Answer
A Member Verification Request (MVR) is a SuperStream message that asks an employee's super fund to confirm the member's account details before you make a contribution. From 1 July 2026 the ATO requires this check before the first contribution to an employee's fund, as part of the move to Payday Super. Lightning Payroll handles this for you automatically — there is nothing extra to set up.
When Lightning Payroll sends a Member Verification Request
The check runs automatically while you are submitting your super contributions through SuperStream. You do not send it from a separate screen.
- It applies from 1 July 2026 onwards. Before that date, your super submissions are unchanged.
- It is sent only before the first contribution to a given employee-and-fund combination. Once a contribution to that fund has gone through for that employee, no further verification is sent for that pairing, so you will not see it on every pay.
- It applies to Australian super funds. Self-managed super funds (SMSFs) are not verified this way.
What you will see when sending super
Lightning Payroll does not hold up your super waiting for the funds to reply. When verification is needed, it sends the requests, pauses just a few seconds to confirm the SuperStream gateway accepted them, and then sends your contributions straight away. The funds' replies arrive later — sometimes within seconds, sometimes hours — and are matched up automatically in the SuperStream Mailbox, so there is nothing to watch and no need to wait.
In the online (web/mobile) app, a Review member verification window appears before the contributions go, listing each affected member by outcome:
- Delivered to fund — the verification request reached the fund; its reply is still pending.
- Rejected by fund — the fund could not confirm the member's details.
- Held from this send — the request could not be delivered, so that member's super is held back and offered again next time.
Choose one of the following:
- Continue with eligible contributions — send the contributions for every member whose verification was delivered or already completed. Members a fund has rejected are held back for a later send.
- Approve & Skip Future Checks — send every listed contribution now and stop verifying those employee-and-fund pairings from now on. The fund may still reject a contribution if the member details are wrong, so use this only when you are certain the details are correct.
- Cancel send — stop without sending anything.
In the desktop app there is no decision to make at send time. Lightning Payroll sends the contributions for every member whose verification was delivered, and if any members had to be held back it shows a Verification held back message listing who was held back and why. To approve skipping future checks after a fund rejection on desktop, open the rejected verification message under Super Fund Deposits >> SuperStream Mailbox and click Approve & Skip Future Checks.
Where the funds' replies end up
Over 99% of verifications succeed, so a pending reply almost never means a problem. When a fund does reply, Lightning Payroll sends a SuperStream response notification to your registered account email address, with the fund's response attached, so you do not have to keep checking. You can also review a completed verification at any time under Super Fund Deposits >> SuperStream Mailbox by setting the message Type filter at the top of the screen to Mvr.
Anything held back is not lost — those amounts stay owing and are offered again, and verified again, the next time you contribute to that fund.
If a member cannot be verified
A member that could not be verified usually means the account details the fund holds do not match what is recorded for the employee. Check the employee's super fund details (the USI, member number and personal details) against what the fund has on file, then try again.
If Lightning Payroll tells you a fund is not yet certified to receive Member Verification Requests, that fund has not finished setting up for this part of SuperStream. Contributions to that fund are sent without verification, so nothing is held up and you do not need to do anything.
You can still choose to send a contribution that a fund has rejected, but the fund may reject it again. Where possible, resolve the verification first.
If an employee's details are incomplete
To be verified, an employee needs a date of birth and something the fund can match them on — either a Tax File Number or their fund member number. If an employee who needs verifying is missing one of these, Lightning Payroll does not hold up everyone else. It holds back just that employee's super, verifies and sends everyone else, and shows you a Member details needed message listing who was held back and why (for example, "no date of birth on file").
The held-back amounts are not lost — they stay owing and are offered again the next time you send super. Add the missing details to the employee's record, then send again and those members will be verified along with the rest.
