Most Australian Small Businesses Unaware Of Payday Super Changes Taking Effect In Weeks

More than half of Australian small businesses are unaware of incoming Payday Super changes set to take effect on 1 July, according to new research, even as the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House used by around 250,000 businesses is scheduled to permanently close on the same date.

Research from Employment Hero’s Inside the Future of Super 2026 Report found that 58 per cent of businesses remain unaware of the incoming changes, despite the reform fundamentally altering how superannuation contributions are managed.

From 1 July, super contributions will shift from a quarterly obligation to a payday obligation, with employers required to ensure contributions reach employees’ super funds within seven business days of every payday. The change increases payment events from four per year to as frequently as a business pays its employees, with real-time ATO oversight and penalties for non-compliance.

The Seven-Day Window

The practical challenge for businesses is that the seven-day clock starts on payday and measures when funds are received by the super fund, not when the payment is sent.

Most legacy clearing houses take three to five business days to settle contributions, leaving a window of just two days to identify and correct errors before penalties apply. For businesses processing payroll weekly or fortnightly, the margin for error is narrow.

The Employment Hero research found that 75 per cent of employees are paid weekly or fortnightly, yet only 39 per cent currently receive super on the same schedule. That gap between pay frequency and super payment frequency represents the adjustment many businesses will need to make in the coming weeks.

The simultaneous closure of the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House on 30 June compounds the challenge. The clearing house is currently relied upon by approximately 250,000 businesses to process their super contributions, and those businesses will need to find alternative arrangements before the new rules begin.

QuickBooks Integrates Employment Hero’s HeroClear

Intuit QuickBooks has expanded its partnership with Employment Hero in response to the changes, integrating Employment Hero’s HeroClear super clearing and validation technology directly into QuickBooks Payroll.

The integration is designed to allow businesses to manage Payday Super compliance within their existing payroll workflow. When a pay run is finalised, HeroClear automatically validates every employee’s super fund details via SuperStream before any money moves. Contributions are then processed via the New Payments Platform (NPP), with a payment confirmation delivered directly to the QuickBooks Payroll dashboard.

The system is designed to eliminate the need for file uploads, separate portals or manual reconciliation.

Suzy Nicoletti, Regional Vice President of Intuit APAC, framed the integration as closing a gap in the payroll process.

“Payday Super changes the compliance equation for every Australian business,” Nicoletti stated.

“QuickBooks already gives businesses a real-time view of their cash position. By bringing HeroClear into the pay run, we have closed the loop: businesses can see what is coming, pay on time and confirm it is done, without ever leaving the platform.”

Rob Dunn, General Manager of Superannuation at Employment Hero, argued that compliance should not be a separate task on top of payroll.

“HeroClear was built so compliance becomes a by-product of running payroll, not a separate task,” Dunn explained.

“Putting it inside QuickBooks means small businesses get there automatically.”

Tackling The Root Cause Of Super Errors

Launching alongside HeroClear is a feature called Employee Self Setup (ESS), which allows new starters to enter their own tax file number, super fund and bank details directly into QuickBooks Payroll.

The feature is aimed at addressing a significant source of compliance risk. According to Intuit and Employment Hero, incorrect member data drives more than 90 per cent of all super contribution errors. By having employees enter their own details directly, the system targets the root cause of errors rather than attempting to manage them after they occur.

ESS is included in existing QuickBooks Payroll subscriptions at no additional cost.

What Businesses Need To Do

For small businesses already using QuickBooks Payroll, the preparation for 1 July involves enabling HeroClear and switching new-starter onboarding to ESS. The pay run then handles super compliance automatically from that point.

For accountants and bookkeepers managing payroll across multiple clients, the integration provides a single point of management for super validation, payment and confirmation. The companies argue this frees up time previously spent chasing confirmations and reconciling clearing house files.

For employees, the practical result is that super arrives in their account sooner, shifting from quarterly to each pay cycle.

QuickBooks Payroll customers can enable HeroClear now. Further details are available at quickbooks.intuit.com/au/blog/product-update/payday-super-heroclear/.

Broader Readiness Concerns

The low awareness figure – 58 per cent of businesses unaware of the changes – raises questions about how many Australian small businesses will be compliant when the new rules take effect in less than two weeks.

The shift from quarterly to per-pay-run super obligations represents one of the most significant changes to payroll processing in recent years. Businesses that have not yet assessed their clearing house arrangements, payroll software capabilities and internal processes face a compressed timeline to become compliant.

The closure of the ATO’s clearing house removes a free government-provided option that many small businesses have relied on, forcing those businesses to either adopt commercial clearing house services or use payroll software with integrated super processing capabilities.

The Employment Hero research was based on a survey of 500 Australian business decision-makers and 1,010 employees conducted in December 2025.

Employment Hero serves more than 350,000 businesses and 2.5 million employees worldwide. Intuit operates globally with approximately 100 million customers using products including TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks and Mailchimp.

Last Updated on June 18, 2026 by Nick Ross