Payday Super starts 1 July, QuickBooks customers are already there

From 1 July, super is due on payday and the tool 250,000 businesses depend on closes the same day.

Employment Hero's HeroClear is now inside QuickBooks Payroll, so compliance happens automatically, every pay run.

SYDNEY, 18 JUNE 2026. Intuit QuickBooks has deepened its partnership with Employment Hero, adopting HeroClear inside QuickBooks Payroll to help Australian small businesses meet their Payday Super obligations automatically from 1 July 2026.

From 1 July 2026, paying your employees their super becomes a payday obligation, with contributions required to land in employees' super funds within seven business days of every payday. Super shifts from a quarterly task into a recurring payroll obligation, increasing payment events from four per year to as frequently as you pay your employees. Now there will be real-time ATO oversight and penalties for non-compliance- making compliance more important than ever.  

Aligned with when the new rules begin, 30 June will also see the permanent closure of the ATO's Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, removing the solution currently relied upon by 250,000 businesses.

The Seven Day Clock to Funds Received

What makes the new obligation harder than it appears, is that the seven-day clock starts on payday and measures fund arrival, not the date of sending. Most legacy clearing houses take three to five business days to settle contributions, leaving a two-day window to identify and fix errors before penalties apply. For most businesses, that is not a safety buffer. It is barely a margin at all.

For most businesses, the gap between where they are now and where they need to be is significant. Employment Hero's Inside the Future of Super 2026 Report found that 58% of businesses are still unaware of the incoming changes, despite 75% of employees being paid weekly or fortnightly, yet only 39% receiving super on the same schedule.

HeroClear: How it works inside QuickBooks Payroll

By integrating HeroClear, Employment Hero's super clearing and validation engine, into QuickBooks Payroll, businesses can now manage payday super compliance without ever leaving their payroll workflow. Super is settled the moment payroll is run. 

HeroClear is built and owned by Employment Hero and designed to sit inside the pay run rather than alongside it. When a pay run is finalised, HeroClear automatically validates every employee's super fund details via SuperStream before any money moves. Then it processes contributions transparently via the New Payments Platform (NPP), and delivers a payment confirmation directly to the QuickBooks Payroll dashboard. There are no file uploads, no separate portals, and no manual reconciliation required. 

"Payday Super changes the compliance equation for every Australian business," said Suzy Nicoletti, Regional Vice President, Intuit APAC. "QuickBooks already gives businesses a real-time view of their cash position. By bringing HeroClear into the pay run, we have closed the loop: businesses can see what is coming, pay on time, and confirm it is done, without ever leaving the platform."

For business owners, that means one workflow. For accountants and bookkeepers running payroll across multiple clients, it means one source of truth for every super contribution, with automated alerts and a full audit trail.

“Compliance shouldn't be a second job on top of payroll,” said Rob Dunn, General Manager Superannuation, Employment Hero. "HeroClear was built so compliance becomes a by-product of running payroll, not a separate task. Putting it inside QuickBooks means small businesses get there automatically.”

Stopping errors before they start

Launching alongside HeroClear is Employee Self Setup (ESS), which lets new starters at a company enter their own tax file number, super fund, and bank details directly into QuickBooks Payroll. Given incorrect member data drives more than 90% of all super contribution errors, ESS addresses the root cause of compliance risk rather than managing it after the fact. Both features are available to QuickBooks Payroll customers today, with ESS included in existing subscriptions at no additional cost.

What this means for our customers

For small businesses on QuickBooks Payroll, the work for 1 July is short. Enable HeroClear, switch new-starter onboarding to ESS, and the pay run handles the rest from there.

For accountants and bookkeepers, the same is true at scale. Every client's super is validated, paid, and confirmed in one place. Time that used to go on chasing confirmations and reconciling clearing-house files can go back into advisory work that actually moves the business forward.

For employees, super arrives in their account sooner. For small businesses, the compliance step they used to spend a quarter preparing for happens in the background of every pay run. 

QuickBooks Payroll customers can enable HeroClear today. To get started head to: quickbooks.intuit.com/au/blog/product-update/payday-super-heroclear/

About Intuit QuickBooks

Intuit is the global financial technology platform that powers prosperity for the people and communities we serve. With approximately 100 million customers worldwide using products such as TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, and Intuit Enterprise Suite, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to prosper. We never stop working to find new, innovative ways to make that possible. Please visit us at Intuit.com and find us on social for the latest information about Intuit and our products and services.

About Employment Hero

Employment Hero is a global, AI-powered employment platform transforming the way businesses hire, manage, and pay their teams. Its intelligent Employment Operating System (eOS) uses HeroAI to automate HR, payroll, recruitment, and employee engagement, delivering real-time insights, predictive recommendations, and compliance safeguards. Serving over 350,000 businesses and 2.5 million employees worldwide, Employment Hero leverages AI-driven automation to reduce administrative overhead by up to 80%, creating smarter, faster, and more compliant workplaces. For further information, please visit www.employmenthero.com

Data sourced from Employment Hero's Inside the Future of Super 2026 Report (500 Australian business decision-makers, 1,010 employees, December 2025).

HeroClear is a product of Employment Hero Pty Ltd and is made available to QuickBooks Payroll customers through an integration partnership with Intuit. Use of HeroClear is subject to Employment Hero's terms and conditions. Intuit is not responsible for the products, services, or conduct of Employment Hero. For Employment Hero's terms and conditions, click here.

The information in this article is general in nature and does not constitute financial, legal, or superannuation advice. We recommend seeking professional advice regarding your superannuation obligations. For questions about HeroClear or super payments, contact Employment Hero directly at employmenthero.com.