XML Processing Guide

Complete the following tasks in order to submit your 1094 and 1095 XML file to the IRS. Each is detailed separately below:

Step 1: Apply for and Receive Transmitter Control Code (TCC)

If you did not file in the previous year, apply for and receive your TCC from the IRS. Visit the IRS website to apply for a TCC. Use the search option on the IRS website to find information about the TCC.

Step 2: Review and Complete Setup Employer

To file with the IRS, you must accurately complete information in the Employer Setup for reporting on the 1094 transmittal document that will go along with the 1095 forms that you deliver to your employees.

You may have multiple submissions for the various groups, but only one submission will include the Authoritative Transmittal information and the information from the Designated Government Entity, Monthly Information and Aggregated ALE Group tabs.

When you have set up multiple 1095 Employer Control groups (often by pay groups or benefit groups), you will have the information set up in the Employer records with the same Federal ID. The reported summary information for the group will come only from the single Employer record that has been marked as the Authoritative Transmittal. There must be only one Authoritative Transmittal record for each Federal ID you are reporting. If you have a single Employer Control group record, select Authoritative Transmittal on the record.

Menu Path

From the Human Resources menu, select Periodic Routines. From the Affordable Care Act menu, select 1095 Maintenance. From the action bar, select Setup Employer.

Tab	Description
Employer	Verify that the Employer Name, Address information, Contact Name and Phone are entered accurately. The Contact Name and Phone number will be used by the IRS if there are questions about the filing. This was also the contact phone number reported to the employees on their 1095 forms. Enter the TCC on the Authoritative Transmittal control group record in the Transmitter Control Code field. This is used for your communication test and your final filing. While the field is not required in the software, you must complete it before testing the XML process. Certifications of Eligibility: Select all the boxes that apply. Information on the number of 1095s being filed is updated automatically by the XML processing, and cannot be overridden. At this point, you may skip to Step 3: Communication Test, and then return to this area to finish the set up of the Monthly Information tab prior to submitting your actual XML data transmission file. If you skip to Step 3, you must come back and finish the rest of the setup information.
Designated Government Entity	If you are a Designated Government Entity filing on behalf of an employer, complete the information on this page. Otherwise, enter nothing on this page.
Monthly Information	If your Offers of Coverage to your employees provided at least Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) for all or selected months, select the appropriate months or All 12 Months. Your benefits provider should be able to tell you if you offered MEC for all 12 months, or only for selected months during the calendar year. If you are not a 98% Offer employer by the IRS definition, and you have not selected option D on the Employer tab under Certifications of Eligibility, then you must report your Full-Time Employee Count. If you have updated the ACA Hours Tracking with the hours worked information for all your employees, the software can calculate the Full-Time Employee count for you. It is important that the hours be as correct as you can make them, especially for part time employees as defined by the IRS. Select a record and click Accept to switch to edit mode, then Calculate Full-Time Employee Count and Calculate Total Employee Count appear in the action bar. The Calculate Full Time Employee Count option is determined as follows: For each month, it determines how many employees worked 130 hours or more. Each one it finds will be included in the Full Time Employee count. Next, it sums the hours of the employees who did not work 130 or more hours in the month. Divide that number by 120 hours, to come up with the equivalent number for part time employees. For example, if there were 10 people who worked 100 hours each in the month, the full time equivalent amount would be 8.3333 and reported as 8. The Full Time Employee count is added to the Full Time Equivalent number just calculated. The sum of these two counts is the reported Full-Time Employee Count for each month. If you have not or cannot use the ACA Hours Tracking to create the hours for your employees, you may find another way to determine this number. You may enter the information manually for each month in the provided fields. Refer to the Pay Information tab for the calculation of the Total Employee Count. If you have between 50 and 99 employees being reported with 1095 forms, use this option for all twelve months or for the months where it is applicable. If you have 100 or more, use this option for all twelve months or where the months have more than 100 employees employed.
Aggregated ALE Group	If you are part of a larger reporting group called an Aggregated Applicable Large Employer (ALE) group, complete this tab with the top 30 entities, ordered from largest to smallest number of employees, including yourself. Enter the member Name and Federal EIN information. Everyone in the aggregated ALE group must have the exact same list. If there are more than 30, only enter the largest 30. If you are not part of an aggregated ALE group, enter nothing on this page.
Pay Information	This tab appears only for records marked as Authoritative Transmittals (there should be only one). All employers must complete the Total Employee Count on the Monthly Information tab as part of the submission. In order to calculate the number of employees paid on the 12th of each month, please enter the pay runs for each month that include the 12th of the month. This calculation is similar to the calculation of the number of employees for Unemployment reporting in many states. If there is only one pay run that contains the 12th of a month, enter it in the appropriate month field. If there are multiple pay runs with different people paid on the 12th of the month, enter them in the appropriate month field with a pipe ( \| ) between each pay run. Run the Calculate Full-Time Employee Count and Calculate Total Employee Count options to populate the fields for each month in the respective columns on the Monthly Information tab. This information is required to be reported by all employers.

