Before you pay super to a fund for an employee for the first time, the ATO's Payday Super reforms require you to confirm that the employee's membership details are correct with that fund. This stops contributions being rejected because of a wrong name, date of birth, or member number — which today leads to refunds, re-submissions, and delays after the money has already moved.

Payroll handles this automatically. When an employee's super fund is saved, Payroll sends a Member Verification Request (MVR) to the fund. The fund checks the details against its own records and sends back a result — usually within minutes, and always within 24 hours.

You'll see the result as a status against the employee's super fund record. You don't need to contact the fund or fill in any forms — Payroll does it on your behalf.

A verification is sent automatically whenever an employee's super fund is set up or changed. In each case, it's the first time super will be paid to that particular fund for that employee.

If an employee's super fund was already confirmed in your HR platform — during onboarding or through the super choice portal — Payroll trusts that result and does not re-check it. This avoids duplicate work and keeps things moving.

Payroll only runs its own verification when a fund is set up or changed directly in the payroll system. So you'll typically only see verification activity in payroll for employees whose super fund was added or changed in Payroll itself.

Not every change needs verification. The following do not start a new check:

Each employee's super fund record shows one of these statuses:

The check is applied at one clear point: when you create a super payment from a pay run, before it's sent to the funds. Payroll looks at each employee's current status at that moment:

• Employees who are Verified or Not Applicable are included as normal.
• Employees who are Pending, Action Required, Incomplete, or have no verification on file are held back from that super payment.

Verification is only ever requested once — when the super fund is first saved. Creating a super payment does not start a new verification; it simply checks the employee's current status. If an employee isn't Verified (or Not Applicable) at that point, they're blocked from that super payment and can't be added to it. They stay blocked until their verification is resolved — there's no automatic re-verification at each pay run.

An employee stays held back from super payments until the issue is fixed. To clear it, one of the following needs to happen:

• The employee (or you) updates their super fund details to match the fund's records. This sends a fresh verification automatically.
• The employee nominates a different fund, which is then verified.

Once the new verification comes back Verified, the employee is included in the next super payment you create.

SMSFs are verified too, but they work slightly differently from regular (APRA-regulated) funds:

• An SMSF is contacted through its Electronic Service Address (ESA) — the same address used to send it super contributions — rather than through the standard fund registry.
• The SMSF record must have both an ABN and an ESA recorded. If the ESA is missing, the field will be highlighted in red and an ESA will need to be specified. As soon as the ESA is saved, verification is sent automatically.
• The response window is the same: up to 24 hours.

Employees are kept informed automatically, by email and in-app notification (and mobile push where available):

• When verification starts — they're told their super fund membership is being verified, with the fund name and date. No sensitive details are included.
• If verification can't be completed — they're told what to do, without naming the exact field that didn't match:

• Record super fund details early. Verification starts when details are saved, so capture a new employee's super fund well before their first pay run. This gives the fund time to respond before you create a super payment.
• Encourage accurate details. Verification depends on the name, date of birth, TFN, and member number matching the fund's records exactly. Accurate onboarding data means fewer Action Required cases.
• For SMSF employees, confirm the ESA is recorded. No ESA means no verification — and no super payment — until it's added.

No. Verification runs automatically once it's enabled for your account. You'll simply start seeing verification statuses against employee super funds.

When you create a super payment from a pay run, before it's submitted to the funds. Each employee's status is checked at that point.

They're blocked from that super payment. Creating a super payment checks their status but doesn't send a new verification — the original request stays open until the fund responds. Once it comes back Verified, they'll be included in a super payment you create after that point. Missed super isn't back-dated, so resolve any hold-ups promptly.

The status moves to Incomplete and the verification is retried in the background. The employee can't be included in a super payment until it resolves.

No. If the fund was already confirmed in HR or via the super choice portal, Payroll reuses that result. Payroll only runs its own check when a fund is set up or changed directly in payroll.

For member privacy, the reason isn't shown to employers. Your employee receives guidance on what to update.

No. When an employee joins your registered default fund, Payroll sends a Member Registration Request (MRR) to set up their membership instead of a verification.

The status will show Not Applicable and you can pay super as normal — no action needed.