Disclaimer Overview Identify Full Time Employees

Transcription

1 Disclaimer Optimum Solutions, Inc. does not claim to be an expert or a legal advisor as it relates to ACA. It is recommended your company refer to your Benefits Administrator or legal advisor if you need clarification or assistance with ACA interpretation. Overview Any Employers with 50 or more full-time employees, and/or full-time equivalents (FTEs), must offer health insurance that is affordable and provides minimum value to 95% of their full-time employees and dependents (up to 26 years old). This is known as the employer mandate. Employers subject to this mandate who fail to comply will be subject to penalties. Identify Full Time Employees Optimum can help customers identify your full time employees as well as the number of full time employees that you have in the Average Hours Worked Per Week Report. Path: 2. Payroll Processing Menu, 6. Pay Process Reports (by Dates), 7. Average Hours Worked Per Week (by Dates) 1

2 Reporting Dates for calendar year 2018 The form due date for employees Forms 1095-C by January 31, 2019 The form due date for IRS Forms 1094-C and 1095-C by February 28, 2019 if paper or by April 1, 2019 if electronic. Employers who filed 250 or more forms for the prior year must file electronically. AIR: Affordable Care Act Information Return System AIR registration can take up to 20 days. If required to file electronically for the first time, start the process today. Link to the AIR Transmission checklist: Form 1095-C Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage The C form at Form 1095-C Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage 2

3 This form is individual-specific. It also reports coverage offers or lack of offers made to FTEs by employers subject to the employer mandate. It is supplied to the employee and to the IRS. Form 1095-C Part I Includes both Employee and Employer information. The employee data pulls from the employee PE screen Employee Personal Information. The employer data pulls from Company Master File code table, Company Information screen. For 2018 on the IRS paper filing landscape form the firs name, middle name and last name fields have been separated. FORM 1095-C PART II Includes the employee s offer of coverage code, lowest cost, and Safe Harbor code. The Control file itself holds the default values. Once mass added to the employees the Offer of Coverage Code and 4980H Safe Harbor code pulls directly from the Employee 1095-C Data Collection record and the default amounts for the lowest cost will pull form the Control File unless overridden at the employee record. FORM 1095-C PART III (SELF-INSURED ONLY) Includes Covered Individuals enrolled in employer self-insured coverage. Dependents must be added to the Employee Record DE screen and optionally tied to the appropriate Benefit Code on the Employee s Record BE screen option D=Dependents in order for those dependents to be attached to the ACA record. WHAT IS A SELF-INSURED PLAN? HealthCare.gov defines a Self-Insured Plan as the Type of plan usually present in larger companies where the employer itself collects premiums from enrollees and takes on the responsibility of paying employees and dependents medical claims. These employers can contract for insurance services such as enrollment, claims processing, and provider networks with a third party administrator, or they can be self-administered. Affordable Coverage Path: 2. Payroll Processing Menu, 6. Pay Process Reports (by Dates), 8. ACA Minimum Essential Coverage Determination The lowest priced self-only plan the employer offers. This means a plan covering only the employee, not dependents. This is true even if the employee chooses to enroll in a plan that costs more or covers dependents. The cost is the amount the employee would pay for the insurance. Employers don t know the household income of their employees, there are three safe harbors that an employer may use to determine affordability for purposes of the employer mandate. Employers are allowed to use Form W2 box 1 wages, an employee s rate of pay, or the federal poverty line. If using the W2 safe harbor this report will calculate 9.56%, the threshold for 2018, of employees W2 box 1 wages to the premium amount enter on report prompt. 3

4 ACA reporting in Optimum for Form 1095-C NOTE: It may be helpful to have a copy of the Form 1095-C and Instructions available when setting up this information. Creating the Control File The first step is to set up a control file that is used to determine which parts of the form are required to be printed on the form for calendar year The Control File program is designed based on plan code with employment type attached. If you offer different health insurance plans to different groups of employees then you will need multiple employment type codes setup in Optimum. For example: union and non-union employees. Since the program that creates the control file is based on the employment type it will be necessary to create separate employment type codes if your company has the need for 2 plans. For example: FT for Fulltime non-union and FN for union. Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 1 ACA 1095-C Control File Maintenance Press F6 to create Enter the Company Number Enter the Tax Year The calendar year for reporting Enter the Start Month The month your plan year begins for health benefit plan. Plan Code - This field is to determine which ACA Plan code is to be used for the mass add if an employer has a need for multiple plan codes, due to different coverages offered within the company for different groups of employees. NOTE: All employees with the same status will be 4

