Two things changed for every Australian employer on 1 July 2026. The first is how frequently you pay superannuation — the quarterly model ended, and super is now due for every payday. The second is how you pay it — the ATO's free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) closed permanently from the same date.
Both are law. Payday Super was legislated by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 (No. 57 of 2025, assented 6 November 2025) and started on 1 July 2026. If you haven't fully made the switch yet, this guide is your catch-up.
This guide covers both changes: what Payday Super requires, why the SBSCH closed, and what you need to do now to stay compliant.
Quick answer: Since 1 July 2026, super guarantee must be paid for every payday — not quarterly. The SG rate is still 12% (of qualifying earnings). The ATO's SBSCH closed permanently from 1 July 2026, so you need another payment channel. Contributions must be received by the employee's fund within 7 business days after payday (longer for some cases, such as a new employee's first contribution). If they're late, the ATO assesses the super guarantee charge — you no longer lodge a statement. The final quarterly payment (April–June 2026) was due 28 July 2026 and could not be made through the SBSCH.
This is general information, not tax advice — see your registered tax agent for your specific situation.
What Changed on 1 July 2026
Two separate reforms, same date.
| Change | Before 1 July 2026 | From 1 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| SG payment timing | Quarterly (28 Oct, 28 Jan, 28 Apr, 28 Jul) | Every payday |
| SBSCH availability | Free; closed to new users from 1 October 2025, existing users until 30 June 2026 | Closed permanently |
| SG rate | 12% | 12% (no change — already at 12% from 1 July 2025) |
The SG rate did not change. It reached 12% on 1 July 2025, and the ATO super guarantee rate table shows 12% for 2026–27 and from 1 July 2027 onwards. The reforms are about timing and payment channel, not the rate.
Payday Super: How It Works
The Old Quarterly Model (What Ended)
Under the old quarterly regime (pay periods up to 30 June 2026), SG contributions had to be received by the fund within 28 days of the end of each quarter. That gave employers up to about four months of float between paying wages early in a quarter and paying the super.
The 2025-26 quarterly due dates — the final year of the old model:
| Quarter | Period | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 1 Jul – 30 Sep 2025 | 28 October 2025 |
| Q2 | 1 Oct – 31 Dec 2025 | 28 January 2026 |
| Q3 | 1 Jan – 31 Mar 2026 | 28 April 2026 |
| Q4 | 1 Apr – 30 Jun 2026 | 28 July 2026 |
Q4 — the 28 July 2026 payment — is the final quarterly super payment under the old model. It could not be paid through the SBSCH, which closed from 1 July 2026. More in the SBSCH section below.
The New Payday Model (Since 1 July 2026)
From 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires SG to be paid for each payday, so it is received by the fund within 7 business days after wages are paid. The rate stays at 12%, but the earnings base it applies to changes:
- Rate: 12% of qualifying earnings — the new payment base for super guarantee from 1 July 2026, which builds on the unchanged ordinary time earnings definition. For most employers the amount doesn't change: everything already counted as ordinary time earnings (ordinary hours pay, most allowances, bonuses, paid leave) carries over unchanged. There are two additions. First, commissions for work done entirely outside ordinary hours. Second, if you pay independent contractors mainly for their labour, or sportspeople, performers or film makers, their payments are qualifying earnings whether the work was done during or outside ordinary hours. Watch the trap on the first one: an identical bonus for the same out-of-hours work is not qualifying earnings — the label carries the result. Overtime and most termination payments (redundancy, ex-gratia) remain excluded — but a payment in lieu of notice is included
- Who's covered: all eligible employees. You pay super regardless of how much you pay an eligible employee (up to the maximum contribution base). There are limited exceptions: employees under 18, and domestic or private workers, are only eligible if they work more than 30 hours in a week
What changed is the cadence: quarterly accumulation became per-payrun settlement. Weekly payroll means weekly super. Fortnightly payroll means fortnightly super.
The 7-Business-Day Rule
According to the ATO, contributions must be received by the employee's super fund — with enough information to allocate them to the employee's account — within 7 business days after payday. Some situations allow longer: 20 business days for the first contribution for a new employee or to a new fund, out-of-cycle payments (due with the next regular payday), and ATO exceptional-circumstances determinations.
This is business days — not calendar days. A Friday payday means the fund must receive the contribution by the following Tuesday week, not the following Friday. Public holidays don't count either, and the test is national rather than local: a public holiday that covers the whole of any Australian state or territory is not a business day for any employer, even if you're nowhere near that state. The ATO's own worked examples add a day to the deadline for Northern Territory Picnic Day. A holiday that covers only part of a state — Royal Hobart Show Day, for example — still counts as a business day.
