What changed on 1 July 2026
For pay dates up to 30 June 2026, super guarantee was paid at least four times a year by the quarterly due dates. For earnings paid from 1 July 2026, the ATO's Payday Super rules apply: super guarantee is paid with each pay (ATO, Payday Super for employers, read 14 October 2026). The ATO has moved its quarterly guidance to a page explicitly labelled as applying only to earnings paid up to 30 June 2026.
What did not change
The rate. Super guarantee has been 12% of ordinary time earnings since 1 July 2025 (ATO, How much super to pay (last updated 25 Feb 2026)), and the rate is applied by pay date, not by the period the work was done. Ordinary time earnings are still the base: ordinary hours, most allowances and bonuses, not overtime. And every pay run still has to be reported through Single Touch Payroll on or before payday (ATO, Single Touch Payroll).
Why this is bigger than it sounds
| Quarterly regime (to 30 Jun 2026) | Payday Super (from 1 Jul 2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| When super is due | By the quarterly due date | With each pay |
| How often a shortfall can arise | Four times a year | Every pay run |
| Cash flow | A quarterly lump | A smaller amount every week or fortnight |
| Who notices a miss first | Often nobody until the quarter closes | The ATO, through STP data matching |
Under the old regime a missed contribution had weeks to be caught. Now a pay run that goes out without its super creates a shortfall immediately, and the super guarantee charge for a shortfall is more than the super that should have been paid.
What to check in your payroll this month
Three checks cover most of the risk. First, that the payroll software is on a version that calculates super per pay and submits it through SuperStream on payday, not on a monthly or quarterly batch. Second, that the clearing house is funded on payday; the most common failure we see is a correct calculation and an unfunded transfer. Third, that one named person signs off every pay run, including the super line, because the deadline is now the pay run itself.
Where this sits in a connected back office
When the same team runs bookkeeping and payroll, the cash to fund super on payday is visible in the same ledger the pay run comes from, and a short week is flagged before the run, not after. That is the practical case for keeping payroll and the books together rather than with two providers who do not talk.
If this is the problem you are working on, Valont’s Finance hub runs managed payroll and bookkeeping as part of a connected back office, and the back-office cost calculator shows where to start.
About the author
Nick Lucock
Chief Executive Officer, Valont
Nick Lucock is the Chief Executive Officer of Valont and leads its day-to-day operations across Finance, People, Operations and Growth. He runs the team that does the work Valont publishes about: the bookkeeping, BAS and payroll runs, the award interpretation on every pay cycle, the IT and security layer, and the advisor cadence that keeps an owner's back office current. Nick writes the practical side of Valont's library, the processes, systems and tools that keep Australian SMEs compliant and growing, and he is the author of most of the operational articles on the site. He works with owners across construction and trades, health, hospitality and professional services.
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