From Admin to Impact: How AI Is Changing What HR Can Deliver

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for jumping on to our Pedest Super webinar today. I can see the attendance numbers are just ticking over, so we'll just give it another minute for people to join.

We need some good hold music for this stage, Tanya.

I'm not singing, Rob.

You got a better voice for singing than me. So alright.

We're a minute or two past, so we will officially kick off. So hello, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us for our third installment now of the how to prepare for Payday Super with HeroClear.

Introduce myself. I'm Rob Dunn. I'm one of the GMs of Product and Employment Hero and have been working on everything Payday Super and Hero Clear for probably almost a year now. So keen to be running through this with you today. And I'm joined by Tanya Droop. Tanya?

Hi, everyone. My name is Tanya Droop, and I am a product manager at Employment Hero working closely with Rob and, working heavily on rolling out a solution for payday for you guys.

So payday soup for that first of July twenty twenty six deadline is rolling around fast. I think at last check, it is less than eighty business days away now. So you're thanks for joining today. You're in the right space to be ensuring that you're prepared. So before we kick off a little bit of housekeeping, please type your questions in the q and a box that's available throughout, and we'll be trying to answer those during the session and also at the end when we make time. We've also had hundreds of pre submitted questions. We've made sure to prepare responses, and we'll have slides running through some of those.

Often on these, we get hundreds of questions, so we don't get to answer everyone that comes through. So, please, we will be responding with FAQs on our website as we have in the past if we don't get to your question today. But please do send those through. We really appreciate them.

Yes. The session is being recorded, and we will be sharing the slides and the recording on our payday super site along with previous webinars as well. Finally, I'll just acknowledge that there's a large range of attendees today, so we'll be trying to make sure that we appeal to everyone. There's existing employment here, our users, and non SMBs and people within industries, so we'll try and make sure that there's context for everyone as we go through.

So in terms of the agenda today, we'll be covering the state of super clearing right now.

So experience that people are running through at the moment, then we'll go into pay the super high level what you need to know.

We'll show you hero clearing action with some demos.

Then we'll talk about the clearing options on the employment hero platform, the pricing and rollout timelines of the entire ecosystem for clearing going forwards, and then key actions for employees right now before we get to those q and a that's being presubmitted or submitted during the session.

Next slide. Thank you.

Quick disclaimer as well. So everything we present today is current as at fifth of March.

All discussions are intended to be informative and educational in nature and not to be taken as professional advice. So particularly with some of those q and a sessions that come through, if they're specific or relevant to personal business circumstances, we may not be able to answer in full context in this environment today, but we'll do our best to help and endeavor to provide as much information and responses as we can.

For those that are new to Employment Hero, a quick little introductory background. So Employment Hero serves a mix of existing customers and employers throughout employment operating system. It's a single platform that solves everything in turn for employment, making it easier to hire, to source talent, to onboard and manage all your teams, and to run payroll and all the rewards and benefits in one place. So currently, the platform is working with around about three hundred and fifty thousand businesses across Australia and the globe to help them with everything. We're managing HR benefits recognition and payroll, and over two point five million employees and job seekers across the platform as well.

So a little bit about the state of super clearing right now. So next slide if possible. Thank you. So but as we were building Hero Clear, we really wanted to make sure that we understand the actual problems that employers are facing right now with Super Clearing even before we get into payday super.

So we surveyed over five hundred Aussie businesses, and the results were pretty stark. So around about eighty four percent were frustrated with their current super payments process.

Sixty three percent said the single biggest headache was dealing with contribution returns or error returns as part of the super contribution process, and sixty percent said that they are frustrated with how manual the whole thing is. So those are areas that we've really lent into ensuring we can actively resolve those as much as possible with our tools education and hero clear solution that we'll run through today. That's the status quo before the compliance deadline, though. So Payday Super doesn't create this problem. That's preexisting.

But Payday Super will make it an even bigger challenge as we increase the frequency of some of these manual processes that are already frustrating. If you wanna find out more about that employer readiness report, use that QR code to download that right now.

And in relation to how payday super will compound some of these challenges that already exist for employers, we need to be aware that right now, the average employer is probably using about maybe three, four different systems for their super clearing activity, their payroll system, maybe some HR data being carried over as well, their separate banking system, and a separate clearing platform. That swivel chairing activity and moving data between platforms can result in lots of manual overhead and additional errors or time taken to resolve errors or returns.

We've paid a super increasing from quarterly to either that weekly, fortnightly, or monthly cycle that you need to move to. It could be up to a thirteen times increase in the frequency of your super cleaning activity.

The fines or super guarantee charges that are levied can be up to sixty percent higher, and you've got sixty percent less time to process those payments as well.

And then finally, as a result of those two things, in previous webinars, the ATR has referenced that they're expecting upfront a potential twenty five x increase in those areas of returns early on in the implementation of payday super just because of this level of change that's coming through. So that's really where employers should be looking for those automated payroll embedded super clearing tools to assist with resolving the manual process and all the additional operational overhead that's coming.

