Set up and process JobMaker Nominations
Learn how to record JobMaker in your pay runs.
In QuickBooks Payroll powered by Employment Hero, we have created pay categories that are specifically for JobMaker. These pay category names are prescribed by the ATO and it is essential to use these categories, otherwise credits owed to employers may be delayed or not paid at all.
Before processing JobMaker, you should be aware of key dates where certain actions must be completed by the employer, and ensure that your business and employees are eligible for the JobMaker Hiring Credit Scheme.
Also, ensure your eligible employees have completed a JobMaker Employee Notice before following the steps below. Learn how to send out and record JobMaker Employee Notices.
For more information about JobMaker, key dates and program eligibility criteria, view our JobMaker FAQ.
Step 1: Make sure your employee meets the Minimum Hours Test
To be an eligible employee for the JobMaker Hiring Credit, an employee must work a minimum average of 20 hours per week across each JobMaker period from the time they are employed.
To determine this:
- Select Payroll from the left menu, then select the Reports (Take me there) tab, next to Payroll Settings.
- Select JobMaker Eligibility Report under the Employee column.
- Select the pay schedule and then select Run Report. This will show a list of your employees, whether they're eligible for JobMaker or not, and why they might not be eligible.
Note: This report is a guide only; it does not take into account:
- Whether an employee has already provided a JobMaker employee notice to another current employer when determining eligibility. This will be verified by the employee upon completing the JobMaker employee notice.
- Whether an employee received the Parenting Payment, Youth Allowance or JobSeeker Payment for > 28 consecutive days (or 2 fortnights) in the 84 days (or 6 fortnights) before starting employment when determining eligibility. This will be verified by the employee upon completing the JobMaker employee notice.
This report also:
- Cannot tell whether an employee is classified as a business participant or close associate, and therefore deemed ineligible. This must be determined by the employer. Here's more information from the ATO.
- Cannot tell if the business is eligible for the JobMaker scheme. This must be determined by the employer.
Step 2: Add JobMaker Nominations to eligible employees
To add a JobMaker Nomination to your eligible employees:
- Select a pay run or create a new pay run, that is set to the date that they were hired during the JobMaker period dates.
- Add the eligible employees (if creating a new pay run), then select their name, select the green Actions button on the bottom-right corner, and then select Add JobMaker nomination.
- Under the drop-down menu, select JobMaker nomination, then select Finished.
- Select Save.
An Other Earnings line will show up in the employee's pay, which displays the JobMaker nomination:
Repeat these steps for all remaining eligible employees.
Step 3: Report the JobMaker period for nominated eligible employees
After entering the JobMaker nomination for eligible employees in Step 2, the next step is to report the JobMaker period in one pay run per JobMaker period.
For reference, these are the periods:
Note: You can only report JobMaker periods after the period has ended; you cannot record this in advance.
To record the JobMaker period for an eligible employee:
- In a pay run after the JobMaker period has passed, select the employee's name and select the green Actions button on the bottom-right corner, then select Add JobMaker nomination.
- Under the JobMaker options drop-down window, select JobMaker period.
- Under the JobMaker period drop-down, select the period where the employee met the minimum 20 hours a week test for the entire period.
- Select Finished.
- Select Save.
An Other Earnings line will now show up in the employee's pay, which displays the JobMaker Period.
Note: You only need to do this ONCE per JobMaker period. Do not continue reporting the same period in subsequent pay runs.
If an employee who was previously eligible and previously nominated for JobMaker gets re-hired to the business, the employer needs to re-nominate the employee to make them eligible again.
Since the ATO will know that the employee was previously terminated (via your STP lodgements), you must ensure the employee's new start date is entered in the "Start Date" field of the employee's file. Also, the ATO do not support multiple rehires after one rehire via STP so should this occur the employer will need to contact the ATO directly to manage this situation.
To re-nominate an employee:
- Select a pay run or create a new pay run that is set to the date that they were re-hired during the JobMaker period dates.
- Add the re-hired employee (if creating a new pay run), then select their name, select the green Actions button on the bottom-right corner, and then select Add JobMaker nomination.
- Under the drop-down menu, select JobMaker renomination.
- Note the JobMaker history box at the top of the panel. If there was a previous JobMaker Nomination there, then you are good to use the JobMaker renomination option. If there isn't a nomination in the box, use JobMaker nomination instead. See below on what the box looks like.
- Select Finished.
- Select Save.
Note: Do not use JobMaker renomination if an employee was never nominated previously.
