This article explains how Deputy Payroll (AU) determines Qualifying Earnings and Super Liability for each pay item, how these amounts are reported in STP, and how to correctly process payments where super is paid on amounts that are not considered Qualifying Earnings.

Before you read

• Target audience: This article is for System Administrators, Payroll Administrators, Payroll Managers, and users responsible for managing payroll. 
• Plan restrictions: This information is relevant to Australian customers using Deputy Payroll (AU).

This article covers

• Understanding Qualifying Earnings and Super Liability
• How Deputy Payroll determines Qualifying Earnings and Super Liability
• How to pay super on payments that are not Qualifying Earnings

Understanding Qualifying Earnings and Super Liability

Under the Payday Super changes starting on 1 July 2026, employers are required to report Qualifying Earnings (QE) and Super Liability (L) in their Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting. 

QE replaces Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) as the earnings base used for calculating an employer’s Super Guarantee payments.

Employers may have additional obligations to pay super under an industrial instrument, such as an award or agreement, or a company policy. These amounts may not be QE but can continue to be reported as super liability in STP.

In the section below, we cover the methodology for every pay item in Deputy Payroll and how super is calculated and reported in STP as Qualifying Earnings (QE) and Super Liability (L).
 

How Deputy Payroll determines Qualifying Earnings and Super Liability

Which pay items attract Super Liability?

The Class chosen for a pay item will determine if there is a super liability to be applied to the pay item. 
As per the Class Chart, only Normal and Bonus trigger the super liability onto the pay item.

If Normal or Bonus are selected, this triggers super to be applied to the payment. The earnings for the pay item will also be included in the employee's QE amount, which is reported in the STP submission.

To view the employee's total QE amount that will be in the pay run, hover over the super Rate in the Expenses section of the employee's payslip. It can take a second or two for the tooltip (small pop-up box) to display. The tooltip displays the total QE amount that will be reported in STP for this pay run. 

The Super Liability (L) amount that will be reported in the STP report for this pay run is displayed on the employee's payslip, on the Super line in the Expenses section.

Note: The Qualifying Earnings (QE) and Super Liability (L) amounts displayed in the STP Summary during the submission process are Year-to-Date (YTD) values and reflect the amount being reported to the ATO. 

How to pay super on payments that are not Qualifying Earnings

As per ATO guidance, the reporting of Qualifying Earnings (QE) amounts will only relate to pay elements that are deemed QE by the ATO. 

If you require super to be paid on items that are not QE, you will need to follow the process below so that the payment:

• does not report the amount in STP as qualifying earnings
• includes the total superannuation amount payable on the payment as Superannuation Liability in the STP report.

1. On the employee's pay slip, add the relevant payment item as you normally would (for example Jury Duty, Ancillary or Defence etc).

2. Using the value in the Earnings section, calculate the super you want to pay.

Example:

$2128.00 x 12% (your company's super rate) = $255.36

3. Click Actions, then select Add super from the drop-down menu.

4. Enter the super amount you calculated in Step 2. Click Add Super to confirm the action.

4. Enter Fix Super into the Title field, then change the STP drop-down to Gross (Qualified Earning=0). 

Once updated, click Update Payment.

The pay run has now:

• Applied the super amount to the Jury Duty payment to be included in the super contributions file
• Added the Jury Duty payment as Leave Type A in the STP report
• Included the super amount in the STP report under Super Liability (L)
• Removed the Jury Duty payment amount from the QE calculation

Below is what it looks in the STP report:

Note: The values shown in the STP Report are Year-to-Date (YTD) amounts.
 

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