Massage Shop Payroll Made Automatic: PAYG, Super & Staff Attendance (2026 Guide)

Ask any massage shop owner what eats their Sunday evening and the answer is rarely bookings — it's payroll. Scribbled shift times, a calculator, the ATO tax tables open in one tab and a super calculator in another. For a team of five, that's easily two hours a week of unpaid admin, and one typo away from underpaying tax or super. Here's how modern studios are making the whole thing automatic.

Start with attendance you can trust

Payroll is only as accurate as the hours behind it. Paper sign-in sheets get forgotten and 'I started at nine' is hard to verify weeks later. The fix is a clock-in system staff actually use: a printed QR code at the front desk that staff scan with their own phone to start and end a shift.

The catch with any QR system is that a photo of the code works from anywhere — which is why GPS verification matters. Easy Massage checks the phone's location when staff clock in, so a shift can only start within 100 metres of your shop. No location, no clock-in — and a manager can always clock someone in manually at the desk if a phone is playing up.

Fair walk-in rotation comes free with it

Once the system knows who's on shift and when they clocked in, it can settle the oldest argument in the industry: whose turn is the walk-in? A fair rotation queue offers each new walk-in to the therapist who has been waiting longest — clocked in first, or finished their last session earliest. The 'NEXT UP' therapist is highlighted for the front desk, and the manager can still override when a client asks for someone specific.

PAYG withholding without the tax tables

Every week, the ATO expects you to withhold the right amount of tax from each employee's pay. Doing this by hand means looking up the weekly tax table for every staff member, every week. Software should do this for you: Easy Massage applies the current ATO Schedule 1 formula (tax-free threshold claimed) to each person's gross wages automatically, and lets you set a simple flat percentage instead for staff with different arrangements.

Superannuation and salary sacrifice, handled

The super guarantee (12% in 2026) is calculated on gross wages and shown the way your accountant expects it — as an employer cost on top of pay, not a deduction from it. If a team member salary-sacrifices part of their pay into super, that's handled too: the sacrificed amount comes out pre-tax, reduces their PAYG, and is added to their super total.

From clock-in to accountant in one click

The weekly payroll summary — hours, gross, PAYG withheld, net pay, super and total employer cost per staff member — should leave your system without retyping. Export a CSV for your bookkeeper, or if you use Xero, send the week straight across as a draft bill with every staff member itemised, ready for review. Either way, payroll goes from two hours to two minutes.

What it costs

With Easy Massage, staff attendance, fair rotation and the full payroll summary with PAYG and super are included on every plan — even the smallest one. It's part of the booking platform, not an add-on. A quick disclaimer: the figures are a guide to make your accountant's job faster, not a replacement for professional payroll advice.

If your Sunday evenings currently belong to a calculator, try the free 4-week trial — print the QR code, have your team clock in for a week, and see the payroll write itself.