Most sole traders spend time and money trying to be seen – whether that is investing in SEO, building a website or running ads. However, visibility is only part of the equation. What happens after someone gets in touch is just as important. An enquiry arrives – whether it is a web form submission, a text, a DM or a missed call. It should be the start of a new job or customer relationship. However, for many businesses, this is where momentum slows and they are losing leads.

Yet, for some solo operators, how enquiries are handled isn’t given the same attention as how they are generated. And without a clear and consistent process for capturing and responding to interest, good leads may go unanswered – not because it is not your intention, but because you are already stretched.

Where growth quietly slows down

In conversations with sole traders across Australia and New Zealand, whether they are mobile mechanics, florists or health professionals, there is a recurring theme: “I’m working non-stop, but I’m still not getting enough business.”

In many cases, the challenge isn’t visibility or marketing. It’s what happens next.

You have done the work to be found. Your website is ranking, your social presence is active, maybe you have even launched a campaign. Enquiries start coming in, but then?

They sit in your inbox, or land in your DMs after hours while you are on the job. You see the notification, intend to follow up, but with everything else demanding your attention, it slips past.

This is where growth often slows, not because of a lack of demand, but because the process for handling that demand isn’t keeping pace. And because it happens quietly in the background, it often goes unnoticed until the pipeline starts to feel dry.

Speed matters more than charm

We all like to think that a business’s quality of offering or product, personality or reputation will carry through to success and growth. However, research consistently shows that when it comes to lead conversion, speed is also fundamental. If your business doesn’t respond within the hour, your chances of converting that enquiry drops dramatically.

It doesn’t mean you need to be glued to your phone 24/7. However, it does mean you need a system – an effective and reliant process. Something that ensures no lead slips through the cracks just because you are onsite, out of range or off duty.

Automation is about buying yourself time to respond properly, without leaving potential customers in the dark.

Where leads are getting lost

Consider for a moment how many channels your customers can use to get in touch. It might be email, text message, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, your website, Google or even third-party platforms.

Individually, each channel makes sense. However, together, they can create a fragmented experience – both for you and your customers. Without a clear and centralised way to manage enquiries, it’s easy for conversations to be missed, delayed or duplicated. It also adds pressure to keep on top of everything, while still delivering your core service.

Creating a single, streamlined system for managing incoming enquiries doesn’t just reduce stress, it also improves your responsiveness, professionalism and conversion. It gives you back control.

Your lead response process is your first impression

Many sole traders assume the sales process begins with a quote. It begins the moment a potential customer reaches out. The way you respond, including how promptly, how clearly and how confidently – shapes the customer’s first impression of your business.

If someone has to follow up just to receive basic information or clarification, confidence in your reliability may quickly erode. Even if your work is exceptional, that early hesitation may linger.

You don’t need to be available around the clock. But being timely, consistent and professional in your initial response goes a long way in building trust from the outset.

Handling enquiries well is a quiet but powerful driver of growth, one that often goes unnoticed until opportunities start slipping through.

If you are looking for a practical way to strengthen your business this month, start by reviewing how enquiries are received, how quickly you are responding and where follow-up might be falling short.

Chances are, your next great customer may have already reached out. The key is making sure they hear back.

Contributed by By Elise Balsillie, Head of Thryv Australia and New Zealand

AI is creating a world of new possibilities for businesses. We see it every day in how our customers are taking advantage of the AI capabilities embedded across NetSuite. But what if you could bring your own AI and decide how it interacts with your data in NetSuite? 

I’m excited to introduce the new NetSuite AI Connector Service, a protocol-driven integration service supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP). In case you haven’t heard of MCP, it is emerging as a critical standard for structured communication between large language model (LLM)-powered agents and other systems.

While we call it an integration service, it’s more than that – it’s a foundational step in making NetSuite the most intelligent, extensible, and AI-ready ERP system. The NetSuite AI Connector Service gives customers a secure, flexible, and scalable way to connect their own AI to NetSuite. This is important because it:

• Enables developers to define exactly what their AI system can see and do, with full permissions and role-based access
• Supports multiple assistants and agent platforms in a standards-based way, allowing for a “bring your own AI” model
• Turns complex AI-ERP integrations into modular, reusable SuiteApps, streamlining deployment and lifecycle management
• Aligns AI integrations with NetSuite’s existing extensibility model, eliminating the need for risky workarounds or shadow IT
• Allows partners and ISVs to build, package, and monetise AI-driven SuiteApps, creating a new category of intelligent ERP extensions

What’s more, the NetSuite AI Connector Service will enable NetSuite users to engage with NetSuite data via the user interfaces of popular AI assistants.

