Since 1 July 2026, employers have to pay super every time they pay wages, and each contribution must reach the employee's super fund within 7 business days of payday. Quarterly super is gone. If your payroll still treats super as something you sort out at the end of the quarter, it isn't ready for Payday Super.
It's payroll day. You've processed wages the way you have for years: hours in, tax out, money in employees' accounts. Super used to get squared up after the quarter ended. That last part no longer works, and the change touches the mechanics of every pay run.
Key takeaways
- Super guarantee contributions must reach the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday (20 business days for a new employee's first contribution or a change of fund).
- The super guarantee rate is still 12%, but it's now worked out on qualifying earnings for each payday.
- The ATO's free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closed after 30 June 2026, so you need payroll software or a commercial clearing house.
- Late super attracts the super guarantee charge, which the ATO now assesses itself from your Single Touch Payroll data.
- For the first year, the ATO is focusing on employers who aren't paying each payday or aren't fixing errors quickly.
What Payday Super actually changes
For as long as most business owners have run payroll, super worked on a lag. You paid staff weekly or fortnightly, then paid the super guarantee (SG) by the 28th day after each quarter ended. Plenty of businesses used that gap as a cash flow buffer. The last quarterly due date was 28 July 2026, for the April to June 2026 quarter.
That buffer is gone. From 1 July 2026, you must pay SG at the same time as salary and wages, and the contribution has to land in the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday, with enough detail for the fund to allocate it. A few timing rules sit around that:
- New employees and fund changes: the first contribution to a new employee's fund, or to a fund an employee has just switched to, has 20 business days.
- Out-of-cycle payments: super on a payment made outside your normal pay cycle (such as a back payment or bonus) is due 7 business days after your next regular payday.
- Rejected payments: if a fund rejects a contribution, you don't get extra time, so payment details need to be right.
The Small Business Super Clearing House has closed
If you used the ATO's free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) to send contributions to several funds, that option no longer exists. It stopped taking new users on 1 October 2025 and closed for good after 30 June 2026, and you can no longer log in to it to download your old records. You now need payroll software with a super function, a fund's online payment service, or a commercial clearing house that can send super with each pay run. Our guide to payroll software in Australia compares the main options.
For businesses that relied on the SBSCH as their whole super process, this is the part that catches people out. It isn't just a timing change. It's a systems change.
How the new timing works
The SG rate is still 12%. What's changed is the earnings base and the clock. From 1 July 2026, SG is calculated on each employee's qualifying earnings for the payday: mainly ordinary time earnings (OTE), plus any amount the employee salary sacrifices into super that would otherwise have been qualifying earnings. Our super guarantee guide explains what's included.
There's also a yearly cap. For 2026–27, the maximum contribution base is $270,830 of qualifying earnings. Once an employee's qualifying earnings for the year reach that amount, you don't have to pay further SG for them that year, unless an award or agreement requires it.
The 7 business days are measured to when the money arrives in the fund, not when you send it. Clearing house processing time, wrong fund details or a missing member number can all eat into the window. If you're used to starting super payments a day or two before you think you need to, that habit needs tightening.
Here's how it plays out. You pay wages on Thursday 5 November 2026. Counting business days from the next day, the super for that pay run must be in each employee's fund by Monday 16 November 2026 (assuming no public holidays in between). Repeat that for every pay run, all year, and it's easy to see why set-and-forget payroll habits don't survive the change.
Single Touch Payroll shows the ATO what you owe
For paydays from 1 July 2026, your Single Touch Payroll (STP) reports must include each employee's year-to-date qualifying earnings and super liability. The ATO compares that with what funds report receiving, so it can see when contributions fall behind wages. Until 30 June 2027 the ATO still accepts OTE in place of qualifying earnings, but from 1 July 2027 reports without both amounts will be rejected. Check that your payroll software has been updated.
What happens if super is late
If a contribution doesn't reach the fund within 7 business days of payday, you're liable for the super guarantee charge (SGC) for that payday. Under Payday Super, the ATO raises the assessment itself using STP and fund data. The charge is made up of:
- The shortfall: the super that wasn't paid on time.
- Notional earnings: interest on the shortfall at the general interest charge rate, compounding daily.
- An administrative uplift: up to 60% of the shortfall and notional earnings. It's reduced by 20 percentage points if you haven't had an ATO-initiated SGC assessment in the previous two years, and by up to 40 percentage points if you make a voluntary disclosure (the earlier you disclose, the bigger the reduction). Both reductions can apply, which can bring the uplift down to nil.
- A choice loading: if you paid into the wrong fund.
Paying the late contribution reduces the shortfall, but the notional earnings still apply. Unlike the old quarterly charge, the SGC for paydays from 1 July 2026 is tax deductible.
A separate late payment penalty applies only if you don't pay the SGC once it's assessed. If the charge is still unpaid 28 days after the ATO issues a notice to pay, a penalty of 25% of the outstanding amount applies, rising to 50% if you've had the same penalty in the previous 24 months. This penalty can't be remitted and isn't deductible.
Missed contributions for quarters up to 30 June 2026 are still handled under the old rules: you lodge a super guarantee statement and pay the SGC to the ATO, that charge isn't deductible, and penalties of up to 200% can apply.
Some breathing room in the first year
Under PCG 2026/1, the ATO is taking a risk-based approach for paydays from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. It's focusing on employers who aren't paying super each payday or aren't correcting mistakes quickly, and it has said it may not assess low-risk employers for that first year. That's a grace period, not a pass: it rewards businesses that are visibly paying on time and fixing errors, not ones that ignore the change.
Does this apply to every business?
Yes. Payday Super applies to all employers, whatever their size. There's no small business carve-out and no phase-in based on headcount. If you have even one employee, the same 7-business-day rule and the same charge apply to you as to a business with fifty staff.
That's a change in itself. Plenty of compliance measures have given small operators extra time or lighter obligations. This one didn't. A sole trader with one part-time employee has the same clock running as a large payroll team, just with fewer people to catch a missed payment before it becomes a problem.
A payroll checklist for Payday Super
The practical shift is this: super can no longer be an admin task you get to eventually. It has to be part of running wages, every pay cycle. Check these now:
- Your payroll software or clearing house can pay super on-cycle. If you used the SBSCH, you need a replacement already, not after a missed payday.
- Your STP reporting includes qualifying earnings and super liability. Ask your software provider if you're unsure.
- Your cash flow allows for super leaving weekly or fortnightly. Build it into your forecasting rather than setting money aside for a quarterly bill.
- Your qualifying earnings calculations are right. An error in the earnings base now repeats every pay run instead of once a quarter.
- Super is arriving, not just leaving. Confirm contributions land in the fund within 7 business days, and follow up rejected payments straight away.
- New starters' fund details are collected early. You have 20 business days for their first contribution, which goes quickly if you're chasing a choice form or stapled fund.
Where businesses get caught out usually isn't deliberate. It's habit. The old quarterly rhythm is muscle memory, and that's exactly what needs to change.
Getting Payday Super right
Payday Super isn't complicated in concept: pay super when you pay wages. The difficulty is in the mechanics, making sure your systems, cash flow and records support that rhythm without a slip every few pay runs.
If your payroll was built around the old quarterly cycle, or you're not confident it would pass the 7-business-day test, check it now rather than after an assessment arrives. Our business accountants work with small business owners on payroll, super and BAS compliance and can review whether your setup is ready. Book an appointment and we'll walk through it with you.
Sources: ATO, About Payday Super, ATO, Payment deadlines for Payday Super, ATO, Single Touch Payroll reporting under Payday Super, ATO, What happens if you don't pay super correctly, ATO, How to transition from the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House.
