Clearing house FAQ's

SuperChoice operates a superannuation clearing house and Single Touch Payroll (STP) service for over 200,000 employers, representing close to 4.5m Australians, over forty superannuation funds and seventy payrolls.

It is one of the largest superannuation clearing houses in Australia, processing nearly 20 million transactions per month.

As a result of the recent merger and integration activities, Aware Super has continued to roll out service improvements and provide the best solutions for our members and employers. We are now looking to establish a consolidated service offering to all employers, starting with a single solution for clearing house and STP.

The selection of SuperChoice offers the opportunity to improve the experience for employers and is our choice for a streamlined solution; designed to make paying super and STP payments and reporting easier for you, our employers.

The new clearing house offers you an improved and faster solution, which supports payroll teams to manage their own users and add new employers as your business changes.

Some of the key benefits of the new clearing house provided by SuperChoice are below:

• A simple interface with fast and easy registration and onboarding.
• Allows use of existing file formats; QuickSuper Contribution CSV and Superstream Standard Alternative File Format (SAFF is recommended).
• All errors addressed on screen – no editing files or double handling.
• Reduced manual handling processes and associated operational risk.
• Easy to use and learn system- and works seamlessly with handheld devices.
• Wider range of self-service reporting, and ability to create custom reporting for more organisational insights.
• Fully supported with User Guides, FAQs and videos.
• Simple editable view of all members details and contributions, as well as submission totals to each fund, prior to submission.
• Auto creation of new SMSFs (where details provided in the file); alternative new SMSF identified can be created post file upload.

SuperChoice provides an extensive reporting platform. You will be able to customise reports to meet business requirements, including a list of your employees’ Aware Super member numbers. Read the Employer User Guide - Clearing House Reporting.

Our provider, SuperChoice offers a superannuation clearing house and digital transaction solution designed to support the data and payment needs of medium to large employers and their compliance requirements.

If you have less than 20 employees, we recommend you consider the ATO Small Business Clearing house which also offers a complimentary clearing house option. More information can be found here: ATO Small Business Clearing House.

We recommend using the latest version of Chrome, Edge and Firefox to access the new clearing house.  Functionality may be reduced when using Safari and Explorer.

To create your account in the new clearing house you will need your business details including ABN, your bank account and primary contact details.  You will be asked to nominate your preferred payment method.

Use this link to register and activate your account: Click here

Following registration, bookmark this link for easy access to the new Aware Super clearing house:

Employerpay.com.au/aware

We recommend you use your own work email as the employer contact email in the first instance. During activation and registration, this email address is used for authentication, and is the preferred option for your username to help you remember it and assist us to support you if you ever need it.

You can update the employer contact email to an alternative, including a shared inbox, after registration in the Employer Maintenance function in the clearing house.

Generic email addresses should only be used as the employer primary contact email address. This can be updated through the Employer Maintenance function within the clearing house.

When setting up additional users, they should be created with their personal work email address. Each user is assigned a specific user role and can only access relevant information and functions specific to their user role. This also provides a clear record of who has completed what actions for audit purposes.

The personal work email address assigned to each user is used to contact them at appropriate moments, including when they need to reset their password – it is essential for the security of the data held within the clearing house that these emails are only accessible by the person it is intended for.

If you have any issues with registration and accessing the portal, please contact;

For Aware Employers: 1300 878 737

For VicSuper Employers: 1300 878 737

Single Touch Payroll is available for all employers who register with the new Aware Super clearing house.

After you have registered for the clearing house, the first time you are ready to upload an STP file, there are four additional payroll questions you will need to answer on your initial file load before loading your file.

The additional payroll software information you require is listed below: 

• Product ID: This is a unique Product ID given by the ATO for the Payroll
• System: BMS Name: This is the product name of the Payroll System.BMS
• Vendor: This is the business or company name of the Payroll System.BMS
• Version: This is the software version of the Payroll System used.
  

Your payroll software provider should be  contacted to provide you with the correct information. 

The SuperStream standard require all Contribution Transaction Requests to include a refund bank account. This is the employers bank account to which any money that cannot be allocated, is refunded to you. This requirement is set out by the ATO, therefore in order to provide the clearing house service, SuperChoice needs to collect this information.

See the ATO Website for further details: SuperStream | Australian Taxation Office (ato.gov.au)

Money may be refunded because the member can’t be identified, the member has left the fund, or they are ineligible for the contribution type.

Account name: Payclear Services Pty Ltd

BSB:                 012 352

Account No:     8367 28894

Bank: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd

SuperChoice Services Pty Limited (“SuperChoice”) is the provider of the Superannuation Clearing House facility offered to the employer customers of Aware Super. SuperChoice is the Authorised Representative (numbered 336522) of SuperChoice’s related corporation PayClear Services Pty Limited (“PayClear”) which is the holder of Australian Financial Services License Number 314357.

