The words ‘data management’ might not spark much excitement, but keeping your information well organised can make it much easier for you to meet your obligations.

As an employer, paying super probably isn’t your top priority. After all, you’ve got a business to run. But streamlining your super payments will help you to get more time back in the day to look after what matters most in your business.  

And with payday super fast approaching, there’s never been a better time to get on top of your super payment processes.

How does bad data impact your super payments?

A report released by the Gateway Network Governance Body (GNGB) provided some insights on how data currently impacts the processing of super contributions. It notes that the current error rate across the Superannuation Transaction Network (STN) is reported at approximately 1.6% but many payroll providers and clearing houses anecdotally report much higher error rates, closer to 11-12%.

Even with payroll providers and clearing houses providing assistance with data cleansing, many payments still enter the STN with data errors. A sample data set analysed in the report highlighted some common errors.

• 50% of errors were related to “member not found” issues, where a person’s account wasn’t found at the fund contributions were sent to.
• 21% of errors were due to incorrect USI or fund reference numbers.
• 21% of errors were caused by incorrect member data being sent to the fund.
• 8% of errors were returned either because the member didn’t have an existing account or was ineligible to join the fund.

Source: Payday Super – Getting the Data Right – Gateway Network Governance Body

Errors like these mean more effort and time is required to process effected payments. For funds, this means taking time to track down information to match contributions to the intended recipient and for those paying super, it can often mean returned payments that need to be processed again.

But it’s likely that soon, having the time required to match or resubmit payments will be a thing of the past.

Data quality is key to efficiency for payday super

Payday super is proposed to kick off on 1 July 2026, giving employers with much shorter timeframes to pay super contributions.

For employers, contribution payments would need to be accepted by their employees’ super fund within 7 calendar days of the contribution being made. And for funds themselves, processing time would decrease from 20 days down to 3 days. For this to be possible, good data will be vital to ensure payments can be processed efficiently.

“Poor data quality is probably one of the biggest risks for payday super. If data is not good upfront, the likelihood an employer will meet the 7-day timeframe is far lower. The criticality of system data improving has never been higher.”

Mathew Gilroy, founder of Beam

A simple solution

If you’re wondering where you’ll find the time to get your data up to scratch, there’s a simple solution that’ll take the pressure off by helping to improve data as you go.

At Beam, we designed our super payment tech to make data management a built-in part of the process. Working as an integrated part of your payroll software, Beam validates data upfront so you can correct errors before you pay. And once you do, Beam records the updated data in your payroll so you have one accurate source of truth.  

The way Beam works to validate and update data takes away a lot of work for employers. It’s essentially automatically uplifting the quality of their data with each payment.

Mathew Gilroy, founder of Beam

So if you’re looking for a simple way to improve your data and streamline your super payments, or get one step ahead with payday super preparations, consider switching to a brilliant super payment experience with Beam.

Ready to make the switch to Beam?

See if you’re using a Beam-connected software partner

Check out our Marketplace

Important information

The opinions and comments shared by people in this article are theirs alone, and they’re not necessarily shared by Precision. It uses information that’s accurate at the time of publishing.

This is general information. It’s not based on the specific objectives, financial situation or needs of your business. So, think about those things and read the Product Disclosure Statement before you make any decision about our products. Contact us or your payroll provider for a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS).

Precision Administration Services Pty Ltd (Precision) (ABN 47 098 977 667, AFSL 246 604) issues Beam. Precision is wholly owned by Australian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd (the Trustee) (ABN 88 010 720 840, AFSL 228 975), trustee of Australian Retirement Trust (‘the Fund’ or ‘ART’) (ABN 60 905 115 063) .

Back to Knowledge Hub