91±¬ÁÏ

The end of the financial year is almost here and if you’re like most business owners, your to-do list is already growing. Between reconciling payroll, reviewing employee records, and making sure everything is lodged correctly, the end of the financial year can feel like a lot. Thankfully with the right preparation, it doesn’t have to be.

This EOFY there’s more to think about than usual. Two significant changes come into effect on 1 July 2026; Payday Super and the closure of the ATO Small Business Superannuation Clearing House, both requiring action before the financial year ends.

We’ve put together this complete employer guide to walk you through everything you need to do before 30 June and beyond, covering:

• What’s changing on 1 July 2026 and what you need to do before.
• Your superannuation obligations for the 2025/26 financial year, including how to make sure contributions are paid correctly and on time.
• Payroll checks and reconciliations to complete before lodging with the ATO.
• How to lodge your STP finalisation event and meet the 14 July deadline.

Whether you’re a seasoned employer or navigating EOFY for the first time, use this as your go-to resource for closing out the 2025/26 financial year with confidence.

Looking for something to hang up next to your desk and tick off in the lead up to EOFY? Download our comprehensive 2026 EOFY checklist here. 

Note: This guide is written for businesses that have been reporting to the ATO through Single Touch Payroll (STP) during the 2025/26 financial year.

Key dates to know at EOFY

Before diving into the details, make sure these dates are locked in.

Before 30 June 2026	Super contributions must be received by the employee’s fund by this date to be tax-deductible for the 2025/26 financial year. Allow at least two weeks for clearing times. All pay runs, deductible expenses and any ad-hoc payments must be processed and finalised by this date to count for this financial year. 30 June is the last date a payment can be made via the SBSCH. Employers must download records before 30 June 2026.
1 July 2026	Payday Super begins and the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) closes. These two changes land on the same day and both require action before 30 June. • Payday Super: Super contributions must now reach the employee’s fund within seven business days of each payday. Quarterly batching ends permanently. • SBSCH closure: The ATO Small Business Superannuation Clearing House will be closed permanently from 1 July 2026. From 1 July 2026, employers must use an alternative, Payday Super–ready clearing solution. After this, any super submitted through the SBSCH will not be processed, creating immediate non-compliance and risk of the Super Guarantee Charge (SGC).
14 July 2026	STP finalisation deadline. Lodge your finalisation event with the ATO so employees’ income statements are marked ‘tax ready’ in myGov.
28 July 2026	Q4 Super Guarantee payment due (April–June quarter). This is the last quarterly super payment you will make. From 1 July, super is paid with every payrun.
21 July 2026	June BAS due for monthly reporters.
31 October 2026	Company and individual tax return deadline (if self-lodging).

Step 1: Prepare for changes landing on 1 July 2026

These are the most consequential changes of this EOFY and a permanent shift in how you run payroll and pay super. Getting these wrong from day one of the new financial year carries ongoing penalties, so action them before 30 June.

Prepare your payroll for Payday Super

From 1 July 2026, employers must pay superannuation at the same time as wages. Contributions must reach the employee’s super fund within seven business days of each payday, meaning quarterly batching ends permanently. With 69% of employers already concerned about staying on top of evolving super requirements, the pressure to get this right from day one is high. 

If you’re still relying on manual processes or quarterly batching, now is the time to act. Our recent research on Payday Super readiness found that 84% of businesses are already frustrated with their current super processes, from manual workarounds to returned funds, and that’s before payment frequency increases. Use the lead-up to EOFY to review and reconfigure your payroll and super payment workflows so you’re not adding to that number come 1 July.

Getting your head around Payday Super is a big task. Our Payday Super hub breaks down exactly what’s changing, what it means for your business, and how to make the transition before 1 July.

Transition away from the ATO Small Business Superannuation Clearing House

The SBSCH is closing on 1 July 2026. Before that date, download and save all your historical payment records. Once it closes, you won’t be able to access them. Then identify and onboard an alternative well before 30 June. Your first Payday Super obligation could arrive within days of the new financial year starting, so your new clearing house needs to be set up and tested before you get there.

