Your EOFY timeline 2026

Payday Super is a mandatory reform to Australia’s superannuation system, effective July 1st, 2026. It fundamentally changes when superannuation must be paid to your employees, not just how it’s reported. 

The good news is that we are already building the required changes, and much of the work will happen automatically for you! You’ll only need to complete a small, clearly defined set of actions.

Authorise foundU as your payroll provider in the ATO Access Manager - (Mandatory)

• The ATO has introduced new security requirements for payroll software providers. As part of this update, every business using foundU for STP must be linked to the ATO via a Software Subscription ID (SSID). You’ll need to lodge your SSID before 30 June 2026 to stay compliant.
• The SSID is a shared identifier among your ABN, foundU (your payroll platform and STP gateway), and the ATO. It acts as a verified link, ensuring your payroll data is sent by an authorised party.

  See how to 'Declare your Software ID (SSID) with the ATO' in our help guide here.

Authorise Flare in your ATO Access Manager - (Highly recommended)

• To keep your employee onboarding running smoothly and ensure superannuation is paid correctly and on time, foundU needs to automatically perform a stapled fund lookup for each new employee you onboard.
• Authorise Flare, our super stapling partner, to perform these lookups on your behalf. This is done through the ATO Access Manager and must be completed before 1 July. 

  See how to 'Authorise Flare in your ATO Access Manager' in our help guide here.

Make sure you are ready for Payday Super

• Make sure you understand Payday Super, its impact on you and your business, and what's changing on your platform.
• Familiarise yourself with the key actions you need to take before July 1st, and what foundU is doing for you!

  For more information on what you should do to help prepare for Payday Super, see our 'Prepare for Payday Super' help guide here. 

Before EOFY, it is important to ensure that your employee's details to be reported to the ATO are accurate and up to date. The same can be said for your STP reporting categories in your platform. 

As the first step to a seamless EOFY, you'll want to review the data below and get it up to date. This includes:

• Ensure that employee details are correct and complete, with no missing information in the categories that will be reported with STP finalisation.
• Ensure that any employees who have left your business have been appropriately terminated in the system.
• Ensure that all deductions, leave items, pay items, and allowances have been assigned the correct STP category for reporting purposes.
• Update or change any employee positions that are relevant in preparation for the Annual Minimum Award increase.
   

Check employee details:

To reduce any errors when you finalise STP for the year, it's a good idea to check that employee details are entered and accurate, including their:

• Email addresses
• Employment Start Date
• Income Type
• Office Code

  Hot tip: Run the 'Approved People' export and select the above fields to check the information in your platform quickly. You can then follow up on any missing information.
 

Terminate & archive employees:

Ensure employees who have left your business throughout the year have been terminated and archived correctly.

• Ensure all relevant employees have been terminated and archived in their Employee Profile. When you terminate an employee in foundU, the cessation reason and date will be included in the next STP packet submitted to the ATO. 
   

Review your STP reporting categories:

Review the STP reporting categories for the following items. On the off chance that you need to make changes to the STP category, users with the relevant permission ('manage STP categories') will have access to change the category assigned to deductions, pay items, allowances, and leave items.

To review STP categories on:

• Deductions
• Leave entitlements
• Pay items and allowances

  Hot tip: Before making a change, please note that STP category changes once made will affect the following:

• The full financial year that is selected 
• All payslips for all employees

  Changed to foundU halfway through the financial year? Wondering what you need to do? Check out our article.

In early June, you can start planning for the rate rise on your platform, even before the percentage of the wage increase has been released. 
 

Plan for the minimum wage increase:

1. Review your employees’ current positions. Update or change any incorrect positions. This can be done after the rate rise, but doing so beforehand will give you a smoother experience and help ensure your employees are paid correctly.
2. For labour hire, start planning for increases in your charge-out rate. You likely won't update these values until the rate rise, but having them ready to go will save you time during the rate rise process.
3. Download the pay guides once the rate increases have been announced.
4. Determine when you’ll implement the rate increase and who will handle this process for your business. Set the time aside in your calendars, we recommend:
   • 1 hour for businesses under 100 employees, and
   • 2-2.5 hours for businesses with over 200 employees.
5. Watch our Rate Rise videos to learn tips and tricks on completing your rate rise! 
6. Should you want guided help with your rate rise, register early for one of our Rate Rise Assistance packages! For a low fee, a foundU CS coach will step you through your rate rise. Please note that these sessions are very popular, so if you're interested, book early!

Before EOFY, you'll need to ensure that all superannuation contributions have been paid for employees by the relevant deadlines. 

  Please note: The deadline for your superannuation payment will depend on the payment method your business uses.
 

Super payment via Beam deadlines:

To sum it up, the super guarantee for the 4th quarter of the 25/26 FY is still due by the 28th of July. However, if you, as an employer, want to proactively pay any of that earlier (so it arrives before the 30th of June and counts towards the 25/26 FY), that's up to you. To do that, the deadline via Beam is:

• Direct Debit: Must be submitted by 3:30 pm AEST on June 22, 2026.
• BPAY/EFT: Must be submitted by 3:30 pm AEST on June 23, 2026.