5 pulled into the mass create, therefore separate status codes will be needed if creating multiple plans. Description/Comment - This is to identify each plan code. Offer of Coverage Code = code series 1 Offer and Coverage line 14 Section 4980H Safe Harbor code = code series 2 Safe Harbor code line 16 Is this statement true? -- Employer did not offer health coverage, or it offered coverage that was not MEC (Minimum Essential Coverage), or did not provide MV (Minimum Value) Y or N. If Y then line 15 lowest Cost should be omitted. Part II line 15 for the Lowest Cost of Monthly Premium is only required if 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1J or 1K is entered on line 14. Otherwise line 15 is blank and Y should be entered on this field. Employer is Self-Insured Y or N Determines if 1095-C part III adds dependents. Make 1095-C forms available in ESS Y or N Determines if 1095-C is available for employees to print in the ESS application. Be sure to leave blank until you print and review the employee 1095-C forms. NOTE: The current year ACA programs update opticom must be installed. NOTE: CODES 1A AND 2C ARE USED BELOW AS EXAMPLES ONLY. SEE IRS INSTRUCTIONS TO DETERMINE THE APPROPRIATE CODES FOR YOUR FILE. 5

6 Select option B = Benefits enter benefit codes if self-insured. This will determine the covered individuals records, created on the initial load for 1095-C part III reporting. Also, on the initial load any dependents set up on the employee s DE=Dependent screen will be loaded. NOTE: The mass add program will have an option to load all dependents or only dependents assigned to this benefit code. New function with the option to copy from the previous year s coverage codes has been added as an additional option if dependents did not get setup on the DE screen. NOTE: Our mass add programs will add the part III covered individuals to all employees with this benefit code unless it is marked I for inactive. It does not look at stop dates or election option. Select option E = Employment status enter valid Employment Status codes. This will determine the employees that will have 1095-C Part II records created in the initial load. If your company had different Plan Codes, you will need different Employment Types for each code. 6

7 Select option L = Lowest cost Enter the employee share of the lowest-cost monthly premium for self-only coverage. Lowest cost is only required if 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1J or 1K is entered on line 14. Otherwise line 15 is blank. Used for part II line 15 reporting on Form 1095-C. If the employer s premium year is a calendar year, enter the amount in the All 12 Months field, leaving the months fields blank. If your premium year isn t calendar year and your amounts change, then enter the amounts for January through December and leave the All 12 Months blank. For example, if your plan year is July to June, then January to June will be one amount and July through December will be another. 7

8 The next step is to run the process to load the ACA records required based on the control file. There are three options to choose from to load the employee ACA records: 1) Mass Add, 2) Copy employee ACA records or 3) Import records. Users will only choose one option. If you choose to run more than one of these options you will lose employee level ACA record information for that calendar year as it will clear your current information each time the user chooses one of these options to load the employee ACA records. To use the Mass add option select option 2 Mass Add ACA 1095-C Part II/III records for employees. NOTE: The mass add only occurs to employees active at the time you run the program. Therefore you will have to manually add the ACA record to any Terminated/New Hires. Enter Company number, year, the appropriate Plan Code created in option 1 and the coverage start month to be used for the initial load. Only include Dependents with Benefits in Control File (Y/N) Enter Y to pull in only dependents that are associated with the medical benefit code setup in the control file. These dependents are those that are currently in the (BE) Employee Benefits option D=Dependents (EMPBENDP) file. Enter N to pull in all dependents, setup in the (DE) Dependent screen regardless of benefit association. 8

9 Only include Dependents with Other Insurance marked Y (Y/N) Enter Y to pull in only dependents with Y in the field Other Insurance on the (DE) Dependent screen. Then Select F9=Process 1095-C to create the 1095-C Part II/III records for employees based on the control file setup. Based on the control file, the appropriate employee and/or dependents will be added. To use F8 = Copy to New Year to duplicate the prior year Part II and Part III records for the new year and manually make any adjustments. This option will be beneficial for companies that do not maintain dependents in the Optimum software. NOTE: If using the F8 copy, do not complete the prompt screen displayed Press F8 for the prompt screen to duplicate Part II/III. To use copy option select F8=Copy to New Year This program will copy Part II, Part III records from the year you specify to the new year. It will remove any records if any exist for the To year. 9

