Payday Super: the practice checklist for 1 July 2026

What actually changed

Until now, super has been due quarterly — a payment your clients could batch up and you could reconcile after the fact. From 1 July 2026, super must be paid at the same time as wages. Every payday carries a super obligation, and the contribution has to reach the employee’s fund within seven business days of payday. Miss it and the shortfall is assessed automatically as the Superannuation Guarantee Charge — with no late-payment offset to soften it.

For a practice running payroll across a book of clients, that turns a quarterly check into a weekly rhythm. The clients who used to scrape the deadline four times a year now have dozens of deadlines, and the cost of a slip is higher.

The dates that matter

• 30 June 2026 — the ATO’s free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closes to new and existing use. Clients relying on it need another channel before their first July pay run.
• 1 July 2026 — Payday Super begins. Super is due every payday from this date.
• Seven business days — the window for a contribution to reach the fund after each payday. This is a legal obligation on the employer, not something a tool can confirm on their behalf.

The per-client checklist

Run this over every payroll client before the first July pay run. The four questions that catch most problems:

• Is there a super batch behind every pay run? From 1 July, a pay run without super attached is a missed deadline waiting to happen.
• Are any clients still on quarterly super cycles? Those need to move to per-payday before the first July pay run.
• Is the clearing-house migration done? The ATO’s free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closes 30 June — anyone relying on it needs a replacement in place.
• Does the director understand the personal liability? Unpaid SG becomes the Superannuation Guarantee Charge, and directors can be personally liable for it.

What to tell clients

Keep it plain: from July, super comes out with every pay run, not once a quarter — so the cash needs to be there each payday, not saved up. The clearing house they may have used for free is closing, so they’ll need a replacement. And late super now carries automatic penalties that fall on the business, and can fall on the director personally. The practices that get ahead of this look organised; the ones that wait will be firefighting through July.

Where Quarterhand fits

Quarterhand watches the payroll side of all this across your client base — pay runs with no super batch behind them, clients still set up on quarterly cycles, and the migration off the closing clearing house — and flags the risks while there’s still time to act. It can’t see inside a super fund, and it won’t claim a contribution was received; it flags what the books show, and tells you exactly where its visibility ends.