Both SuperChoice and PayClear may be contacted as follows:

Address Level 8, 35 Clarence Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

Phone +61 2 8038 6800 or 1300 659 456 Fax +61 2 8038 6823

Email: superchoiceenquiries@superchoice.com.au

Website: superchoiceservices.com

Please contact our employer service teams as below;

For Aware Employers: 1300 878 737

For VicSuper Employers: 1300 878 737

No, if you are currently registered for the STP solution with in the Aware Super clearing house we will work with you to update your user settings at the right time to include access to the clearing house. Once this is done, you will need to add bank account details, choose payment method and accept the T&C's of the clearing house.

Please call the employer service teams to change your user settings to provide you with access to the clearing house:

For Aware Employers: 1300 878 737

For VicSuper Employers: 1300 878 737

When it is the same employer, you can create a new employee record with the new payroll number. If you haven't created the membership before upload, then it will flag as a key data change exception and you can create a new employee from the exception. You will not have exception on future file loads.

SuperChoice currently uses the FVS to validate the contributions you are submitting to ensure the details you’ve provided are complete and that the fund remains active. At this stage there is not a search capability, however we’re looking into opportunities to maintain access to the FVS.

For landlines

Add the area code ie 02, 03, 07, 08, in the short field.

Add the phone number in the longer field, without spaces.

For mobiles

Add the first two digits in the short field

Add the remaining digits in the longer field, without spaces.

There is NO requirement to use the country code (eg +61)

By default, the clearing house uses the ATO approved,  SuperStream Standard Alternative File Format (SAFF). The Aware Super clearing house can also accept other payroll output formats that contain the mandatory minimum SuperStream data fields, including the QuickSuper Contribution CSV and VicSuper CSV.

You will need to contact your payroll software provider and ask them to upgrade your software so you are able to produce an ATO SuperStream SAFF file for submission into the new clearing house.

You will find information for creating contribution data, SuperSteam Alternative File Format SAFF here:  SuperStream-accumulation-only.pdf (aware.com.au)

Every submission made through the clearing house will be visible in the submission history screen.

This screen allows you to filter by status, date and employer and will display the following:

• Status icon
• Filename
• Employer(s)
• File Type
• Last update date
• Expected $
• Received $
• Refund $
• Issue count

At any time, you can open a current or previously submitted file to see all the data. You can also download your original unmodified file or delete an unsubmitted file.,/p>

This submission history screen will show you the entire history of the submission from upload, right through to the date the money went to the super funds and any response messages that have been received back.

When you are on the Summary and Submit screen, you are able to download a receipt for your records.  Once submission and payment details have been confirmed, don’t forget to select Confirm and Send button (to the right hand side), to submit your file.

The Aware Super Learning Hub has resources to support you – the Employer User Guide – Clearing House Contributions can be found here: EUG-Clearing-House-Contribution-OCT22.pdf (aware.com.au)

Aware Super is welcoming back Direct Debit as a payment option, the most streamlined method for capturing all employer information, automating the payment process and to minimise human intervention and risk of delays.

Direct Debit is initiated by the employer – payments are only enacted when you confirm your contribution submission within the clearing house (i.e. there is no regular deductions made).

Direct debit is currently not available, as a payment method in the clearing house, instead we recommend using direct credit. We will notify employers through the portal when the direct debit option becomes available.

This does not affect the direct debit payment options for employers that have already registered for the new Aware Super clearing house.

Direct Credit and BPAY options are available. Employers need to be aware of the risks of manual intervention (reconciliation) and the risk of significant delays where either payments mismatch or Payment Reference Number (PRN) information is not provided or not accurately provided.

Direct Debit

A Direct Debit is an electronic withdrawal from your account by SuperChoice after the submission of each contribution file. This type of payment reduces manual payment intervention and ensures that the value and payment reference matches your submission exactly.

During the registration process, to set up Direct Debit you will be required to accept the SuperChoice Direct Debit terms & conditions to allow this withdrawal to be processed. You can also switch to Direct Debit via Employer Maintenance at a later date after registration – you will be required to acknowledge the term and conditions and Direct Debit authority.

Payments will be deducted the evening after you have submitted your contribution file. It will take approximately three business days for this payment to clear, at which point SuperChoice will issue payments and contribution data to each superannuation fund.

Direct Credit and BPAY

A Direct Credit is an electronic transfer of funds initiated by the employer/payer, which sends funds directly into the bank account of the payee. This requires you to ensure that you pay the correct amount using the correct payment reference number, paid into the account displayed.

Settlement usually occurs within one or two business days, at which point SuperChoice will issue payments and contribution data to each superannuation fund.

