Payday Super: Legislation and Employer Checks

Payday Super ties employer super payments to each payday, with contributions generally due at the employee’s fund within seven business days. Use a separate checklist for every employer client to fix payroll settings, payment approvals and cash funding.

What Payday Super Changes

Payday Super replaces quarterly super guarantee payments with contributions linked to each payment of qualifying earnings. The fund must receive the money and allocation information within the applicable business-day period after payday.

The rules apply to paydays within the new regime, even when employees earned the wages before the transition. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 made the changes. The enacted legislation records its commencement and Royal Assent boundaries.

The employer sends money and contribution data through payroll software or a SuperStream payment service. The fund receives the contribution, then allocates it to the employee or returns it if allocation fails. The ATO compares Single Touch Payroll (STP) reports with fund reporting to identify unpaid or late super.

Use legislation and ATO guidance to settle the legal obligation. A payroll vendor explains its settings and processing time. Its payment status cannot change the statutory fund-receipt deadline.

Client-By-Client Checklist for Agents

Start with one row per employer, then attach the pay-item and employee checks to that row. Record exceptions before the next affected payday.

Check	Record for this employer	Responsible person	Date client told and agreed change
Pay cycles	Every weekly, fortnightly or other cycle, including irregular payments	Agent	Complete date field and agreed action
Employee population	Employee count, new starters, changed funds and workers already assessed as eligible for SG	Agent	Complete date field and agreed action
Existing payment method	Payroll service, commercial clearing house or former SBSCH use	Agent	Complete date field and agreed action
Payroll product	Product name, installed version where relevant and vendor-supported update	Agent	Complete date field and agreed action
Earnings mapping	Pay items included in qualifying earnings and excluded items with reasons	Agent	Complete date field and agreed action
Fund details	Correct fund USI and member number, or the required SMSF details	Agent and employer	Complete date field and agreed action
Fund choice	Unfinished choice forms and outstanding stapled fund requests	Employer with agent assistance	Complete date field and agreed action
Payment authority	Named approver, backup arrangements and bank authority	Employer	Complete date field and agreed action
Available cash	Amount needed for each pay run and any remaining quarterly liability	Employer	Complete date field and agreed action
Receipt checks	Person monitoring failed payments and evidence of fund receipt	Agent	Complete date field and agreed action

The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) closed at the transition to Payday Super. Clients that relied on it need a replacement immediately. The ATO’s clearing-house closure guidance records the final payment and access boundary. Use the clearing-house changeover steps for the separate provider-selection job.

Confirm the responsibility split in writing. Your practice checks settings, reconciles contributions and handles agreed reporting. The employer approves payments and provides the money. Record any delegated payment authority explicitly.

Use the new employee forms checklist for fund choice and stapled-fund steps. Check that the agreed work sits within your registered BAS service scope.

Qualifying Earnings and the 7 Day Rule

Qualifying earnings (QE) are the earnings base for super guarantee under Payday Super. QE includes ordinary time earnings (OTE), all employee commissions and eligible amounts sacrificed to super. It also includes relevant payments under the extended employee definition.

Ordinary hours and many paid-leave amounts remain included. Clearly identified overtime remains outside OTE. All commissions need separate attention, including commissions outside ordinary hours. An eligible salary sacrifice does not reduce the earnings base for the employer’s SG calculation.

Review each pay item against the ATO’s qualifying earnings guidance. Keep a reason for every custom exclusion. This check is separate from deciding whether a particular contractor is an employee for super purposes.

Count seven business days after the actual payday. Preparing payroll early does not start the clock. The ATO’s payment-timing explanation excludes weekends and whole-state or territory public holidays anywhere in Australia.

The law allows longer periods in defined cases. First contributions for a new employee or to a changed fund generally have 20 business days. Qualifying out-of-cycle payments follow the next regular payday’s deadline.

An ATO exceptional-circumstances determination can extend the period for affected employers. A later payday’s deadline can also move to an earlier contribution’s longer deadline when the periods overlap. Confirm the applicable condition using the ATO’s deadline rules.

For a fictional fortnightly payroll, suppose payday is a Thursday. With no qualifying public holiday, the seventh business day after payday is the following second Monday. Excluding the first intervening Monday for a qualifying public holiday moves the deadline to the following Tuesday. Keep the payment approval on payday so clearing-house delays do not consume the whole window.

Incorrect: marking the contribution complete because the employer’s bank account was debited. Correct: confirming the fund received both the contribution and the information needed to allocate it within the deadline.

Super Guarantee Due Dates Before and After Payday Super

The quarterly rules apply to earnings paid before the reform’s commencement boundary. The final old-regime quarter is the last quarter of the 2025-26 financial year. Its payment deadline is 28 days after quarter end, subject to the applicable non-business-day adjustment.

Earlier quarterly deadlines followed the same quarter-end pattern. Use the ATO’s quarterly payment due dates for the calendar entries and holiday adjustments.

Under Payday Super, each payday creates its own fund-receipt deadline. A single quarterly diary entry cannot track those obligations.

