Before year end
ACA year-end checklist
Nothing on this list is difficult on its own. The problem is doing all of it in January. Work through it in phases and filing season becomes a formality.
October – November: confirm the foundations
6 items to confirm
- Confirm your applicable large employer status using this year's monthly FTE counts.
- Confirm every entity in your controlled group and which EIN files for each.
- Confirm the measurement method (monthly or look-back) and the exact period dates you used.
- Confirm your plan year dates and whether the plan provides minimum value.
- Identify the lowest-cost employee-only monthly premium for each plan option.
- Decide which affordability safe harbor you will report (W-2, rate of pay, or federal poverty line).
November – December: clean the employee data
7 items to confirm
- Every terminated employee has a termination date on or before their final work period end date.
- Termination dates appear once per employee, on their final record — not repeated on every row.
- No termination dates sit outside the quarter they belong to.
- Each employee has one consistent pay type; anyone with both salary and hourly records is resolved to salary.
- Every employee has a full-time or part-time designation, calculated from actual hours where it's missing.
- Rehires, leaves of absence and mid-year status changes are reflected with correct effective dates.
- Names, SSNs and addresses match what the employee would see on a W-2.
December – January: coverage and codes
6 items to confirm
- Enrollment records match payroll deductions month by month.
- Waiting periods and other limited non-assessment periods are documented.
- Waivers and declinations are on file for employees who were offered coverage and declined.
- Dependent and spouse offer details are confirmed for line 14 coding.
- Self-insured plans have covered-individual detail ready for Part III.
- Employee statements are ready to furnish in early March; electronic IRS filing is due March 31.
How we help
We review your payroll data for the exact issues listed above — termination dates that fall after the last paid work period, employees with conflicting pay types, and missing full-time/part-time designations that we recalculate from actual hours worked by week and by month.
Your part is the information only you have: plan details, safe harbor choice, measurement method and contacts. Submit that through the client portal and we'll take it from there.