Here are more details on why we’re so excited about the new NetSuite AI Connector:

• Sets a new industry standard for AI-ERP integration: While most ERP vendors are adding AI as fixed, embedded features, we are taking a platform-first approach by introducing a protocol-based, extensible architecture. This allows structured, governed, and developer-defined interactions between ERP and external AI systems. It establishes a new benchmark for what enterprise AI integration should look like – secure, flexible, and open – and puts pressure on other vendors to rethink their approach.
• Opens ERP to the agent ecosystem: By enabling integration with third-party AI agent platforms, NetSuite becomes one of the first major ERP systems to support agent-based automation across systems and reinforces our position at the forefront of the agent-driven enterprise software.
• Empowers the SuiteCloud developer and partner ecosystem: Instead of bypassing technical teams with closed AI features, we are putting power into the hands of developers through Custom MCP Tools and the SuiteCloud MCP Server. This creates a new category of intelligent ERP extensions and a new frontier of opportunity for the NetSuite ecosystem.
• Provides customers with long-term flexibility and choice: With support for bring-your-own-AI and an extensible, protocol-based design, we are ensuring our customers gain the freedom to select the AI models and platforms that best align with their evolving needs. This approach enables customers to adapt quickly as technologies advance, ensuring continuous innovation on their terms.

For all these reasons and more, this is a big deal as it reflects a fundamental architectural shift. By exposing ERP data, context, and logic to external AI systems through secure, governed interfaces, we are laying the groundwork for true AI-native ERP: systems that not only automate tasks, but also collaborate with AI to reason, take action, and drive business outcomes.

We will be sharing more details on NetSuite AI Connector Service at SuiteWorld taking place October 6-9 in Las Vegas. If you would like to learn more about how your business can take advantage of it today, please visit NetSuite AI Connector Service.

Contributed by Brian Chess, Senior Vice President of Technology and AI, Oracle NetSuite

Most sole traders spend time and money trying to be seen – whether that is investing in SEO, building a website or running ads. However, visibility is only part of the equation. What happens after someone gets in touch is just as important.

An enquiry arrives – whether it is a web form submission, a text, a DM or a missed call. It should be the start of a new job or customer relationship. However, for many businesses, this is where momentum slows.

Yet, for some solo operators, how enquiries are handled isn’t given the same attention as how they are generated. And without a clear and consistent process for capturing and responding to interest, good leads may go unanswered – not because it is not your intention, but because you are already stretched.

Where growth quietly slows down

In conversations with sole traders across Australia and New Zealand, whether they are mobile mechanics, florists or health professionals, there is a recurring theme: “I’m working non-stop, but I’m still not getting enough business.”

In many cases, the challenge isn’t visibility or marketing. It’s what happens next.

You have done the work to be found. Your website is ranking, your social presence is active, maybe you have even launched a campaign. Enquiries start coming in, but then?

They sit in your inbox, or land in your DMs after hours while you are on the job. You see the notification, intend to follow up, but with everything else demanding your attention, it slips past.

This is where growth often slows, not because of a lack of demand, but because the process for handling that demand isn’t keeping pace. And because it happens quietly in the background, it often goes unnoticed until the pipeline starts to feel dry.

Speed matters more than charm

We all like to think that a business’s quality of offering or product, personality or reputation will carry through to success and growth. However, research consistently shows that when it comes to lead conversion, speed is also fundamental. If your business doesn’t respond within the hour, your chances of converting that enquiry drops dramatically.

It doesn’t mean you need to be glued to your phone 24/7. However, it does mean you need a system – an effective and reliant process. Something that ensures no lead slips through the cracks just because you are onsite, out of range or off duty.

Automation is about buying yourself time to respond properly, without leaving potential customers in the dark.

Where leads are getting lost

Consider for a moment how many channels your customers can use to get in touch. It might be email, text message, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, your website, Google or even third-party platforms.

Individually, each channel makes sense. However, together, they can create a fragmented experience – both for you and your customers. Without a clear and centralised way to manage enquiries, it’s easy for conversations to be missed, delayed or duplicated. It also adds pressure to keep on top of everything, while still delivering your core service.