And now I'll hand over to Tanya to go through what we need to know.

Cool. Thanks, Rob. So in the next few slides, I'll be taking you through what you need to know. If you've attended previous webinars, you may have heard this.

If you're new, keen to take you through what payday means. So on this slide, the three most, impactful changes, on your day to day operations as an employer. The first one, it's in the name payday. So from the change date, super must be paid, calculated, funded, and received by the super fund within seven business days of payday.

So that's down from the current twenty day cycle.

The tighter deadline means that payroll needs to be tighter and accurate first time almost every time. So what that means is manual or disconnected processes are gonna really struggle in this new world.

Second, there'll be increased late payment penalties, which I'll go into a bit more detail, and this is a pretty significant one. So the new super guaranteed charge regime is much stricter than what currently exists. And importantly, it applies even if you pay the employee salary on time because it is to do with super payment. So a late super payment even by a day can trigger compounding notional earnings. So for businesses running on thin margins, this is a material financial risk.

The third one is around real time processing, which is pretty much required with payday. So every pay run needs to include accurate fund level data reported in real time. If your payroll system isn't integrated with super payments, you're gonna to hit, compliance issues either through errors, rejections, or delays at fund level. And the common thread across all these three changes that we see is that manual disconnected or last minute processes are no longer viable. Integrated automated solutions are no longer gonna be nice to have for payday. They will essentially be compliance requirements.

Next slide, please.

On this slide, we're going to go into the specific, changes that will come along with aligning, with super guaranteed to payday. And here are the few that require your attention. So when payday comes along, ATO's, introducing something called the member verification request or MVR, and this is to validate an employee's super fund details before making any contribution. This is a big shift.

So if the fund details are wrong, you just you can't just send the money and hope for the best. Employment Hero will be building MVR directly into our platform. So for our customers, this will happen automatically in the background. So we'll check and make sure that if any new employees update a fund or change a fund, we can make sure that it's there, valid, ready for payday.

New employees and when, new funds are being selected by existing employees, they get a little bit more runway.

So for first contributions to new employees or a new fund, you'll have up to twenty business days for the payment to reach the fund. And after the initial payment, that's when the seven day payday rule kicks in. So it's important not to confuse the two.

Qualifying earnings, are being redefined. So super will now be calculated on ordinary time earnings, so regular hours, loadings, and commissions, plus any salary sacrificed to super. Termination lump sums are excluded.

Also, we're introducing faster payments through NPP. So the standard is being updated to support faster payments via new payments platform. You'll see that as paid to in in HeroClear. And importantly, error messages that are sent through SuperStream is being improved. So if something fails, you can quickly identify the issue and fix it within platform rather than discovering a problem weeks later.

Superfunds, so it's not just all on employers. The superfunds themselves have will have, just three business days to either allocate or return contributions, which is down from twenty days. So this really is to help with the seven day turnaround or payment. So this means that the entire chain from payroll to fund allocation is moving close to real time. Errors will surface much faster, which is a good thing, but it also means that there's a lot, much less room to, catch mistakes before they become compliance issues.

Stp reporting, is also being expanded. So once, our payroll platform is updated, STP will be reporting qualifying earnings and total super owed with each pay cycle. Cycle. The ATO themselves will be, using this to have real time visibility on what is owed.

And finally, the maximum contribution base is moving from quarterly cap to an annual cap. So this changes how you will need to track and manage high income earners across the year, and this is something that we'll be tracking in our in our payroll platform. So, overall, the message here is that the entire super system is moving towards real time accuracy, less tolerance tolerance for errors, delays, and disconnected processes.

Now on to the next slide, which we'll touch on the superannuation charge in a bit more detail. So what does SGC actually cost you? So it's not just the missed super payment. It's act actually stacks up in layers. So you've actually got the original shortfall component, then notional earnings on top of that, which compounds daily, then a sixty percent administrative uplift on those combined amounts. And then if the ATO gets involved and you still haven't paid an additional penalty of up to fifty percent of the unpaid amount on top of everything else.

And that last penalty is not tax deductible.

So let's talk about what you can deduct. The good news is is that on time contributions, late contributions, and the core SGC component are now deductible. So if you do fall behind and self correct quickly, you can still claim most of it. What you can't claim is the interest in any, like, penalties payment penalties once the ATO has formally assessed you.

So if you miss a payment and the ATO gets involved, the total charge can be around fifty six percent higher than the original amount owed and up to two point three times the original if it isn't resolved after assessment. That's not a rounding error. It's a serious financial hit. So the main takeaway is automate your payments, keep your employee data clean, and remove as many manual steps as possible. Because getting it wrong, you can see from this slide, has gone up considerably.

Next slide, please.

Now this was an interesting, data shared by the ATO with us, recently. So from our customer base, it really, it quickly reveals that a lot of businesses are already running patterns that would get them into trouble under new payday rules even before the changes kick in. So the the the numbers show that twenty eight percent of, customers lodge payroll more than seven days late on at least three occasions last year. That's one in four businesses. So right now, that's manageable. But from July twenty six, each one of those late lodgements would automatically trigger, the super guarantee charge that I just took you through.

