Short version: since 1 July 2026, super guarantee contributions must reach an employee’s fund within 7 business days of each payday instead of quarterly. For labour hire, the hard part isn’t the super calculation — payroll software handles that. It’s upstream: every day a timesheet sits unapproved now eats into a compliance deadline, and the quarterly cash-flow float is gone for good.
Payday Super is not a future concern any more. If your agency runs weekly payroll for a rotating pool of casual workers across dozens of client sites, this reform changes the shape of your payroll cycle more than it changes for a business with a stable, salaried team. Here’s what actually changed, why labour hire is more exposed than most industries, and what to have in place.
What Payday Super actually requires
Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025, from 1 July 2026 every Australian employer must ensure super guarantee contributions reach an employee’s nominated fund within 7 business days of each payday — replacing the old system where SG could accumulate over a quarter and be remitted up to 28 days after the quarter ended. A new employee’s first contribution gets a longer window of 20 business days after their first payday, to allow for account set-up and allocation.
Four things labour hire agencies specifically need to register.
It applies to casuals, which means it applies to nearly everyone on your book
A casual aged 18 or over — or under 18 and working more than 30 hours a week — is entitled to super the same as any other employee. Given labour hire workforces are predominantly casual, this touches close to the entire payroll, not a slice of it.
The calculation base is now Qualifying Earnings
Super is calculated on Qualifying Earnings (QE) rather than the older Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) definition. QE brings together ordinary time earnings, commissions, salary-sacrificed amounts and other payments that already counted towards SG. The ATO is clear that there are no changes to what counts as ordinary time earnings, and that for most employers the amount of super payable doesn’t change — but employers must now report year-to-date qualifying earnings and the year-to-date super liability for each employee through STP each payday, so pay codes are worth a look rather than an assumption.
The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House has closed
The ATO’s SBSCH closed permanently from 1 July 2026. Any agency that relied on it needs a SuperStream-compliant alternative already connected and tested — not something to sort out after a missed deadline.
Missing the window triggers the SGC
Miss the 7 business days and the Superannuation Guarantee Charge applies — a non-deductible charge with interest, on top of the super itself. The ATO has published a first-year transitional approach (Practical Compliance Guideline PCG 2026/1) covering 2026–27, indicating employers won’t be the focus of ATO action where they are genuinely doing what they can while systems catch up. That is a position on enforcement, not a grace period on the obligation.
Why labour hire feels this more than most industries
A business with 20 salaried staff on a stable fortnightly run has a relatively simple path here: hours are known in advance and payroll is predictable. Labour hire runs a structurally harder version of the same problem.
- High headcount, high turnover, mostly casual. Every new starter is a new SG obligation from their first pay cycle, with no quarterly buffer to sort out fund details or correct an error before money has to move.
- Hours vary week to week, across many sites. Accurate hours, captured and approved quickly, are now directly on the critical path to a compliance deadline — not just a payroll nicety.
- The old quarterly float is gone. Agencies that used the gap between paying wages and remitting super as informal working capital lose that buffer entirely.
- Multiple pay cycles are common. If different client pools run on different cycles, each one carries its own independent 7-business-day countdown.
- Timesheet disputes and late approvals are more common in labour hire simply because more sites and more supervisors are involved. Every day a sheet sits unapproved is a day closer to a missed deadline once payroll finally runs.
What agencies should have in place
1. Fast, accurate timesheet capture and approval
The biggest Payday Super risk in labour hire isn’t the super calculation — payroll software generally gets that right once it has good data. The risk is upstream. Hours that are disputed, late, or re-keyed from paper and text messages delay the whole pay run, which now has a compliance clock attached to it. Geofenced clock-in and one-tap supervisor approval remove most of the delay the quarterly buffer used to absorb.
2. A SuperStream-compliant clearing house, already connected
With the SBSCH closed, the replacement needs to be live and tested against a real pay run before a deadline depends on it.
3. Correct worker eligibility captured from day one
Treating a worker who meets the casual super eligibility criteria as exempt creates a shortfall that now compounds weekly instead of quarterly. Onboarding needs to capture accurate details and eligibility from the first shift rather than correcting retroactively.
4. A payroll export that doesn’t need manual re-entry
Every manual step between “hours worked” and “super remitted” is somewhere delay or error can creep in. A clean export into Xero, Employment Hero or MYOB reduces the number of places a 7-business-day deadline can slip.
5. Visibility of pay-cycle timing across the business
Agencies running several cycles for different client pools need a clear register of which cycle is due when, so each deadline is tracked independently rather than assumed to follow one company-wide calendar.
Where OnCrew fits — and where it doesn’t
OnCrew does not process super or run payroll. It calculates no pay rates, remits no contributions and files no Single Touch Payroll. That sits with your payroll platform and your clearing house. What OnCrew owns is the workforce and timesheet layer — which is exactly where Payday Super risk concentrates for an agency.
- Geofenced clock-in captures GPS-verified hours at the actual site, in the site’s local time, removing the “what time did they actually start” disputes that stall approvals.
- One-tap supervisor approval keeps a worker’s week moving toward payroll instead of waiting on paper or a spreadsheet.
- A clean export to Xero, Employment Hero or MYOB turns approved, verified hours into a payroll-ready file with nothing re-keyed. If you’re weighing that model against an all-in-one pay engine, we’ve written about native payroll versus timesheet export.
- Worker self-onboarding captures tax, super fund and bank details from the worker’s phone, so a new starter’s super details are in place before their first shift rather than chased after their first pay.
- A full audit trail records every approval and change, which is the kind of documented process the ATO’s first-year approach expects an employer to be able to show.
Cash flow: the part most agencies miss
Beyond paying on time, Payday Super changes the shape of an agency’s cash flow. Under the old quarterly system an agency effectively had months of float between paying wages and remitting the associated super — money that, intentionally or not, often sat in the business as informal working capital. That float is gone. Super now leaves at essentially the same cadence as wages.
For an agency running weekly payroll across a large casual workforce, that is a permanent shift in working capital requirements, not a one-off transition cost. It is worth modelling against the cash flow forecast before it turns up as a liquidity surprise.
A practical checklist
- Confirm your clearing house is SuperStream-compliant and connected. If you previously used the SBSCH, that connection no longer exists — the replacement needs testing, not just selecting.
- Check pay codes against Qualifying Earnings. For most employers the amount payable doesn’t change, but QE reporting is new, so confirm your payroll system is reporting year-to-date QE and super liability correctly rather than assuming it.
- Review casual eligibility records so super isn’t missed for workers who qualify.
- Map every active pay cycle. Different cycles for different client pools each carry their own 7-business-day window.
- Test the pipeline end to end — clock-in, approval, payroll, remittance — before a real deadline depends on it.
- Update the cash flow forecast for super leaving on the same cadence as wages.
- Brief supervisors on approval turnaround. Slack that used to be harmless now sits inside a compliance window.
Common mistakes showing up already
- Treating it as a payroll software update. A vendor updating their system to remit within 7 days doesn’t fix timesheets taking four days to get approved.
- Carrying forward old casual assumptions instead of re-checking eligibility against current rules.
- Running concurrent pay cycles as one deadline. Weekly for one client and fortnightly for another is two independent clocks.
- Not modelling the cash flow shift until it shows up as a squeeze several cycles in.
This guide is general information about how Payday Super affects workforce and timesheet operations. It isn’t tax or legal advice — confirm your own obligations with the ATO or your accountant.
