How do I find a child’s name by Enrolment ID?

  • Select Reports → CCS → Enrolment Detail

  • Enter a date range, tick your Service name → Next

  • Right click → Select All

  • In the pdf report use the Find text (magnifying glass) or Search function CTL F

  • Enter enrolment ID → Search

  • The child’s enrolment detail report will display

Why has no CCS been applied to an account?

Firstly, check the enrolment status of the child.

  • Go to Reports → CCS → Enrolment Detail

  • Enter the dates to cover a 6 month period

  • Select your Service → Next

  • Select the account → Finish

There are 3 things that must be met for an account to receive CCS:

The enrolment status must be CONFIRMED and under entitlements there must be an approved CCS percentage AND approved CCS hours per fornight.

If it is a confirmed enrolment and entitlements exist check the Statement of Entitlements report (accompanies the parent’s Tax invoice).

  • Go to Reports → CCS → Statement of Entitlements

  • Enter dates and select the account → Finish

This report shows the child’s booking times, attendance times, the amount of the entitlement and who has received the entitlement. Next to the daily CCS amount it will either display Service or Individual (the enrolling parent). If it has been paid to the individual it will be paid into their nominated Centrelink bank account. They will then need to pay the full fee to you. The report also displays a reason if no entitlement or reduced entitlement has been received.

Some examples are:

Apportioned hours exhausted - the parent has used all of the CCS approved fortnightly hours

No activity test result - the parent needs to go onto their myGov and complete an activity test

What do the enrolment statuses mean?

  • The following enrolment statuses display in Spike Maintenance and on the Enrolment Details Report:

    • CONFIR Confirmed - parent has successfully completed their claim for CCS & has confirmed their child’s enrolment

    • REJECT Rejected – parent has rejected the enrolment

    • WITHDR Withdrawn - service has withdrawn the enrolment

    • CEASE Ceased - enrolment has been de-activated due to 14 weeks of inactivity

    • PENDIN Pending Confirmation - parent has not confirmed the child’s enrolment

    • DISPUT Disputed - parent has disputed the enrolment

    • RECEIV Submitted / Received - this is an informal enrolment (no CRN). Will not be sent to parent for confirmation until CRN is entered by service

    • PENDEL Pending Eligibility - Centrelink has not yet received the completed claim for CCS. The enrolling parent needs to go onto their myGov and complete the claim, including income estimate and activity test

Why is the amount of CCS on the families invoice different to the amount of CCS on the Statement of Entitlements?

As parents and care givers complete previous year’s tax returns, differences between the amount of CCS displaying on the statement of entitlements and the amount reflecting on tax invoices may differ.

This is a result of the Department of Human Services completing their end of year balancing.

Families who have underestimated their income may incur a CCS debt. If this is the case they would have received notification either through their myGov inbox or by mail.

The Department of Human Services withholds a percentage of Child Care Subsidy (this is usually 5 per cent) to reduce the likelihood that individuals will incur debts. This means that the full subsidy amount, less the withholding amount, is paid to Services on behalf of families following submission of session reports. Providers will be able to see the amount withheld on the payment advice they receive each fortnight. The amount withheld will be part of the gap fee that needs to be paid by parents to the Service.

Where a parent is unsure about the details of a debt raised by Centrelink, they will need to log into their Centrelink online account for further details or raise their questions with Centrelink.

Why does the amount of CCS paid vary from week to week?

  • Enrolling parent’s are entitled to a certain number of hours per fortnight of care. If, For example, a parent is entitled to 36 hours of care per fortnight and they use 20 hours in the first week they will then only be entitled to 16 hours of care for the next week

  • Go to Reports → CCS → Statement of Entitlements. This will show why there is a change in CCS entitlements - Apportioned Hours Exhausted

What if a parent disputes / rejects an enrolment?

  • To resubmit a DISPUT/REJECT enrolment go to:

  • Select Child → Booking tab

  • Go to the first week of bookings that has not received CCS (check the account → fees tab), right click, Submit CCS Enrolment Notices

  • The enrolling parent will need to go onto their myGov and confirm the new enrolment (arrangement).