  Please note: These dates ensure that there is enough time for the bank to process the transaction and for the payments to be received by the relevant super funds before July 1. 
 

Super payment via clearinghouse deadline:

• The EOFY superannuation contribution cut-off date, if you’re paying superannuation contributions through a clearinghouse, is June 30, 2026. This allows your business to ensure a payment arrives at a super fund in the desired (25/26) financial year.
   

Super Guarantee % increase:

• There is no change to the super guarantee percentage for the upcoming financial year. It will remain at 12%.
• From 1 July, there are changes to the Employee Super Guarantee (SG) and Maximum Super Contributions Base (Super Cap). For more information on what you need to do, see our 'Prepare for Payday Super' help guide here. 

Super payment frequency

• The superannuation guarantee for Q4 is due by 28 July 2026 (the final quarterly payment under the old system).
• From July 1, 2026, review your process to ensure that superannuation for the 26/27 FY is received by employees' funds within 7 business days of each payment date, in line with Payday Super. 

Once you have processed your final pay for 2026, you'll be ready to reconcile all pay data on your platform.
 

Process your last payroll for 2025/26 as usual:

• Ensure all pay cycles due for processing in the current financial year have been generated.
  
    Please note: All payment dates after June 30 2026, will automatically be part of the 2026/27 financial year.
   

Reconcile:

• After the last pay of the financial year, you'll need to complete a reconciliation.
  • To reconcile, you'll need to calculate various columns of data in both the Advanced Payroll Activity Report and the STP YTD Report and confirm that your calculated totals match. 

  Hot tip: Use our Reconciliation guide for steps on reconciling your STP YTD report and the Advanced Payroll Activity report.
 

Reconcile payroll accounts to your general ledger (where applicable)

• Generate the Advanced Payroll Activity for the last financial year with the ‘Cash Basis’ and ‘Separate Superannuation Contribution Types’ checkbox options selected.

  Hot tip: It is best practice to reconcile your foundU platform with your accounting software. 

Once you have your pay guides ready and know the percentage increase as stated by Fairwork, you can process your rate rise on your platform for the first full pay period on or after July 1. 
 

Conduct your Award increases/Rate Rise:

• Review your employees’ current positions. Update or change any incorrect positions. This can be done after the rate rise, but doing so beforehand will result in a smoother experience and help ensure your employees are paid correctly.
  
    Please note: Once your rate rise has been scheduled, do not make any changes to your platform. This includes changes to your Awards, Positions and Employee Pay Rates. If you need to make a change, please note it and update after the rate rise has been completed. 
  
   
• Have your pay guide ready!
• Determine when you’ll implement the rate rise and set aside the time.
• Sign up for the EOFY Masterclass, which will cover all EOFY processes, including rate rises!  
• If you want guided assistance with your rate rise, sign up now for one of our Paid Rate rise assistance packages. For a low fee, you'll have a CS coach to support you throughout the process! These were extremely popular last year, so please express your interest early!
  
  

Use the rate rise tool to perform your rate rise:

• Schedule the annual minimum wage increases to relevant Award/s using the foundU Rate Rise Tool. When you apply depends on when your first full pay period falls in the new financial year.

  Hot tip: Use our Rate Rise help guide article for steps and videos on how to perform your rate rise. 

Update Charge Out Rates - applicable for Labour Hire:

• Determine whether you will do this during the rate rise or after.
• Set the time aside to perform the updates.
• Update your charge-out rates in bulk by exporting, updating and importing new charge rates.

Once you have processed your final pay and have completed a reconciliation for the Financial Year, you will need to complete your EOFY STP Finalisation.

  Hot tip: This year, the finalisation deadline is July 14th, a Tuesday.
 

EOFY Finalisation:

• You will need to ensure that any outstanding STP batches requiring action have been submitted before finalising employee STP data.
• Generate the final EOFY STP data. This will indicate the employee's YTD earnings as ‘Tax Ready’ on their income statement in MyGov.

  Hot tip: See our STP finalisation help guide article to assist you through the EOFY STP finalisation process.
 

Fringe Benefits Tax:

• Import or add any reportable fringe benefits amounts in the first step of your STP finalisation tool. 

You may also want to address the following in your platform to prepare for the new Financial Year:

Review and update Payroll Tax Rates:

• Update your Payroll Tax rates, including retrospective data effective from 1 July 2026. View our Payroll Tax help guide article here. 
   

Review and update WorkCover Rates:

• Check and increase your WorkCover (WIC) rates where applicable, including retrospective data effective from 1 July 2026. View our WorkCover rate help guide article here.  
   

PAYG Rates Updated:

• Great news! Any changes to the tax tables will be updated automatically in your foundU platform.