What the SBSCH Was and Why It Is Closing

The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House has been a free ATO-run service that allowed small employers to pay super contributions to multiple funds in a single transaction. Rather than dealing with each employee's super fund individually, an employer would submit one payment and one file through the SBSCH, and the service would distribute contributions to the correct funds. For businesses without payroll software or with a small number of employees, it filled a genuine gap.

It is closing because it was built for a quarterly payment system and cannot support the payday super regime that starts on 1 July 2026. Under payday super, contributions must reach the employee's fund within 7 business days of each payday. The SBSCH's processing model was not designed for that frequency or that deadline, and the ATO made the decision to decommission it rather than rebuild it. The closure is confirmed, legislated, and not contingent on any further parliamentary process.

The ATO stopped accepting new registrations on 1 October 2025. Existing users can continue using the SBSCH until 11:59pm AEST on 30 June 2026. After that, the service is permanently offline and records are no longer accessible. The ATO has confirmed that clients must download their complete SBSCH transaction history before that date because there is no way to retrieve it afterwards.

The ATO recommends that the January to March 2026 quarter, due 28 April 2026, be the last quarter for which clients use the SBSCH to submit payments. That recommendation is practical rather than mandatory, but it reflects the processing time needed to establish and test a new system before the deadline arrives. The April to June 2026 quarter super payment, which is due 28 July 2026, cannot be made through the SBSCH at all because the service closes before that date.

What SuperStream-Compliant Alternatives Look Like

Clients moving off the SBSCH have three main categories of alternative. The first and most seamless option for most is their existing payroll software. Xero and MYOB both include integrated super payment functionality. If the client is already using either platform for payroll, the super payment function may already be available within the same system and simply needs to be activated and configured with employee fund details. Processing time from submission to fund receipt varies, but these integrated tools are built to meet SuperStream standards and the 7-day payday super requirement.

The second option is a commercial clearing house. Several providers offer SuperStream-compliant clearing house services for a monthly or per-employee fee. The SBSCH was free, so any commercial replacement involves a cost that clients need to factor into their operating budgets. For clients currently using manual processes with no payroll software, a clearing house that does not require full payroll integration is a lower-friction migration path.

The third option is a clearing house service offered directly by large super funds. AustralianSuper and other major funds offer employer portal services including clearing house functionality at no cost to employers making contributions to those funds. For clients whose workforce is largely in one default fund, this can be a cost-effective transition.

All alternatives must be SuperStream-compliant. SuperStream is the ATO's mandatory electronic data standard for super contributions, requiring contributions to be submitted with a standardised set of employee and fund data in a specified format. Any replacement the client chooses needs to meet that standard, and firm staff recommending alternatives should verify that before the transition is made.

The Questions Firms Should Be Asking Every Affected Client Before June

There are five questions worth putting to every employing client whose super payment method has not been confirmed before the end of June.

Are you currently using the SBSCH? Many clients will not know the name of the service they use. The question to ask is whether they log into a government website to pay super separately from their payroll software. If yes, that is likely the SBSCH.

Have you downloaded your SBSCH records? Transaction history becomes inaccessible from 1 July. If the client has not downloaded it, they need to before the end of June.

Does your current payroll software have an integrated super payment option? For clients on Xero, MYOB, or similar platforms, the answer is usually yes. They may just need to set it up.

Have you connected your employee super fund details in the new system? Fund details need to be entered and verified before the first payday super payment is due. For new employees or employees who change funds after 1 July, there is a 20-business-day window for the first payment, but existing employees have the standard 7-day deadline from day one.

Do you understand how payday super changes your cash flow? Moving from quarterly to per-payroll super means cash needs to be available more frequently. For clients with tight operating margins, this needs to be budgeted for before July, not discovered after.

The Takeaway

The SBSCH closure and the payday super start date are the same event: 1 July 2026. Clients who are still on the SBSCH on that date have no mechanism to pay super, are automatically non-compliant from the first payroll they run, and face per-payday SGC assessments from day one. The window to fix this is closing. Every firm with employing clients who use the SBSCH should be identifying those clients now, confirming a transition plan, and making sure the switch is tested before June ends.