Payday Super: Is Your Payroll System Ready?

Payday Super is coming, and it could expose weak payroll and time tracking systems fast. In this episode, Steve and Levon discuss why clean timesheets, accurate clock-ins, and stronger payroll processes matter more than ever.

BundyPlus helps Australian businesses capture accurate time and attendance data through smarter clocking options, automated timesheets, payroll integrations, audit trails, and cleaner reporting. When payroll deadlines get tighter, better time data can help reduce manual fixes, missed clock-ins, and pay run stress.

In this episode, we cover how Payday Super changes the rhythm of payroll, why manual timesheets can create pressure, and how issues like missing clock-ins, incorrect overtime rules, and late approvals can flow downstream into payroll and superannuation. The conversation also touches on audit risks, business readiness, and why ignoring the change could create bigger problems later.

Learn more about BundyPlus:
https://www.bundyplus.com.au/

#paydaysuper #payrollmanagement #timeandattendance #australianbusiness #bundyplus

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

It's a actually a really big impact. If you think of say a fortnight or sort of even a weekly pay run, but you were doing your superannuation quarterly, all of a sudden what might have been a couple of days of work or a few hours of work quarterly is now has to be done on every pay run. That pay run cycle has now got another like quite a big task to put in your standard cycle. And as payroll people know, like payroll's not easy. It's not just the magic button that you press. Now there's another thing that you have to add into that complexity, and you know, your processes have to be sort of A1. So if anything's wrong there, then you know I've got an old thing, like um it's pretty well what's gonna happen here, and you don't want to have that. You want to have make sure all the data that's coming in is as clean as possible, as accurate as possible.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Up today, we can see podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Alrighty, welcome back, everybody. Episode 10. I've got Steve with me again. Steve, how's it going? Nah, freezing in Melbourne, to be honest, Lavon. Freezing. Good old Melbourne winters, or not even winter yet, but you know, pretty much is. Um all right. Well, I thought we'd chat since there's a pretty big or significant change coming into you know payroll and and HR in terms of superannuation. Payday super sounds pretty simple, but um, you know, I don't think maybe people realize how much this is gonna impact payroll and time tracking um and and where we kind of fit into this whole piece. So um, yeah, let's let's let's break it down. Um so yeah, first things first, the obvious, like what actually is payday super?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yep. So in the past, um companies would pay their super, whether it's it's quarterly or um whatever their their cycles were. Coming the next fin year, um, it's paid on the same days your employees get paid. So whatever the pay cycle is, whether it's weekly, fortnightly, monthly, that's when your super contributions also go out.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Okay. Yep. And do you know the the reasoning behind this change? Um not actually sure why.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

It it does actually make more sense to me because it's a bit like, you know, why separate it? It probably should be in that one cycle. You know, you pay your employees then them pay their superannuation because at the end of the day, it it is their money. So it's just taken out of, well it's not even taken out of the paid, it's it's it's an addition to what is their standard pay, so their their their super contribution. So it's not something that's well for many employees, it's just so the employers have to pay it on their behalf.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Yeah. Well, I mean, it sounds pretty straightforward or or easy on the surface, but I mean, what's the real kind of impact of of this on on businesses or payroll? Uh it's a actually a really big impact.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

If you think of say a fortnightly or even a weekly pay run, but you were doing your superannuation quarterly, all of a sudden what might have been a couple of days' work or a few hours work quarterly is now has to be done on every pay run. So it's not like there's there's less work. It's it's it's probably the same amount of work. It's just the numbers probably slightly different. Instead of being the multiple of that pay run, it's like every pay run, you're doing the same thing again, same thing again. So that that pay run cycle has now got another like quite a big task to put in your standard cycle, and as payroll people know, like payroll's not easy. It's not just the magic button that you press. Now there's another thing that you have to add into that complexity, and you know, your processes have to be sort of A1.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So, I mean, in terms of that, you know, the processes and the systems being being A1, what's the first thing that kind of I guess goes wrong if you don't have those systems in in place?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Well, I would say there'd be a lot of exceptions, there'd be a lot of errors that you'll need to fix post sending the the superannuation to the clearing houses. Um so really everything has to be down pat. So um, you know, the the classic old you know, get your timesheets in by this time, that that will probably go out even earlier because they still need that time to do the the payroll. So if anything's wrong there, then you know I've got an old saying like um you know shit in is shit out. So it's pretty well what's gonna happen here, and you don't want to have that. You want to have make sure all the data that's coming in is as clean as possible, as accurate as possible, up to date, because you don't want to be having pay run after pay run doing, oh, we need to change this, oh we need to change this. It just becomes an absolute nightmare. And I and like clearly errors will come into it where people are overpaid, underpaid, um, their superannuation amounts.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

That's a that's a good tagline. I think we need a t-shirt for that one. Oh yeah, true, true. Yeah, yeah.

unknown 4:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Garbage in, garbage out.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

