From July 1, 2026, Australian employers must pay superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions at the same time they pay salary and wages, with funds received by the employee's super fund within 7 business days of payday. Quarterly super is over. The reform — called Payday Super — is law, administered by the ATO, and it makes super a per-pay-run obligation.
What Changes
| Before Payday Super | From July 1, 2026 |
|---|---|
| SG paid quarterly (28 days after quarter-end) | SG paid each payday |
| Contribution due to fund by quarterly deadline | Contribution received by fund within 7 business days of payday (20 business days for a new employee's first contribution) |
| SG calculated on quarterly ordinary time earnings | SG calculated on qualifying earnings paid from July 1 onward — even if the work was performed before July 1 |
| Late payment triggers SG charge at quarter-end | Late payment triggers SG charge per payday — and for award-covered employees, a potential breach of the National Employment Standards and the modern award |
The change applies to all employers, including small businesses and those paying eligible contractors who are deemed employees for SG purposes.
The 7-Business-Day Clock
The clock starts on payday — the day wages are paid, not the end of the pay period. If payday is Monday, the super must be received by the fund by the following Wednesday (7 business days, excluding weekends and public holidays). Payroll software and clearing houses must be configured for same-day or next-day initiation, not batching at month-end.
For new employees, the first SG contribution has a 20-business-day window to allow for fund-details setup, but subsequent paydays revert to 7 days. Do not use the new-employee window as a general grace period.
How to Prepare Before July 1
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Update payroll software now. Vendors have issued Payday Super updates in late 2025–early 2026. Test a parallel pay run that calculates SG per payday and generates the Single Touch Payroll (STP) report with Payday Super fields.
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Reconcile fund details. Every employee's super fund and member number must be correct in the payroll system; a payment to the wrong fund is a late payment even if money left your account on time.
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Map qualifying earnings. For most employers, qualifying earnings equal ordinary time earnings, but check salary-sacrifice and contractor arrangements — SG interacts with salary-sacrifice differently under the new timing.
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Cash-flow plan. Super that was paid four times a year will now be paid 26 or 52 times a year. The annual total does not change, but the intra-quarter cash outflow does. Small businesses that managed cash around quarterly super deadlines need a per-pay-run forecast.
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Handle the changeover. SG for the June quarter (April–June 2026) remains under quarterly rules; pay runs from July 1 onward are Payday Super. Keep the two regimes separate in your books — do not accrue June quarter SG into July.
Bookkeeping That Keeps You Compliant
Post SG each pay run: debit Expenses:Superannuation, credit Liabilities:SuperPayable, debit Liabilities:SuperPayable on payment, with the fund and pay-date as metadata. Reconcile Liabilities:SuperPayable to the clearing house and to STP reports weekly. A growing payable balance after payday is a late-payment signal, not a timing difference.
Simplify Your Financial Management
Payday Super turns quarterly compliance into every-payday discipline. Beancount.io keeps super payable by pay run and fund in version-controlled plain text — so STP, bank, and fund statements reconcile every week, not once a quarter. Get started for free and make every payday a clean close.