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Payday Super from 1 July 2026: how to keep wages and super covered while you wait for a progress payment

Super used to wait until 28 days after the quarter. Since 1 July 2026, it leaves within days of each payday, while a progress claim can take four weeks to be paid. This 13-week cash check shows the gap, with a fictional worked example.

Updated · 9-minute read

If you pay wages every week and get paid by monthly progress claims, you pay for a month's work before the money for it arrives. From 1 July 2026, super sits on the same side of that gap as wages.

This guide covers what changed, how to build a 13-week cash view in any spreadsheet, and where retention and GST fit. All amounts are in Australian dollars.

What changed on 1 July 2026

  • Deadline. Super on earnings paid from 1 July 2026 must be received by each employee's fund within 7 business days after payday, with the details the fund needs to allocate it. Payday is day 0.
  • Business days. Every day except weekends and public holidays that cover a whole state or territory, wherever you are. In the ATO's own example, super for a payday on Thursday 30 July 2026 is due by Tuesday 11 August: one day later than usual, because Picnic Day, a Northern Territory public holiday, isn't a business day anywhere.
  • New employees. The first contribution for a new employee, or to a new fund for an existing one, has 20 business days.
  • Rate. 12% of qualifying earnings: ordinary time earnings plus commissions, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts previously counted as salary or wages for super. Contractors paid mainly for their labour are covered, as before.
  • Before. Super was due 28 days after each quarter: 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July.
  • Late. Late super attracts the super guarantee charge, with interest compounding daily at the general interest charge rate.

The ATO recommends paying super on payday, partly because commercial clearing houses need processing time. It also says paying super for each payday may affect your cash flow.

In cash terms: under the quarterly rules, super for the first week of a quarter could stay in your account for about four months. At $960 a week, a quarter's super came to $12,480. Now it leaves within days of each payday.

Where the gap comes from

A progress claim pays for work you've already done. Wages and super for that work leave on each payday. The claim goes in at the end of the period and is paid on your contract's terms. In NSW, for example, payment of a subcontractor's claim is due no later than 20 business days after the claim is made (10 for some residential work), and a contract can set an earlier date but not a later one. Other states set their own limits.

So four weeks of wages and super, plus materials and running costs, leave the account before the claim for that work is paid. Retention then holds back part of every claim.

Build a 13-week cash view

Thirteen weeks is one quarter. It covers about three monthly claims, and often a BAS due date. Use one row per week, Monday to Sunday.

Step 1: Opening balance

Use the cleared balance of your operating account. If you keep GST and the tax you withhold in a separate tax account, leave that account out. That money is spoken for.

Step 2: Every payday

List each payday in the 13 weeks. On each one, put gross wages: net pay, plus the tax withheld that you move to the tax account. Put super at 12% of qualifying earnings on the same day. The legal deadline can be up to 7 business days later, but payday is what the ATO recommends, and it's the safer week to plan for.

Step 3: Other payments

Enter supplier accounts and subcontractor invoices by due date, then vehicles, insurance, rent, phones and software. If you don't keep a tax account, add each BAS in its due week. The ATO's quarterly BAS due dates are 28 October, 28 February, 28 April and 28 July.

Step 4: Claim payments, by expected date

For each claim, take the date you'll make it, then add your contract's payment terms, or what the client actually does if they pay later. Enter the amount that will land, after retention. Move the GST to the tax account when it arrives, so the view counts amounts excluding GST.

Step 5: Retention, beside the view

List the retention each client holds and the release dates in your contract, often practical completion and the end of the defects liability period. Keep it out of the weekly rows until a release falls inside the 13 weeks and you expect to be paid.

Step 6: The buffer and the low point

Set a buffer of at least one payday: a week's gross wages plus super. Then read the lowest closing balance and its week, and every week below the buffer.

A weekly row hides the order of events inside a week. If a claim is paid on Friday and payday is Thursday, check Thursday's balance.

GST timing, as the ATO publishes it

  • GST is 10% on most goods and services.
  • Cash basis, open to businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million: you account for GST in the BAS period you receive payment.
  • Non-cash basis: the period you issue the tax invoice or receive any payment, whichever comes first. For progressive sales, such as construction contracts, each progress payment is treated as a separate sale.
  • Retention: where Division 156 applies, the GST on a retention amount is attributed to the tax period in which it's paid.

Which method you use, and how GST appears on your claims, are questions for your registered tax or BAS agent. The cash view sidesteps both for planning by moving GST out as it arrives.

A worked example (fictional)

Fictional example. Banksia Row Electrical is not a real business. The figures are illustrative and are not a customer result.