It makes sense. I mean, I mean it's really just essentially adding an extra layer or or moving part to the already, you know, if you don't have a a sound setup or system, you know, obviously having this this new change coming to place, you you definitely want to make sure you've got those systems efficiently running. Um, all right, well let's bring it back to to us or time and attendance and how how it ties into that. How does it actually affect payday super or in terms of time and attendance? Yeah, it can obviously be as as simple as, you know, if the hours are wrong, then obviously your your super is going to be wrong. But there's probably a bit more to that as well.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah, there is a bit more to it because I mean you might have been able to get away with prior having, you know, a little bit lapse or a few changes here and there, because you'll get it fixed by the time you have to do your super, or you can just change it in the next pay run. Whereas now, because it's all lumped into one, um, makes it a lot harder. I think for me though, like a lot of businesses are probably focusing on what is the the payroll side of it, making sure that payroll is is compliant because there's there's a lot of software changes required for the the super pay. But I think what's going under the radar is that that time and attendance bit where they may not be reviewing that because it's not so much front of mind. It will become front of mind as they start to see what sort of gets affected later on and when things are wrong. Yeah. For TNA, just having a much cleaner, much more accurate, reportable system is is definitely part of the bigger picture in the whole payroll cycle.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah. That makes sense. And it could be anything from like, you know, like a missing clocking or, you know, incorrect overtime rules or calculations, not having approved timesheets, all these kind of tasks that we see in in time and attendance that can obviously make things you know worse down downstream when it gets to to super or payroll. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Another thing too is like this this doesn't make it any easier for the auditing process or actually having the audits in place because um if you are a repeat offender of these changes every pay run, every few pay run, all of a sudden you're gonna get maybe the target from the ATO going, hang on, we probably should look at this company or fair work and may go, let's go and have a look. Um, so what are you actually doing? Show me who's changing your top your clockings. You know, are you just adding clockings without being approved from the employee? Because you know, as we all know, you can't modify clockings unless they're by mistake or uh like a genuine reason. So all of that auditing side still comes into it. So we really have got what is now quite a complex system that was already quite complex.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah, and then you obviously had this on the top. So no, definitely. Um okay, so what should I guess businesses look at or in terms of fixing now, like if if someone's listening to this out there, what should they be tightening up before this this comes in?

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Well, number one is definitely the payroll that they're using, making sure that it is compliant with um the payday super. So zero MIBs of the world, they've been doing it for quite a while. My recommendation is to start early. Like we've obviously started early internally. We're we're on a weekly pay run. So we've been doing this the the the process. We wind out any bugs that we had. But I would be looking like down further, where are the where are the issues you you may have in the future that you may have already come across? And you know, those those late clockings, or as you said, those approvals, those approvals have to be done in time. So I'd be looking all the way down from the shop floor all the way up to when the actual pay run gets done or completed, should I say, and then start again. Because once the ATO do come into full effect with their compliance and their their fines, um, like you don't want to get stuck in that loop. And like they've got some improvements they're gonna be doing on their side. Like for instance, our pays get done on say Thursday. At the moment, it doesn't hit my account until the next Wednesday. So it's meant to be cleared before the next payroll or at the next payroll with a few days um around, but you don't want to be delaying those that that bit at all.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

So it has to be really, really clean. Uh yeah, and obviously, you know, for those clients that we deal with that are still on manual timesheets, that would be another key point. Or you know what I mean. If you're doing manual timesheets, punch cards, I mean this would be a great opportunity to automate wherever, wherever you can.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Yeah, yeah, especially because you have got that pay run now, all of a sudden you're doing, you know, these multiple tasks. So if you were doing six hours on timesheets, that's that's a great saving you can get done there where you can reduce that with you know better technology like Bundy Plus, you know, automatic um clocking in, clocking out from terminals. Um so you're not you know working out timesheets because it is going to be harder and harder and harder for the payroll people. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Okay. So does this expose bad systems? I mean, probably a bit a bit obvious, but I mean, does does payday super expose you know, weaker payroll setups and and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_02 9:13