Creating a single, streamlined system for managing incoming enquiries doesn’t just reduce stress, it also improves your responsiveness, professionalism and conversion. It gives you back control.

Your lead response process is your first impression

Many sole traders assume the sales process begins with a quote. It begins the moment a potential customer reaches out. The way you respond, including how promptly, how clearly and how confidently – shapes the customer’s first impression of your business.

If someone has to follow up just to receive basic information or clarification, confidence in your reliability may quickly erode. Even if your work is exceptional, that early hesitation may linger.

You don’t need to be available around the clock. But being timely, consistent and professional in your initial response goes a long way in building trust from the outset.

Handling enquiries well is a quiet but powerful driver of growth, one that often goes unnoticed until opportunities start slipping through.

If you are looking for a practical way to strengthen your business this month, start by reviewing how enquiries are received, how quickly you are responding and where follow-up might be falling short.

Chances are, your next great customer may have already reached out. The key is making sure they hear back.

Contributed by Elise Balsillie, Head of Thryv Australia and New Zealand

Aussie businesses will pour profits into people, marketing and the workplace over the next 12 months, with fresh data revealing a pivot back to the office and tight profit margins is steering a trend towards lower cost, high-impact non-capital spending.

Marketing, training, tech and even office furniture will take priority for businesses in 2025-26, with a national survey by business loan comparison platform Small Business Loans Australia (SBLA) showing 91 per cent of businesses plan to make non-capital investments to drive immediate efficiency, sales and growth without taking on significant financial risk. 

The figures follow data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that show private capital expenditure fell by 0.1% in the March quarter of 2025 – driven by a 1.3% fall in plant and machinery investment – and is now 0.5% lower than in March 2024.[1] While some sectors seem to be pulling back, businesses overall are forecasting a still-healthy $155.9 billion[2] in capital investment this financial year.

To ascertain which types of capital businesses are investing in this financial year, and what internal and external drivers influence their capital investment decisions SBLA commissioned an independent, nationally representative panel of 200 business owners and decision-makers.

In terms of capital investments, the most popular suggest that a significant proportion of businesses will invest in the more immediate needs of their businesses, such as operational efficiency and ending work-from-home arrangements. These investments are technology and IT hardware (38% of businesses), followed by office furniture and fittings (28%), the latter suggesting office enhancements to bring workers back. A smaller proportion plan to spend on machinery and equipment (22%) and motor vehicles (13%), larger-ticket items that need more financing or longer-term certainty. That one in 10 businesses will invest in sustainable assets could be driven by energy efficiency or compliance needs.

The survey additionally found that the most common non-capital investments are new employees (by 31% of businesses) and skilling up employees (35%). Investment in product or service development (23%), marketing and advertising (22%) and customer experience enhancements (16%) show businesses will also invest to grow efficiency and sales.
Small Business Loans Australia also sought to identify the internal roadblocks that would prevent businesses from committing to capital investment. Narrow financial constraints are the biggest barrier, with tight profit margins (43%), insufficient cash flow (26%) and prioritising debt repayments (17%) likely to impact businesses.

The macro-level or environmental forces that most influence business capital investment are high energy costs (30%), rising interest rates (24%) and economic uncertainty (22%), all of which are real issues in the current economic environment. 

Alon Rajic, founder of Small Business Loans Australia, says: “Business owners are making hard decisions about where to allocate limited funds – and our research shows there is a clear preference for investment that drives efficiency, customer acquisition and workforce capability. While they might not be prioritising big-ticket capital purchases at last year’s levels, many businesses are still planning to invest in growth.

“Our research also revealed that the decision to invest in capital and the willingness to take risks is sensitive to internal and external pressures, the biggest being financial: limited finances, inflation and high interest rates. 

“The good news is that businesses aren’t necessarily slowing down – they’re choosing those investments that have faster returns and lower risk. Businesses are making more selective and considered decisions about how they’ll grow this financial year.”

The full Small Business Loans Australia FY26 capital investment study can be found here.
 

Only one in three (32%) mid-to-senior level business leaders said the last change they led achieved healthy change adoption by employees, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.

Gartner defines healthy change adoption as the success elements that leaders can directly influence – getting employees to act on change, on time and in a healthy way that doesn’t adversely impact employee performance and engagement or cause undue stress.