10 To use the Import option select 4 ACA Import/Edit of Part II/III Records for Employees is designed to update all 1095-C required information from an excel spreadsheet, not the standard Optimum Payroll options 1-3. This option will clear your ACA records for calendar year since you shouldn t have any regards if importing from spreadsheet. Be sure to only select if you are importing from a spreadsheet. See section below for details. NOTE: Users could clear their data if they select this option and do not have any data to import in the specific file. ACA Import/Edit of Part II/III Records for Employees ACA Menu option 4 ACA Import/Edit of Part II/III Records for Employees is designed to import the ACA 1095-C employee reporting information instead of using our mass add programs. It will clear all 1095-C employee information previously entered for the calendar year you are importing from the spreadsheets which means the import can only be used one time per calendar year. NOTE: Users still need to setup the control file when using the import option. Setup the control file following the instructions on pages 4-6 above prior to importing -- Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 1 ACA 1095-C Control File Maintenance 10

11 OSI will provide four files for Part II Import and four files for Part III Import. Below are the 4 types of files and examples of each type. The customer will need to save the files to a drive on their network. The Data Transfer File Description file (FDF) is the file description used to load the file from the PC to the iseries using Client Access transfer utility. The Excel worksheet provides the column headings required for the specific format the information needs to be in. This will be completed by the customer or their provider. The data must be in this specific format. The CSV comma delimited file has the data format for what the file should look like when it s ready to import. This is just an example of what your CSV file should look like after you save the Excel spreadsheet as a comma delimited file type. The data transfer file is the Client Access data transfer utility for moving the data from the PC to the iseries. ACA 1095-C Part II Offer of Coverage file transfer and import The customer or the provider must move the employee data into an Excel worksheet using the specific format provided for ACA 1095-C Part II Offer of Coverage example spreadsheet. After moving the data into Excel, save it to a CSV comma delimited file type. Selecting the file type comma delimited will automatically add the.csv extension. NOTE: You MUST use the File Save As option and select the File Type Comma Delimited. DO NOT simply change the extension on the Excel document. Open the CSV file and delete the entire top row -- all column headings. This row must be removed before the transfer in order for the import to work correctly. Next open the data transfer to the system i utility file that was provided. The final step prior to the import is to transfer the files from the PC to the iseries using the Data Transfer to System i file and Data Transfer File Description (FDF) that OSI provided that was saved on your network in the steps above. Open the file Data Transfer to System i file, then in the transfer to system i, click the Browse to the location and file name for the CSV file on your network drives. 11

12 The iseries file and library is OIPAYFILES/ACAPART2WK Click Details in the transfer as shown in the screen above and check the box Use PC file description as shown in the screen below. Then click Browse for the ACA 1095-C Part II Offer of Coverage FDF file name and location on your network drives as shown in the screen below. This was included in the files provided by Optimum which was saved on a drive on your network. 12

13 ACA 1095-C Part III Covered Individuals file transfer and import The customer or the provider must move the data into the Excel worksheet using the specific format provided for ACA 1095-C Part III Covered Individual example spreadsheet. After moving the data into Excel, save it to a CSV comma delimited file type. Selecting the file type comma delimited will automatically put the.csv extension. NOTE: You MUST use the File Save As option and select the File Type Comma Delimited. DO NOT simply change the extension on the Excel document. Open the CSV file and delete the entire top row -- all column headings. This row must be removed before the transfer in order for the import to work correctly. Next open the data transfer to the system i utility file that was provided. The final step prior to the import is to transfer the files from the PC to the iseries using the Data Transfer to System i file and Data Transfer File Description (FDF) that OSI provided that was saved on your network in the steps above. Open the file Data Transfer to System i file, then in the transfer to system i, click the browse to the location and file name for the CSV file on your network drives. 13

14 The iseries file and library is OIPAYFILES/ACAPART3WK Click details in the transfer as shown in the screen above and check the box Use PC file description as shown in the screen below. Then click Browse for the ACA 1095-C Part III Covered Individuals FDF file name and location on your network drives as shown in the screen below. This was included in the files provided by Optimum which was saved on a drive on your network. 14

15 Import the files into Optimum Solutions ACA Employee Benefit Fields The files are ready to be imported into the Optimum System. On the Payroll Main Menu select option 4 Quarter/Year End Menu, select option 10 Affordable Care Act Menu and then select option 4 ACA Import / Edit of Part II/III Records for Employees. 15

16 Option 1 Import ACA Part II Data - Select Y or N Option 2 Import ACA Part III Data Select Y or N Select E to run the edit This is recommended to confirm the data doesn t have any errors. Users will receive a report to review but nothing will be updated. Repeat the process and select I to run the import which will update the employee 1095-C ACA records in Optimum. 16