And fourteen percent missed three or more pay vents altogether. That's just late not just late, missed entirely. So under the new penalty structure we just walked through, that's a really significant financial exposure. Now I'm not sharing this to make you feel bad.

We're sharing this because it's real data about real business. Right? It shows that it isn't something that only happens to disorganized or careless employers. It happens to good businesses that are busy, understaffed, or just running manual processes and weren't built for this pace that's going to hit you.

So you're in this room today, which means you're already ahead of most people. You've got the time to make the changes, tighten up your processes and make sure that when July twenty sixth arrives, you're ready, and that's exactly what we're here to help you with.

Next slide, please.

Now with the payday super timeline, when the government confirmed payday legislation late twenty twenty five, Employment Hero, really banded together, and we accelerated the development of HeroClear specifically to make sure that our customers wouldn't be left scrambling when the deadline hits. This wasn't just a small lift for us. We chose to build a fully embedded clearing solution into Employment Hero payroll platform.

By the twenty third of Feb twenty six, HeroClear is live for all customers with a single employing entity. So if that's you, it's already available inside our platform right now.

When we hit the fifteenth of April, we are going to extend that to employers with multiple employing entities. So no matter how your business is structured, you're covered in that circumstance.

And by thirtieth of June, before payday goes live, every customer will be set up and ready to go with a solution that automates the heavy lifting and keeps you compliant from day one. So I'm sharing this timeline with you just to give you confidence that we haven't waited around on this. We saw this coming. We built for it. We're ready to make the first July as smooth as possible for you. One system, one click, fully compliant. That's been the goal for us from date one.

Cool. And now, we're very excited to share with you some videos on HeroClear.

Hi. I'm Chris. I'm on the product team here at Employment Hero, and this is a quick guide on how to hit set up your HeroClear account. So the first thing that you'll need to do if I make more. First thing you'll need to do is jump into payroll settings. So you go to suitcase, payroll settings, and to payments.

Now that you should see Hero Clear settings as the first tab here. If you don't, just let us know and we can be sure to enable it for you. Before you enter the onboard process, you'll need to click on this get started button.

So you'll see some important information here as well as links to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. So you can jump in and browse those at your leisure. And once you are happy with those, just click on the confirmation checkbox and I understand. And this will now enable the onboarding process for you.

So with HeroClear initially, it's only available for superannuation. In future, we will allow for wages by itself or wages and superannuation combined.

But at the moment, it's just for superannuation. So we'll click on that one, and we can now continue to the next step.

So the next step is to connect up your bank account. So we need to set up a a secure connection to the bank account in order to pull the funds in so that we can then do those disbursements out to the super funds. And there are two options here. One is the newer pay to method.

This is getting better and better support from banks, but at the moment, a lot of the banks have a a limit of twenty five thousand dollars per transaction, and they have limited support for business bank accounts. So the first thing to think about is what is your typical contribution size. If it's always under twenty five thousand dollars, then we do recommend at least attempting to set up pay too because it's faster payments and arguably a faster setup process.

And I'll show that in a moment. But regardless, we also recommend setting up direct debit. So even if you only set up direct debit or you set up pay two and direct debit, I recommend always setting up direct debit. It is a little bit more effort to set up, but it's a once and done process. Once you've set it up, you'll never have to go through the process again.

So for setting up pay to, all you'll need to do here is enter in the account name for your bank account.

Bank account, and pop in the BSP and account number. Now I won't submit this because this is in production. I don't wanna submit a a real alert to somebody.

But all you need to do is ensure that whoever has access to the bank account is aware that they're about to receive this pay to agreement request.

And if it's you, fantastic. If it's somebody else, just let them know that it's about to to come. And if you're not sure on how to accept a pay to agreement, I would just recommend going to Google and typing in your bank name and accept pay to agreement, and there should be information that you can look up for pay to for your particular bank. And in my cases, they'll have some information to explain how to accept the pay to agreement.

Once it's it's accepted, that'll be the end of that process, and you'll see it listed as a payment method here.

It's a very, very quick, very painless effort.

The direct debit, if we add that up, as I mentioned, it's a little bit more effort. It's just a longer form, essentially.

And then I'll go through the couple of steps that happen off the back of this. What I'll do now is, though, I'll pause this just so I can fill out this form. You can see we prefilled a lot of the information. We just need to fill in those blanks.

Okay. So I filled out that form. You'll see here that at the bottom, there's this option for a second authorized required. So when filling in this form, you will need to ensure that the information of the authorized that you put in here is someone who can act on behalf of the company and has access to authorize bank transfers.

So if that's just one person, fantastic. Just put in those details. If it's if you need dual authority, you can check this box, and you'll just get another set of details here to fill in. Now the one thing to note here is when I continue, what will happen is that a an email will get sent off to the email address that you've popped into that form.