“Changes today are continuous, stacked on top of one another, highly interdependent and often driven by factors external to the organisation,” said Kayla Velnoskey, Director in the Gartner HR practice. “While leaders are used to operating in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) environment, the nature of change today has made it ungovernable.”

Ungovernable change has lowered employees’ trust in an organisation’s ability to change effectively. An April 2025 Gartner survey of 141 HR leaders found that organisations experiencing ungovernable change are 1.6x less likely to experience high change trust. Another April 2025 Gartner survey of more than 2,850 employees revealed that 79% of employees have low trust in change.

“Organisations with better than average healthy change adoption report two times higher year-over-year revenue growth rate,” said Ingrid Laman, Vice President, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice. “For companies with more than 50,000 employees, this can equal up to $2.2 billion USD annually.”

Typically, leaders use inspiration and the vision of change to get employees to adopt change, however Gartner analysis found the inspirational approach only works when there is high change trust. When change trust is low, Gartner’s model predicts that only one-quarter of changes led by inspirational leaders would achieve healthy change adoption.

“In Australia, the inability of managers to lead change has been a significant factor contributing to employee dissatisfaction, with manager quality the top reason employees left their employers over the past year,” said Neal Woolrich, Director, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice. “HR leaders have a great opportunity and a duty to address this, by teaching leaders how to build change reflexes in their teams.”

The best change leadership approach is when leaders routinise change, so it becomes instinctive for employees to adopt change as part of the normal course of doing work. Gartner has identified three ways HR can help leaders routinise change to achieve healthy change adoption (see Figure 1).

HR Clarifies Leaders’ Change Role

HR needs to help leaders communicate that constant change is today’s business reality and focus employees on making regular progress on the change journey. This requires business leaders to embrace a new, active role in leading change all the time, not just when it is most intense. Leaders must regularly prepare employees for change and focus on acknowledging progress on interim goals, not the ever-shifting vision for the future.

“To business leaders, this sounds like more work than they have capacity to tackle,” said Laman. “HR can help by showing business leaders that acknowledging the change journey is not more work; instead, it requires them to apply the skills they already have in new ways, redistributing and balancing their time and effort to make change leadership sustainable.”

HR Equips Leaders with Emotion Regulation Tools

Leaders and employees often feel great discomfort when they are asked to lead through or adopt changes. It is hard for leaders to help employees manage these emotions without knowing what’s driving employees’ discomfort. However, if leaders and employees cannot cope with this discomfort, it can create resistance to change.

HR must equip leaders with tools and techniques to regulate the emotional component of change, including resources to help employees self-identify and cope with their reactions to change. Ultimately, leaders are responsible for equipping employees to get to an emotional state where they can act on change despite how they feel.

HR Teaches Leaders to Build Change Reflexes

Leaders who routinise change drive employee action by training intuition, so that change adoption is second nature. HR must help leaders build employees’ change reflexes by identifying what core change skills matter most and finding moments within daily work to practice those skills.

HR should partner with leaders to address the following:

• What are core change skills – skills needed by employees to prepare for and adopt change regardless of the type of change – that employees must practice?
• How and when do they practice these change skills?
• How can leaders get employees to commit to practicing these change skills?

“When leaders routinise change, our model predicts that employees are three times more likely to adopt changes on time and in a healthy way even though they have low change trust,” said Velnoskey.

The Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) hunt for GST fraudsters continues as four more individuals are sentenced following action of Operation Protego.

These recent sentencings reinforce the ATO’s unwavering commitment in investigating and holding all offenders to account.

ATO Deputy Commissioner and Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) Chief John Ford said the ATO’s ability to detect and halt GST fraud is unwavering.

‘Our fraud detection and prevention capabilities are advanced thanks to partnerships, technologies, and risk models all working together to stay ahead of fraudsters and criminals,’ Mr Ford said.

Included in these sentencings are individuals who, at the time of offending, were current employees and contractors at the ATO. Once their involvement was identified, their employment ceased.

‘We expect all staff to act with the highest levels of integrity and these individuals violated the trust placed in them by the community.’

‘The community rightly expects all ATO staff to act with the highest levels of integrity. Those who do not meet our values have no place at the ATO,’ Mr Ford said.

