EOFY Payroll Prep: Payday Super & Audit-Ready Time Tracking

If Fair Work audited you tomorrow, would your time records hold up?

EOFY payroll prep is a pressure test for time records. In this BundyPlus Podcast episode, we look at why accurate time tracking matters as Australian businesses prepare for Payday Super and stronger payroll visibility.

End of financial year is often linked to tax returns, but for employers, it is also the right time to review how employee time is captured, approved, edited, and stored. With Payday Super starting from 1 July 2026, payroll timelines are becoming tighter. A missed record or unclear approval process can create extra risk when payroll needs to be processed every pay cycle.

Steve and the BundyPlus team discuss what businesses should review before the new financial year, including employee records, pay items, awards, overtime treatment, timesheet approvals, audit trails, and payroll-ready data.

The key question is simple: if Fair Work or the ATO asked for your records, could you access the right information quickly?

BundyPlus helps Australian businesses strengthen time and attendance processes through accurate time capture, manager approvals, audit trails, and payroll-ready workforce data.

Book a FREE demo: https://www.bundyplus.com.au/pages/book-a-demo

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

Official references:
ATO Payday Super: https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/super-for-employers/payday-super
Fair Work record-keeping: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/paying-wages/record-keeping

#BundyPlus #PayrollCompliance #TimeAndAttendance
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End of financial year is more than a tax deadline. For Australian businesses, it is a practical checkpoint for payroll systems, employee time records, and compliance readiness.

In Episode 11 of the BundyPlus Podcast, the team discusses why time tracking becomes even more important as Payday Super comes into effect from 1 July 2026. The conversation covers the pressure of shorter payroll timelines, the importance of keeping accurate timesheet records, and the need for clear approval processes.

The episode also looks at audit readiness from a practical business point of view. If an employee requests their work records, or if a regulator asks for payroll evidence, businesses need to know where those records are and how reliable they are.

Key topics covered:

Why EOFY is the right time to review time and attendance systems
How Payday Super changes the pressure around each pay cycle
Why accurate timesheets support stronger payroll compliance
What businesses should check before the new financial year
How audit trails help protect payroll records
Why businesses should record time properly all year, not only at EOFY
Chapters / Timestamps

0:00 If Fair Work audited you tomorrow
0:29 EOFY payroll prep starts here
1:07 Payday Super and payroll visibility
2:24 Why every pay cycle matters
3:31 Overtime and qualifying earnings
4:24 Will weaker payroll systems get exposed?
5:29 EOFY checklist for time and attendance
6:30 Building payroll-by-payroll resilience
7:04 Employee record requests and audit trails
8:12 Why 1 July matters for businesses
9:04 Time clocks and EOFY system reviews
10:19 The biggest EOFY payroll takeaway
11:10 Final thoughts for the new financial year

EOFY is a good time to ask one practical question: would your payroll records hold up if they were checked tomorrow?

With Payday Super starting from 1 July 2026, accurate time capture and clear approval records matter even more.

Book a FREE demo with BundyPlus: https://www.bundyplus.com.au/pages/book-a-demo

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You know, hence why you know timesheet records are you know even more uh important or critical. And I think a good way to think about it or a good question for businesses and people to ask themselves is you know, if their work was to audit you tomorrow, like would your records hold up or standard test or be in line with with compliance and all of these changes.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

