By Stephanie Elsen

Businesses in the U.S. know that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as Obamacare, is making some big changes that affect businesses. Top of mind for many is the requirement that businesses with more than 50 full time employees must offer their full time employees health coverage. (Full time is considered 30 hours or more.) It is important then, that starting in 2014, employers can accurately determine which of their employees qualify as full time employees. And that’s why starting to track the right information in 2013 is a good idea.

So, who qualifies as a full time employee? In order to determine that, each employer chooses a time frame in which to determine full time eligibility, ranging from three months up to twelve months. Whatever length of time is used to determine full time eligibility is also the length of time which they must offer health care coverage. For example, if they are looking at a three month time frame to determine eligibility, then those who qualify must be offered the coverage for three months.

Some types of employers have a difficult job ahead of them in determining which employees are full time. In businesses where there are many part time employees, some of those employees may work enough hours to qualify as full time. Perhaps an employee works many extra hours one month, filling in often when others are sick or simply taking someone else’s hours for them. Will you know which employees are approaching full time eligibility? Are you ready for the 2014 reporting requirement?

Red Wing Software’s CenterPoint Payroll Software is now ready with a report to help users determine which employees are eligible, for whatever time frame is chosen. The report shows the employee name, the dates of the employee’s first and last pay period, number of weeks worked, number of months worked, the total hours worked, and then the average hours worked per week. This report is included standard within CenterPoint Payroll, so users will be able to view the report all throughout 2013 to monitor which employees are eligible. Once health care coverage becomes required in 2014, users will be prepared with a report to verify who is eligible. The report will be available in 2013.

Preview of the “Employee Average Hours Worked Per Week” Report