Super

Am I Ready for Payday Super? The 12-Point 1 July 2026 Readiness Check

A 12-point readiness check for the 1 July 2026 payday super change. Work through each point — software, clearing-house turnaround, qualifying earnings, cashflow, employee fund details and STP — to know whether you're genuinely ready before the SBSCH closes 30 June 2026.

"Am I ready for payday super?" is the right question to be asking in June 2026 — and the honest answer is usually "mostly, but check these specific things." The change starts 1 July 2026, and there's an earlier hard deadline hiding inside it: the SBSCH closes 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026. This is a 12-point readiness check you can work through today to know — not hope — that you're set.

Before the list, the one-line rule it all hangs off: from 1 July 2026 employers must pay the 12% super guarantee on payday, and each contribution is on time only if the employee's fund receives it within 7 business days of payday (counted in business days). The whole check below is about making that true, every pay run. To see the dollar impact first, run the free calculator right here:

The 12-point readiness check

1. Is your payroll software payday-super-ready?

Confirm you're on the version of Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks or Reckon (or your provider) that's updated for the reform. The vendors are rolling out updates — being on the current version is non-negotiable.

2. Do you know your clearing house's turnaround in business days?

This is the point most employers skip. The deadline is received-by, not sent-by, so you need to know, in writing, how many business days it takes from your submission to the fund actually receiving and allocating the money. If that number plus a buffer is anywhere near 7, fix it now.

3. Have you confirmed every employee's super fund details are current?

A contribution that can't be allocated isn't "received" in the way the rule requires. Check each employee's fund USI/ABN and member number are complete and correct. Stale details are the classic cause of a contribution bouncing.

4. Have you mapped which pay items are now Qualifying Earnings?

From 1 July 2026, super is calculated on Qualifying Earnings (QE), not OTE-per-quarter — though what counts as OTE hasn't changed. The catch: QE explicitly includes all commissions (even those solely for work outside ordinary hours) and salary-sacrificed amounts that would have been QE, while overtime is still not included where ordinary hours are clearly identified. Work through your pay items against the qualifying earnings vs OTE guide.

5. Have you planned for the cashflow timing shift?

Super used to sit in your account between quarterly remittances; now it leaves within 7 business days of each payday. That's a working-capital timing change, plus a possible one-off catch-up as you move from quarterly to per-payday. Model it with the cashflow impact guide and the calculator.

6. Have you migrated off the SBSCH (if you used it)?

The ATO's clearing house closed to new registrants from 1 October 2025, existing users can use it only until 11:59pm AEST 30 June 2026, and from 1 July 2026 it can no longer make payments or download records. If you relied on it, your replacement path — payroll/accounting software super, a commercial clearing house, or a fund option — must be live before then. See the SBSCH closing guide.

7. Does your STP reporting cover the new fields?

From 1 July 2026 you report, per employee each payday via Single Touch Payroll, the year-to-date qualifying earnings and year-to-date super liability. Confirm your software lodges these and that your STP runs are going through cleanly each pay.

8. Is your super-funding bank account ready for payday timing?

The clock starts at payday, so the money that funds super needs to be available then — not whenever you used to batch it. Confirm cleared funds will be there on each pay date.

9. Have you decided who owns the per-payday super run?

Quarterly super was an occasional task; per-payday super is a recurring one. Name the person who submits super each pay, confirms it was received, and handles exceptions like a bounced payment. Process owners prevent things slipping.

10. Do you know the new-employee exception?

The first contribution to a new fund for a new employee gets 20 business days (not 7). Useful for onboarding — but make sure your team knows it's a one-time-per-fund exception, not a general extension.

11. Have you briefed your staff?

Employees will see super landing every pay rather than quarterly. A short heads-up — plus a request to confirm their fund details are current — prevents confusion and helps point 3.

12. Have you run a dummy super batch end-to-end?

The single most valuable test: process a super run before 1 July 2026, record the submission date, and check each fund for the received date. Confirm the gap is comfortably under 7 business days. If it isn't, you've found your problem while you still have time to fix it.

What "ready" actually looks like

You're ready when you can answer all twelve honestly — not when your software vendor sends a reassuring email. The two points that decide most outcomes are #2 (clearing-house turnaround) and #12 (the dummy run), because they test the thing the rule actually measures: did the fund receive the money in time. Everything else supports those two.

If a contribution does slip late, it moves into the new Super Guarantee Charge regime — with notional earnings (interest compounded daily), an initial 60% administrative uplift, and possible choice loading — though a first-year education-first approach under PCG 2026/1 (for qualifying-earnings days from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027) means employers genuinely trying to comply and fixing issues quickly won't be the ATO's compliance focus in that window. The detail is in the new SGC and penalties guide. The readiness work on this page is how you avoid all of it.

Get the done-for-you version

This 12-point check is the free, shareable summary. If you'd rather not build the supporting documents from scratch, the Payday Super Compliance Pack turns each point into done-for-you, editable templates — the payday super policy, the per-payday payroll SOP, employee comms templates, and a cashflow plan with a 7-business-day deadline calculator. It's designed to get a small employer or bookkeeper operationalised in an afternoon instead of a fortnight. Grab the free readiness checklist first, then the pack:

General information only — not financial, tax, superannuation, or legal advice. This readiness check is based on ATO published guidance for the reform commencing 1 July 2026; confirm your obligations against the ATO and a registered tax or BAS agent before acting.

Next steps: run your numbers in the free payday super cashflow calculator, then get the Payday Super Readiness Checklist & Pack → to turn these 12 points into a done-for-you, tickable plan before 1 July 2026. For the full picture, start at the Payday Super pillar guide.

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