Step 3: Complete Communication Test with IRS

Only complete this step if you have not filed in the previous year.

To successfully submit a transmission to the IRS, you must have your TCC number entered on your Authoritative Transmittal Employer Setup control groups, you must generate and submit a test XML file and wait for the response to finalize your ability to send the 1094 and 1095 to the IRS. Submit a test for each TCC you are reporting.

Menu Path

From the Human Resources menu, select Periodic Routines. From the Affordable Care Act menu, select 1095 Electronic Filing.

Create and Save Test Files

When the test file is created, a report is provided that indicates the location and file names of the test and manifest files. You need to download these files to your individual computer in order to browse for the files with the IRS software.

On the 1095 Electronic Filing page, from the action bar, select Create Communications Test File.
Enter the TCC, then click Accept.
Select a destination. If you select File, take note of the File Name to identify the destination folder.
From the e-Forms and Tools menu, select All. From the Tools menu, select View Files.
If you selected File as the destination for the log report, search the appropriate directory for the log report to open it. Otherwise, use the log report that was sent to Screen or Excel to identify the location and file names of the test and manifest files.
To find the test and manifest files, enter the file mask *.xml, then press Enter.
Match the file names for the test and test manifest files to the log report. Select one at a time and from the action bar, select Save to PC. The files are saved to your Downloads folder and browser downloads.

It is recommended to move the files to a secure folder. Do not place on a shared drive unless it is secure. There is sensitive information, for example employee and dependent Social Security numbers, in the files.

Process a Test Submission

Refer to the IRS website to conduct a test submission. Use the search option with a phrase like 'air test' to find information and directions.

You will need to know the location of the test and manifest files that you created and saved to your PC. The file names are the same except the manifest file appends an M to the end. Make sure to upload the test and manifest files to their respective fields on the IRS website.

The format of the file names is 1094C_Request_TCC_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS000Z.xml One file will append _M ahead of the file extension.

1094C is the type of document.
Request: Indicates it is a request for submission.
TCC: Your Employer TCC
YYYYMMDD is the date the file is created.
THHMMSS000Z is the time the file was created followed by 000Z.
_M: Indicates it is the manifest file.

Upload the appropriate files and continue to transmit the test according to the directions provided on the IRS website. After you have submitted the test files, you should receive a Receipt ID for the transmission. There may be an option to print the confirmation information.
On the 1095 Electronic Filing page, from the action bar, select XML File Transmission Tracking.
Perform a search to list the test file record, then select the record with the XML File Name that matches the test file you transmitted. The Control Number may be similar to AIRTSTX, where X is a digit.
Click Accept to switch to Edit mode and enter the Receipt ID provided by the IRS.

After you have submitted your transmission, you can check the status. Refer to the IRS website for directions. You will need your TCC and Receipt ID.

If your transmission is rejected, print and download the provided information from the IRS and review it. If you understand the error or issue and know how to correct it, do so. Then, create a new set of Communication Test files and repeat the test process. If your transmission is processing, check later. It should not take more than a day or two to have your test transmission approved or rejected. If you do not know how to resolve the issues, enter a Support case and include the downloaded error file.

You may need to process several communication tests before your file is accepted. After the test is successful, print the information provided to save in your files. Continue to Step 4 or, if needed, return to Step 2 to complete updating the employer record.

Step 4: Call the IRS to Move from Test to Production

Only complete this step if you have not filed in the previous year.

You must call the IRS to request they move your status from Test to Production. You may need to wait on the phone for an extended period of time.

You will need your TCC and Receipt ID of the approved test transmission. You may also need the exact name of your organization as registered, and they may ask other questions to confirm your identity.

Contact the IRS Helpdesk at (866) 937-4130 between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

After you have completed this step, you may proceed with the rest of the process. Make sure you have completed Step 2.

Step 5: Run Validations

The validation processing evaluates all the information in your employer setup and in the 1095 file to make sure the information is complete. When errors are returned, you need to correct the data to continue with the process. Errors prevent you from creating the submission files later. You may make corrections and repeat the validation until you have a successful completion with no errors.

Menu Path

From the Human Resources menu, select Periodic Routines. From the Affordable Care Act menu, select 1095 Electronic Filing.

Run Validations

On the 1095 Electronic Filing page, select the Run Validations radio button.
Enter criteria in the required fields. If necessary, select a transmission type.
Click Accept.

Example errors include:

Missing data on the Setup Employer page
Missing the TCC code
1095 without Offer Code for all 12 months
1095 without Lowest Cost Single Coverage cost for Offer Codes 1B, 1C, 1D or 1E
Missing employee information on the 1095
Duplicate 1095 forms: more than one 1095 for an employee Social Security Number (SSN)

Step 6: Correct Errors in Setup, Void Incorrect 1095 Forms and Create Corrected 1095 Records

If the information in the 1095 you provided to an employee is incorrect, you should Void that form and use the automatic process to create a Corrected 1095. This way you will have an audit trail on what was provided to the employee.

Menu Path

From the Human Resources menu, select Periodic Routines. From the Affordable Care Act menu, select 1095 Maintenance.

