Payday Super — the 2026 employer guide

From 1 July 2026, every Australian employer must pay superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions at the same time as wages — not quarterly as previously required. The ATO identified a "super guarantee gap" of billions in super being paid late or not at all, disproportionately affecting lower-income earners, women and casual workers. Payday Super is designed to fix this by making late payment visible immediately rather than at quarter-end.

Qualifying Earnings (QE) — a new concept

Payday Super introduces Qualifying Earnings as the basis for calculating super. QE brings together Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) and certain other payments into a single, clearer definition. For most employees it makes little practical difference, but it matters in edge cases:

• Overtime pay, previously excluded from OTE in some circumstances, may now be captured under QE
• Commission structures and piece-rate pay need to be reviewed against the new QE definition
• Allowances and bonuses must be assessed individually

The contribution must be received by the employee's super fund — not just sent — within 7 business days of payday. That means:

• Processing delays through clearing houses count against your 7 days
• Public holidays and weekends are not business days — plan for them
• Submit to your clearing house at least 2–3 business days before deadline so the fund has time to allocate
• Super funds can take 1–2 business days to allocate after receipt

The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) — used by hundreds of thousands of small businesses — closes permanently on 30 June 2026 and is already closed to new users. If you currently use the SBSCH, you must migrate to an alternative SuperStream-compliant solution before 1 July 2026.

Your options include:

• Xero — built-in super payments directly within Xero Payroll (recommended for Xero users)
• MYOB — integrated super payments via MYOB Payroll
• Employment Hero, KeyPay and other cloud payroll platforms with built-in clearing
• Direct fund portals (suitable only if all employees are with one or two funds)

Three things to lock in before 1 July 2026:

What it means for bookkeepers

Super is no longer a quarterly batch task. Every payroll run now includes a super lodgement step — for a bookkeeper managing 10 clients with fortnightly pay cycles, that's 10 lodgements per fortnight instead of 10 per quarter. Workflow, scope and pricing need to reflect this.

• Migrate every SBSCH client to an alternative clearing house before 30 June 2026
• Build a per-payroll super step into your workflow — not a separate task
• Review each client's pay-item config against the new QE definition
• Reprice payroll engagements — frequency has gone up, even if hours per run haven't
• Flag anomalies the same day, not at quarter-end — that's where the new penalty regime bites

If contributions are not received by the fund within 7 business days of payday, the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) applies automatically. The SGC is calculated on the employee's total salary and wages (not just OTE or QE), so it is always higher than the original SG obligation.

The SGC includes:

• The shortfall — the unpaid super amount
• Nominal interest — accruing daily from payday until paid
• An administration component per employee per quarter
• Loss of tax deductibility — the SGC is not tax deductible

Readiness checklist

• Confirm payroll software is updated for Payday Super and QE
• Choose and connect a SuperStream-compliant clearing house (if leaving SBSCH)
• Review pay-item configuration against the QE definition
• Set up a per-payroll super submission process
• Update employee onboarding to collect TFN and fund details on day one
• Model cash flow for weekly or fortnightly super payments
• Test a full payroll + super run before 1 July 2026