Ascentis Blog

Information to help HR and payroll managers, recruiters, and compliance officers become more effective.

Easy and Paperless Open Enrollment

Are You Ready for Open Enrollment? 3 Steps for Launching an Error-free and Paperless Process

Have you considered implementing a paperless process? What’s the best way to communicate plan options to employees? How can you eliminate errors when providing data to insurance carriers? Ascentis specializes in helping companies create fully automated, paperless HR processing using self-service technology and electronic carrier communications.

Register for the FREE Ascentis Webinar:

OPEN ENROLLMENT MADE EASY: 3 STEPS FOR LAUNCHING AN ERROR-FREE AND PAPERLESS PROCESS

Step 1: Eliminate paperwork and go green:
With employee self-service you can take your open enrollment online. Publish plan documents, provider directories, beneficiary forms and more, for a truly green – and paperless – process.

Step 2: Use smart and efficient communication strategies:
When you distribute printed benefits options, employees can be confused when they see every option, including plans they’re not eligible for. With employee self-service, you push out targeted options that are right for each employee, adding clarity and simplicity to the process.

Step 3: Fully automate open enrollment by transmitting data directly to insurance carriers:
Use employee self-service to automatically update your payroll system with new deduction amounts, while electronically transmitting enrollment selections directly to your insurance carriers with an electronic carrier connection service. This process virtually eliminates errors that can be introduced with a manual, paper-based process.

OPEN ENROLLMENT MADE EASY: A WEBINAR BROUGHT TO YOU BY ASCENTIS

Click here to register for June 15, 10-10:30 a.m., PDT

Click here to register for June 23, 10-10:30 a.m., PDT

Small Businesses May Qualify for a Tax Credit in 2010

Certain small businesses and tax-exempt organizations that provide health insurance coverage to their employees may qualify for a special tax credit in 2010, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Included in the recently enacted health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is a tax credit designed to encourage small employers to offer health insurance coverage for the first time or maintain coverage they already have. The following are eligibility rules and the amount of credit as explained by the IRS.

ELIGIBILITY RULES

Providing Health Care Coverage
A qualifying employer must cover at least 50 percent of the cost of health care coverage for some of its workers based on the single rate.

Firm Size
A qualifying employer must have less than the equivalent of 25 full-time workers (for example, an employer with fewer than 50 half-time workers may be eligible).

Average Annual Wage
A qualifying employer must pay average annual wages below $50,000. Both taxable (for profit) and tax-exempt firms qualify.

AMOUNT OF CREDIT

Maximum Amount
The credit is worth up to 35 percent of a small business’ premium costs in 2010. On Jan. 1, 2014, this rate increases to 50 percent (35 percent for tax-exempt employers).

Phase-Out
The credit phases out gradually for firms with average wages between $25,000 and $50,000 and for firms with the equivalent of between 10 and 25 full-time workers.

Three Simple Steps for Employers to Qualify
If you are a small employer (business or tax-exempt) that provides health insurance coverage to your employees, determine if you may qualify for the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit by following the three simple steps featured here.

Frequently Asked Questions
The IRS has issued 22 FAQs for employers on the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, including the following topics:

  • Employer eligibility
  • Claiming the credit
  • Determining average annual wages
  • Calculating expenses
  • Tax-exempt organizations
  • Relief in 2010

To view this detailed FAQ page from the IRS, please click here.

Examples
The IRS has also provided several employer scenarios for the credit, including numbers of workers, part-time employees and non-profit groups. To view the scenarios, please click here.

For additional information on the credit, please visit the IRS site here.

LEARN MORE

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Going to the APA Congress? Visit the Ascentis booth and register to win an Apple iPad and other great prizes.

Ascentis will be attending the APA Congress as an exhibitor in 2010. This will be our first year at the Congress, and we’re excited to be a part of a great organization that has been working with payroll professionals for more than 28 years.

To celebrate our first exhibition with the APA, Ascentis will be holding drawings for Apple iPads (two will be given away at the show), as well as Ghirardelli Chocolate, Bare Escentuals gift cards and some great wine selections (all these gifts are products made by some of our most prestigious customers).

Ascentis Payroll is the ideal payroll solution to save companies both time and money. You get the control of in-house payroll with all the benefits of a SaaS solution. Other great Ascentis Payroll benefits include:

  • Ascentis Payroll processes in real-time, ensuring 100% accuracy and control.
  • Pay periods can be scheduled in advance, and off-cycle payrolls can be run anytime.
  • On-demand checks can be quickly created.
  • With Ascentis Employee Self-Service, employees can access direct deposit information, tax withholdings and paycheck history.
  • Used in conjunction with Ascentis HRIS, redundancy is eliminated and accuracy enhanced.

Watch an 8-minute tour of Ascentis Payroll.

So join us at booth #214, May 26-28, in Washington D.C. We look forward to making many new friends, showing product demos, giving away great prizes, and enjoying the networking opportunities with the APA.

The Mobile World

By Mike Cross, Vice President, Ascentis

Today’s workforce is armed with laptops, iPhones, iPads, BlackBerries … all good devices to make sure you’re there even when you’re not there. Volcano got you down? No problem! Fire up your hologram projector and beam yourself into the meeting. Okay, we’re not doing holograms on that scale (yet,) but high-speed mobile access is becoming more common and available in more and more places.

But look at all those devices running amok. How much control does your company place on mobile access? Some would just say to ban all those devices. They’re too big of a threat to internal security if someone can walk away with data on their iPod. But ever since the dawn of the personal computer, we’ve had removable media (cassette-tape, 5 ¼” Floppy, 3 ½” Floppy), and now we have the ubiquitous thumb-drive. So the portable nature of data has always been there. It’s just on a grander scale now.

Consider enterprise-level tools for the mobile workforce. RIM Corporation has been on the enterprise scope for several years with their BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server). But did you know Apple provides Enterprise support for the iPhone? Check out their guide here as well as other resources on the Apple Web site. And it’s important to properly educate yourself and your staff on proper mobile device use. Always have a password set to unlock the device. And with an enterprise solution, you can immediately remove access to email messages if someone loses their phone.

Set a policy about the types of portable data your employees are allowed to take offsite using portable devices. A good rule of thumb is “no confidential information is stored on anyone’s laptop, thumb drive or other portable device.” Set-up a secure portal for access to such data, such as SharePoint or another secure-access service.

The upside of the mobile revolution is access-on-the-go. With the demands of today’s businesses, its workers need to have the flexibility to be connected when they’re otherwise counting ceiling tiles in the airport or caught in the endless lines at the DMV. Since mobile Web-browsers are able to securely Web sites, including workforce management sites, even busy HR managers can handle tasks when they’re not at their desks.

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