It's late arvo, the guys are loading the ute, and I'm standing in a half-dug backyard working out the next pay run in my head. That part hasn't changed in 25 years. What has changed is that super now goes out with the wages. Payday Super started on 1 July 2026. If you run a landscaping crew of two to eight, this is the payday super small business change that hits your bank balance every pay run, not four times a year.
Quick disclaimer before I go any further: this isn't tax advice. I'm a landscaper, not an accountant, so run your own situation past yours. But I reckon it's worth walking through what this does to cash flow, and to the labour rate sitting under every quote you send.
What actually changed
Under the old rules, the Australian Taxation Office says super had to reach the fund within 28 days of the end of each quarter: 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July. From 1 July 2026 you pay super guarantee for each payday instead. The ATO says the fund has to receive it within 7 business days after you pay the guys, with enough information to allocate it to each person's account.
The percentage is still 12%, according to the ATO. But it's now 12% of "qualifying earnings", which the ATO says include ordinary time earnings, all commissions and salary sacrifice contributions.
The ATO's payment deadlines page, last updated 29 September 2026, fills in the detail. Weekends aren't business days, and neither is any public holiday that covers a whole state or territory, even if it's not your state. Part-state holidays still count. If you use a clearing house, including one inside your payroll software, you need to allow processing time to hit the 7 days. The ATO says best practice is to pay super on payday. For a new employee, or a first payment to a new fund, the ATO allows up to 20 business days.
A couple of other things worth knowing. The ATO says the Small Business Super Clearing House is no longer accessible from 1 July 2026, so if you were on it you need another way to pay. And Cbus Super points out that Payday Super overrides any timing provisions in EBAs that allowed quarterly or delayed super payments.
The payday super small business problem: the float is gone
I'll be honest about something plenty of us won't say out loud. Under quarterly super, that money sat in the business account for weeks, and whether you meant it to or not, it was doing a job. It covered the gap between paying the guys on Thursday and the client paying the progress claim a fortnight later.
That gap is now yours to fund. Say your crew's qualifying earnings for a week come to $6,000. That's just an example, not a rate. At 12%, that's $720 that has to land in their funds within 7 business days, every week. It used to pile up for a quarter. Now it leaves almost as fast as the wages do.
The ATO says it plainly: moving to paying super for each payday may impact your cash flow. Its changeover guidance gives an example of an employer with seven employees paid fortnightly who had three super payments to make in July 2026: the final quarterly payment plus two paydays. The ATO suggested setting aside additional funds. If July felt tight in your account, that's probably why.
The cost of getting it wrong has gone up too. The ATO says that from 1 July 2026 the super guarantee charge is assessed by the ATO, includes interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate, and carries an administrative uplift. Penalties on unpaid charge are 25% or 50%, depending on prior penalties. The ATO's first-year compliance page says that from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 it'll focus on helping employers transition and will look at behaviour, not just mistakes. But it also says the 7-day timeframe doesn't change if there's an error or a processing delay.
Where it feeds into your labour rate
I remember when I didn't use a labour rate calculator and I just happily picked a number I thought I should be charging based on what i thought would win me the job. After speaking with a landscape coach, he opened my eyes to how I should be calculating my labour cost, all the overheads I'd been leaving out. It was a massive eye opener.
Super is one of those lines. If you are accounting for 12%, it's been built into your rate properly, the percentage maths doesn't change. Two things might, though.
First, the base. If any of your guys are on commissions or salary sacrifice, the ATO says those now sit inside qualifying earnings. Check your rate is calculated on what you actually pay, not just the base hourly.
Second, subbies. The ATO's payment deadlines page says the deadline covers workers under the extended definition of employee, including independent contractors paid mainly for their labour. A lot of us use labour-only subbies when we're stretched. If you've been pricing that subbie's day as just his day rate, you might be 12% light on every line he touches. Whether your arrangement is caught is a question for your accountant, but you want the answer before you price the next job, not after.
What I'd change on the next quote
Make sure you've allowed for 12% super on qualifying earnings, and add it to any labour-only subbie arrangements, because it changes your labour charge-out rate. If you haven't worked out your labour rate in a while, use our free hourly rate calculator to check you're charging enough.
Then look at your payment schedule. If super now goes out every pay run, the deposit and progress claims need to land ahead of your wages, not weeks behind them. On a job with a block rendered retaining wall, 40 square metres of paving and a run of steel edging, I'd want a progress claim tied to the wall being done, timed so it clears before the pay run that covers it. That's a scope and contract decision you make at quote time.
And set the super aside each pay run, in its own account if that helps. Know how long your clearing house takes, and watch for whole-state public holidays that eat into the 7 days.
The takeaway
Payday Super doesn't change what labour costs you. It changes when you pay for it, and it takes away the quarterly float a lot of us were quietly leaning on. Check the super line in your labour rate, price your labour-only subbies properly, and set your progress claims so the client's money arrives before the pay run does. Do that and you can pay the guys and their super on the same day without lying awake doing sums, and walk in the door with a clear head.
Sources
- About Payday Super – Superannuation Changes | Australian Taxation Office
- Payment deadlines for Payday Super | Australian Taxation Office
- Getting it right: compliance in the first year of Payday Super | Australian Taxation Office
- Payday Super: How to manage super during the changeover | Australian Taxation Office
- Payday Super | Cbus Super