If it's two people, they'll both get the email. You'll just need to ensure that whoever was the first there signs first, and then the second person signs the document. So if I don't have it to my email now, and hopefully, we will have an email asking us to sign the form. K.

Curically, direct debit agreement is the form.

Comes from Dropbox sign. We just need to click on this review and sign button. It should take us to Dropbox sign and have that document ready for us to review.

Okay. So here's the direct debit service request agreement.

Feel free to read this to make sure you're happy with the information, but it essentially has all of the details that we filled into that form.

We can either scroll down to the area to sign or click on get started, which will take us straight there. Click on that. Here is my amazing little signature and continue.

It's almost done. Now it's just a note that says it's a legally binding document. I click on that. I agree to finish it on.

So once I have now signed this document, that'll go back through to us to notify us that the document is signed. And I should note that at any time in this process, you can close this sign up, come back, and you'll see that this is in the pending state, the one we're setting up so far. Just hit the direct set up direct debit again. It'll bring us back to where we left off.

Okay. Now that that has come through, this screen will actually automatically update to say that it's now pending account verification. So what will happen now is that we've confirmed that that document has been signed, which will be automated. We will then send a small micro deposit to your account.

So you just need to jump into your bank account, look for an amount that we've sent you. And it does say here that it may take one to two days, but it's actually basically instant. So if you jump immediately into your bank account, check it out. You should see the amount that we've sent through.

In my case, I know that this is eleven cents.

So we just type in eleven and verify amount. And so now success. Direct debit is now active on the account.

So now that we do have a funding account that is set up, we can continue on to the next step, which is setting up our default super fund. Now you will already have a default super fund, you can just jump into this form here and, oops, select type in the name of the fund and select.

Once you are satisfied with when you've got, proceed, and that step is now complete. So now we just need to step on to the final step, which is just to review what we've done so far. And as a final step, enable Heraclear. And that is it. Congratulations. You've just now enabled Heraclear on your account.

So in this demo, I'm going to be taking you through how we pay super with HeroClear and also how easy it is to pay super with HeroClear. So I'm an employer, and the first thing I'm going to do is start a new pay run. I want to pay my employees who are on a weekly pay schedule.

And here is the pay run file itself. So happy to review it. All things correct. I will click finalize pay run.

And here you can see we have this create super payment button.

When I click on that, what happens is that we create the super bash off the back of the pay run with all the relevant information on this page for the employer to review. So here, I can see and look at all my super, payments for my employees.

And here, you can see that we've actually picked up an error with one of the data points for our employee, Brian Dewitt. So what HeroClear does is that to ensure that the payments land cleanly and on time, we will be pre validating the data.

And what I wanna do is fix the TFN details for Brian Dewitt.

So if I click on this little wrench, I'm taken to Brian Dewitt's, employee file.

Okay.

I've updated it with the relevant TFN details. I'll close out that tab, and I'll go back to the super batch file here, and I'm going to click validate.

And you can see now we have a new button. So we fixed that data point. We've pulled it into this file, and what we want to do is recreate that batch. So I'm gonna refresh the employee data, and you can see now that the validation has passed. There are no issues found in the super batch file. So I'm going to click submit.

And what I want to use is paid to.

So I'm gonna submit payment. And here you can see we have a nice, neat looking dashboard. Submission's been accepted, and here are the payment details, including the processing timeline. So the batch has been created. It's submitted to HeroClear. You can see it's currently in the status of uploading contributions to funds.

And then the next stage is pay through funds collected, then it'll move to disbursement to super funds, and the last state is that it's been distributed to all funds. So it moves through these stages quite quickly.

And here, I can review details as well.

Now in the event that there is a error, and the most common types of errors that happen in superannuation payment is that the member's not found.

Could be that your employee has changed, unbeknownst to you. So what you'll get in this screen, it would look more like this, errors returned, by funds.

So we will get an error back in with information around what, caused the error. So in this case, supply details didn't match the member account, and we will should also have the money coming back. So that would also be displayed on this screen as well.

And with HeroClear, we're going to go one step further with the errors coming back. We'll notify the employee as well if in the case that they require updating their fund details. So we're also chasing them on on on your behalf. So there's gonna be quite a lot of workflow uplifts that we're going to be introducing to HeraClear just to make sure that that the errors can be remediated on time, and we're taking a lot of the operational, overheads off the back of our, our employees' shoulders.

So that's HiroClear. Paying super, super easy.

Hope you enjoyed those two videos as much as I do enjoying listening to myself talk.

Okay. So on this slide, we wanna take you through, our clearing options. So to make it very clear upfront that HeroClear is one clearing options, and there are a couple other clearing options. So there are number one, there's manual stand alone clearing option.

This is exporting a SAV file, uploading to an external clearing house. So you're completely leaving Employment Hero platform, paying, the superannuation separately in the banking bank account, then reconciling manually.

