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JobKeeper Payments FAQ


Please find below some of the frequently asked questions about JobKeeper and Reckon's Payroll software.


Do I need a JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX/JK-ST-FNXX for all eligible employees or just those who are receiving the JobKeeper top up amounts?

All eligible employees need to have a start fortnight registered even if there is no top up component of the pay. For Reckon Accounts Desktop and Reckon Accounts Hosted this is handled in the software by including a JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX OR JK-START-FNXX (Where XX represents the JobKeeper fortnight the employee became eligible) in a pay run. For more information about JobKeeper in general click here.


How do I handle weekly and monthly pays?

Even though JobKeeper is calculated on a fortnightly basis, it is possible to maintain a weekly (and a monthly) pay cycle for your employees. The key fact is that the employees must receive at least $1200 per JobKeeper fortnight for TIER 1 employees and $750 per JobKeeper fortnight for TIER 2 employees in Quarter 3. In Quarter 4 this changes to $1000 per fortnight for TIER 1 employees and $650 for TIER 2 employees.

For weekly employees this works out to be $600/$375 a week for Quarter 3 and $500/$325 for Quarter 4. For monthly employers this works out to be $2400 and $1500 per month respectively in Quarter 3 and $2000/$1300 in Quarter 4. In December, three fortnights will be paid out, much like the JobKeeper payment in August 2020.


How do I determine if an employee is a Tier 1 or Tier 2 JobKeeper employee?

Information on how to determine whether a employee is eligible for a Tier 1 or Tier 2 subsidy payment can be found at the ATO website.


How do I report if an employee is a Tier 1 or Tier 2 JobKeeper employee?

For JobKeeper 2.0 the ATO has introduced a new payroll item which is included with Single Touch Payroll reports called JK-TIERX where X indicates what tier the employee falls into, and how much the payment should be.

For example, if an employee is a Tier 1 employee, the allowance item will be reported as JK-TIER1. More information about how to set this up can be found in each individual product's help page.


When I use 0.00 amount for JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX/JK-ST-FNXX, it is not showing on the payslip. How can I get it to show?

If you would like the JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX/JK-ST-FNXX item to show on the payslip, you will need to add 0.01 as the payment instead of 0.00. Payslips ignore 0 amounts by default. The ATO accepts 0.00, 0.01, 1 and 1.00 for the JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX/JK-ST-FNXX item. Please note that there is no requirement to show the JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX/JK-ST-FNXX item on a payslip.


What if an employee is on long term or maternity leave, are they still eligible for the payment?

Yes, unless you are in receipt of Australian Government Parental Leave Pay or Dad and Partner Pay. If you are on paid or unpaid leave (such as annual leave) the employer is still required to pay the employee the JobKeeper payment per fortnight.

The JobKeeper payment is a wage subsidy for your employer so if your employer is paying you an annual leave payment, the JobKeeper payment will be used to subsidise part or all of this amount – it’s not an additional amount.

For more information in regards to any issues around your employment you can go to the Fair work Australia website.

ATO Reference HERE.


Do I need to include JOBKEEPER-START-FNXX/JK-ST-FNXX on every pay run?

No, once this has been reported, the start fortnight is registered and you do not need to include this in every JobKeeper payrun.


Do I need to include the JK-TIER items on every pay run?

No, once this has been reported for an employee, the tier for the employee has been set and you do not need to include this in every JobKeeper payrun.

If a pay event has already been finalised for STP and didn’t include a start fortnight, how can this be updated?

The start fortnight should be reported in the next pay event.


Is it possible for an employee to start and finish in the same fortnight and receive a payment?

No. Because of the change to the finish fortnight code, if the same start and finish fortnight numbers are reported they will cancel each other out. The finish fortnight will need to be the next fortnight number to ensure they receive the payment for that fortnight.


If an employee has two weeks of work cover starting at fortnight 16, will they need to be reported as finishing in fortnight 15 and then starting again in fortnight 18?

No for the finish fortnight. They will need to be reported as finishing in fortnight 15 in order to receive payments for fortnights 14 and 15. As they are eligible again as of fortnight 18, the start fortnight should be reported as fortnight 18.


Are employers able to swap between online and STP reporting channels?

Employers will be able to go from online channels to STP but not the other way around. Once an employer has started reporting through STP, this is where they should stay. This is the same for the notification process, all employees should be notified either online or through STP and not a combination of the two.

If you have been reporting via STP for JobKeeper 1.0 you must continue to report via STP in JobKeeper 2.0.

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