So all right, welcome back everybody.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Uh, I've got Steve with me. We're up to episode 11. Steve, how's it going?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Is it 11? Wow.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, yeah. We're in we're in double figures. And being as though we're uh almost at the mid-year point, uh end of financial year becomes a bit of a discussion or talking point. So I thought that would be a good uh topic of of conversation for today. Um and I know for most people, end of financial year probably just, you know, the first thought is like lodging tax returns. And even though that's all important, there's a lot more to it than that, especially as it relates to us and time tracking and time in attendance. I think this is a pretty important or critical time to, you know, review your time and attendance processes, you know, being compliant in terms of employee records and especially regulation changes, which we've touched on in one of the previous episodes about the introduction of payday super or the changes in the way superannuation is handled. You've also got your uh what do we call it, the the qualifying earnings uh changes and essentially more ATO visibility, I think that's going to be required, wage theft laws, a whole host of I guess changes or things to be considered at at this time of the year. So, you know, hence why you know timesheet records are you know even more uh important or or critical. And I think a good way to think about it or a good question for businesses and people to ask themselves is you know, if fair work was to audit you tomorrow, like would your records hold up or stand the test or be in line with with compliance and and all of these changes? So with all that in mind, um, what's your take on that in terms of end of financial year? And we can maybe segue into uh some of those changes like payday super that we touched on and qualifying earnings.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, for sure. End of the financial year is definitely uh an interesting time. And it's probably different for business owners versus employees. Employees are trying to get as much super in as they can or legally can, and then employers are trying to get as many deductions as they can. And I suppose as you touched on, this year is like it's super different for many with the payday super coming in. Having all your systems in place, and I mean there was a recent stats we've we've seen a couple of um reports that so many people aren't ready yet. So if I was to be spending any time, that's what I'd be looking at, is looking at those changes that you need to go through. But yeah, in a financial, it's definitely a time to really sit back and have a look at your entire systems as well. Uh how well is your payroll run? Is there any improvements you can make? Is there any additional ways we can capture people's times more accurate and more uh easily processed? Because I mean at the end of the day with the apparel super, it means that basically your super has to be done every pay cycle. So the amount of time that you had before is now really super compressed into what is, you know, a much shorter time that you know before if there was a mistake in one of the superannuation payments, you could just put it off into the next one. It's like you can't do that now. It's every well you can, but it's every pay cycle. So that's what I'd be looking at. Yep, entire systems end-to-end time. So for us it means like additional time clocks for people or just different ways to do it. If you're brave, you can look at changing payroll systems. Yeah. Might not be a good time to do it. Might be a good time to do it. I don't know, it's really up to your business, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah, definitely. And we had also touched on like the whole uh qualifying earnings as as well in terms of how overtime and things like that are treated differently or as it relates to to super. So I think that, you know, kind of uh speaks to changes in like awards and rulings and and obviously making sure that's all updated in in in Bundy Plus.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And really having that visibility to the timesheets and seeing what actually does account for overtime versus not overtime. People may not have been aware before like overtime wasn't part of the superannuation. So yeah, some of those changes are like are critical. And you almost need to be like a guru to know all this information and like at times they feel sorry for the small business owners where they've got just the one payroll person, or you know, at worst it's the business owner that's also doing the pays. Yeah. They've got so much work on their hands to try to keep up with with the legislation. So uh yeah, tough, tough.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

So do you think that with these changes, you know, it'll potentially expose weaker systems or less compliant systems?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

I think it definitely will. I think it definitely will because businesses are as are reporting more often, it's also the opportunity for the ATO to say, hey, why didn't you report last pay run? Whereas before it would have been, hey, why didn't you report last quarter or last month? So there'll be a lot more uh sort of data for the ATO to actually use to then target who are the offenders, or not even the offenders, it could be the ones that you know, it could be a random that they pick out. So the more data they've got, the more chances they're gonna be sort of targeting you as an audit. And you know, let's be real, no one wants to audit anything, or have their systems audited um by the ATO. So yeah, it just I think it definitely will bring out more. Very good.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Cool. And so, yeah, for more information on all that kind of stuff, because we did discuss these in in two separate episodes. So Payday Super, the last episode, episode 10, and resilience in payroll, which would have been episode seven, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. So go back and watch those for for some more uh information or or advice. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Um, so as far as uh like into financial, you go, like what would be your recommended sort of checklist? Like what are the people that you're speaking to? What are they sort of checking off?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, I think you know, obviously, are in are your employee records uh current? Are your pay items and awards up to date and especially in line with those regulation changes that are coming? And as that relates to overtime, the payday super changes, is your like what's the approval process like in uh in Bundy Plus in terms of like transparency and from an auditing point of view? Because we mentioned earlier, like, you know, the ATO already is and probably in the future is going to require even more transparency uh from a payroll point of view. So um, you know, that comes down to how accurately data is being uh tracked and approved and edited. So essentially saving yourself, you know, asking yourself that question, like if we were to get audited, you know, what would we or where would we fall short or where would we potentially be at risk of being not compliant? So I think those are the kind of key ones. Anything else there you think that I've missed or worth mentioning?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Yeah, and I think covered most of them. I think it comes back to that really it's that month by month or payroll by payroll uh resilience that you spoke about. I mean, if you're covering them on a regular cycle and you're reviewing them, then really at the end of the financial year, it's it's pretty well the same process as what you've been doing. There shouldn't be any surprises then. So you shouldn't be reviewing it once a year, is what I'm saying. You should be that continual improvement. Where do we go wrong here? What mistakes do we make? How can we correct them? That would be mine. And yeah, that can be the simple tests, like if an employee asks for their clockings for the past 12 months, how easily can you give them? Because that's what the ATL are going to ask for. If if one of your employees has a pay dispute, they're gonna say, okay, well, they've claimed that they work here. Can you show me the records that show when they worked? So as long as those things are easily accessible and there's a a decent audit trial to see who changed what, when, what are you sending them? That that would be one of the key ones to make yourself audit ready too, really. Because there was uh there's a there's a podcast I listened to and they're talking about the use of AI for workforce disputes. And what was surprising to me is that the employees are using AI as their their legal advisors as well. And though like the chat GPTs of the world were saying, you know, well, you should ask this, you should ask for this, because they're looking at their regulations as well. So your employees may be asking you these questions, but they're questions that chat GPT has asked them to ask you. So every employee basically has got their own little mini, you know, workforce lawyer. So, you know, cross all your I's dot your T's. No, cross your T's, dot your I's, and just get that stuff in place. You know, you're effectively, you know, it's an insurance policy against some of these potential audits that you may have.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