So this is disconnected, very high effort, lots of handoffs, separate logins. And what that means for most businesses is that it's more more admin. Particularly when payday rolls around, it's not gonna be quarterly. You're gonna be doing this weekly, fortnightly.

There is higher chance of errors with this process. And if something fails, it's very slow discovery. You won't find out until you log in. So bottom line, these stand alone clearing houses, sure, you can pay super, but they're built for quarterly super and not for real time payday super.

The second option is around semi greater integrated. So it's still a bit more clunky, still risky. There is some integrated data flow, and it's one way. So the clearinghouse processes the super, but you're still waiting for information back. So payments might be triggered, but approval still happen within the bank.

Confirmations are still slower, so it's hard to know quickly if something has failed.

And, the last option is what we built, Heraclear. It's fully embedded, fully automated, built for payday as you can see from the videos. So super is processed inside payroll. No clearing house hopping. No bank hopping. It's all within one system. Payments are initiated, validated automatically with every pay cycle.

If there are any errors, you'll get real time confirmation so you know immediately if contributions were received or if something needs correction.

And there's fewer exceptions, fewer support tickets, fewer compliance fires for yourselves as employers. So at the end of the day, payday doesn't just change when super is paid. It changes how safely and efficiently it needs to be paid. Manual models rely on people.

Demi integrated models rely on handoffs, whereas HeroClear relies on automation integration and real time visibility. And as Supa moves from quarterly to every pay cycle, the margin for error shrinks. So for yourselves to feel confident on the payday, we need to be paying within an automated system.

So that's the big difference between the three options out there.

So I'm gonna hand it over to Rob, who will take you through pricing and rollout timelines.

Thank you very much. And just in relation to some of that commentary around the three different types, just responding to some of the questions as well.

You only need to have one clearing system operating at a time. If you move between, you don't need to deactivate or do anything around those. It's just activating current and processing your super contributions through that going forward. And, obviously, the demo went through the process and ease around that.

In relation to pricing and rollout, so super clearing pricing. The hero clear product will be twenty cents per employee per batch.

And we've currently got a offer with that where if you sign up before the thirtieth of March, you receive the first three months of your processing for free. So that's a real incentive to get moving now and make sure that you're testing the new platform, comfortable with the cycle before you move to that Paydays super cycle of aligned to payday.

The integrated clearing services that Tanya just outlined earlier will be thirty cents per employee per batch from one April.

So good savings with HeroClear, more automated and fully embedded into the Employment Hero payroll platform. And then with manual solutions where you're downloading the Saff file process, that remains available and free. So it's really making sure that all options are available and that you can proceed with the option that you choose.

In terms of rollout timelines, so Heraclear is live right now for single employing entity businesses. So where you just have one employing entity structure, the service is available, and you'll be able to activate that within the payment screen within payroll right now.

I have seen some comments in the chat where some people have noted that they can't see it yet, and it says coming soon. That may be because you're in the multi employing entity type where you might have multiple employing entities registered within your payroll platform.

For multi employing entity, that is coming on the fifteenth of April, still well in advance of payday super dates, so you've got time to switch that on and transition over easily.

We're also rolling out Heraclear to allow white labeled partners. That's coming throughout next week for single employment entity and then fifteenth of April, again, for multi employing entity.

And if you wanna get across the broader payday super changes, as I mentioned, we've got that payday super landing page with all the FAQs, cash flow tool, and deep dive articles. It's got all the webinars that we've been through and further responses to webinar FAQs that we've haven't got time to get through in those sessions. So you've got the QR code there, and we'll share that link in the comments as well.

Next slide, please.

So key actions for employers. What should we be doing now?

First, what we wanted to share is that cash flow calculator tool. So based on some modeling that we performed, the average Aussie SMB will need to free up about a hundred and twenty four thousand dollars worth of working capital to prepare themselves for payday super. So, obviously, this tool is really just available so that you can jump in, put in the a bit of details about your current super clearing time frame, what you will need to move to under payday super, and what your average employee count is or salary so that you can start to plan out what that amount may be for you and on what cycle you're gonna need to change to because, obviously, you're bringing that cash flow payment forward earlier.

And then pages just opened up there.

And so recommend using that QR code to have a look at the potential impact so that you can plan with your finance team any change in cash flow that you may need to consider to make sure that you're able to pay those super contribution payments on time and at the date required in line with payday super.

Next slide, please. So other things that employers should really prioritize right now. We've got a fair bit of information on this slide, and we do have on that payday super landing page employer readiness checklist that you can download.

But I prioritize three things right now. So the first is really to understand what the change means. So mapping out your current super payment cycle, understanding your cash flow, understanding if you've got any award obligations that you need to maintain, and then make sure you know exactly what you're transitioning from so you know your current state and what your cash flow needs are. Second would be to look for ways to embed and automate as much of your process as you possible because you can't it'll be challenging to carry manual process and reconciliations into this potential thirteen x increase in operational activity as you move from quarterly to that weekly, fortnightly, or monthly cycle.

And the third point is really to start transitioning gradually and early.