Note: the deadline is 7 business days to the fund — not 7 business days to your clearing house. Clearing houses take time to process. If yours needs 2 business days to settle, you need to initiate the transfer earlier in the window, not on day 6 or 7. That processing lag is your responsibility to manage, not the ATO's.
This also removes the quarterly cash buffer. Pay weekly, super leaves weekly. Pay fortnightly, super leaves fortnightly. There's no pooling window anymore.
SG Charge Penalties for Late Payment
Miss the 7-business-day window and you trigger a Super Guarantee Charge. Under Payday Super, the ATO matches the qualifying earnings you report through Single Touch Payroll each payday against the contributions and receipt dates super funds report — giving it much earlier visibility of missed or late super than the quarterly system did. See the penalty regime section below for the full breakdown.
SBSCH Closure: What to Do If You've Been Using It
Why It Closed
The ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House was designed for the quarterly model — employers batch contributions once per quarter, submit them, done. Payday Super requires much faster settlement: contributions flowing through on every pay cycle, settling in employee accounts within 7 business days. The SBSCH closed permanently from 1 July 2026 as part of the Payday Super reform and can no longer be used to make payments or download records.
The SBSCH closed to new users from 1 October 2025 and closed permanently from 1 July 2026. If you still need SBSCH payment records for your files, the ATO says they can no longer be downloaded, so check your own copies.
The Final Quarter: April–June 2026 Super
This is history now, but it matters if your June 2026 quarter isn't fully squared away.
The final Q4 quarterly payment (calculated on ordinary time earnings paid 1 April–30 June 2026) is due 28 July 2026 under the old regime. The SBSCH closed from 1 July 2026 — 27 days before that due date.
The ATO's instruction was to make that payment through an alternative method. Contributions received by 28 July were applied to the June quarter first; anything received on or after 29 July could not be applied to it.
If you missed the 28 July 2026 deadline, see the FAQ below on the June 2026 quarter. The fix is an SGC statement, not a late payment to the fund.
Your Alternatives
The ATO suggests starting with your payroll software. After that, look at the ATO's Super Product Register, the online payment services offered by your employees' large super funds, or a commercial clearing house.
| Option | Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Beam (industry-run clearing house) | Direct employer sign-up available; commonly bundled into payroll software at no extra cost | Direct SBSCH replacement — handles multiple funds in one payment |
| Super fund employer portal | Free | Employers where all staff are in the same fund |
| Payroll software with super integration | Included in subscription | Employers already running an integrated payroll platform |
| Commercial clearing house (Macquarie Super, Paysuper) | Varies | Multi-fund handling with commercial support |
Beam is the closest like-for-like replacement for the SBSCH. It's run by the major industry super funds and processes contributions to multiple funds in a single payment — the same basic model as the SBSCH, built to handle Payday Super's settlement requirements. Employers can sign up to Beam directly through beamconnect.com.au, and Beam is also embedded into most Australian payroll platforms — often with no per-transaction fee for small employers when accessed through that channel. Confirm pricing with Beam directly or via your payroll provider, as terms vary.
If your payroll software already includes super integration, you may not need a separate clearing house. Confirm with your provider that their integration is Payday Super-ready — including whether it pays through the New Payments Platform and supports member verification requests.
Still switching? Do it now
If you are still not paying super for each payday, the ATO's first-year compliance approach (PCG 2026/1, covering 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027) focuses action on employers who are not trying to make the change or are not fixing errors. Set up your new channel, confirm every employee's fund details (use a member verification request through your payroll software where available), and start paying for each payday immediately.
What This Means for Sole Traders with No Employees
Payday Super doesn't directly affect you — there's no SG obligation for a sole trader to themselves.
If you're structured as a company and pay yourself as an employee, you are an employer for SG purposes and Payday Super applies.
If you hire your first employee in 2026–27 or later, Payday Super applies from your very first payroll run. For a new employee's first contribution you have 20 business days after payday; after that, the normal 7-business-day deadline applies. Have your super payment channel set up before you run payroll for the first time — not after.
What This Means for Employers with 1-5 Staff
This is where Payday Super has the most immediate operational impact on small businesses. The quarterly cash buffer disappears.
The cash flow shift:
Two employees with combined gross wages of $5,800 per fortnight. Under the old quarterly model: roughly $4,500 in super left your account once per quarter (about 6.5 fortnights × $696). Under Payday Super: $696 every fortnight (12% × $5,800), settled within 7 business days of each payrun.
The annual total is identical. But instead of one quarterly lump sum, it's 26 fortnightly transfers. If you used the quarterly super pool to smooth working capital, that stopped on 1 July 2026.
