Your complete guide on managing employee superannuation details
Employees have access to all their financial information in their Employee App, where they can view and edit those details, including their superannuation.
Occasionally, an admin user might need to make the changes on an employee's behalf. In this case, admin users can update superannuation details on behalf of an employee from the Employee Profile.
In this article, we will cover:
- Updating an employee's Superannuation details on their behalf
- Managing minimum and maximum Superannuation Guarantee
- Applying Super Salary Sacrifice to an employee profile
- How to enable Employer Additional Superannuation contributions
- Superannuation reporting, notifications & FAQs
Permission Reminder: Admins must have the permission 'Manage Employee Financial Details' enabled in their permission settings to make changes in the financial section of the Employee Profile. Please have a look at our Permissions article for more information.
Updating employee superannuation details
You may find that an employee's superannuation details need updating, and the employee cannot do so in their Employee App. As an admin, you may be able to make these changes for your employees, but if you do, it is important to ensure the details entered are correct.
Use cases for why an admin would action this:
- Employee fund details are incorrect, and your superannuation payments are due
- Setting an Employer additional superannuation amount
- Applying a minimum superannuation guarantee amount
- Updating the Maximum Contribution Cap
- Applying Salary Sacrifice
- The employee is underage or not technologically savvy
General responsibilities for the employees to update in the Employee App:
- Ensuring fund details are up to date and correct.
- Adding Employee additional superannuation amount (post-tax).
- Applying Salary Sacrifice amount (pre-tax) - this will need to be enabled in Superannuation Settings.
Member Verification Requests
If you're registered with Beam, updating an employee's superannuation fund details, whether by an admin or the employee themselves, will automatically trigger a Member Verification Request (MVR). This verifies that the employee's super fund details are correct.
If any errors are identified during verification, they'll be flagged in three places:
- On the employee's profile
- On the dashboard, via a call-to-action card
- Within the Employee App for the employee to see
If you are interested in setting up Beam within your platform, check out our Beam - Superannuation integration guide.
Updating employee superfund details
To update an employee's superannuation details:
- In the quick menu, navigate to People > Approved People and locate the desired employee, or search for the employee via the search menu.
- From the employee's profile, navigate to the Financial > Superannuation and select 'Edit' to update the employee's details.
- Select 'Employees Fund' and type to search for the correct superannuation fund.
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Once the fund has been selected, enter the employee's member number in the "Superannuation member number" field.
- To save your changes, select the green tick.
Once updated, your platform will send an email to the employee to inform them of the changes made.
Under the superannuation guarantee, employers must pay contributions at a percentage determined by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for all eligible employees. The minimum percentage is set each year by the ATO.
Hot tip: The platform automatically updates your default super rate percentage when it increases each year, so you don't need to manage this manually. This will not increase the percentage for employees who are already above the minimum. We cover how to update this further below.
Depending on your employee's specific circumstances, there are additional settings you can enable on their profile. This section covers:
- How to set a minimum guarantee amount for individual employees
- How to increase the guarantee percentage above the ATO minimum
- How the maximum contributions base is applied on your platform, and
- How to apply a superannuation exemption for your high-income earners
Navigate through the tabs below to learn about these settings.
If you need to guarantee a specific dollar amount of super for an employee, regardless of how many hours they work in a pay period. You can set a minimum from the employee's profile.
Please note: Each pay period, the employee will always receive whichever value is higher; the minimum amount you set, or the standard super calculated from their percentage.
To set a minimum superannuation guarantee amount:
- On the employee's profile, navigate to Financial > Superannuation > and select Edit.
- Find the field 'Minimum superannuation guarantee' and enter the amount you would like to set.
- Once your amount is entered, select the green tick to save your update.
While you cannot set the percentage lower than what is dictated by the ATO, if you have an agreement to pay your employees a higher percentage in superannuation guarantee, you can increase this on an individual employee basis, directly from their profile.
Hot tip: If you pay a higher percentage for all your employees, you can increase it across your platform by updating the percentage in your platform Superannuation Settings, rather than updating each profile individually.
To increase the percentage of superannuation guarantee paid to an individual employee:
- On the employee's profile, navigate to Financial > Superannuation > and select Edit.
- Find the field 'Superannuation guarantee' and increase the percentage to your desired value.
Please note: Depending on your award or agreement, any superannuation guarantee contributions made above the 12% set by the ATO could be classed as Employer additional super contributions (RESC) and may need to be reported as such. Check out the ATO website for more information. - Once increased, select the green tick to save your update.