Latest sentencing outcomes:

• Kim Orense was sentenced in Penrith District Court to 18 months’ imprisonment, to be released on recognizance after serving 10 months subject to conditions to be of good behaviour for 2 years and to accept the supervision and guidance of Community Corrections, for dealing in money or property that was and which Mr Orense believe to be the proceeds of indictable crime, contrary to subsection 400.4(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth). Between October 2021 and April 2022, 14 false business activity statements (BAS) were lodged in Mr Orense’s name, which resulted in him receiving $214,011 in fraudulent GST refunds. He transferred these funds to other bank accounts or associates, including Abigail Ussher, his former partner, who has also been sentenced. A search warrant conducted in June 2022 at Mr Orense’s residence found no business records, invoices, tools or equipment, that would suggest he was carrying out a house repair business that he claimed.
• Abigail Ussher was sentenced in the Penrith District Court to 12 months’ imprisonment, to be released on recognizance after serving 5 months subject to conditions to be of good behaviour for 2 years and to accept the supervision and guidance of Community Corrections, for dealing in money or property that was and which Ms Ussher believed to be the proceeds of indictable crime, contrary to subsection 400.4(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth). In 2022, Ms Ussher lodged 3 original and 4 revised BAS and received $117,297 in refunds through an ABN she claimed was for a business that provided crime scene cleaning services. Upon receiving the funds, Ms Ussher transferred them to personal accounts, or other third parties. She transferred funds to Kim Orense, her former partner, who has also been sentenced. An investigation into Ms Ussher’s bank activity and a search warrant on her home concluded that she was not carrying out a business and therefore not entitled to the refunds she had claimed.
• Former ATO employee Menuwarage Ranasinghe was sentenced at Adelaide Magistrates Court to 4 months’ imprisonment with an order that she be released immediately upon giving security by recognizance of $500 to comply with a condition that she must be of good behaviour for 18 months for three counts of the offence of
  obtaining a financial advantage by deception. Ms Ranasinghe lodged three BAS which misrepresented the creditable expenses incurred by her business and, as a result, obtained $16,056.00 in GST refunds.
• Former ATO contractor Baby Dee Zearwie was sentenced at Melbourne County Court to 8 months’ imprisonment, and immediately released on a two-year recognizance release order for 1 count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception by joint commission and 1 count of obtaining financial advantage by deception. Ms Zearwie obtained $87,649.60 in fraudulent GST refunds. She was also ordered to make reparations of $23,709.43.

These matters were prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth)(CDPP) following a referral from the ATO.

You can confidentially report suspected tax crime or fraud to us by making a tip-off online or calling 1800 060 062.

For more information about Operation Protego including recent sentencings, visit ato.gov.au/protego.

Australia is home to more than 1,221 franchising networks, with the sector generating over $110 billion in turnover each year. However, recent data from the Franchise Council of Australia and FRANdata shows that, as of March 2025, many franchise business owners report feeling the strain, particularly when it comes to securing finance. In fact, access to funding has emerged as a significant challenge across the sector.

Given the scale and significance of this industry to the Australian economy, it raises an important question: how can franchisees access the most suitable funding to support their growth and operations – and how can finance brokers connect franchise owners to the right funding partner?

Offering valuable insights to franchise owners on how to borrow smarter, Banjo Loans’ Strategic Partnerships Manager, Frances Rikard-Bell, outlines three key reasons why partnering with a non-bank lender can offer long-term benefits for both brokers and franchise businesses.

The time and resources to uncover a franchises’ needs

A strong understanding of the franchisees’ business needs, how the franchise got to where they are and where they want to continue evolving to in the future is crucial to determining what funding they need. It takes time to uncover the intricacies within the books beyond the profit and loss statements, with many non-bank lenders having the resources to do so.

Ms Rikard-Bell reiterates the importance of taking time to get to know the client, “When speaking with a client, go a little deeper than surface level numbers to see how you can support their growth. As franchises are cashflow-reliant, it’s important their brokers and lenders are able to help them.”

A more streamlined and faster approval process

Faster approval times and processes ensure franchises can get back up and running in no time. While non-bank lenders still have policies and systems in place, there are fewer hurdles to jump through to receive funding. Lenders can also present various financing solutions that can provide a lifeline during cashflow crunches or unpredictable obstacles.

“If an instrumental part of your client’s business breaks down, such as a coffee machine in a cafe, they’ll need funding very quickly so they are not impacted by customer relationships and revenue changes in the long run and can continue with their day-to-day,” said Ms Rikard-Bell.