Please note: Direct Credit bank account and BPAY Biller Codes will change with the new Aware Super clearing house – any previous codes are no longer current. All contributions submitted through SuperChoice will need to be paid to the new bank account/ Biller Code. These will be presented to you at the end of each contribution submission.

Account name: Payclear Services Pty Ltd

BSB:                  012 352

Account No:      8367 28894

Bank: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd

Yes, Bpay is available in the new Aware Super clearing house solution from SuperChoice .

This payment method will appear during the registration process as an available option in the ‘payment type’ drop down selection as Direct Credit/ BPAY.

You can change you payment method at any time by going to the Employer Maintenance/Employer Details.

In the new clearing house, you can nominate an alternative bank account to receive refunds from funds. If you choose the Direct Debit payment method, you can choose your refunds to go to a different account than the one you made payments from.

Refunds are made from funds directly to your refund bank account – unlike your payments to funds, which go through SuperChoice to facilitate individual payments to each fund.

If paying via direct debit, the funds will take 3 business days to clear, at which point SuperChoice will pay to the super fund.

If paying via direct credit or BPAY, the funds will be paid to the super fund the following business day, providing that the payment is able to be automatically matched to your submission and the payment has been made prior to 4pm AEST.

Paying via direct credit or BPAY requires you to go to your third-party payment provider, and provide the following details

• Amount
• Clearing house bank account (this is the PayClear account as mentioned above)
• Reference number

If any of these elements are incorrect, it will delay the processing of the submission.

Note: Direct debit is handled automatically by the clearing house, so there will never be a reconciliation delay.

Refunds will be returned directly to your refund account (that you nominate during registration or update in Employer Maintenance). A SuperStream response message will also be sent to you and can be viewed in the clearing house.

You will receive an email that a refund message has been received, prompting you to login to the portal, to see the details of who the refund is for. You can see this information by navigating to the submission history screen, setting the status selection to ‘Fund Error Response’ and setting the data filters to an appropriate period.

You can click on each entry from the results to see the specifics of the error and refund amounts for each affected member. You can also download these entries to update payroll data as required.

You can then upload a new submission for the member containing their new fund or create a manual contribution.

When you register, if you select direct debit as your payment method, it will ask you to confirm the direct debit account and assume the refund account is the same. However, after you have registered you are able to update your banking details and enter a separate refund account via Employer Maintenance.

If you select direct credit/ BPAY, you will be asked to confirm your refund bank account.

If for any reason you need to cancel a contribution that you have submitted, there is a feature in the SuperChoice system to cancel a submission, which will action this for you.

Or contact the Aware Super Employer Relations Team on 1300 878 737 or email employers@aware.com.au.

Ideally, the Payment Reference Number (PRN) should be unique for each submission you make, however, an employer can reuse a PRN after their first successful submission as SuperChoice will store the employer’s bank account and use this to match future submissions, rather than relying solely on the PRN.

A PRN will be generated for the contribution submission, however, you are able to manually update this if you have a value you prefer to use.

For file uploads, any new members detected in your file will be added automatically, any missing data will be highlighted for completion.

For manual entry, you can click on the Add/Maintain a Member button from the dashboard.

For file upload and manual entry, the Add Member button is available from the review screen in all submissions.

After any of these actions, a Member Registration Request (MRR) will be sent to the relevant fund to notify them of the new member, along with the Contribution Transaction Request (CTR) where applicable.

The employer must contact the employee/member to inform them of the invalid status of their SMSF.

An SMSF may be invalid because it down not meet the compliance requirements, as provided by the ATO.

It is the responsibility of the employee/member to work with their accountant or directly with the ATO to get the compliance status fixed. The clearing house does a nightly check, updates and changes the SMSF statuses automatically.

There are no restrictions in the clearing house on how far you can back date a submission, although we encourage you to stay up to date with your submissions in line with ATO requirements. There is a six-month limit on future submissions.

If you are an employer with a single ABN you can follow the regular steps to register as detailed in our communications, registration check list, user guide and registration video.

If you are an employer with multiple ABNs, please register the parent/main ABN via the usual Employer Registration process.

To add additional ABNs, please contact our support teams;

For Aware Employers: 1300 878 737

For VicSuper Employers: 1300 878 737

If there is a structural issue with the file eg a column is missing, then the portal cannot determine the file type and the file upload will fail. Assuming there are no structural issues with the file, then the file will upload and any exceptions, validation errors or validation warnings will be highlighted.  The  employer should resolve these exceptions and errors as soon as possible to avoid any delay in processing.

Validation errors must be resolved before you can submit the contribution file.

We recommend that you address all validation warnings prior to submission, however these will not keep you from submitting the data.

Errors can be resolved on the review screen - the member exception message or error message will clearly describe the error and highlight the relevant field(s) so the user can edit appropriately.