17 Employee Setup and Maintenance Keep in mind as we go through these screens, this information is recommended to be maintained timely because this is how your company can track the information needed for reporting on Form 1095-C. Path: 1 File Maintenance, 1 Work with Employees, Select BE=Benefits on an employee Press F7=ACA Info to see the records that were created automatically with the mass add program based on the Control file setup information 17

18 The Employee 1095-C Part II information will automatically get created for active employees based on the control file setup employment status codes. NOTE: all employees Part II and Part III only if self-insured will initially be populated with coverage/offers for all 12 months, however the part II and part III information can be added/changed/deleted on the employees where needed. Option 2 on the specific year to see the records created for the employee. 18

19 Option L = Lowest Cost Override Should the lowest cost need to be overridden for an individual, these can be overridden by month by selecting this option and entering the correct amount. Employee Maintenance and Example It is crucial to continue to maintain the employee s records throughout the calendar year so it is recommended to make this part of your ongoing employee maintenance procedures. Areas to be included ongoing could entail: New Hires Rehires Terminations Employment status changes part-time to full-time or vice versa or even temp to fulltime Life changing events such as marriage, divorce, birth of a child, adoption. Some of these life change events would only be tracked for self-insured employers tracking dependent/spouse coverage information. Select option 2 for changes 19

20 Employee who terminates in March On the Initial load the All 12 Months field contains a 12 indicating the employee is covered for the entire year. Since the employee has terminated, this no longer holds true. Remove the code in the All 12 Months field and enter the code only in the months the employee is covered by your company medical plan. The employee is considered covered if they have 1 day of coverage for the month. The remaining fields not covered will be blank. This process will be removed in Part II line 14 offer of coverage codes and line H Safe Harbor codes. Likewise, should a dependent be added or removed from the employee s coverage, the process would be the same the employee. Remember the codes required by your company are located in the Form 1095-C instructions pages 6 8. The codes may be selected from an F4 prompt box. Optimum cannot advise as to what codes to use, so please consult whoever handles your benefits. The Employee 1095-C Part III information for self-insured covered individuals will automatically be created for existing employees based on the control file setup of benefit codes. The Part III information can be added/changed/deleted on the employees as in Part II. If the employee has the benefit code attached and has dependents setup, the mass add program will automatically add the dependents to the covered individuals information screens. 20

21 Select option C=Covered Individuals In the initial load the All 12 Months box is populated. Using a similar example as above for Part II, an employee terminates in March and drops coverage. Remove the Part III months of coverage in All 12 Months and put an X in each month the employee has coverage. The same would be true for the employee s covered dependents. Press F10 function key option to load employee and dependents. This can be used for new hires to automatically populate the information or the information name, SSN and date of birth can be keyed in manually for the employee and/or dependents (this function can only be used one time). If any data exists already on this screen the F10 will not load any data. The F10 function key to add employee and dependents will populate X for months of coverage based on the system date. NOTE: The mass add programs will add the Part III covered individuals to all employees with this benefit code unless it is marked I for inactive. It does not look at stop dates or election option. 21

22 Reports 1095-C Coverage Audit Listing Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 3 ACA Reports menu, 1 ACA 1095-C Coverage Audit Report Enter Calendar Year, Company Number, Plan code, Employee Number to Exclude the Lowest Cost enter Y, otherwise N, to Exclude the 4980H Safe Harbor series 2 code enter Y, otherwise N, to Exclude the Covered Individuals enter Y, otherwise N. This report can be run as often as you would like to verify your data. This report should be reviewed for accuracy prior to printing the employee 1095-C forms at year end. 22

23 Sample report Form 1094-C Full Time Employee Count for ALE Member Part III columns B and C have employee head count information. Part III column B: FTE counts by month. Part III column C: Total employee count for the employer, including FTE s and non-fte s, by month. Use first or last day of the month, to get the count. Employers must use the same method for all months. The same report can be used but without using the other selection criteria to select the employment types. NOTE: Because there is no method to capture FTE counts by month for a date in the past, this report each month must be run each month. Path: 3 Reports, 1 Employee/Personnel Reports, 1 Employee Listing, 1 Employee List, 1 Employee List by Name Select company number and Print SSN yes or no. Run the same report one time without selecting the Employment Status codes to get a total count (1094-C Part III column C count), and then a second time selecting the Employment Status codes for the full time employees to get a count of active FTEs (1094-C Part III column B count). 23