If you've previously recorded a JobMaker nomination for an employee but now need to cancel that nomination (to remove the employee from the scheme altogether), follow the steps below:
- Select a pay run or create a new pay run, that is set to a date after the initial JobMaker nomination was made in the first place.
- Add the employee (if creating a new pay run), then select their name, select the green Actions button on the bottom-right corner, and then select Add JobMaker nomination.
- Under the drop-down menu, select Report incorrect JobMaker nomination, then select Finished.
- Select Save.
Notes:
- This is NOT for reporting an employee termination during the JobMaker period. It is to undo a previously nominated employee from being nominated in the first place.
- You only need to do this ONCE for an employee. Do not continue reporting the nominations in subsequent pay runs.
If you've previously recorded a JobMaker re-nomination for an employee but now need to cancel that re-nomination (because it wasn't processed correctly in the first place or the employee wasn't eligible and needs to be removed from JobMaker), follow the steps below:
- Select a pay run or create a new pay run, that is set to a date after the initial JobMaker re-nomination was made in the first place.
- Add the employee (if creating a new pay run), then select their name, select the green Actions button on the bottom-right corner, and then select Add JobMaker nomination.
- Under the drop-down menu, select Report incorrect JobMaker renomination, then select Finished.
- Select Save.
Notes:
- This is NOT for reporting an employee termination during the JobMaker period. It is to undo a previously re-nominated employee from being re-nominated in the first place.
- You only need to do this ONCE for an employee. Do not continue reporting the re-nominations in subsequent pay runs.
If you've reported a JobMaker period, but it turns out that the employee may not have met the minimum 20 hours a week test and is not eligible for that period, follow the steps below to cancel the original JobMaker period that was reported:
- In a pay run after the JobMaker period has passed, select the employee's name and select the green Actions button on the bottom-right corner, then select Add JobMaker nomination.
- Under the JobMaker options drop-down window, select Report incorrect JobMaker period.
- Under the Incorrect JobMaker period drop-down, select the period where the employee did not meet the minimum 20 hours a week test for the entire period.
- Also ensure that the JobMaker history for employee box shows the original JobMaker period you reported, so that selecting the Incorrect JobMaker period will effectively "cancel out" that reported period.
- Select Finished.
- Select Save.
Notes:
- You only need to report an incorrect JobMaker period in the pay run once per JobMaker period - do not continue reporting the same period in subsequent pay runs.
- You should only report a specific incorrect period for a period you had already reported, e.g. if you only reported Period 2 and Period 3, do not report an incorrect period for Period 1.
- You do not need to report incorrect periods if you're cancelling an original nomination or re-nomination for an employee - you simply just need to report the incorrect nomination or incorrect re-nomination and that will notify the ATO that the employee was incorrectly nominated or re-nominated for the scheme.
As part of using the JobMaker function in the pay run, you do not need to create your own JobMaker pay categories.
The system will auto generate the pay categories based on the JobMaker actions you have performed in pay runs.
We strongly recommend against creating your own pay categories because the ATO has specific formats that need to be followed so their systems can read the categories properly.
For complete transparency, the ATO require that pay categories:
- be set up as an allowance and assigned the 'Allowance (Other)' classification
- have a unique and defined allowance code for each JobMaker action. The allowance codes are as follows:
- JobMaker nomination = JMHC-NOM
- JobMaker renomination = JMHC-RENOM
- JobMaker period = JMHC-PXX, where XX is the period, ie 01, 02, 03, etc
- JobMaker incorrect nomination = JMHC-NOMX
- JobMaker incorrect renomination = JMHC-RENOMX
- JobMaker incorrect period = JMHC-PXXX, where XX is the incorrect period, ie 01, 02, 03, etc
Any variance to the above will impact on the business receiving their scheme incentives so it is essential the rules are followed to a tee.
If you navigate to Payroll Settings, then select the Pay Categories section, you will see a list of JobMaker pay categories only if the applicable actions have been applied in a pay run. An example of such pay categories are as follows:
When you expand on one of the JobMaker system pay categories, take note of the following:
- The name of the pay category is locked meaning you cannot override this setting. This has been done so that the system can continue using the same pay category when this JobMaker action is processed in the pay run.
- The unit, payment classification and allowance description of the pay category is locked meaning you cannot override this setting. This has been done to ensure the ATO requirements are not editable.
- The payroll tax exempt, super rate and hide units from pay slip settings can be changed to suit your preference.
- The PAYG exempt setting by default is unticked and cannot be overridden.
Content sourced from Employment Hero