The 6 Things Keeping Small Business Owners Up at Night This EOFY 2026 (and How an HR Person Helps You Sleep)
Can I ask you something before you dive back into the BAS? As 30 June – the EOFY 2026 – rolls around, what is the thing that is actually nagging at you at 11 pm?
If you are anything like most of the small business owners I talk to, it is not really the tax return. Your accountant has that. It is the quieter stuff sitting underneath it — the “have I actually been paying everyone right all year?” stuff. The “what on earth is Payday Super, and is it going to blow up my cash flow?” stuff. The “I know my contracts are years out of date and I keep meaning to fix them” stuff.
Here is what I want you to know up front: those worries are normal, they are valid, and nearly every one of them is fixable well before you need to panic.
So here is the short version. The six worries below are the ones I hear most often as we head into the 2026 end of financial year, and almost all of them live on the people-and-payroll side of your business, which happens to be the exact part your accountant does not own, and the part you have usually got nobody to ask about. That is the gap. You do not need to become a Fair Work expert by 30 June. You just need someone in your corner who already is. Let’s walk through them.
1. “Have I actually been paying everyone correctly all year?”
This is the big one, and it is the one I get the most late-night messages about. EOFY is when it all gets reconciled, and that is exactly when the doubt creeps in. Am I on the right award? The right classification? Have I been doing penalty rates and allowances properly?
I get why it weighs on you — awards are genuinely a maze, and the rules have teeth now. Since 1 January 2025, intentionally underpaying staff has been a criminal offence under the Fair Work Act. That headline alone is enough to keep anyone awake.
So let me give you the calmer version that nobody seems to mention. That criminal offence is for intentional underpayment — deliberately doing the wrong thing — and small business employers with fewer than 15 staff are actually carved out of the criminal provisions altogether. An honest mistake is not a crime. So please don’t lie there picturing handcuffs. What still applies is the civil side and back pay, and back pay can reach back years, so it is worth getting right — calmly and properly — rather than guessing.
This is exactly the sort of thing a quick external review sorts out. A focused wage and award check tells you whether you are actually paying the right rate, and interpreting the modern award is bread and butter for an HR person. If you want the background on the new laws, I wrote about wage theft becoming a crime too.
2. “Payday Super lands on 1 July — am I ready for it?”
If you have only half-heard about this one, here is the plain version. From 1 July 2026, you have to pay super at the same time as wages — within seven business days of each payday — instead of quarterly. On top of that, the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closes on the same date, so if you have been using it, you will need another way to pay.
This is a fair thing to feel uneasy about, because it is not just admin — it changes how money moves through your business. If you have quietly been using that quarterly gap to smooth out cash flow (and plenty of good operators have), super becomes a real-time cost from July. That is a genuine shift, not a small one.
The good news is that it is mostly a systems-and-planning conversation, and it is far easier to have in June than to discover in July. Making sure your payroll is set up correctly, your onboarding captures super details before someone’s first payday, and your obligations are clean is squarely HR-and-payroll territory. A short HR health check or HR audit will tell you where you stand before the deadline does.
3. “Everyone's pay is going up 4.75% — what does that actually cost me?”
From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, modern award rates rise by 4.75%. The National Minimum Wage goes to $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week — the first time it has been over a grand a week.
It is reasonable to feel the squeeze here, because the headline number is not the whole story. That rise flows on into superannuation, leave loading, payroll tax and workers’ comp — so the real cost to you is more than 4.75%. And there is a trap people miss: if you pay someone an “all-in” annualised salary, a rate rise can quietly push that salary below what the award now requires, which puts you offside without you doing a single thing wrong.
This is worth a proper look rather than a “she’ll be right.” Updating your pay rates, checking that annualised salaries still stack up, and making sure your employment contracts reflect the new numbers is the kind of tidy-up that takes an HR person an afternoon and saves you a world of bother.
4. “Can I get payroll finalised and the records straight by 14 July?”
Single Touch Payroll finalisation is due by 14 July, and that is the moment every little payroll thing you have been carrying all year comes home to roost. Leave balances need to match what your team thinks they have. Allowances need to be coded right. It is the moment of truth, and that is precisely why it is stressful.
If your stomach drops a little at the word “finalisation,” that is normal — it is the not-knowing that gets you. The fix is simply to look before you lodge. Having a second set of expert eyes review the payroll picture in June, while there is still time to fix a discrepancy, beats finding it in August when it has become a headache. An HR audit is built for exactly this.
5. “My leave balances are huge — and honestly, my team looks tired.”
Two things are true at once here. On the books, big accrued leave balances are a liability, and your accountant needs accurate figures for the year-end accounts. That is the spreadsheet version.
But the version that actually keeps the good owners awake is not the spreadsheet — it is the people. The reason those balances are so big is that your best people have not taken leave, because they are flat out holding the place together, and you can feel them running on empty. That is not just a number on a balance sheet. That is burnout heading your way, and possibly a resignation you cannot afford in the new year.
It is okay to care about both at once. Planning leave down sensibly, having the right conversations, and looking after the humans who keep your business running is genuinely people management — and it is what ongoing HR support is for. Sometimes the most valuable EOFY job is not a number at all.
6. “Going into the new year — do I keep, grow, or let this person go?”
EOFY is a natural line in the sand, and it is when a lot of owners finally face the questions they have been parking. Are my contracts and policies hopelessly out of date (be honest)? Is that underperformer going to get sorted this year or not? Do I need to restructure?
These are heavy, and they should feel heavy — because getting them wrong is expensive, and an unfair dismissal claim is a rotten way to start a financial year. It is completely understandable to sit on them.
But sitting on them is usually the costlier option. Refreshing tired contracts, putting a fair, defensible performance management process in place, and — if it genuinely comes to that — handling a redundancy the right way are all things you do not have to work out alone or off a Google search. This is the heavy lifting I am happy to actually do with you, not just advise on from a distance.
So where does that leave you?
If you have read this far and recognised yourself in three or four of these, take a breath — that is not a sign you have dropped the ball. It is a sign you are a small business owner wearing eleven hats, and HR is one of the heaviest. You are not supposed to know all of this off the top of your head. I do this full-time and the rules still move under my feet.
The whole point of an external HR person is that you get the expertise without the cost of a full-time HR manager, plus someone on the end of the phone when a question pops up at 4pm on a Friday. EOFY is a brilliant time to get the people side of your business clean and calm, so 1 July feels like a fresh start instead of a cliff edge.
If any of the six hit a nerve, the easiest first step is a quick chat. You can grab a 20-minute Ask Paulette power call and get a straight answer on whatever is nagging you, or book a free, no-obligation call and we will work out what you actually need (and what you don’t). Either way — you do not have to head into the new financial year carrying this on your own.
Paulette – Founder, Fresh HR Insights
A quick note: this is general information to point you in the right direction, not legal advice for your specific situation. Every business is a little different, so if in doubt, have a chat before you act.