24 F2 function key for Other Selection criteria to select on the Employment Status Codes. The field is EPEMST, the Test Type EQ for equal or if needing to select on multiple types LIST, then in the Value enter the employment type codes in single quotes. 24

25 Example report ORDERING FORM 1095-C To purchase Optimum compatible tax forms navigate to the Optimum Support Website. Under Vendors, click on Tax Forms 25

26 Next, click on View Products under iseries Suite Customer. Under iseries Subcategories, select ACA 1095C Reporting Documents. 26

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28 Contact information at PTM Document Systems for questions: Bob Benson ext NOTE: The current year ACA programs update opticom must be installed prior to printing the 1095C forms or creating electronic files. Opticom information will be sent in a mass and is also located on the Optimum Solutions Support Site. Customers will be notified via mass when the updates are available. Print 1095-C Employee forms Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, C Print Mailing Forms New option on prompt screen to choose to print corrected forms only Y or N. Enter Calendar Year, Company Number, Plan code, Employee Number, and Form Type to print. 28

29 F4 on Select Print Form to see the list of form types: 29

30 Sample Employee Form 1095-C ****PAPER FILERS ONLY****: If you are a paper filer you will also need to purchase IRS official landscape 1095-C to send to the IRS. 30

31 1094-C Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Off and Coverage Information Returns link to 1094-C form - Link to 2018 IRS instructions for forms 1094-C & 1095-C. This accompanies copies of all individual 1095-C forms sent to the IRS. This form also reports aggregate information demonstrating compliance with the employer mandate for employers subject to the mandate. This information is also included in Electronic Files submitted to the IRS. The 1094-C is a four part form FORM 1094-C PART I & II FORM 1094-C PART III 31

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33 FORM 1094-C PART IV 1094-C Employer Transmittal Maintenance Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, C Transmittal Maintenance Press F6 to create to complete information for Part I. Remember this form is required, even when filing electronically. Part I Applicable Large Employer Member (ALE Member) Option 1=Part I The Specific Instructions for Form 1094-C Part I Line 1-19 can be found on pages 6 & 7 of the IRS Instructions. Please refer to these instructions for completing the setup information. For companies that may have more than one company setup in Optimum Payroll that have the same FEIN number, a new option has been added to the transmittal Maintenance to tie them together for transmitting the ACA 1094-c transmission file. The new option C = Child Companies has been added. 33

34 If multiple companies with the same FEIN the 1094-C transmittal information will need to combined into one single transmittal. Enter one company for that FEIN then select option C=Children Companies to add each company number with the same FEIN. Enter parts II IV combine information for all companies for FEIN. 34

35 Enter the Company Number then enter to auto populate name, EIN and address. Enter Tax Year Enter Country Enter Contact Person First, Middle Initial, Last Name and suffix The person to contact who is responsible for answering any questions. Enter Contact Telephone Number and extension The phone number for the person to contact who is responsible for answering any questions. Enter Total number Forms 1095-C filed with this transmittal. Enter Y if authoritative transmittal, otherwise enter N. NOTE: If this Form 1094-C transmittal is the Authoritative Transmittal, complete Parts II, III, and IV, where applicable. Otherwise, complete the signature portion of Form 1094-C and leave the remainder of the form (Parts II, III and IV) blank. 35

36 If you entered Y for Authoritative, next screen will allow user to Enter for Part II information. Part II ALE Member Information Option 2=Part II Part II, III and IV - only complete for the Authoritative Transmittal for the employer. The Specific Instructions for Form 1094-C Part II Lines can be found on pages 7 & 8 of the IRS Instructions. Please refer to these instructions for completing the setup information. Enter Total number forms 1095-C filed by and/or on behalf of ALE Member Enter Y if ALE member of an Aggregated ALE group, otherwise enter N. Certification of Eligibility (select all that apply): A. Qualifying Offer Method Enter Y if applicable, otherwise leave blank. B. Qualifying Offer Method Transition Relief RESERVED C. Section 4980H Transition Relief RESERVED D. 98% Offer Method Enter Y if applicable, otherwise leave blank. Enter Name of Person signing Form 1094-C Form and their Title. Enter Date the submission is completed in MMDDCCYY format. To enter information for Part III, select option 3=Part III on company number. 36