What needs to change in your process:
- Super becomes a step in every payroll run, not a quarterly reconciliation task
- You need a payment channel other than the SBSCH, which has closed
- Employee fund details need to be current — stale information causes payment failures, and payment failures mean late contributions under the new regime
- Track super owed per payrun, not per quarter
What doesn't change:
- The 12% rate itself (though from 1 July 2026 it applies to qualifying earnings, a base that builds on the unchanged ordinary time earnings definition — see above)
- Your obligation to contribute to the employee's nominated fund
- The requirement to process via SuperStream
Common Questions
Q: Does Payday Super affect contractors I pay voluntary super contributions to?
A: The SG definition of "employee" is broader than common law employment — it can include certain contractors who are paid wholly or principally for their labour. If a contractor falls within the SG definition, Payday Super applies to them. Get specific advice on any contractor arrangement you're unsure about. The line catches more businesses than they expect.
Q: What about salary sacrifice arrangements?
A: The employer's SG obligation — 12% of qualifying earnings — must still be met per payrun and is separate from salary sacrifice contributions. Salary sacrifice doesn't offset the employer SG obligation. Both need to be structured around your payrun cadence.
Q: What if my payroll software doesn't support Payday Super yet?
A: If your provider hasn't confirmed Payday Super compatibility, assume you have a problem to solve. Payday Super has been live since 1 July 2026, so your provider should already support it. If it doesn't, switch providers. Late contributions are your liability, not the software provider's. If you can't yet report qualifying earnings in STP, the ATO says to start as soon as possible. From 1 July 2027 it will reject reports without them.
Q: How long do I have to get super into the fund under Payday Super?
A: Contributions must be received in the employee's super account within 7 business days after payday, unless a longer period applies — for example, for new employees. Sending the payment is not the test; the fund receiving it is.
Q: Do I pay super on overtime?
A: No. Overtime payments, where ordinary hours of work are clearly identified, are excluded from both ordinary time earnings and qualifying earnings. The same applies to annual leave loading referable to a lost opportunity to work overtime, cashed-out time off in lieu, and on-call or call-back allowances for hours outside ordinary hours.
Q: Are commissions included in qualifying earnings?
A: Yes. There are two additions. First, commissions for work done entirely outside ordinary hours. Second, if you pay independent contractors mainly for their labour, or sportspeople, performers or film makers, their payments are qualifying earnings whether the work was done during or outside ordinary hours. Commission is included even where it is solely for work performed entirely outside ordinary hours — that type was previously outside ordinary time earnings. Watch the trap: an identical bonus for the same out-of-hours work is not included in either ordinary time earnings or qualifying earnings. The label carries the result: a commission is qualifying earnings whenever the work was done, but a bonus is qualifying earnings only if it relates to ordinary hours.
Q: Do I pay super on a redundancy payout?
A: Mostly no, with one important exception. Genuine redundancy payments, ex-gratia termination payments, severance, compensation for wrongful dismissal, and unused annual, long service, personal or carer's leave paid on termination are all excluded. Payment in lieu of notice is included, for all termination reasons. So on a $40,000 termination payment made up of $10,000 payment in lieu of notice, $25,000 genuine redundancy and $5,000 ex-gratia, only the $10,000 is qualifying earnings and the super guarantee is $1,200.
Q: I missed a super payment for the June 2026 quarter. What do I do?
A: That quarter fell under the old quarterly rules, not Payday Super — it was the last quarter that regime will ever apply to, and it still matters if you haven't dealt with it. The ATO's instruction was not to pay the shortfall to the fund: any contribution the fund receives on or after 29 July 2026 cannot be allocated to the June 2026 quarter; it is applied to your Payday Super amounts instead, even if you intended it for June — so paying the fund now doesn't reduce what you owe for the quarter. That late contribution isn't wasted: the ATO applies it to your Payday Super obligations for later paydays, and it can be carried forward for up to 12 months. But you still owe the SGC for the June quarter. What you needed to do instead was lodge a Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) statement with the ATO and pay the SGC by 28 August 2026. That date has now passed. If you haven't lodged and paid, you are overdue. Failing to lodge an SGC statement can attract a Part 7 penalty of up to 200% of the SGC, and a company's directors can become personally liable for unpaid SGC under the director penalty regime. The late payment offset was never available for this quarter. Get a registered tax or BAS agent on this immediately if it's still outstanding. Two things to brace for: the SGC shortfall is calculated on total salary and wages including overtime, not ordinary time earnings, so it is larger than the super you missed; and SGC for quarterly periods before 1 July 2026 is not tax deductible. This was a one-off, transitional obligation — the quarterly SGC statement regime does not apply to any period after 30 June 2026, and there is no equivalent "next due date" to watch for. For a missed payday from 1 July 2026 onward the position is different — there you pay the fund as soon as you can, you do not lodge a Super Guarantee Statement, and the ATO assesses the shortfall itself and issues a notice of assessment.
