A big thanks to super Renae who has written this super blog post about super stream. K
When Super Choice was brought into affect in 2005, businesses with more than a handful of employees rolled their eyes. For some, this change meant registering with a half a dozen or more superannuation funds in order their superannuation guarantee requirement for each employee. Each fund would have their own way of how they accepted contributions and what information they needed from you. Paying superannuation each quarter (or each month if you were really good!) became a time consuming and onerous task.
Now there is SuperStream – a reform introduced by the former Labor government with the goal of improving the efficiency of the superannuation system, the timeliness of processing of contributions and reducing the number of lost accounts and unclaimed monies. Under SuperStream, all contributions are sent to the fund electronically along with certain data, which will allow the receiving fund to easily match up the contribution to the correct account.
Most of our clients (with under 20 employees) should start implementing changes to become SuperStream compliant from 1st July 2015 – with the aim of being fully compliant by 30th June 2016. Larger employers (with 20 or more employees) should be well underway with your preparations, ready for the compliance date in just a few months (30th June 2015).
If you have a MYOB AccountRight Plus 2014 subscription (or later) you can meet your SuperStream requirements through the software. Currently, those using other bookkeeping systems will need to use a clearing house. For those using Reckon, the software will create a file with all of the relevant contributions data, which can then be uploaded to a clearing house. Reckon’s preferred clearing house is NAB Super Pay, however there are many others out there. For businesses with less than 20 employees there is a free government option in the Small Business Clearing House. Many large superannuation funds have set up clearing houses (e.g. QuickSuper by Australian Super) so you should check with your default fund. I have noticed that some of these clearing houses are only free if you have more than 20 employees so make sure that you check this before signing.
For MYOB users, here is a link to a vide and some tasks to get your Pay Super function up and running – http://help.myob.com.au/ar2014/setup_paysuper.htm
For Reckon users, here is a helpful video which will assist in ensuring you can produce the electronic file of contribution information – https://vimeo.com/118873815
If you need help with getting SuperStream ready, please call the office.
iqaccountantsblog.com 