37 Part III ALE Member Information-Monthly Option 3=Part III Part III - only complete for the Authoritative Transmittal for the employer. The Specific Instructions for Form 1094-C Part III Lines can be found on pages 8 & 9 of the IRS Instructions. Please refer to these instructions for completing the setup information. Column (a) Minimum Essential Coverage Offer Indicator If the employer offered minimum essential coverage to at least 95% of its full-time employees and their dependents for the entire calendar year enter Y on All 12 Months or for each of the 12 calendar months. Column (b) Full-Time Employee Count for ALE Member Enter the number of full-time employees for each month, not counting any employee in a Limited Non-Assessment Period. If employer certified 98% Offer Method by selecting box D on line 22 Part II, it is not required to complete column (b). Column (c) Total Employee Count for ALE Member Enter the total number of all of your employees, including full-time, non-full-time and employees in Limited Non-Assessment Period for each calendar month. If the total number of employees was the same for every month of the entire calendar year, enter the number in All 12 Months or in each month of the calendar year. 37

38 Column (d) Aggregated Group Indicator If employer entered Y for Is ALE member of an Aggregated ALE Group, indicate Y in each month of the calendar year it was a member of an Aggregated ALE Group. Column (e) Section 4980H Transition Relief Indicator If the employer certifies by selecting box C on line 22, that it is eligible for Section 4980H Transition Relief and is eligible for the 50 to 99 Relief, enter code A. If eligible for the 100 or More Relief, enter code B. Part IV Other ALE Members of Aggregated ALE Group Option 4=Part IV Part IV - only complete for the Authoritative Transmittal for the employer. An employer must complete this section if it checks Yes on line 21. The Specific Instructions for Form 1094-C Part II Lines can be found on page 9 of the IRS Instructions. Please refer to these instructions for completing the setup information. If the employer was a member of an Aggregated ALE Group for any month of the calendar year, enter the company number for the other ALE Group members. 38

39 Option 5=DGE Info Designated Governmental Entity (DGE) Lines 9-16 of Part I If a Designated Governmental Entity (DGE) filing on behalf of an employer, complete lines 9-16 of Part I. Enter DGE name, DGE EIN, address, contact name, and telephone number. Print 1094-C Transmittal forms Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, C Transmittal Print Enter Company Number, Tax Year, Print Test Form Y or N. If Y it will produce a test form with XX s to use to line up with pre-printed form. NOTE: This print option produces three separate spool files one for each of the three pages of the pre-printed 1094-C form. This form is used for Employers filing on paper (less than 250 forms) must submit forms 1095-C s along with Form 1094-C transmittal to the IRS by February 28, If you are electronically filing you still need to complete the 1094-C transmittal maintenance but it s not necessary to print the actual form. 39

40 NOTE: This is not an overlay you must have the form to print the 1094-C. The IRS website does have a fill in form similar to the 941 fill in form. ****PAPER FILERS ONLY****: If you are a paper filer you will also need to purchase IRS official landscape 1095-C to send to the IRS. The ACA 1094-C transmittal for electronic filing is required for employers with 250 or more forms. Employers with less than 250 forms can file electronically but it is not required if less than 250. If you do not file electronically you do not need a TCC code. The IRS encourages employers to file electronically even though filing fewer than 250 forms. Trouble shooting Print alignment issues a. Option 1: Rerun the print option selecting one of the blank formats (B95CPERFI or 81650) and print on blank paper. If this prints correctly, order the blank forms in future years. This option is using an overlay which alleviates alignment issues. b. Option 2: Try printing the forms on a different printer. c. Option 3: This option requires adjusting the printer menu options to get the alignment correct by adjusting the x and y coordinates (where the print begins at the top of the page and from the side of the page). Below is menu options taken from one type of laser printer, of which your menu may have the same or similar 40

41 options. However if your printer does not have these options, you will need to refer to the printer manual: NOTE: Prior to making the printer setup changes, either print the setup configuration or make note of the options that are changed. d. Select the following options on the printer: Press the Menu button Arrow down to Configuration menu Press the Check button Arrow down to Print Quality Press the Check button Select Set Registration Press the Check button Arrow down to Adjust Tray 2 Press the Check Button Press the Check button at X1 Shift Arrow down to 10 Press the Check button to set Settings Saved is displayed Arrow down to X2 Shift Press the Check button Arrow down to 6 Press the Arrow button to set Settings Saved is displayed Arrow down to Y Shift Press the Check button 41