Void a 1095 and Add a Corrected 1095

On the 1095 Maintenance page, perform a search for the employee record that needs to be corrected, then select the record and click Accept to switch to Edit mode.
Enter the reason for voiding the record in the Notes field, then select Void.
Click Void to void the record. The void date populates in the field.
On the Confirmation, click Yes to create a duplicate 1095 on which you can make corrections. If you click No, the original record is voided and no corrected record is added.
Make the necessary edits on the corrected record, which opens in Edit mode. Information on the record is a duplicate of the voided record, but the sequence number is incremented and the Corrected checkbox is selected and cannot be cleared.
After you have made the corrections, click Accept.

If a 1095 was issued to someone who should not have received one, you may just void it. No other correction would be necessary unless you already submitted your final transmission to the IRS. The XML processing does not include voided 1095s. If there are multiple corrected 1095 forms for an employee it includes only the last one created. All others should be voided.

Corrections that should result in void and corrected 1095s are:

Incorrect Offer of Coverage information provided, for example missing months or not the right codes
1095 with Offer of Coverage codes 1B, 1C, 1D or 1E where the Lowest Cost coverage amount is missing
Missing covered individuals
Too many covered individuals
Coverage for covered individuals that is incorrect
Incorrect Social Security numbers for employee or covered individuals
Incorrect birth date if there is no SSN for a covered individual

Step 7: Run Validations in the Create Electronic XML File Again

After you have made changes to the 1095 forms, repeat the Run Validations process. You may want to do this before distributing corrected copies to the employees, to prevent having to correct and redistribute again. Refer to Step 5 for details.

Step 8: Reissue Corrected Paper 1095s

Complete this step only if necessary.

You should deliver a printed copies of the Corrected 1095 to employees if that is how you initially delivered the original 1095s. If you have 1095 forms available in Employee Access Center (EAC), all voided and corrected forms appear along with the final corrected 1095.

Step 9: Transmit the Production XML Files

Menu Path

From the Human Resources menu, select Periodic Routines. From the Affordable Care Act menu, select 1095 Electronic Filing.

Create XML File

You can create an XML file for a single Control Number or all Control Numbers. One of the listed Control numbers will be the Authoritative Transmittal for the Federal EIN. The Authoritative Transmittal control number record will be updated to contain the total number of 1095s that are in the database to be submitted for that EIN. In addition, each control number will include the count of 1095s to be submitted for that group. It excludes voided forms.

On the 1095 Electronic Filing page, select Create XML File.
Enter criteria in the required fields. If necessary, select a transmission type.
Click Accept. A confirmation box appears and displays the 1095 count in the transmission.
On the Confirmation box, select Yes.
Select a destination. If you select File, take note of the File Name to identify the destination folder.
From the e-Forms and Tools menu, select All. From the Tools menu, select View Files.
If you selected File as the destination for the log report, search the appropriate directory for the log report to open it. Otherwise, use the log report that was sent to Screen or Excel to identify the location and file names of the test and manifest files.
To find the test and manifest files, enter the file mask *.xml, then press Enter.
Match the file names for the test and test manifest files to the log report. Select one at a time and from the action bar, select Save to PC. The files are saved to your Downloads folder and browser downloads.

It is recommended to move the files to a secure folder. Do not place on a shared drive unless it is secure. There is sensitive information, for example employee and dependent Social Security numbers, in the files.

When the program runs, it processes Run Validations a final time, then it updates and creates the 1094 manifest and data files for submission.

Transmit the XML Files

Refer to the IRS website to conduct the production submission. Use the search option with a phrase like 'air submission' to find information and directions. The process for uploading and checking the submission status is identical to the test system upload with the exception of the servers you access. The links to log in to the test and production AIR servers are different.

You will need to know the location of the production and manifest files that you created and saved to your PC. The file names are the same except the manifest file appends an M to the end. Make sure to upload the production and manifest files to their respective fields on the IRS website.

The format of the file names is 1094C_Request_TCC_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS000Z.xml One file will append _M ahead of the file extension.

1094C is the type of document.
Request: Indicates it is a request for submission.
TCC: Your Employer TCC
YYYYMMDD is the date the file is created.
THHMMSS000Z is the time the file was created followed by 000Z.
_M: Indicates it is the manifest file.

Upload the appropriate files and continue to transmit the files according to the directions provided on the IRS website. After you have submitted the files, you should receive a Receipt ID for the transmission. There may be an option to print the confirmation information.
On the 1095 Electronic Filing page, from the action bar, select XML File Transmission Tracking.
Perform a search to list the production file record, then select the record with the XML File Name that matches the test file you transmitted.
Click Accept to switch to Edit mode and enter the Receipt ID provided by the IRS.

After you have submitted your transmission, you can check the status. Refer to the IRS website for directions. You will need your TCC and Receipt ID. After the production transmission is successful, print the information provided to save in your files.

If there are errors reported, refer to XML Corrections for steps to correct and retransmit XML files.

The process is completed when the file is accepted with no errors. Save a copy of the acceptance for your files.