The ATO sets a Maximum Contributions Base (MCB) calculated from an employee's annual Qualified Earnings. Once an employee earns above this amount in a financial year, employers are no longer required to pay superannuation on the additional earnings above the threshold.
The MCB is automatically applied to all employee profiles on your platform. As an admin, you can manage this through the individual employee profile. Please be aware that by ignoring the base, superannuation will be paid on all qualified earnings once the maximum base is exceeded.
For more information regarding maximum superannuation guarantee contributions, please refer to the ATO article here.
To update the superannuation maximum contribution base:
- On the employee's profile, navigate to Financial > Superannuation > and select Edit.
- Find the field 'Ignore Maximum Contributions Base' and update from 'No' to 'Yes'.
- Select the green tick to save your changes.
What employees and admins see when the MCB is reached
Once an employee reaches the maximum contributions base for the financial year, a notification appears on their payslip and against their name on the payroll page. Super will continue to be calculated only up to the threshold unless you have enabled Ignore Maximum Contribution Base on their profile.
Displayed to admins (on the payroll page):
Displayed to employees (on their payslip):
In some cases, employees classified as high-income earners may request that superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions not be paid to them. To support this, the employee applies directly with the ATO for an SG Employer Shortfall Exemption Certificate, which they'll then provide to you.
Once you have the certificate, upload it to the employee's profile to enable the exemption. Keep in mind that exemptions are valid only for the current financial year; a new certificate will be required for each subsequent year the employee wishes to opt out.
Please note: The employee cannot upload this certificate; it must be uploaded by an admin user.
To apply an exemption to superannuation guarantee:
- On the employee's profile, navigate to Financial > Superannuation > and select Edit.
- Find the Superannuation guarantee percentage and select the checkbox for 'Employee has an exemption certificate'. This will set the employee's superannuation guarantee percentage to 0%.
- When selected, you will need to:
- Apply an Exemption start date; this will be the date the employee will no longer have superannuation guarantee apply. This date can be applied at any time during your current pay cycle and backdated if required.
- Upload the certificate that has been provided to you by the ATO.
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Select the green tick to save your changes.
- You will be able to see a complete history of the employee's exemptions by selecting the history icon. From here, you can also open and view the uploaded certificate.
Once an employee's exemption has expired, the SG percentage will revert to the minimum contribution as set by the ATO.
Superannuation salary sacrifice
Salary Sacrifice is an arrangement between an employee and employer to make additional superannuation contributions from the employee's pre-tax wage each pay cycle.
Superannuation Salary Sacrifice can be set up in 2 ways:
- By employees within their Employee App or,
- By Admin users on the employee's behalf in the Admin portal.
To set up Superannuation Salary Sacrifice in the Admin portal:
- Navigate to People > Approved People to locate your desired employee to enter their profile.
- Locate the Financial icon, and expand on 'Superannuation' to expand the employee's superannuation details.
- Within the financial section, expand on 'Superannuation' and select the 'Edit' option to update the employee's details.
- Locate the Super salary sacrifice settings, and enter as a % or $ amount. This will be the salary sacrificed amount per payslip (frequency). This is a pre-tax amount.
- For example, if you entered $50 and the pay cycle was fortnightly, then $50 would be salary sacrificed each fortnight.
- Select the green tick to save your changes.
Once the Salary Sacrifice percentage/amount has been specified in the relevant Employee Profile the percentage/amount will appear on the employee's next draft payslip. A payslip edit may be required for any current draft payslips.
Your employees may prefer to set up their own Salary Sacrifice preferences, if so, they can do this in the foundU Employee App via View Profile > Edit financial details.
There are 2 options available:
- Salary sacrifice - Generally taken out of gross (pre-tax) pay. For an employee to be able to set this up, this will need to be enabled in Superannuation Settings.
- Additional personal contributions - Generally taken out of the net (post-tax) pay.
For instructions on how employees can set up their Salary Sacrifice preference, check out our Employee guide.
Employer additional superannuation contributions
Some employers may elect to pay additional superannuation contributions to their employees on top of the set guarantee.
Some use cases for setting up Employer additional contributions are:
- Contracted salary packaging.
- Agreement to pay annual bonuses to superannuation.
To use this feature the 'Allow employer additional super contributions' setting first needs to be enabled in your platform.
Permission Reminder: Admins must have 'Access Superannuation Settings' enabled in their permissions to be able to action the following steps.
To enable the 'Allow employer additional super contributions' setting:
- Navigate to the main menu > Payroll Settings > Superannuation.
