Payroll Compliance Calendar

Payroll runs on four clocks

Payroll compliance isn't one deadline — it's four overlapping cycles: every pay run, monthly, quarterly and annually. Miss the fast cycle and problems compound weekly; miss the slow one and you start the new year on the wrong rates. This page lays out each clock. It's general information — award coverage and entitlements differ from business to business, so check your own award and the Fair Work Ombudsman's current published rates rather than relying on anything second-hand.

Every pay run

• Pay correctly and on time — at or above the minimum in the relevant Modern Award or agreement, including penalties, allowances and loadings. The Fair Work Ombudsman publishes current rates.
• STP reporting — wages, withholding and super reported to the ATO on or before payday, every time.
• Payday super — under the payday super regime now in effect, SG contributions are due with each pay run and must land in the employee's fund within the ATO's set window after payday. Your payroll and payment processes need to be joined up enough to make this automatic.
• Payslips — issued within the timeframe the Fair Work Act requires, containing the prescribed details.

Monthly

• Payroll tax — a state tax that applies once your Australia-wide wages pass your state's threshold. Registered employers generally lodge monthly with an annual reconciliation; check your state revenue office for the current threshold and rate.
• PAYG withholding remittance — larger withholders remit monthly (or more often); most small employers remit with the BAS.
• Payroll reconciliation — match payroll records to the general ledger and bank. Ten minutes monthly saves days at year end.

Quarterly

• BAS lodgement — where your PAYG withholding is reported if you're a quarterly lodger, on the ATO's published dates.
• Super verification — even with payday super running automatically, a quarterly check that contributions actually reached each fund catches processing failures before they become an SG charge problem.

Annually

• STP finalisation — declare final year figures for every employee soon after 30 June (the ATO publishes each year's deadline). This replaces the old payment summaries.
• Annual wage review — the Fair Work Commission's decision takes effect from the first full pay period on or after the start of the financial year. Update every affected rate before that first pay run, not after.
• Workers compensation declaration — your state scheme requires an annual wages declaration to set your premium.
• Classification review — once a year, confirm each employee is classified under the right award and level. Roles drift; classifications should follow. Misclassification is the most common cause of underpayment.
• Award check — awards themselves change, not just the rates in them. Confirm nothing in your award's terms moved during the year.

Ongoing, not dated

Some payroll obligations have no due date because they apply constantly: keeping employee records for the required retention period, acting on new employees' super choice and stapled fund rules, and processing leave accruals correctly. Build these into onboarding and offboarding checklists so they never depend on memory.

Who owns this calendar?

In most SMEs the honest answer is "whoever noticed last time" — which is how deadlines get missed. Assign each cycle to a named owner, automate the per-pay-run items inside your payroll software, and diarise the annual items every June. If payroll compliance still depends on one person's vigilance, that's a structural gap worth fixing — see people operations and the back-office capability gap.