During the transition, an employer can owe the final quarterly contribution while also funding the first Payday Super contributions. The ATO’s transition guidance explains how receipts around the final quarterly boundary are allocated. Reconcile that allocation before assuming a new payment cleared the intended liability.

Keep STP year-end work in the STP finalisation checklist. Reconcile payroll and super alongside the BAS preparation checks without treating BAS lodgement as the super deadline.

Payday Super in Xero, MYOB and Other Payroll Software

Payroll software must calculate SG on QE for each pay, report QE and super liability through STP and support a payment route that meets the deadline. Calculation alone leaves the payment approval outstanding.

In Xero, review the pay-item settings for inclusion in super calculations and reporting as qualifying earnings. Xero Central documents a review tool for changing these settings together. Check employee leave-loading settings separately. If you change settings with a draft pay run open, review the payslips before posting.

Confirm the client’s super payment method, including Auto Super where used. Record who creates the batch and who authorises it. Match the batch total to payroll, then monitor its progress to fund receipt. Keep Xero’s published help beside the file’s settings record.

MYOB Business and AccountRight carry existing super exemptions into QE settings. In MYOB Business, review wage pay items and the SG pay item’s exemptions. In AccountRight, review wage payroll categories and the SG category’s exempt list. MYOB documents an option that excludes a wage item from both SG and QE calculations. Review custom exclusions before relying on the carried-forward settings.

For either MYOB product, finish Pay Super registration with authorised business and bank details. Confirm the payment limit and the required authorisers. An authoriser needs a verified mobile number for approval codes. Create and authorise contributions alongside the pay run, then investigate payments awaiting approval or showing failure.

For a smaller payroll product, obtain its published QE and STP support instructions. Check the supported version and the contribution service’s processing time. If it cannot handle a required function, arrange supported payroll reporting and a separate SuperStream payment method before the next affected pay. Avoid duplicate contributions when changing services.

Payday Super Penalties for Late Payment

Late or short contributions can create a super guarantee charge (SGC) for the affected QE day. The ATO’s SGC explanation identifies four components.

• The final SG shortfall after eligible and late contributions are allocated.
• Notional earnings, with interest compounding daily over the relevant late period.
• An administrative uplift, generally 60% of the shortfall and notional earnings, with reductions for compliance history and prompt voluntary disclosure.
• Choice loadings where the employer fails to meet fund-choice obligations.

Late contributions can reduce the new-regime shortfall, but paying late does not erase the interest or reporting consequences. The old late-payment-offset approach does not carry across unchanged. The final quarterly transition also has its own allocation restrictions.

If you identify an error before assessment, follow the ATO’s late-payment instructions for contributions and voluntary disclosure. Once assessed, pay the assessed SGC to the ATO. Directors can become personally liable for unpaid company SGC under the director penalty regime.

After every pay run, reconcile calculated super with the batch and fund-receipt evidence. Escalate a rejected payment immediately. A successful STP report does not prove that the contribution reached the fund.

Records to Keep Under Payday Super

Keep an employee-level record that connects each payday to its super payment. The record needs the following fields.

• Actual payday and qualifying earnings for the employee.
• SG calculated, with the rate and any applicable earnings limit.
• Payment authorisation and payment date.
• Fund receipt date and contribution reference.
• Fund details, choice evidence and stapled-fund request outcome.
• Rejection or refund evidence, the correction and when the replacement reached the fund.

Retain payroll reports and payment confirmations together so a reviewer can follow a contribution without reconstructing it from emails. Keep records of rejected contributions even after the replacement succeeds.

The ATO requires employer super records for five years, in English or a readily convertible format. Other employment records can have longer retention requirements. Preserve readable exports when changing payroll software or payment services.

What to Tell Employer Clients About Cash Flow

Payday Super brings the cash payment forward. The employer’s bank balance must cover super alongside each payroll, even if the business previously held that money until the quarterly deadline.

This fictional example uses the general SG rate of 12%. Assume eligible QE of $20,000 per fortnight, below applicable earnings limits, with six paydays in each example quarter. The amounts are payroll figures. GST does not apply to the SG calculation.

Each pay needs $20,000 multiplied by 12%, or $2,400, for super. Six paydays require $14,400. If the preceding quarter’s $14,400 remains unpaid at transition, the first new-regime quarter needs $28,800 for super altogether. That is $14,400 more than paying only the preceding quarter during the example period. The extra amount is earlier funding of an existing obligation, not a second SG charge on the same earnings.

Actual cash needs depend on the payday count, QE changes and how much old super is already funded. Ask each employer whether it will transfer super into the payroll account each pay or keep a funded reserve. A pay-cycle change must respect employee agreements and award requirements.

Use this message with the employer’s agreed commencement field completed.

Payday Super applies to qualifying earnings paid from the statutory commencement boundary. Super generally needs to reach employee funds within seven business days after payday. We will review your payroll settings and reconcile contributions after each pay. Please approve the payment method and authorisers, and confirm how you will fund super alongside wages. We will record the agreed responsibilities before your next pay run.

Complete the commencement date field in the client record using the official boundary. Get the employer’s written approval for the funding and payment arrangements before processing its next payroll.