Easy points of contact and relationship management

Non-bank lenders can provide easy relationship management and a single point of contact for you and your clients, making it easier to get the answers you need without jumping through hurdles.

For more information on how brokers and clients can get the most out of their franchise funding, visit the A Broker’s Guide to Unlocking Franchise Funding webinar via the Banjo Loans website.

The world of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is fast paced. There’s never enough time, people, or budget to do everything. Yet expectations are higher than ever: customers want instant responses, decision-makers demand better insights, and teams are drowning in repetitive tasks that add little value. 

According to the Productivity Commission, Australia’s headline labour productivity has stagnated, particularly compared to leading economies like the U.S, and CPA Australia reveals that SMBs are particularly impacted, lagging other markets, including mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines when it comes to growth. 

There could, however, be a solution – AI agents. The beauty of AI agents isn’t just in their raw intelligence – it’s in their ability to work together, across tools and tasks, to accomplish outcomes once reserved for large enterprise systems and dedicated teams. And they’re doing it in a way that’s accessible, affordable, and surprisingly easy to deploy.

From chaos to clarity: a collaborative future

One of the biggest breakthroughs is the move toward collaborative multi-agent systems. Imagine multiple AI agents – each with different strengths – working together seamlessly to handle business functions like customer support, content creation, sales outreach, or data analysis. 

Rather than requiring complex engineering diagrams or hardcoded workflows, many modern platforms now offer intuitive, chat-based interfaces. These feel more like delegating to teammates than configuring software. Business users can assign tasks, review outcomes, and iterate – all through conversation. This shift in user experience lowers the barrier to adoption and makes the power of AI accessible to non-technical teams.

Solving real problems in “unsexy” industries

While flashy use cases in creative industries often get the headlines, the real revolution is happening in often-overlooked sectors where spreadsheets, email threads, and manual document reviews have ruled for decades. Think commercial real estate, logistics, insurance, and manufacturing. In these domains, teams – often including the highest paid professionals – can be buried in repetitive work that can be a barrier to growth. Collaboration spans dozens of emails and meetings. 

This is where AI agents can flex their muscles. They have the ability to step in, not to replace humans, but to eliminate the friction that prevents them from doing their best work. They unify siloed data, streamline communications, and automate error-prone processes – all while maintaining compliance and security.

Scaling without the overhead and achieving ROI

Perhaps the most compelling value proposition for SMBs is the ability to scale without scaling headcount. AI agents allow businesses to handle greater volumes of work, take on more clients, or enter new markets – without the traditional burdens of hiring, training, and managing larger teams. That’s not so say they replace headcount, but they allow SMBs who often do not have the capital to invest in new hires when they are bootstrapped, to scale and put themselves in a better position to reach the stage where they can hire the skilled individuals who can catapult their business forward. 

And the impact isn’t just about efficiency. AI agents also unlock new revenue streams. Forward-thinking companies are beginning to create and share their own agent-based workflows with partners and clients, effectively turning AI into a product as well as a productivity tool.

The success of AI agents is measured not in abstract technical metrics but in clear business outcomes: time saved, errors avoided, deals closed faster, and revenue per employee increased. For SMBs that live or die by their margins, this is no small matter.

It’s not about replacing people – it’s about freeing them

The best use of AI doesn’t eliminate people; it elevates them. AI agents take on the mundane so that humans can focus on creativity, strategy, and relationship-building – the things that truly grow a business. 

For too long, SMBs have been left behind by waves of enterprise software that promised transformation but delivered complexity. AI agents change that. They offer fast wins, minimal setup, and tangible results. The businesses that lean into this shift now will be the ones who find themselves not just surviving – but thriving.

In short, if your SMB is still bogged down by manual workflows and legacy tools, the question isn’t whether AI agents can help – it’s how long you’re willing to wait to find out.

Contributed by John-Daniel Trask, CEO at Autohive

Employment Hero, the global authority on employment, has today released modelling that shows businesses will need an extra $124,000* in working capital on average to meet the government’s new Payday Super rules; a seismic shift in payroll and compliance requirements due to take effect in less than 12 months.

Employment Hero owns a deep vault of real-time payroll data, trusted to run payroll for more than 300,000 businesses, with 2 million verified payslips each month and AU $120 billion flowing through the platform annually. Employment Hero is urging Australian businesses to start preparing for Payday Super now, with less than 12 months to meet the raft of proposed requirements, and little detail on how infrastructure will be modernised or how businesses will be supported through this milestone change. 