100% it will. 100% it will. And as I just mentioned earlier, if um if you're putting through continuous exceptions, the ATL will probably flag and say, hang on, something's not quite right here, and potentially flag them as, you know, maybe they're not doing other things that aren't right, they're not paying their staff correctly or or or things like that. So if if your system's bad already, it's not gonna get any easier with this these changes coming through 100%. Very good. So from your side on the the sales um front line, people actually like is this front of mind? Is that what they're sort of looking at more um teenage systems for or looking at sort of streamlining their processes overall? Like how aware are they of these changes coming through?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Well, specifically for payday, uh for the super side of things, I can't say that's come up a whole lot. So whether that's just a matter of it's not um they're they're not aware of it, or it's maybe not going to uh as in like it's it's just well maybe they are aware of it, but they're they're just gonna be setting it up within the system, as in within Bundy Plus. But I mean we chatted about this before anyway, based on some of the metrics or that that report that you sent over in terms of you know the percentage of of people or businesses that that aren't aware of it was was you know more than 50%. I think it was like 60% or something.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Yeah, that that employment hero report. I was actually shocked when I read it. It said I think it was 58 uh percent of businesses were unaware of the changes coming through. It's like, dang, you're gonna You're up for a rude shock.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah. I mean, you'd like to believe, I mean, you know, on at least on the payroll or departmental level, you know, payroll they might be aware or should definitely be aware. But yeah, employees um and managers and stuff like that might be completely in the dark.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Well, employees, it doesn't really matter. It just means that it hits their account earlier, and you know, as you know, not a lot of employees even know what their bank balance is for their superannuation or or potentially who their superannuation belongs to. That's that's why there's find my super, you know, companies out there. But yeah, like the number, it was quite concerning. And whether it's sort of other small businesses that are just so busy, they just do the pay, do the pay, put the pay, you know, maybe some of these emails have gone through to spam that that like, hey, you need to check this. But yeah, there'll m there will be a few horror stories, I'm sure. And my I'm pretty sure the ATO will be pretty reasonable when it comes to implementing it and giving people plenty of um grace time, yeah. A bit of an amnesty to come in here at day one. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Well, Steve, what do you reckon the the number one risk is with all of this? The number one risk is just ignoring it, just thinking it's just um like a late BAS payment. It's not. This is a pay run by pay run by pay run. And unless you sort of address it now, then you could potentially looking at what uh penalties, fines, or even worse, a full audit. Um, so it's definitely something that people need to be aware of. The 58% sounded horrifying. They're about to find out. Um, so yeah, that's that's is the number one risk. And then the second, I'll let in the bonus second one is just having those entire systems end-to-end just running super smooth. You know, you're always gonna get exceptions, but let's just try to make your payroll way more resilient to those exceptions by having a good, clean um system that runs smoothly to get a lot money plus.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

There you go. And if you want to know more about payroll resilience, episode eight, I think it was, or seven. Yep. Um, so that that ties all into this stuff as well. So nice spot on. Well, yeah, I think that's the the takeaway. I mean, you know, I think payday super itself isn't you know inherently the problem, it just maybe exposes the the problems that you already have. Yeah, but to be fair, I'm a bit of a fan for it. Like you just yeah, I'm a fan of it. Yep. There you go. For for payday super fanboy.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yep. Yep. Cool. Um all right, uh, I think that's everything, Steve. All right, thanks, Yvonne. I'll catch you in the next one. See you in the next step. All right, catch you. See everybody.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Like they're sort of looking at more um teen A systems for or looking at sort of streamlining their processes overall. Like, how aware are they of these changes coming through?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Well, specifically for payday, uh, for the super side of things, I can't say that's come up a whole lot. So whether that's just a matter of it's not um they're they're not aware of it, or it's maybe not going to uh as in like it's it's just well maybe they are aware of it, but they're they're just gonna be setting it up within the system, as in within Bundy Plus. But I mean we chatted about this before anyway, based on some of the metrics or that that report that you sent over in terms of you know the percentage of of people or businesses that that aren't aware of it was was you know more than 50%. I think it was like 60% or something.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Yeah, that that employment hero report. I was actually shocked when I read it. It said I think it was 58 uh percent of businesses were unaware of the changes coming through. It's like, dang, you're gonna You're up for a rude shock.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah. I mean, you'd like to believe, I mean, you know, on at least on the payroll or departmental level, you know, payroll they might be aware or should definitely be aware. But yeah, employees um and managers and stuff like that might be completely in the dark.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Well, employees, it doesn't really matter. It just means that it hits their account earlier, and you know, as you know, not a lot of employees even know what their bank balance is for their superannuation or or potentially who their superannuation belongs to. That's that's why there's find my super, you know, companies out there. Um but yeah, like the number, it was quite concerning. And whether it's sort of other small businesses that are just so busy, they just do the pay, do the pay, put the pay, you know, maybe some of these emails have gone through to spam that that like hey, you need to check this. But yeah, there'll m there'll be a few horror stories, I'm sure. And my I'm pretty sure the ATO will be pretty reasonable when it comes to implementing it and giving people plenty of um grace time, yeah. A bit of an amnesty to come in here day one. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, Steve, what do you reckon the the number one risk is with all of this? The number one risk is just ignoring it, just thinking it's just um like a late BAS payment. It's not. This is a pay run by pay run by pay run. And unless you sort of address it now, then you could potentially looking at what uh penalties, fines, or even worse, a full audit. Um, so it's definitely something that people need to be aware of. The 58% sounded horrifying. They're about to find out. Um, so yeah, that's that's is the number one risk. And then the second, I'll let in the bonus second one is just having those entire systems end-to-end just running super smooth. You know, you're always gonna get exceptions, but let's just try to make your payroll way more resilient to those exceptions by having a good, clean um system that runs smoothly to get a lot money plus.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

There you go. And if you want to know more about payroll resilience, episode eight, I think it was, or seven. Yep. Um, so that that ties all into this stuff as well. So nice spot on. Well, yeah, I think that's the the takeaway. I mean, you know, I think payday super itself isn't you know inherently the problem, it just maybe exposes the the problems that you already have. Yeah, but to be fair, I'm a bit of a fan for it. Like you just yeah, I'm a fan of it. Yep. There you go. For for payday super fanboy. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Yep. Cool. Um all right, uh, I think that's everything, Steve. All right, thanks, Yvonne. I'll catch you in the next one. See you in the next step.