The Penalty Regime: What Happens If You Get It Wrong
Late super under Payday Super triggers a Super Guarantee Charge. The SGC also existed under the quarterly regime. Under Payday Super, the ATO assesses it for each payday without you lodging a statement.
Key facts:
Automated detection. The ATO uses your STP data (qualifying earnings and payday, reported each pay run) and super funds' reports of what they received and when, to identify missed, late or underpaid super much earlier than under the quarterly system. See ATO Payday Super for the full enforcement framework.
The SGC is tax-deductible from 1 July 2026 — but it is still expensive. Under the old quarterly regime the SGC was not deductible. For paydays (QE days) from 1 July 2026 that reversed: all components of the super guarantee charge are tax deductible, but general interest charge on a late SGC payment and the late payment penalty are not. What makes late super costly now is what the charge contains: interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate, plus an administrative uplift amount. The uplift is initially 60% of the shortfall and notional earnings. It can be reduced (potentially to nil) if you haven't had an ATO-initiated SGC assessment in the previous 2 years and you lodge a voluntary disclosure quickly. You also no longer lodge a Super Guarantee Statement: the ATO assesses the shortfall itself and issues a notice of assessment, though you can lodge a voluntary disclosure before that assessment issues to reduce the uplift.
Interest accrues from day one — and the regime gets harsher. Under the old quarterly model, the SGC included interest at 10% per annum. Under Payday Super, the flat 10% nominal interest is replaced by a daily-compounding general interest charge (the ATO's GIC), accruing for each payday from the day after the deadline for an on-time contribution. That's a materially tougher interest regime — verify the prevailing GIC rate on the ATO's general interest charge rates page before applying it to a specific shortfall.
Director personal liability. Company directors can be held personally liable for unpaid SGC under the director penalty regime, which applied under the quarterly system. Check with your tax agent how it applies to Payday Super SGC assessments.
No amnesty on the horizon. The SG amnesty, which ended on 7 September 2020, let employers who disclosed historical shortfalls (for periods from 1 July 1992 to 31 March 2018) catch up without the administrative component or Part 7 penalties of the SGC. It is closed. Under Payday Super, the closest equivalent is the voluntary disclosure statement, which can reduce the administrative uplift. There's no indication of a similar amnesty under Payday Super.
The practical risk management is straightforward: pay super on payday (not at the end of the 7-day window), fix rejected contributions immediately, and treat super as a mandatory step in every payroll run.
Action Checklist: What to Do Now
- Confirm you are paying super for every payday, not quarterly
- Confirm the June 2026 quarter was received by funds by 28 July 2026 — if not, lodge an SGC statement (it was due 28 August 2026) and talk to a registered tax or BAS agent
- Confirm your payment channel isn't the SBSCH (closed from 1 July 2026)
- Check how long your clearing house takes and whether it uses the New Payments Platform
- Use member verification requests for new employees and fund changes
- Report year-to-date qualifying earnings and super liability in STP each payday
- Fix any rejected contribution the day you see it
How Summed Fits
Summed calculates super on the wages you record for each pay period — 12% of the gross wages it works out from the shifts and hourly rates you enter, including casual loading and Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalty rates, tracked against each payroll run. Those loadings and penalty rates are qualifying earnings, so that figure is a sound starting point. It is not the whole picture. Summed works only from hours actually rostered, so it does not capture paid leave — annual, personal and carer's, long service, or an RDO taken and paid — and it has no field for commissions, allowances, bonuses, directors' fees or salary-sacrifice amounts. Every one of those is qualifying earnings, and you need to add them yourself before you pay the fund. Treat the Summed figure as the shift-wages component of qualifying earnings, not the final number. On the Crew plan, you get a per-employee breakdown of gross wages and super owed per period.
What Summed doesn't do: process the super payment itself. Summed has no SuperStream integration and is not a clearing house. It's the calculation layer — you take the figure and push it through Beam, your fund portal, or your payroll software's super function.
If you're currently tracking staff wages in a spreadsheet and calculating super manually, Summed removes that manual step and gives you an audit trail by payrun.
This is general information, not tax advice. Super guarantee rules, SGC rates, and ATO administrative arrangements change. This article was written against ATO guidance as at 18 May 2026; the qualifying-earnings and super-guarantee-charge sections were corrected against current ATO guidance on 20 August 2026, and the whole article was re-checked and updated for the post-1 July 2026 position on 27 October 2026. Verify current rules at ato.gov.au and confirm your specific obligations with a registered tax agent or BAS agent before changing your payroll processes.