What if a child’s enrolment becomes ceased?

  • A child’s enrolment will automatically become ceased when a child has not physically attended your Service for 14 continuous weeks.

  • When a child returns to your Service, a new CWA will automatically be created by Spike when you send the child’s first week of sessions to the CCS system. The parent will then need to go onto their myGov and confirm the enrolment.

What if a child is absent on their last day of care?

  • CCS/ACCS is not payable for absences submitted before a child’s first physical attendance OR after a child’s last physical attendance unless the absence is due to any of the Additional absence reasons listed in Childcare Provider Handbook. If the child meets the criteria mark the booking as absent with additional absence reason 'Illness with Medical Certificate' - you do not need to have a medical certificate in this case.

If any CCS/ACCS has been incorrectly paid after a child last physically attended a session of care, this will be automatically recovered against future payments to the Service via offsetting after the enrolment is ceased. The enrolling parent will then need to pay full fee for those day/s.

More information about absences before and after care due to COVID-19 can be found on the DESE website - Recording Absences due to COVID-19

How do I update my fees?

Increasing your fees is a 3-step process

STEP ONE – Updating the charge

  • Select Service (select your service) → Charges Tab

  • Double click (or right click edit) on the charge - this brings up the charge details screen. *Right click on the current chanrge → Copy

  • Right click → Paste (this prefills all of the details of the charge for you)

  • Edit the start date, type is pre-filled (we recommend session) and fee (no dollar sign)

  • The session details are pre-filled - check for correct AM & PM → OK

STEP TWO – Updating fee information with Canberra and families myGov / Centrelink accounts

Once you have confirmed all of the children’s attendance times for the first week of the fee increase go to:

  • Select → Service (select your service) → Billing (as you would normally)

  • Right click select all → right click → Submit CCS Enrolment Update → OK

  • Right click → Finalise

STEP 3 - Updating Childcare Finder / Starting Blocks Website

  • Go to System → Spike CCS Maintenance

  • Enter your Spike username and password

  • Click on your Service name

  • Go to the 3 dots at the top right hand corner → Profile

  • Go back up to the 3 dots at the top right hand corner. Under Mychild (heading in bold) select and update your Contact details, Opening Hours and Fees.

Tip
 Spike Maintenance does not hold this information. If you go back into these areas the information will not show, but it will have been sent to the Child Care Finder Website (it can take up to 48 hours for the website to be updated)

How do I email tax invoices to two email addresses?

How do I change an account holder?

In CCS it is much harder to 'swap' an account holder.

To see if you can 'swap' the account holder:

  • Open both the person who is currently linked to the account, and the person who you would like to change the account holder to

  • Make a note of their DOB’s and CRN’s and then try to delete the CRN. If you are able to delete the CRN swap all information from one person to the other

  • If Spike will not allow you to delete the CRN, you must create a new account with the correct person as the account holder (remember to back date the account start date)

  • Open the current account and unfinalise all of the bookings

  • Go to each of the child/ren’s bookings. Under 'Care Provided' change the account to reflect the new account

  • Go to the billinf tab of the new account and finalise all weeks in new account.

  • Transfer any receipts and /or miscellaneous transactions to new account (Re-enter them in the new account and reverse them out of the old account)

  • In the details tab of the old account enter an end date (right click edit)

  • In the children tab of the old account right click on the child’s name → Remove

Why do I get the message CRN already in use?

  • This error occurs when the person or child already exists in Spike. Select → Person → enter name and change the Status to Any. You will see that the Person has a duplicate.

  • If you cannot find a duplicate person attached to the CRN go to Reports → Account → Account List or CCS → Enrolment Detail. Use CTRL F to find the CRN.

What if I get Spike error code 8003 when editing a Person’s details tab?

  • Check the email address –> will be incorrect format

When do I need to use an additional absence reason?