- Toggle on the 'Allow employer additional super contributions' setting and select Save Settings.
Additional superannuation contributions on an employee's profile
Once you have enabled the 'Allow employer additional super contributions' setting, you can set this on the relevant employee profiles.
Each employee profile will now display an 'Employer additional super contributions field' within the Financial > Superannuation area.
To set employer additional superannuation contributions on an individual employee's profile:
- Navigate to People > Approved People to locate your desired employee to enter their profile.
- Select the Financial icon, then select 'Superannuation' to expand the employee's superannuation details.
- Select the 'Edit' option to edit the employee's details.
- Enter the relevant employer additional contribution amount; select from the following options:
- None - There is no Employer additional superannuation contribution.
- Reportable employer super contribution (RESC).
- Non-reportable contribution.
- When choosing RESC or non-reportable contribution, specify the contribution amount (in dollars or as a percentage).
- Select the green tick to save your changes.
In some circumstances, during payroll, you may need to edit the employee's payslip and update the Employer Additional Super Contribution amount.
To do this, you will need to have 'Allow employer additional super contributions' enabled in Superannuation settings and set up on the employee's profile. Please look at the steps outlined in the accordion above to learn how to do this.
Once this setting is enabled, the relevant field in the edit screen of the payslip will be unlocked. Check out our guide on Edits, adjustments and overpayments for the full steps.
Please note: If 'Employer Additional Superannuation Contribution' is set to 'None' on the employee profile, any edits to this field in the payslip will not be added to the employee's superannuation contribution and will not be paid. Please enable it in the employee profile before making any payslip changes.
Please note: The YTD total will be the year-to-date for all superannuation contributions.
Superannuation reporting and FAQs
There are multiple options for reports available to breakdown your Superannuation guarantee, Salary Sacrifice, Employee personal superannuation contributions, and Employer additional super contributions.
The Advanced Payroll Activity Report is the best for post-payroll reporting, with there being an option to split superannuation contributions paid by type.
See our Payroll Activity Report (Standard and Advanced) guide for more information on reporting on Superannuation amounts.
Will enabling the Maximum Superannuation Contribution Base stop other contributions from being paid?
The Contribution Base will only cap on Superannuation Guarantee payments; all other contribution types will still be paid to the employee's superannuation fund as normal.
If I update an employee's fund details on their profile, will this update the existing pending Superannuation batches?
Yes, if an admin updates an employee's Superfund details, it will update existing pending batches. If the employee updates the fund details, it will only take effect for future Superannuation batches.
Do I have to update the Superannuation Guarantee percentage on employee profiles each year?
No, foundU has you covered with this, and the percentage will be updated automatically each year if the ATO increases it.
I pay all my employees a higher Superannuation Guarantee percentage, can I update this in bulk?
Yes, this percentage can be increased for all employees by updating the value in your Superannuation Settings.
You can do this by navigating from your main menu to your Payroll Settings > Superannuation Settings.
Why can I not set the Superannuation Guarantee percentage to a value below 12%?
12% is the set minimum amount mandated by the ATO; as employers, you are required to pay this minimum to your employees and cannot pay below it.
I have put a Minimum Superannuation Guarantee amount on my employee's profile. Why is it not appearing on the employee's payslip?
If you have entered a minimum superannuation guarantee amount on an individual employee's profile and it does not appear on the payslip, this may be because the amount falls below the 12% required for all SG payments.
Your platform will always pay your employees the higher of the two amounts: the amount calculated based on the 12% rate or the minimum value entered.
Does every fund change trigger a Member Verification Request (MVR), or only certain funds/situations?
Any update to an employee's superannuation fund details, whether made by an admin or the employee, will trigger an MVR, provided your platform is registered with Beam.
Does every fund change trigger an MVR, or only certain funds/situations?
Any update to an employee's superannuation fund details, whether made by an admin or the employee, will trigger an MVR, provided your platform is registered with Beam.
What happens if the exemption certificate expires mid-pay cycle? Does Superannuation Guarantee resume immediately or at the next full cycle?
Once the exemption expires, the SG percentage will revert to the ATO minimum. This takes effect from the date the exemption ends, so it may apply partway through a pay cycle depending on your pay run dates.
Does the Maximum Contributions Base (MCB) reset automatically at the start of each financial year?
Yes, the MCB threshold is reset each financial year automatically in line with the ATO's published amount, so no manual action is required unless you've enabled 'Ignore Maximum Contributions Base' on an employee's profile.