42 Arrow down to 7 Press the Check button to set Settings Saved is displayed Press the Return key 5 times to return to the Ready display Electronic filing - Set up ACA Transmitters Code Table Path to create the ACA Transmitter Information: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 25 Create ACA XML files to send to IRS, F6 to create ACA transmitter NOTE: The current year ACA programs update opticom must be installed. Next select F9 to retrieve the company master information, take a 1 to select the company number to retrieve the company master. Enter year, TCC code in Transmitter Ctl Code field, Contact First name, Middle name, and Last name, suffix, and phone number. Enter Y/N for prior year data and Y/N for Foreign Entity and enter to save. Add companies to your Transmitter with option 1 Work with Companies then press enter. NOTE: If multiple companies with same FEIN all companies with employee ACA records must be entered on the transmitter. 42

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44 IRS Transmission Files So what exactly is being created here? The IRS has implemented a new program called ACA Information Returns (AIR). The end game of this is to generate two files (1) Forms Data File, and (2) Manifest File. Both files are type XML, and contain all the necessary employee 1095-C Affordable Care Act information from Optimum software that you ve been entering and maintaining all year. Along with the 1094-C Transmittal information employers complete in Optimum. These two files will be submitted jointly to the AIR system after you have generated them. How to create the test transmission files Select option T to generate Test file on the Transmitter EIN. Then press enter to create the test file. Employers are only required to successfully complete the test file once. 44

45 The screen will display the iseries file name and PC file name. Please note: the names of the files are named very specifically. Please DO NOT USE A DIFFERENT PC FILE NAME for either the Form Data File or the Manifest File. Using a different name for either file will cause the rejection of both files from the IRS. Option 27 View XML ACA Manifest Header 45

46 Option 28 View XML ACA Detail The transmission files will be located in OIPAYFILES library and they will need to be transferred to the PC using client access. Transfer both files as file type ASCII Text and check the box truncate spaces but uncheck the option to include the end of file character. We recommend using the copy from the iseries screen for the PC file name then paste into client access file name. Using the example above iseries file name ACAXML must be transferred to PC file name 1094C_Request_AABBC_ T Z.xml. You can select the PC file name like below in blue, click on the copy icon shown below in red. Then open client access and in the PC file name section 46

47 Click on browse and paste (right click) and paste the file into the FILE name field as shown below. 47

48 Next transfer the Manifest Header file. Using the example above iseries file name ACAXMLHD must be transferred to PC file name Manifest_1094C_Request_AABBC_ T Z.xml. You can select the PC file name like below in blue, click on the copy icon shown below in red. Then open client access and in the PC file name section. Click on browse and paste (right click) and paste the file into the FILE name field as shown below. 48

49 Create the Production transmission files Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 25 Create ACA XML files to send to IRS, select option 9 to generate Production file on the Transmitter EIN. Then press enter to create the production file. This process is similar to the test file except you will use option 9 to generate the production file. NOTE: The process is the same as above for the production files to transfer the files to the PC then upload the files to the IRS selecting the production option. Keep in mind the names for the PC file name must be the specific names displayed on the screen in Optimum and use file type ASCII Text and check the box truncate spaces but uncheck the option to include the end of file character. Transmitting Returns to the IRS Web Links Open a web browser and navigate to the appropriate transmission web site. There are two options: (1) Testing, and (2) Production. Links to these sites are available here: Act-Information-Return-AIR-Program 49

50 Transmission Instructions Log in with your IRS e-file username and password. 50

51 After successfully logging, in, you will have two options: (1) Upload ACA Forms, and (2) Check Transmission Status. 51

52 To upload the files created from Optimum, click Upload ACA Forms. On the ACA Transmission File Upload screen, use the site to browse and select both the Manifest and Forms Data files previously uploaded from the iseries to the PC. After the files are selected double check they are correct. Click Transmit. 52

53 After you click Transmit, you will NOT be able to cancel the transmission. If your file is successfully received after clicking Transmit, a confirmation page will display that contains the Receipt ID for this transmission. It is recommended you save your Receipt ID in a secure location. Unsuccessful Transmission If the files fail to transmit and you received a schema error that appears in red, this can be caused for multiple reasons and some of the most common reasons are listed below but are not limited to this list. Attempting to upload test files to the production environment. Uploading live files before your transmitter code is changed from testing status to production status Uploading production files to the test environment. Incorrect file name. 53

