Overview

The Job Keeper Extension changes the original scheme by:

• Changing company eligibility
  
• Payment Rate is now based on a per Employee (Tier) which also changes between Q3 and Q4
• The new Tier is reported to the ATO using Single Touch Payroll.

To continue to receive job keeper payments for employees (if your company is eligible), and for the appropriate Top up Payment Rates to be used during payroll processing you MUST set the new Employee Tier Field. 

If you are eligible to continue claiming the JobKeeper Extension, please review and follow these steps in order to identify the correct Tier for your employees and then update their employee record (either manually if you don't have many employees or using the Mass Update we have created to assist with bulk updates).

JobKeeper Extension fortnights

The Job Keeper extension covers the following fortnights:

The payment rate is dependent on the extension Quarter, and the employees Tier.

The next sections will explain how a Tier 1 / Tier 2 is determined and the steps that need to be taken to update the employee records.

1. Identify Nominated Employees Tier Status

Run the search PR- AU JobKeeper Extension Employee Tier Lookup from the JobKeeper (AU) menu. This search shows you the hours employees have worked in Feb 2020 and June 2020 and will assist you to determine their Tier Status as below.  

If you have employees that are not meant to be there then you need to ensure they are not updated in Step 2. Or, you can update the employee first...maybe they need a termination date or should be inactive?If you don't see employees in this search that you expect to nominate then you may need to update them as below. Please note, that this search should serve as a guide only as it displays the full hours worked in each period. You should verify the hours displayed for each employee.

If someone is not on the list and you want to nominate them, then you can either review the employee record to see what is different from the others and update accordingly or you can manually set the field in Step 2 on the tax info tab. 

You may need to update any employees you have nominated so they can be processed in payroll. This step only applies to employees who are no longer processed in payroll. E.g. You may have employees who are inactive or terminated but are eligible for this measure and you have chosen to re-hire them.

• Find the employee record and reverse the changes that would prevent the employee from being processed in payroll.  
  • Ensure they are not "Inactive" (System info tab of the employee record)
  • Ensure they have the correct "Payroll employment status" (Payroll tab of the employee record)
  • Ensure they have the correct "Pay Frequency" (Payroll tab of the employee record)
  • Ensure their "termination date" has been removed. (HR tab of the employee record)

2. Update nominated employees via mass update or Manually on employee record

Overview

Now we need to update all nominated employees by using a mass update to set either Tier 1 or Tier 2. on the tax info tab of the employee record. This tells the system you intend to claim the JobKeeper payment subsidy for this employee and allows us to automate the STP reporting and top-up payment. This is the most important step in identifying who you are claiming the subsidy for. We have created a new field on the tax info tab of the employee record. You can set this manually for nominated employees if you don't have that many or you can run a mass update as below.

• Employees earning over $1200 per fortnight equivalent are paid normally so there is no top-up payment required. However we still need to update them to identify them as nominated employees and select a Tier in case their pay drops below $1,200 or $750 per fortnight equivalent. This ensures any changes that may occur in their pay over the next 8 fortnights of the JobKeeper payment are catered for in advance. 
• To clarify, ALL NOMINATED EMPLOYEES  you wish to claim the subsidy for must have a top-up sub type set and either Tier 1 or Tier 2 set on the tax info tab to identify them as one of your nominated employees.  This is our primary identification mechanism for STP reporting. This is regardless of if they will need a top-up payment currently or not. 

Steps

1. Navigate to Payroll Administration > JobKeeper (AU) > AU JobKeeper 2.0 Tier Mass Update. This mass update template replicates the employee eligibility criteria as closely as we can currently. https://www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/Employers/Your-eligible-employees/   
   
   
   
2. Rename the mass update for your organisation.
3. Update the Criteria as required. 
4. On the Mass Update Fields tab, at the very bottom of the page select your chosen Tier 1 or Tier 2. 
   
   
   
5. Click Save As
6. On the Saved Mass Updates page, find your company mass update (the one you just saved) and click Preview
   
   
   
7. Review the list of Employees and ensure this matches your expectation for your nominated employees. Unselect any Employees you do not wish to claim the subsidy for. 
8. Click Perform Update when satisfied and allow the mass update to run. Your employees should now be updated and you can review nominated employees via the JobKeeper (AU) menu option PR - AU JobKeeper 2.0 Tier Lookup or create your own search.
9. You can manually update anyone who does not appear in your "PR - AU JobKeeper 2.0 Tier Lookup" or create your own search.
10. If you have payroll employee's who are NetSuite Administrator's then ideally this update should be run by a NetSuite Administrator. If you are unable to do this then those employees will need to be manually updated by someone with the NetSuite Administrator role. 
    
    

3. Process Payroll

Process payroll as normal with the following understandings:

• Initiate Pay run : The system should now automatically include any employees who are nominated in the pay run initiate screen even if they don't have timesheets to process. E.g. Casuals who are set as "Pay from NetSuite time" wouldn't normally show. All nominated employees need to be processed in payroll for all periods of the JobKeeper payment. 
  
  
• Process Payslips : When payslips are processed, the system will automatically create a top-up payslip detail for those employees with a taxable income below $1,200 (Tier 1) or $750 (Tier 2) per fortnight equivalent.  The top-up will be reported via STP as "JOBKEEPER-TOPUP" and the relevant YTD amount. NB: The system will apply this on a per pay run basis. There is no comparison to see if the payment has already been applied in a period. This would complicate things significantly and would delay this automation. It is your responsibility to ensure the top-up has been applied correctly for your employees. 
  
  In addition the employee's Tier will be reported as a 0.00 amount allowance via STP as "JK-TIER1" or "JK-TIER2". This information is sourced directly from the employee field set during mass update or manually.

• Recalculate : If for any reason including multiple pay runs in a period where the top up has already been applied, you can delete or adjust the top-up line created and then recalculate with "IGNORE JOBKEEPER" ticked. This will prevent any further automation and preserve your changes.