO clearing house closes 30 June 2026 — what to do now
• Set it up in your software → Payday super in Xero & MYOB · Payday super in QuickBooks & Reckon
• Industry specifics → Hospitality & cafes · Tradies · Retail · Clinics & allied health · Cleaning
• Compare the two systems → Payday super vs quarterly super: what's changing and the key dates
• Fix your STP reporting → Payday super and STP Phase 2: the two new fields you report each payday
• Casual & part-time staff → Payday super for casual & part-time staff: irregular hours, sorted
• If you miss a payment → What happens if you miss payday super: the new SG charge, step by step
• Prepare your cashflow → Payday super cashflow: how to prepare your payroll cashflow before 1 July 2026

Want it done for you?

If you'd rather not build the policy, the per-payday SOP, the employee comms and the cashflow plan from scratch, the Payday Super Compliance Pack (A$79) gives a small employer or bookkeeper the editable, done-for-you templates to operationalise the 1 July 2026 change in an afternoon — every template carrying the not-advice disclaimer and ATO source citations.

General information only, current as at 8 June 2026, based on ATO published guidance — not financial, tax, superannuation, or legal advice. Figures and dates (the 12% rate, the 1 July 2026 start, the 7-business-day rule, the 30 June 2026 SBSCH closure) are based on legislated settings and published ATO guidance, which can be updated before 1 July 2026. Confirm your situation with the ATO, the Fair Work Ombudsman, or a registered tax or BAS agent before acting.

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