54 Changing something within the file. Successful Transmission After a successful transmission, PRINT and/or WRITE DOWN the Receipt ID. You will need to enter this in Optimum. Be sure to save all records of your Receipt IDs for all transmissions. Recording Receipt ID in Optimum Use option 25 Create ACA XML files to send to IRS Select V view/update transmission Info Then enter the receipt ID in the field Original receipt ID Checking Transmission Status After you have properly entered the Receipt ID and transmission status in Optimum, you can check the status of the transmission by using the second option on the AIR web site: Check Transmission Status. 54

55 Enter your TCC and Receipt ID on this form. Click Find. 55

56 The status is shown on this page. Please note: as the deadline for filing approaches processing time will increase. This typically takes no less than 45 minutes to get a status back from the AIR system other than Processing. 56

57 Congratulations on a successful filing of your Affordable Care Act information! Contact the IRS help desk to be moved from Test to Production at This can take up to 48 hours to switch over. Next generate the production file 57

58 Accepted? Final Steps Upon seeing a transmission status of Accepted: Print this page and change the transmission status in Optimum Suite from Processing to Accepted. Congratulations on a successful filing of your Affordable Care Act information! 58

59 Accepted with Errors or Rejected Filing Next Steps If the file status is Accepted with Errors or Rejected you will need to submit a correction file. You will need 1) The Receipt ID for the transmission being corrected 2) The Error Acknowledgement file (xml) from the AIR system. When checking your status if you errors click Download. This will download the error data file. The details of errors found when the IRS processed the Form Data File are included in an Error Data File that can be viewed and downloaded through the ISS-UI user-interface. The Acknowledgement includes the errors found, in XML format, during Form Data File processing. Please review the error file, correct the problem, and try your transmission again. 59

60 Example ACA error file download 60

61 ACA 1095-C Corrected Returns Process v7 In order to use this guide, the ACA file currently on your iseries must match the ACA file originally created on the iseries (ACAXMLHD) and submitted to the IRS that was returned as accepted with errors. NOTE: if your iseries ACA file was recreated after being accepted with errors, the instructions below will not populate the correct employee ACA records with the original Submission ID (SID) and Record ID (RID) required for the corrected file submission. Those users will need to manually key in the Submission ID (SID) and Record ID (RID) on the employee records they manually correct, or contact support regarding steps to transfer the PC file that was accepted with errors back to the iseries. On a payroll command line type CALL ACA599FIX. On the prompt enter the year to process. This will populate the employee ACA records with the Submission ID (SID) and Record ID (RID) from the ACAXMLHD file. NOTE: This program matches to employee SSN. If any SSN has been changed then it won t populate the submission ID (SID) and Record ID (RID), requiring manual entry of these IDs. In v7 only, we have a new menu option that will allow users to make changes to employees that need to be corrected without accessing the Employee BE (Benefit) screen. Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 5 ACA 1095-C Forms by SID and RID for Corrections. 61

62 The error acknowledgement file will have the Unique Record ID for the employee with the error. Match up the Unique Record ID in the error acknowledgment file with the RID number in the employee ACA 1095-C by SID and RID. If there is an error on a covered individual the error acknowledgement file with identify which sequence covered individual for that employee with the [2] for sequence 2 covered individual. Select option 1 next to employee, then option 2 to make changes and flag Y in Corrected field. Then if the error is on the covered individual select option C=Covered individual. This option can be used instead of accessing through the employee BE screen, then F7=ACA Info. The employee ACA 1095-C by SID and RID will make it easier to identify which employees are in error. 62

63 After the changes for the corrections are entered, the next step is to create the Correction XML file to submit to IRS. Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 25 Create ACA XML files to send to IRS. First, use option V=View/Update Transmission Info. Users must enter the Original Receipt ID from the transmission that was accepted with errors -- you are now going to file corrections to that submission. Create the Production transmission files Path: 4 Quarter/Year End/Government Reporting, 10 Affordable Care Act Processes, 25 Create ACA XML files to send to IRS, select option C to generate correction file on the Transmitter EIN. Then press enter to create the correction file. This process is similar to the test and production file except you will use option C to generate the correction file. 63

64 NOTE: The process is the same as above for the correction files to transfer the files to the PC then upload the files to the IRS selecting the production option. Keep in mind the names for the PC file name must be the specific names displayed on the screen in Optimum and use file type ASCII Text and check the box truncate spaces but uncheck the option to include the end of file character. Beginning ACA Tracking for 2019 Either immediately before or very soon after processing the first payroll in 2019, create a new ACA Control file for This will not clear out the 2018 information as it will be retained in history. To create the 2019 Control file and mass add or import you would follow the same steps outlined above for