What Payday Super changes in a cash-flow review
Payday Super started on 1 July 2026. Under the ordinary timing rule, contributions need to be received by the employee’s fund with enough information to allocate them within seven business days after payday. Longer windows apply in specified circumstances, but this guide does not decide whether one applies.
| Record | Use in this workflow | What it does not prove |
|---|---|---|
| Pay date | Identifies the pay run and the applicable timing context. | It does not establish the contribution amount or fund receipt. |
| Payroll-produced liability | Provides the A$ amount imported into the cash review. | Margin101 does not recalculate or verify it. |
| Planned bank-outflow date | Places the cash event on a realistic authorisation or debit date. | It is not the date the fund necessarily received and allocated the contribution. |
| Fund-receipt evidence | Belongs in the employer’s separate compliance control. | It is not generated by a cash forecast. |
| Cash-forecast row | Combines the imported amount, planned date and source label for scenario review. | It does not determine lawful timing or remedy a rejected payment. |
Gather the records before changing the forecast
Prerequisites
- Reconciled opening available cash and a stated forecast start date. (not complete)
- Pay dates for the review horizon. (not complete)
- Super liabilities exported from a compliant payroll process or supplied by a qualified adviser, labelled by pay run. (not complete)
- The reconciled final April–June 2026 quarterly amount, if the transition applied to the business. (not complete)
- Realistic bank-outflow dates for the employer’s actual payment process. (not complete)
- Dated operating receipts and payments for the wider cash forecast. (not complete)
- A separate compliance calendar or control for required fund-receipt timing, exceptions and rejected payments. (not complete)
Add the transition and each pay run in eight steps
- Freeze the baseline. Save the current dated cash forecast before adding the Payday Super transition layer; opening cash and every existing row should have an amount, date and source.
- Import each pay-run liability. Bring across the verified payroll amount and keep its pay-run identifier and evidence owner; do not derive it from gross wages.
- Choose the cash-event date. Use the realistic authorisation or debit date for the actual payment process without labelling it as fund receipt.
- Add the final June-quarter transition row. Keep the pre-reform quarterly amount separate from July pay-run liabilities and check for double counting.
- Roll the full forecast. Combine these rows with wages, receipts, supplier payments, tax and every other dated cash event, then identify the first buffer breach and lowest balance.
- Run one downside case. Move one genuinely uncertain customer receipt or another evidenced timing assumption while leaving verified payroll liabilities unchanged.
- Assign the response. Correct data or process errors, adjust only operational timing the business controls, and escalate promptly when required obligations may not be met.
- Refresh and evidence. Reconcile each bank event after the pay cycle and retain fund-receipt evidence in the separate compliance control.
Worked example: a July cash bridge
Hypothetical imported-liability layer
These are labelled A$ user assumptions, not benchmarks. No amount is derived from wages, and no cash date is evidence of fund receipt.
Every figure below is the cash amount exported or reconciled for the scenario and entered without a GST adjustment. This isolated super-payment layer does not add GST to, or remove GST from, any row.
| Cash date | Source-labelled event | Cash outflow | Running cash |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul | Opening cash | — | A$20,000 |
| 3 Jul | Imported pay-run liability | A$1,200 | A$18,800 |
| 17 Jul | Imported pay-run liability | A$1,250 | A$17,550 |
| 27 Jul | Reconciled final April–June quarterly amount | A$9,000 | A$8,550 |
| 31 Jul | Imported pay-run liability | A$1,300 | A$7,250 |
The isolated layer reaches its lowest balance of A$7,250 after the 31 July event. That is not the business’s forecast result: wages, customer receipts, suppliers, tax and other dated rows still need to be combined in the full scenario.