  • You do not need to put an absence reason into a booking until the child has used their initial 42 absence days

  • To see the child’s absence count, go to Reports → CCS → Enrolment Entitlements

  • Enter dates of last billed week, tick Service, Next

  • Select all , Finish

*Since 1 July 2021 there are certain circumstances that CCS is payable for absence days that occur before or after a child’s first or last physical attendance. If the child meets the criteria you will need to mark the bookings as absent with medical certificate (you do not need to have a medical certificate)

What do these processing summary errors/warnings mean?

Message: Individual CRN and DOB do not exist

Message: Child CRN and DOB do not exist

The details in Spike do not match the details recorded in Centrelink.

  • Check the enrolment form

  • Ask the enrolling individual for a screenshot of their myGov with the correct details

Important
 These errors stop session reports from being sent to the CCS system. You only have 2 weeks to submit session reports before getting breach notices.Therefore it is extremely important that you correct the details as soon as possible.

If you cannot get the correct details in a timely manner delete the CRN

Operation: Submit IsCase Claim Message: The sum of Additional Educator Hours is not equal to Hours Claimed

Return Message: ADDITIONAL_EDUCATOR_HRS_2

  • You haven’t ticked the Additional Educator box in the Staff attendance.

To find out which staff member it relates to:

  • Go to Reports → CCS → ISS Child & Staff Atendances - the staff member will have (*) next to their name.

Start Time/End Time must not overlap with other Sessions on the same day

The end instant must be greater than the start instant

These warning indicates a booking/charge conflict.

Find the child via their enrolment ID

  • Go to the child’s booking screen for the relevant week

  • Check the charges - for example a BSC booking with an ASC charge

  • Unfinalise the relevant week, correct the charge and finalise

A child has transitioned groups, how do I update their bookings?

  • Go to the child’s bookings screen in the week that they are transitioning rooms.

  • Right click → Transition Groups

  • Check the from date

  • Select the group they are transitioning from

  • Select the group they are tranistioning to

  • OK

How do I 'bulk' update children’s fees?

You use the 'Update Care Provided' function to change a charge in multiple bookings eg. change ASC charge from ASC to Early finish for all bookings for a day.

To do this go to:

  • Select → Service → Group

  • Right click on the group → Update Care Provided

  • Enter the date

  • Enter the from charge and the to charge, OK

Tip
 If you have 2 charges eg ASC casual and ASC permanent repeat the above for both charges
Update Care Provided

You can also perfrom an 'Update care provided' via select → group. Right click, select all or you can select multiple children by selecting the child whilst holding down the CTRL key. Right click, update care provided.

How do I change a booking that has already been sent to the CCS system (finalised)?

  • Go to the Account → Billing tab

  • Right click on the relevant week → Unfinalise

  • Go to the child’s booking (it will now diplay in blue)

  • Make the necessary changes

  • Go back to the Account → Billing tab

  • Finalise

If, because of the change, CCS has been overpaid, it can take up to 5 days for the CCS to be refunded

Centrelink has advised a parent that your Service needs to re-submit attendances, can I do that?

The answer to that is a big NO.

Firstly check that the session reports have been sent to the CCS system.

  • Go to Reports → CCS → Statement of entitlements

  • Enter dates and select the account → finish

If the report displays the session reports then you know they have been processed by the CCS system and cannot be re-submitted.

If the report is blank then the session reports have not been processed and further investigation is needed to find out why.

  • Check your daily emails from Spike. Do you have any warnings regarding the familiy?

    • If yes, correct the bookings and we will send the session reports off in the next sync with the CCS system.

    • If no, go to the child’s bookings and make sure that the claim CCS entitlements box is selected. If this has been unticked unfinalise the booking, tick the box and re-finalise. Spike will send the session reports off in the next sync with the CCS system.

A child is being booked in for extra day/s a week, how do I repeat just the additional bookings?

To repeat just one booking:

  • Left click on the booking, a thin black line will appear around the booking.

  • Repeat the selected bookings, every week, second, third or fourth week.

  • Enter dates or the number of weeks → OK

To repeat a selection of bookings:

  • Whilst holding the shift key down, left click on each booking you would like to repeat. A thin black line will appear around the selected bookings.

  • Repeat the selected bookings, every week, second, third or fourth week.

  • Enter dates or the number of weeks → OK