Is there any updates for reckon accounts desktop yet because I haven't received any yet?
What kind of updates re you referring to?
The ones for the next financial year
too early, check mid June
The 2026 version was released to Partners a week or 2 ago - I believe it will be publicly available by the end of this month/early June ๐
My understanding is there should be a new field in the STP for 'qualifying earnings'.
I put up a question a few weeks ago & was told that an update would be available soon.
We are extremely disappointed with Reckon. After many years of being customers they do not seem to be keeping anyone up to date with these changes.
In addition, we have just submitted our first (manual) superannuation with Colonial First State. What a horrid experience! Particularly as CFS have said that if there is any issues they will put the money into their default fund for each staff member!!!!
We trusted Reckon on their recommendation for CFS. Should not have done so.
We are a small business & cannot afford to have this go wrong.
I am referring to desktop.
I understand your frustration @Anne G ๐๐ป๐ข
To be fair though, it isn't really Reckon at fault - Payday Super is new govt legislation & all the accounting software providers have had to spend extensive time & money in order to comply with it (just like we as business owners &/or employers are having to ๐ฉ)
Unlike their competitors though, Reckon also have an additional challenge in that the technology that Reckon Accounts uses is not online/cloud-based & they also don't own the base code for it. It's owned by Intuit with Reckon given exclusive licence to develop it for Australia & as a result, making changes & fixes is much more difficult & time-consuming than a provider-created online product ๐ฉ It is a lot easier, faster & cheaper to build & develop cloud-based solutions, as they use the latest technology & have less restriction.
As the cloud has emerged, desktop accounting software is no longer the main platform so I would imagine RA/RAH were not a top priority to the ATO in terms of providing product protocols/clarifications/compliance. Therefore, Reckon have probably not been provided with RA/RAH parameters/requirements as quickly as their competitors which has created an even tighter deadline for them to have a fully-functioning, compliant product available in time.
Reckon isn't a Super Fund or Clearing House (SuperStream Payment Platform) Instead, they've partnered with Colonial Super purely to provide their users with a free clearing house option - The original thought was that this would be helpful for those transitioning from the soon-closing free ATO SBSCH, but Reckon have negotiated for it to be free for any/all RA/RAH users.
From 01/07/26 under Payday Super, whilst employers have a strict 7-business day requirement for Super payments, the Super Funds have an even tighter deadline - of only 3 days ๐คจ - to match/transfer payments, once received. Therefore, with employers submitting contributions in greater volume AND at greater frequency, they also need to have systems in place to manage that workload within their allowed timeframe too ๐ฌ
๐ก๐ก๐ก IMPORTANT!!! ๐ก๐ก๐ก
It is NOT compulsory to โฆ
(Obviously you have to change to an alternative IF using the ATO SBSCH HOWEVER โฆ it is entirely your choice which one you use)
If you are currently logging in separately to your Super clearing house online & manually entering/submitting your employee contributions โฆ YOU CAN STILL CONTINUE TO DO THIS, IF PREFERRED!
I can tell you that - unlike the usual late June annual upgrade release - the 2026 RA/RAH versions are due to be released publicly at the end of this month/early June & do indeed have a new "Qualifying Earnings" (QE) tag, which you are able to tick/untick for each Payroll Item. This is very similar to the current "Ordinary Time Earnings" (OTE) terminology that we have now. The main difference is that OTE is the foundational payment-type whereas QE is just the updated, simplified legal framework used to calculate payroll super obligations.
Payday Super is not as scary as many people are anticipating. The main difference is the increased reporting/payment frequency (from mthly/qtrly > each pay day) - The other changes are much less major ๐
