Payday Super: What It Means for Your Business and How to Prepare
Recent changes to Australia’s superannuation landscape are set to significantly impact the way businesses manage payroll, cash flow and compliance. In our latest Acacia client briefing, we unpacked the Payday Super reforms and what organisations should be doing now to get ahead of the change.
What is Payday Super?
Payday Super is a reform that will require employers to pay superannuation contributions at the same time as wages, rather than quarterly. The intent is simple: improve retirement outcomes for employees by ensuring super is paid accurately and on time.
For businesses, however, the operational and system implications are far from simple.
Why This Matters to Employers
While many organisations already process payroll efficiently, Payday Super introduces new considerations:
- Increased payment frequency – moving from quarterly to every pay run
- Cash flow impacts – super payments become more immediate and continuous
- Greater reliance on payroll accuracy – errors will surface faster
- Tighter compliance expectations – less tolerance for manual workarounds
For growing and complex organisations, these changes can quickly expose system limitations.
The Role of Your Payroll and business platform systems
One of the key themes we explored is that Payday Super is not just a payroll change, it’s a systems change.
Modern business platforms with fully integrated payroll, finance and reporting capabilities are far better positioned to support Payday Super. Automation, validation controls and real-time data flow will become essential – not optional.
Common Risks We’re Seeing
From our work with clients, the most common risks include:
- Payroll systems not configured for high-frequency super payments
- Lack of visibility between payroll and general ledger
- Manual processes that increase the chance of errors and penalties
- Underestimating the change management required
These risks are manageable, but only if addressed early.
How Acacia is Supporting Clients
At Acacia, we’re helping businesses:
- assess their current payroll and business platform readiness
- identify gaps and risks related to Payday Super
- design system improvements that reduce compliance burden
- ensure payroll processes scale with future legislative change
Our focus is not just compliance, but building resilient systems that support growth.
What Should You Do Next?
Payday Super is now law; the businesses that adapt early will be the least disrupted. Now is the time to:
- Review your current payroll and super processes
- Understand how integrated (or fragmented) your systems are
- Engage with advisors who understand both compliance and business platform capability
- Commence monthly payments of superannuation, and ease into Payday Super
If you’d like to discuss what Payday Super means for your business or want help assessing your system readiness, the Acacia team is here to help.