So as I mentioned, you I think it was less than eighty business days until payday super. Now is the time to start transitioning processes so that you're ready in advance and don't leave it to an overnight switch on one July. So systems like Curaclear are built so that you can activate them now, continue to pay your super on a quarterly basis up until one July, and then change that payday cycle thereafter so you can really plan out and smooth that transition as much as possible. So, yes, run through these checklists. They're available on our payday super web page.

And then finally, key point of note, if you are using the ATO small business super clearinghouse, there is a hard deadline that you can't miss on that. It is closing on thirty June. And after that date, you'll only have read only access to your data in the platform. Anything else cannot be submitted, so you cannot use it for super contribution payments and processing after thirty June.

So three things you should do is download your payments now so you've got that data available. Plan your move to a payday ready solution. And thirdly, look for something that removes manual steps as much as possible so that you're ready for operational change and increased frequency. So periodically is liable before the small business to the clearing house shuts down.

So if you're currently using the payroll that's available, the transition is straightforward. If you're not, good time to have a conversation with us.

And before we jump into the q and a, I just wanted to give another valuable step and takeaway for today's session. So payday super is a really big shift, and the best way to prepare is to make sure that your payroll foundation can support what's coming.

The most effective way to get ready is to have employment hero payroll, which will include the HeroClear solution fully embedded within it, which you can activate within the platform easily. As we've discussed, HeroClear is designed to support employers with payday in mind from day one. So it's got accuracy, ease, simplicity, automation, and clear visibility as was demonstrated by Tanya in those demos.

If you're already using Employment Hero payroll, you're in good hands, and you'll be able to see that service activated within the payment screen already or in the coming weeks if you're in multi entity.

For anyone that's not yet, the most valuable step you can take is to undertake an employment evaluation with one of our specialists. It's a short tailored conversation to help you understand what paid out super might mean for your business and what the gaps are that you might need to address ahead of one July. So to make the transition as easy as possible, we're giving everyone access to, you know, Employment Hero payroll and that three months free, Curically, if you sign up before thirty arch.

So the poll's been activated. You'll be able to respond to that around whether you'd like to speak to a specialist now.

So that question's come up, and I can see the poll should be available to you as well.

So we'll leave that poll running, and we will come back to that later, particularly if you've noted that you would like some assistance there. But now we'll move over to q and a. So we've answered wow. Awesome. I have fifty q and a questions already, team, in the chat. So thank you everyone for all those questions coming in.

On the screen here, we've got a selection where we try to cover as many of the questions as we can. There's another slide after this as well.

Many of these will answer some of the questions that were coming through online. So we'll go through these and then also try and get to any questions that we haven't answered in the q and a chat that's active as well. So first question I'll start off with, how exactly will HeroClear be billed?

What will it cost for weekly pay runs and employers with multi employing entities? So that was covered in the pricing page. Heracle is charged at twenty cents per employee per batch.

And so every time you process a pay run, that charge is twenty cents multiplied by the number of employees in the pay run. So if you're running weekly with twenty employees, that's four dollars per pay run and around about two hundred dollars a year.

For multi entity, as we noted, it's live from fifteenth April. The same pricing will apply for single or multi entities, so it's still at that per employee per batch level.

Onto the next question.

Why does super clearing cost money now? Clearing used to be free under quarterly systems.

So payday super is the most significant change to super compliance since super stream in twenty fourteen.

Paying super every pay run with real time confirmation, automated error handling, and a seven day compliance window requires genuinely different infrastructure operating at thirty next scale. So this infrastructure is something that Employment Hero, clearing houses, banks, super funds are working through to implement actively right now. And so the operating of this infrastructure does cost money, and manual stand alone clearing still remains free and available.

Semi integrated solutions are available at that thirty cents per employee per batch price.

Here, clearly, we've really ensured that it's at that twenty cents per employee is the cheapest embedded option available, delivers a lot of automation and value throughout the entire process. So really makes it easy to be compliant as possible without lifting a finger.

Tanya, I'll pass to you for a couple of questions.

Sorry. I'm busy answering the chat questions. Where did you get up to, or would you like to keep going?

I'll go to the next one, and then you can jump in after that. So will other clearing services be available?

Do we need to switch to HeroClear?

Are the other solutions payday super ready? So you don't have as we outlined in that clearing options, you don't have to switch provider. Employment Hero is making sure that manual solutions with the manual SAT file download or semi integrated are available, but we've made sure that HeroClery is the most automated, fully embedded service with clear validations to make it as simple as possible for you to be fully compliant with ease and minimize all the process of employee data validation or any errors or returns. It's been built with Payday Super in mind from day one.

We know that all clearing solutions are definitely aware of Payday Super and working towards that to make sure that they're able to support.

But we believe that an embedded automated payroll solution really helps to make sure that that seven day clock is met as easily as possible because you're removing any manual steps throughout the process where you can. So that's the core reason why we've built out Heracle to make sure that it's automating the full system for you.

