Custom Timekeeping Reports Simplify Compliance Reporting for Healthcare Law

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) regulatory requirements require businesses to determine full-time and part-time employment status for workers. Companies also have to calculate total number of full-time equivalent employees. These time-demanding calculations have been simplified and automated with the release of customized PPACA timekeeping reports. Continue reading →

Mar 04, 2014 /prREACH/ -- Richard A. Beauchemin, CAP/Carolina Accounting & Tax Service, PLLC announces the release of its new automated timekeeping reports to help owners comply with the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Using the just released PPACA custom reports, companies, in a matter of minutes can quickly determine the number of full-time equivalent employees.

The automated timekeeping system’s new reporting capabilities provides businesses a time records management system to help comply with the timekeeping record requirements of PPACA.

New PPACA regulations require companies establish several time frames to determine an employee’s full-time or part-time employment status. Companies must have these time periods specified and in place in 2014.

Given the requirement that a company’s measurement period has to be a minimum of three months, businesses have to consider how they will implement their measurement period immediately and develop a system for tracking and recording employees’ time. Waiting until the end of 2014 is too late.

The tracked time over the company’s established measurement period is used as the basis for determining the number of full-time equivalent employees. Because a company’s healthcare obligation is based on this calculated number it is vitally important the underlying time keeping records be accurate.

Companies with 100 or more full-time equivalent employees have to comply with PPACA requirements beginning January 1, 2015. Companies with 50 or more employees are given a one year reprieve and are not required to offer healthcare coverage until after January 1, 2016.

Richard A. Beauchemin, CPA owner of Richard A. Beauchemin, CPA/Carolina Accounting & Tax service said, “Companies face a challenging regulatory compliance dilemma. They must track and maintain timekeeping records over an extended period of time, compile this data and calculate full-time equivalent employees based on all the data collected. Even more worrisome to business owners, is maintaining timekeeping and payroll records for 3 years, knowing a government auditor may demand them at any time.”

Companies not complying with the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act or miscalculating full-time equivalent employees will be subject to penalties.

In addition to simplifying the determination of the number of full-time equivalent employees and complying with PPACA record keeping requirements, Richard A. Beauchemin, CPA / Carolina Accounting & Tax Service, PLLC’s timekeeping system helps businesses in these other ways:

• It saves employers from employee time-theft. Employees are held accountable and paid only for the hours they actually work.
• Payroll administrative costs are reduced. Time is collected automatically and the administrator at the end of each payroll simply checks the time to make sure it is complete.
• Payroll errors are eliminated. The payroll administrator or payroll processor is not transcribing data
• Improved record-keeping to show compliance, to the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act and other labor laws. This is especially useful in the event that a company is ever audited.

More information about PPACA or ways to improve employee time tracking and manage labor costs can be found here at the company's timkeeping web site CarolinaAccounting.com or by contacting Michael Beauchemin at 704-817-2410 or [email protected].  Carolina Accounting & Tax Service also features a Facebook page with additional information.