How to change from quarterly super to the new Payday Super from 1 July 2026.
This information will help employers manage the changeover to Payday Super. Here are the key things to know from 1 July 2026.
For a comparison of the differences between the current system and the changes from 1 July 2026, see About Payday Super.
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:
Be sure to finalise your June quarter payments by 28 July 2026 (or earlier).
If you miss this deadline:
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:
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.
Priya has 5 employees. She pays their super quarterly and their wages fortnightly on a Monday. Priya knows that this July she will need to pay the super under the quarterly super system for the last time, as well as start paying under the new Payday Super system.
For Priya, this means she’ll need to pay super for the:
For the June quarter payment, Priya works out the super guarantee as 12% of the ordinary time earnings she paid to her employees between 1 April and 30 June 2026. The last pay run she includes in this calculation is the payday of Monday 22 June.
For the payday of 6 July 2026, Priya works out the super guarantee as 12% of the qualifying earnings she paid to her employees on that day.
Priya pays her first Payday Super payment on 6 July (payday), and it's received on 13 July.
She then finalises her quarterly contributions and pays that on 10 July, which is received on 15 July.
Priya knows that contributions received on or before 28 July will go to super owed for the June quarter first. This means her Payday Super payment will be used to pay a portion of the June quarter payment. She also knows that if she pays the correct amount for both her quarterly payment and her first Payday Super payment, in full by 15 July, both contributions will be made on time.
You may have multiple super payments due during July 2026, including:
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:
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:
If it doesn't, employees must be paid at least monthly. For more information, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman’s website.
Mark has 7 employees. He currently pays their super quarterly and their wages fortnightly on a Monday.
To prepare for Payday Super, Mark reviews his pay cycles in June to figure out how many times he'll need to pay super in July. He works out that he'll have to pay super for 3 periods in July:
Mark puts aside extra money to make sure he has enough to meet all his obligations on time.
Mark knows that super contributions received on or before 28 July go to super owed for the April to June quarter, first. He decides to pay his last quarterly super payment and his first Payday Super payment at the same time on 6 July so both payments will reach employees' funds by 15 July.
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.
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.
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:
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).
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:
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.
Mandy is preparing for Payday Super and wants to ensure any payments she makes will be received and can be allocated by her employee's super fund within 7 business days after payday.
Mandy speaks with her clearing house and finds out it currently takes them 10 business days to process her payments. However, from 1 July 2026 they'll upgrade to the New Payments Platform and payments will be processed within one business day.
Mandy understands the fund will have 3 business days to reject the payment if it can't be allocated to a member account. She also finds out where she can view error messages in case this occurs.
Knowing these timeframes, Mandy decides she will pay super on payday (not after). This will ensure she has time to process payments and resolve any errors with the fund within 7 business days after payday.
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:
To reduce errors from 1 July, speak to your payroll provider about how you can access the MVR.
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:
Use this checklist to transition out of the SBSCH before it closes.
Company A and Company B both use the SBSCH.
Company A:
Company B:
Your staff may have questions or concerns about Payday Super. You can tell them:
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 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.
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:
We will take a firmer approach to:
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