Tanya, would you like to cover Heracleans Live?

Can I pass it back to you? Sorry. I'm on a roll with the q and a.

You're doing the tight ones.

Alright. You're stuck hearing my voice, not Tanya's. Here at Clear's live, how do I get started as an existing e h payroll customer? So that was shown in the demos.

You navigate to the payment screen within your payroll platform, and so you'll be able to see the activation there. It's an opt in. And as shown in the demos, it's really easy to activate within payroll. You just need to nominate your bank account, link it, and you're away.

We'd encourage that you can have a look at doing that today. If you are a single employment entity, it should be accessible and coming soon for multiemployment entity or white labeled businesses.

All of this is in place so that you can start using HeroClient well in advance of July, and you can iron out any issues or data issues or processing that you might find. And please do give us feedback as you start to use. So as I said, available now for single employment entities, multi employment entity by fifteenth of April.

And remember, HeroClear does operate on a batch basis, so you can still run that quarterly cycle now and move to your Payday Super weekly, fortnightly, or monthly cycle from one July when you are ready.

The next question is, will there be step by step instructions? Can we test Heraclea before July? Do we need to do anything before one July? I may have kind of answered that one is what I just ran through. So, yes, there are other step by step instructions. The video demos that you saw today with our great product leaders, Chris and Tanya, running through the flow to set up and use HeroClear are also in the platform. So you can see those and have those open as you run through the onboarding process to make it as easy as possible.

We've also got so that's step by step instruction demos there, and then we've got all the FAQs available.

As I mentioned, you can use HeroClear. You can activate it quite easily. Use it on that quarterly basis in advance, and then move to your future payroll aligned or payday aligned cycle from one July, or you could do that in advance of one July should you choose.

But, yes, it makes it much more simple and easy, and we really recommend planning out your cash flow impacts as well in advance.

I'm gonna keep rolling on, Tanya, unless you wanna jump in and share.

I currently pay I currently pay super weekly. Will anything change? Can I pay super fortnightly even if payrolls run weekly? So two quite separate questions there. I'll answer the first one.

If you already pay super weekly or fortnightly in line with your single touch payroll pay cycle, you're essentially ahead of the game. So the main thing is that you need to ensure that you are processing super payments in line with your pay run cycle or single touch payroll. So if that is currently weekly, that's great. You can continue that. But if your current pay run cycle that you're completing STP submissions is weekly, then you will need to do super contribution payments weekly as well. So for that second question, you can't do misaligned super contribution payments on a fortnightly basis if you're doing pay rounds weekly. It needs to be fully aligned because those STP or qualifying earning submission events will go into the ATO, and that's when that seven day timeline starts tracking from the STP or quarterly sorry, qualifying earning submission.

Is there a grace period for employers who aren't fully compliant on one July twenty twenty six?

So the legislation applies in full from one July twenty twenty six. There's no statutory grace period.

What we do know is that the ATO has confirmed that they're gonna be applying a risk brace risk based approach from year one, where they're gonna be targeting higher risk or areas where it appears an employer may not be attempting to be compliant with the change.

And so it is very key that you are moving over to that payday super activity, processing your super contributions on a pay run basis to ensure you are at low risk, and that you're making sure that you're aware where you do have errors or returns and trying to resolve and remediate those.

So that's really that risk based focus for the first year.

That said, the obligation from day one is very real, and it is something that you should really focus on how you get as close as possible and ensure that you're fully ready for payday super processing from one July because that's when the clock starts.

If the clearinghouse or payment provider fails, does liability fall back to the employer, and does the seven day window apply even if wages were paid on time?

So to the first question about failure of payments or a clearinghouse activity, the legislation puts the responsibility on the employer regardless of the process of clearing within. So if a clearinghouse takes too long, unfortunately, responsibility sits with the employers. So as such, it's best to ensure that you keep a record or audit log of events of when you've submitted and processed payments so that if any of your payments were received or sent late to a super fund, you've got that information and evidence to show that you as the employer completed your activities on time, and there was events outside of your control that may have made that receipt late and outside of the seven days.

So this is where Heraclea will provide automated login and reports to assist with this so that you're able to evidence where you've acted in compliance and best endeavors basis as much as possible.

And, you know, our advice or what the ATO's outlined is that you should submit, you know, on payday. Don't leave it to last minute. Otherwise, it will create extra risks or challenge. So keeping your lodgement records, which will be automated through Heroku is important.

Specifically on the comment about wages, yes, the seven day clock runs from when wages are paid. So it's aligned to that single touch payroll submission event with the ATO. So there's no grace built in for whether you've paid wages but not super. Super has to be paid at the same time fully aligned.

Sorry.

On to the next question. Will payroll errors or underpayments corrected in the next pay run attract penalties?

Does the employer need to self report?

So if you miss or underpay super, the ATO requires that you lodge or recommends that you lodge a s g statement or a voluntary disclosure statement to self report that. If it is voluntarily submitted, you can receive some reductions in the s g charge or it may be uplifted if there isn't a voluntary disclosure around that.