Looking for an SBSCH alternative? HeroClear is built directly inside 91±¬ÁÏ Payroll. It eliminates manual bank files, replaces the retiring SBSCH and gives you confidence your contributions meet the strict seven-business-day rule that comes into effect with Payday Super. If you’re currently using the SBSCH, now is the time to make the switch. to get set up before 1 July.

Check updated award rates and minimum wages

The Fair Work Commission typically announces updated minimum wages and award rates in June, with changes taking effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. 

This means the announcement often lands right in the middle of your EOFY prep, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for it rather than waiting until July to check. Make sure your payroll platform has applied the new rates before your first full pay run of the new financial year.

Confirm PAYG withholding tax tables are updated

If tax brackets or rates change, the ATO publishes updated withholding tables. Your payroll software should update automatically, but confirm this before processing your first pay run in 2026/27.

Using 91±¬ÁÏ Payroll? Tax tables update automatically at the start of each new financial year without the need for any manual adjustments. 

Step 2: Understand your superannuation obligations for 2025/26

Superannuation is one of the most important areas of EOFY preparation. Get these right before 30 June.

Pay super early enough for it to clear

Super contributions must be received by the employee’s fund before 30 June to be tax-deductible in the 2025/26 financial year. You want to allow at least two weeks for clearing times as payments made in the last week of June frequently miss the deadline.

Confirm the correct Super Guarantee rate

The Super Guarantee rate for 2025/26 is 12% of ordinary time earnings (OTE). Confirm this has been applied correctly across all pay runs throughout the year.

Reconcile super contributions

Cross-check that every employee has received the correct super contributions for each quarter of the financial year. Any shortfalls need to be addressed via a statement lodged with the ATO.

Audit salary sacrifice super and Reportable Employer Super Contributions (RESC)

Confirm all RESC are correctly assigned. Errors here mean employee amounts won’t be reported correctly on their income statement and could leave employees with an unexpected tax liability when they lodge their return.

Step 3: Complete your payroll checks and reconciliations

It’s important to do some housekeeping before a finalisation event is lodged with the ATO. Lodging your finalisation event with incorrect data means amended declarations, frustrated employees and more admin on your plate.

Run through the following checks to make sure your business and employee details are accurate and ready to go.

1. Finalise pay runs

Any pay run with a date paid on or before 30 June 2026 needs to be finalised before you lodge your finalisation event. If a pay run hasn’t been finalised, it won’t be reported to the ATO and you’ll need to submit an amended finalisation event to correct it. This applies to both standard and ad-hoc pay runs. 

Learn more about

2. Reconcile financial year data

Reconciling what you’ve reported via STP against what was actually processed in your finalised pay runs is one of the most important steps you can take before lodging. It’s the best way to catch discrepancies before they become a problem. Look for any variances between your STP reported earnings and your payroll year-to-date figures and resolve them before lodging.

Learn more about the

3. Review employee details

Check all of your employees’ details are up to date, particularly their tax file number, email and postal address. Make a note of any closely held employees or foreign employees as these might be reported on separately. 

Using 91±¬ÁÏ? Run an to audit this information quickly across your entire workforce in one place.

4. Review pay categories

Under STP Phase 2, the ATO requires gross income to be disaggregated into specific components. Check that all pay categories are correctly classified in line with ATO requirements as misclassified categories are a common cause of lodgement errors at EOFY. 

Learn more about .

5. Review deduction categories

STP Phase 2 introduced updated reporting requirements for deductions, including specific classifications for salary sacrifice.

Check that all deduction types are correctly categorised and make sure no pre-tax deductions are set to ‘default’ under STP Phase 2 reporting.

6. Review FBT settings

Are you exempt from FBT under section 57A of the FBTAA 1986? By default, some payroll platforms (including 91±¬ÁÏ) set this to ‘No’ on the ATO Settings page, so it’s worth reviewing before you finalise to make sure reportable fringe benefit amounts are reported accurately. 

7. Check opening balances

If you migrated from another payroll system during the 2025/26 financial year, verify that your opening balances are correctly set up before you lodge. Inaccurate opening balances flow through to your year-to-date totals and will affect the accuracy of your finalisation event. 