Employment Hero supports the intent of Payday Super – to improve and protect retirement outcomes for Australians – but advocates for legislation to account for how businesses actually operate today, and not overload SMBs with unfair risk or cost that could work against the policy objective. 

In an Employment Hero survey of its business customers, 65% of SMBs said Payday Super will have a moderate to huge impact on the day to day running of their businesses and 32.5% said they would have to build larger cash reserves to prepare for the change. 15% of SMBs were not aware of Payday Super at all. 

Employment Hero is working to iterate on and build new solutions as part of its industry-leading Employment Operating System, designed to remove the compliance burden for Australian SMBs. Automated superannuation payments, seamless, digital employee onboarding, Single Touch Payroll integration and ATO compliance and employee pay features will all be available to help businesses start to prepare and ensure accuracy, ease and transparency of their super and payroll payments. 

Employment Hero is working closely with the government, as well as clearing houses, the ATO and super funds to develop a dedicated new suite of Payday Super solutions, as well as advocating for changes that will remove the disproportionate risk for SMBs and reduce significant unintended consequences. 

Employment Hero CEO, Ben Thompson, says Payday Super presents a huge opportunity for all Australians, but currently presents an untenable risk for small and medium businesses. 

“Payday Super could be the biggest positive change to super since its introduction, but it must be done in a way that doesn’t break small businesses or cost Australians their jobs. Without changes to SuperStream, payments infrastructure and proposed penalties, we risk a system where small businesses are punished for delays outside their control, and that’s simply unfair,” said Thompson.

“That’s why we’re doing everything we can to support SMBs through this change, including advocating for changes that will reduce the risk of insolvency for SMBs and in tandem, building solutions that are going to make it easier for employers to be compliant, regardless of where the legislation or infrastructure change lands,” added Thompson.

As part of the proposed reform, employers will have a seven-calendar-day deadline from the payment of wages to pay the Superannuation Guarantee (SG), which is a 75% decrease in leeway to make payments. If the compressed deadline is not met for any reason – including an error or delay from any external party – the employer is liable for the updated SG charge, which includes the shortfall, daily interest and an administrative uplift of 60% of the shortfall. 

Almost 20% of Employment Hero customers stated they do not feel very or at all prepared to meet the seven-day deadline, with an additional 50% stating they only feel ‘somewhat prepared’. Respondents also shared their concerns on clearing houses or super funds causing delays and putting businesses at risk of penalties. Some open-ended commentary showed many businesses are not aware that liability would, in fact, fall to them. 

Shaun Sullivan, Director at Elite Bookkeeping Enterprises said “The industry needs certainty and clarity on who is responsible and accountable when delays and/or errors happen. We’re very concerned that currently, only the business is responsible for the payment landing within the new seven day deadline but there are so many edge cases – such as public holidays or other events outside of our control – which could see this deadline miss. We need concessions for delays and more information on how any corrections or adjustments can be done in what is currently an unreasonable time frame.”

Employment Hero is asking for legislate required modernisation of the super system infrastructure to combat this, along with a staggered implementation to give SMBs more time to prepare, to extend the payment window to 10 business days until faster, real-time payments and messaging infrastructure is in place and to make penalties fairer for SMBs and providing more transitional support. 

Thompson said: “Most business owners didn’t go into business because they wanted to manage employment; they want to use their time to do what they love and what they’re passionate about. Employment Hero exists to make employment easier and more valuable, which is why we are passionately working to help make Payday Super a positive change for all.

“12 months may seem like a long time, but the impact on SMBs and required infrastructure upgrade imposed should not be underestimated. We’re encouraging all businesses to turn their attention to Payday Super and making sure you have the right systems and processes in place to manage the admin and cashflow impacts,” added Thompson. 

Notably, 20% of Employment Hero customers said they would have to or were unsure whether they would change the frequency of their pay cycle to meet these requirements, but 84% stating their employees would be somewhat or very concerned if their pay cycle had to change. 

* Employment Hero Modelling has been calculated based on the average employer size and the average employee salary on the Employment Hero platform and looks at the current average payroll cycle versus the increase in SG events per year under the proposed Payday Super Reform, using anonymised and aggregated data. Based on these calculations, the increase in SG events per year will require $124,615 in order to meet the proposed timing requirements.