The SD statements forms on the ATO business portal.

Heroclaves, audit trail, as we mentioned, that audit trail and reporting will help you with the data required to compile those as needed.

So we're trying to work on how we can make that easier for you. Errors and underpayments can be corrected with out of cycle payments so long as there's an STP submission triggered with those so the ATO gets that STP submission event or in the next pay run. But if you do it in the next pay run, that may well be outside that seven day window, so it's increasing the timeline that the SGC charge might apply.

Are there any exceptions to payday super for charities, micro businesses, or seasonal employers? No. Payday super applies to all employers making SG contributions, So there's no adjustment for small business, charity, or others. Employment Hero early on, we did advocate for a phased rollout, particularly for small to medium businesses, but that wasn't adopted by government and treasury. So the rules apply equally to all employers from one July.

Next question is what happens if a super contribution is rejected or returned by the fund? How quickly will we be notified?

So if funds are rejected because maybe the employees moved their fund or there's been a data mismatch, it's usually gonna happen when employees change their super details or it's a new employee who's onboarded.

Firstly, those two categories fall within a window where you have twenty business days to confirm the settlement.

But Heraclear will lag these in real time. So as the demo that Tanya showed earlier, if we think there may be an issue with a submission in advance of the pay round, that will be highlighted upfront to try and prevent those.

But where there is an error return from a super fund, you'll get a notification and guided workflow all within the Employment Hero platform so that you can see those. We'll present those in the platform as soon as we receive that information from the super fund.

Funds are required to process any errors or returns within three days, and so they will be that three days will fit within the seven day window. So we'll ensure that those errors returns are notified to you in the platform. You've got clear guide as to how to complete them.

Final question for this slide.

What happens if an employee hasn't provided their super fund details on payday?

You must request their choice of fund. So if you haven't provided a choice of fund details to your employee or they haven't nominated their fund, you cannot withhold the payment. So it's best to do the ATO stable fund lookup so that you can confirm a stable fund, or you may if that doesn't exist, you may need to establish the default fund for the employee and pay that super contribution into their default.

As I mentioned earlier, for new employees, there is that twenty day window for the SG contribution, but we will be having systems up front that can help with the validation. So the best way to avoid this situation entirely is to be using HeroClear and our employee self-service onboarding feature.

Those two in combination will ensure that all new employees, when they're onboarded, are automatically presented a digital choice of fund form at onboarding.

And the MVR service member validation request will run to validate those fund details that they provide. It'll also send reminders to ensure that they complete their choice of fund selection in advance so you are well aware that that employee's been reminded, or if they haven't selected, that you may need to look for a stable fund or default.

So the employees self-service and Heraclea automate and take the heavy lifting off you.

Onto the next slide. And, Tanya, do you wanna take some of these questions?

Okay. How are corrections handled after a pay run has been finalized? Can we reconcile payments against payroll data? So once the payments have gone through, we will be displaying in, HeroClear, details around reconciliation, making sure that the super payments have gone out as as, as expected.

If there are any errors, if there are any refunds that come back with those errors, we will be showing that in the platform as well.

If super is paid in error, how do we recover from super funds?

Yeah.

Yeah. That's an interesting one because, getting money back from super funds is difficult.

In in in in current circumstances, let alone with payday rolling around, we can provide you with information, to take to the fund. That needs to go directly to the super fund for them to assess and then then pay it back. It's not an easy process. And, yes, I I feel for feel badly for any employer that finds themselves in that situation.

How does HeroClear process payments? Does a bank feed need to be set up? How quickly does SuperClear to different funds?

That's a great question. So in terms of processing payments, pay to is real time. It's very fast. Direct debit takes, at most, up to forty eight hours.

Since we've gone live, the bulk of our users are using Direct Debit because most banks currently don't support anything higher than a twenty five k payment.

And even with using direct debit in that, you know, up to forty eight hours payment process, the super funds or the super payments are are being sent out very quickly.

And very there there's to date there has been no notification back from the fund that they haven't received the payment or that it it has arrived late due to payment processing.

In terms of how yeah.

I just wanted to note we're at eleven fifty nine, so I might answer this one last question that you started, and then we will close it out.

So can wages be paid through the system via direct debit?

Is it separate from wages in the ABA file? So HeroClare is currently only processing super contribution payments.

Wages will continue to be paid through your existing payroll process using ABA file or however you currently process that. But we are working to extend to wages and even pay our wage tax payments using all the system of HeroClare that we've built. So we're working to really remove that manual ABA file and support parallel admins to be able to process the gross payroll payments in one space. That's the infrastructure that we've built in HeroClear from day one. We just need to extend that out. So that will be coming in the future.

Look. Thank you very much, everyone, for all the questions submitted through today. We think I can see eighty answered online. We got through as many as we could. We will ensure, as always, to send out a further q and a response afterwards so you get those with the webinar recording. Again, really appreciate everyone's time for joining, and see you next time. Thanks very much.