8. Check lodgement authority is correct in ATO supplier settings

Before you lodge, confirm that your lodgement authority and supplier settings are correctly configured with the ATO. 

There are different submission types available depending on your organisation’s structure, so make sure you’ve selected the one that matches how your business lodges.

Step 4: Lodge your STP finalisation event

Once your checks and reconciliations are complete, it’s time to lodge your finalisation event with the ATO. This is the formal process that locks in your employees’ year-to-date payroll data and makes their income statements available in myGov.

The deadline is 14 July 2026. 

Lodging late prevents employees from accessing pre-filled income statements and may result in ATO penalties.

If you’re using 91±¬ÁÏ Payroll, the guides you through every stage of creating and lodging your finalisation event. It allows you to:

• Bulk import reportable fringe benefit amounts for employees.
• Send notification emails from the platform once the finalisation event has been successfully lodged.
• Process an event encompassing all pay schedules if you’re dealing with businesses with less than 2000 active employees, as opposed to creating an event for each individual pay schedule.
• Auto-calculate any variances between STP reported earnings vs earnings processed in finalised pay runs as part of the reconciliation process.
• Access the amended finalisation event wizard if further finalisation events are required.

Step 5: Communicate with your employees

Once you’ve lodged, let your employees know. They’ll be waiting for their income statement to be marked ‘tax ready’ in myGov before they can lodge their own tax returns. A simple message saves lots of questions coming your way.

Let them know:

• Their income statement will be available in myGov linked to the ATO.
• It will be marked ‘tax ready’ once you’ve lodged your finalisation event, typically by 14 July.
• They should verify the figures before lodging their return.

Step 6: Record-keeping and post-EOFY housekeeping

Save your EOFY reports

After lodging, download your key EOFY reports (including your STP finalisation confirmation) and store them securely. These are your audit trail if questions arise later.

Know your record keeping obligations

Australian businesses must retain all tax-related records, including payroll documentation, for five years from the lodgement date. Digital storage is acceptable provided records remain accessible and legible.

EOFY = easy with 91±¬ÁÏ

EOFY doesn’t have to mean weeks of manual reconciliations, chasing down payroll discrepancies and cross-checking ATO requirements. 91±¬ÁÏ Payroll is built to take the heavy lifting off your plate at the busiest time of the financial year.

From award rate updates and built-in STP reporting to the EOFY Wizard that guides you step-by-step through your finalisation event, everything you need to close out the financial year is in one place. And with HeroClear handling your super payments directly inside the platform, you’ll be ready for Payday Super from day one.

Want even more support? Our Managed Payroll service means you’re not doing any of this alone.

This time of year can be overwhelming for businesses, filled with payroll jargon, deadlines and countless compliance non-negotiables. But that’s where we can help. If you’re looking to take payroll completely off your plate, we offer a Managed Payroll service for those who want one less thing to worry about. 

With 91±¬ÁÏ Managed Payroll, you’ll have one all-inclusive fee with no hidden costs, locally processed payruns with local support, all managed end-to-end through the 91±¬ÁÏ Payroll platform. 

Our complete HR, recruitment and payroll platform makes record-keeping, reporting and workforce management easy at EOFY. Learn more about how we can help you at tax time by speaking with one of our business specialists today.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is current as at Monday 14 April 2026, and has been prepared by 91±¬ÁÏ Pty Ltd (ABN 11 160 047 709) and its related bodies corporate (91±¬ÁÏ). The views expressed in this article are general information only, are provided in good faith to assist employers and their employees, and should not be relied on as professional advice. The Information is based on data supplied by third parties. While such data is believed to be accurate, it has not been independently verified and no warranties are given that it is complete, accurate, up to date or fit for the purpose for which it is required. 91±¬ÁÏ does not accept responsibility for any inaccuracy in such data and is not liable for any loss or damages arising either directly or indirectly as a result of reliance on, use of or inability to use any information provided in this article. You should undertake your own research and to seek professional advice before making any decisions or relying on the information in this article.