Banksia Row has four employees, paid weekly on Thursdays. Most of its work is a commercial fit-out for a builder, who takes a claim every four weeks and pays on a Monday, 20 business days later. Service calls bring in the rest.

  • Paydays: gross wages $8,000 a week, all qualifying earnings. Super at 12% is $960, so each payday takes $8,960.
  • Running costs: $1,700 a week for vehicles, fuel, insurance, rent, phones and software.
  • Service work: $3,000 a week excluding GST.
  • Materials: the supplier account for the fit-out is paid in weeks 4, 8 and 12: $9,500, $10,500 and $10,000.
  • Claims: each one is $48,000 of work, less 5% retention ($2,400). The builder pays $45,600 plus $4,560 GST, and the GST goes to the tax account. Claims are paid on the Monday of weeks 5, 9 and 13.
  • Start: $42,000 in the operating account. The buffer is one payday, $8,960.
Week Opening In Out Closing Below buffer?
1 $42,000 $3,000 $10,660 $34,340 No
2 $34,340 $3,000 $10,660 $26,680 No
3 $26,680 $3,000 $10,660 $19,020 No
4 $19,020 $3,000 $20,160 $1,860 Yes
5 $1,860 $48,600 $10,660 $39,800 No
6 $39,800 $3,000 $10,660 $32,140 No
7 $32,140 $3,000 $10,660 $24,480 No
8 $24,480 $3,000 $21,160 $6,320 Yes
9 $6,320 $48,600 $10,660 $44,260 No
10 $44,260 $3,000 $10,660 $36,600 No
11 $36,600 $3,000 $10,660 $28,940 No
12 $28,940 $3,000 $20,660 $11,280 No
13 $11,280 $48,600 $10,660 $49,220 No

Reading it:

  • The low point is week 4, at $1,860: the supplier account has been paid and the claim hasn't landed. Week 8 also dips below the buffer, at $6,320. Because the builder pays on Monday, before Thursday's payday, the claim weeks don't hide a dip.
  • Each claim covers its cycle, but only once it lands. In weeks 1 to 4, four paydays ($35,840), running costs ($6,800) and the supplier account ($9,500) go out against $12,000 of service receipts. The account carries $40,140 before the week-5 claim brings in $45,600.
  • To stay above the buffer in week 4, the account needs $49,100 at the start of week 1: $7,100 more than it has.
  • A late payment moves the low point. If the builder pays the week-5 claim a week late, week 5 closes at −$5,800.
  • The old rules held a float. If these 13 weeks were one quarter, quarterly super would have let the $12,480 of super for them stay in the account until 28 days after the quarter ended. At the week-4 low point, that was $3,840 more in the bank.
  • Retention stays outside. The builder held $7,200 before week 1 and holds $14,400 after week 13. Under Banksia Row's contract, half comes back at practical completion and half after the defects liability period, both after week 13, so none of it is in the view.

The view doesn't make the decision. It shows which levers move the low point: when supplier accounts fall due, when claims go in, the payment terms you agree, the buffer you hold, and how much of your work waits on progress claims at once.

What this check doesn't do

  • It doesn't calculate super, tax withheld or BAS amounts. Your payroll and accounting software stay the record.
  • It doesn't check a payment claim against your state's security of payment law. Send claims the way your contract and that law require.
  • It's an estimate. Each week, compare it with the bank, then update dates and amounts.

A workbook for this, in research

We're researching an Excel and Google Sheets workbook for Australian trades that would put job profit, this month's claim amount and this 13-week cash view in one file. It isn't built, and there's no price or date. If you'd like one email when it's ready, or one saying we've decided not to build it, join the waitlist.

Independence

Metricvalley is independent. This guide isn't affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Australian Taxation Office, any state or territory government or building regulator. Nothing in this guide is tax, payroll or legal advice.

Sources

All accessed 1 October 2026.

Common questions

When is super due under Payday Super?

Each employee's fund must receive the contribution within 7 business days after payday, counting payday as day 0. The first contribution for a new employee, or to a new fund, has 20 business days. Weekends and any public holiday for the whole of a state or territory aren't business days, wherever you are. The ATO recommends paying super on payday.

How much super do I pay in 2026–27?

12% of each employee's qualifying earnings. Qualifying earnings bring together ordinary time earnings, commissions, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts previously counted as salary or wages for super. Contractors paid mainly for their labour are covered too.

Should retention go in my cash forecast?

Keep it beside the forecast, not in it. Retention is money a client holds back from each claim until the release dates in your contract, such as practical completion and the end of the defects liability period. Add a release to the weekly rows only when it falls inside the view and you expect to be paid.

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