Employee Super Funds - Allowances (Australia)

Overview

The Allowances tab allows you to personalise employer contributions. When a superannuation payroll rule generates an Employee Super Funds allowance in Transaction View, it uses the Employee Super Funds | Allowances tab field values to determine the transaction rate. However, payroll rules cannot generate transactions for an allowance if the relevant Employee Super Funds | Allowances tab field is empty or no corresponding allowance code is specified in the associated Superannuation Fund | Allowances tab.

Important: If any of these fields do not have an allowance code specified in the associated Superannuation Fund | Allowances tab, then that field is disabled.

Column fields

The Allowances tab contains the following column fields:

Contribute over maximum?

Yes/No fields that indicates whether the employer contributions, additional/voluntary employer contributions and or any salary sacrifice arrangements setup to cover Super Guarentee payment obligations are to continue being paid if/when the employee reaches the maximum earnings contribution threshold.

Influence?

Yes/No field that indicates whether the employee was involved in the decision process resulted in the maximum earnings contribution capping not being applied to them.

Note: Contributions that the employee has influenced are reported as RESC.

Fields

Employer (%):

Value of the non-RESC portion of the employer’s percentage contribution.

Typically, employers who are only required to pay the bare minimum to fulfil Super Guarantee obligations, specifically in cases where the employee is NOT subject to any for of industrial instrument, then just the current legislated SG percentage should be entered in this field.

If you copy across defaults, then the Employer (%) value is copied from the Superannuation Fund record.

Important: This Employer (%) value overrides the Superannuation Fund | Allowances tab | Employer (%) value. If the Employer (%) value in the Employee Super Fund is zero or blank, then the payroll rule will not generate any employer allowance transactions.

Employer ($):

Value of of the non-RESC portion of the employer’s fixed contribution. Use this field in reports or payroll rules to determine if the employer is contributing the required amount to the employee’s superannuation.

Note: The employer can agree to pay $10,000 in superannuation as part of the employment agreement. Employees can belong to many superannuation funds, so the employer could contribute $2,000 to two funds and $6,000 to a third fund.

Salary Sacrifice (%):

Value of the non-RESC portion of the Salary Sacrifice percentage.

Salary Sacrifice ($):

Value of the non-RESC portion of the Salary Sacrifice fixed value.

Note: Salary sacrifice is usually set up as a deduction so these fields are used only if you have set up salary sacrifice allowances for costing purposes.

Employer % RESC

Value of the RESC portion of the employer’s percentage contribution.

Employer $ RESC

Value of the RESC portion of the employer’s fixd contribution.

Salary Sacrifice RESC (%):

Value of the RESC portion of the Salary Sacrifice percentage.

Salary Sacrifice RESC ($):

Value of the RESC portion of the Salary Sacrifice fixed value.

Note: Salary sacrifice is usually set up as a deduction so these fields are used only if you have set up salary sacrifice allowances for costing purposes.

Threshold Checks

Minimum Earning Check

The monthly minimum earnings check for super contributions was removed on 1 July 2022.

Before this date, employers were not required to pay super guarantee (SG) contributions for employees earning less than $450 in a calendar month.

Maximum Earnings Check

Prior to 1 July 2026 - the maximum earnings contribution threshold calculation was based on an employee's "OTE" income for the Superannuation Quarter in which the employee was paid. This meant PayGlobal used the sum of allowances with Is Super OTE = Yes from all closed pays that had the same Superannuation QTD associated with the pay you were processing.

From 1 July 2026 - the maximum earnings contribution threshold calculation is based on an employee's "QE" income for the Tax Year (YTD) in which the employee is paid. This means PayGlobal uses the sum of allowances with Is Super Qualifying Earnings = Yes from all closed pays that have the same YTD code associated with the pay you were processing.

If the employee is setup to have capping applied, then once the employee reaches the maximum earnings contribution threshold for the defined period (pre 1 July 2026 - the quarter, post 1 July 2026 - the tax year) then, no contribution amounts will be made in that pay.

If capping will not be applied, contributions will continue to be made even after the threshold has been reached.

Given the use of capping can impact not only the employee but also the employer's cashflow and SG obligations. It is not recommended to change Superannuation Funds part-way through a pay period.