Create an AIR ID

Before you define the criteria for the year-end workfiles, you must create an AIR ID and assign program versions to the AIR ID. You can create a program version either before or at the same time that you create an AIR ID. The AIR ID identifies the information associated to a particular workfile build process for producing forms and filing with the IRS. You use this AIR ID when you run all subsequent steps in the AIR year-end processing cycle.

AIR IDs are alphanumeric and can be up to 10 characters in length. You can set up a single AIR ID to process individual ALE Members or to process all ALE Members together. The AIR ID provides you with a means for creating groups of employees that you will process together.

When you submit the 1095-C workfile build process for an AIR ID, records are created in the workfiles (1095C Offer and Coverage table - F08119 and 1095C Covered Individuals table - F08120) according to the AIR ID and the year being processed. Each time you run the workfile build, all records with the AIR ID and year matching those of the current workfile build are deleted from the AIR year-end tables. The tables are then repopulated with updated information from the workfile build.

To run an AIR ID process again, you must first reset the AIR ID process from the Work With ACA Information Returns Workbench (P08210) and AIR Status form.

To avoid deleting important year-end information, do not use the same AIR ID to process different groups of people at different times within the same calendar year. For example, within a single calendar year, do not use the year-end ID 2000 to process employees from company 001 and then use it to process employees from company 002. This action causes the loss of all year-end information for employees in company 001.

The Offer and Coverage and Covered Individuals tables include a Protected Record field. This field enables to indicate that a record is protected and should not be affected by any subsequent reset or build processes. When resetting an AIR ID, you can choose to also remove protected records. On the Reset Offer and Coverage and Covered Individuals version, set the processing option Delete Protected Records to blank to preserve records with a Protected Record flag equal to Yes.