Mistakes that make the cash view unreliable
| Mistake | Why it fails | Safe correction |
|---|---|---|
| Applying 12% to gross wages inside the forecast | Gross wages may not equal the relevant earnings basis and the article cannot determine coverage. | Import the verified payroll liability. |
| Combining the final quarter and new pay-run amounts | An opaque July total hides timing, ownership and double counting. | Keep one source-labelled row for each obligation. |
| Using the legal deadline as the bank-outflow date | Payment processing and receipt are different events. | Model the realistic bank event and monitor receipt separately. |
| Treating submission as proof of receipt | A rejected or unallocated contribution may not satisfy the receipt rule. | Retain fund-receipt and exception evidence outside the forecast. |
| Ignoring rejected contributions or member-data errors | The cash may leave while the compliance issue remains unresolved. | Assign an operational owner and investigate promptly. |
| Changing several assumptions at once | The cause of a changed low point becomes unclear. | Change one evidenced assumption against the same baseline. |
| Choosing a price rise or finance product from this layer alone | A timing layer does not diagnose margin, affordability or funding suitability. | Use the matching decision workflow and qualified help where needed. |
| Leaving the source version and review trigger invisible | Current regulatory timing can change. | Record dependency version 2026-07-30 and recheck when ATO guidance changes. |
Decide what to do with the result
| Finding | Next action | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Liability, export or member-data uncertainty | Resolve it with the payroll provider, current ATO guidance or a qualified adviser. | Margin101 does not calculate or verify payroll. |
| Exact near-term cash gap | Use the 13-Week Cash-Flow Forecast with verified dated rows. | The tool does not prove compliance or available funding. |
| Gap caused by one uncertain customer receipt | Run a labelled receipt-delay downside case. | The scenario does not change contract rights or predict payment. |
| Repeated inability to meet required payments | Escalate promptly to appropriately qualified tax, financial, legal or insolvency help. | This guide is not a solvency assessment. |
Continue with the dated cash-flow workflow
- 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast
Forecast weekly closing cash, the first shortfall and the funding gap across a 13-week operating horizon
Payday Super cash-flow questions
Frequently asked questions
- Does Payday Super increase the amount of super I owe?
- This guide does not determine the amount. Qualifying earnings, employee coverage and the employer’s circumstances belong to current ATO guidance and the employer’s payroll or adviser process.
- Can I multiply gross payroll by 12% for the forecast?
- Not in this workflow. Import the verified liability produced for the pay run rather than turning a cash forecast into a payroll calculation.
- Is paying on payday enough to prove compliance?
- No. The ordinary timing rule concerns receipt and allocability by the employee’s fund within the applicable timeframe. Exceptions, rejected payments and processing evidence require separate review.
- How do I treat the final April–June 2026 quarterly amount?
- Keep the reconciled amount as a separate dated historical transition row. The final quarterly obligation covered OTE paid from 1 April to 30 June 2026 and was due 28 July 2026 while July paydays entered Payday Super. Do not infer allocation treatment from the forecast.
- What if I already paid super more frequently?
- Still verify the current rule, payroll reporting, payment method, processing and receipt evidence. Existing frequency alone does not prove that no operational change is needed.
- Should I raise prices to cover the transition?
- Not from this guide alone. First identify whether the gap is timing, underlying margin or another driver, then use the matching Margin101 decision workflow.
Sources and review scope
Sources checked
- Margin101: Australian Payday Super timing source reference — Margin101: Verified dependency version 2026-07-30.
- ATO: Payment deadlines for Payday Super — Australian Taxation Office: Effective from 1 July 2026; ordinary and specified longer fund-receipt windows.
- Federal Register: Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025 — Federal Register of Legislation: Official Act and commencement source for 1 July 2026.
- ATO Community: Payday Super changeover — Australian Taxation Office: Dated 2026 transition guidance for the final quarterly obligation and July paydays.
- ATO: Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closure — Australian Taxation Office: Current closure information for former SBSCH users.
- Margin101: 13-Week Cash-Flow Forecast methodology — Margin101: Product-owned dated cash-flow method.