No spot on. And I think that the the timeliness of uh it being you know the end of financial year and you know, for businesses and from an accounts and payrolls point of view, like you know, July 1st is kind of like January 1st. So it's a good time. Everyone likes like you know, a Monday for new mean, new week or new mean, new year. Well, you know, as it relates to businesses, I think, you know, first of July or or getting ready for that change is when you wanna, you know, you want to kind of hit the ground running with those changes or or being up to par with with your standards and requirements and compliance and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly that.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

And being at the end of financial year, it might also be a a good time to review uh well, many companies are reviewing their pricing structures. So, you know, we're gonna be having a small price uh increase in the new fin year. So might be a time, especially if your workforce has expanded and you need to add on additional time clocks and stuff like that. Steve, what can they uh consider with with Bundy Plus and our changes?

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Uh well, Bundy Plus especially, uh it's kind of funny. I kind of consider a physical clock probably one of the easiest and cheapest return on investments you're gonna get with your payroll. Literally, for under $1,000, you can get a clock that does so much of the recording for you, so much of the auditing for you, straight into your timesheet. So there may be an offer down in the bottom in the show notes there if you see it, and there might be a um for interfinancial deal. It's just one other thing I was thinking of. Um it's not just your TNA. Like even this morning, I was going through some of our subscriptions, and you see things like, hang on, we don't use this anymore. So there's some of those additional expenses. Although some things are going up, there might be some things you no longer need. So one advice I've got is grab your statement out, highlight all the things, highlight the things in green that you must have, highlight the things in orange, like I'm gonna review this, or highlight in red, I don't need this thing anymore. So it's about not only reducing your costs, it's about you know keeping productive and just keeping on top of things.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yeah, optimizing your costs. It's like you know, reviewing those subscriptions that you signed up for that you've totally forgotten about. Yeah, exactly, exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

So Levon, if there was one um biggest thing you consider for the end of financial year or coming to the new fin year, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Uh ATO audits and ATO compliance. I think that's a a critical one, and that's you know, really what this time of the year is is all about. All right, so Steve, what's what's one thing to consider at this time of the year for businesses being end of financial year?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

My stance doesn't really change much other than record everything. You just gotta keep on recording everything regardless of the time of the year, um, because you don't know, you're not gonna get audited on the first of July. You can be audited any time, so you have to be right at all times the year. That's that's my advice. All right, was there anything else, LeBon? I've seen the wrap for this fine year.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, that's that that's it. Happy Fin Year to everybody, and you know, wishing you all the best uh for the new financial year and and the the changes that come with that. And uh we'll see you in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, good luck with their first potential uh payday super pay run. Yeah, that's if you're doing it. If you haven't prepared like us, don't say we didn't warn you.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah, exactly. You've been warned, consider this an official warning.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yep, exactly. All right, we'll catch you in the next one.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

All right, no worries, thanks everyone. Cheers, Steve, see you in the next one.