1094-C Electronic Packet Preflight Checklist

Record the reporting employer or employers, tax year, internal packet ID, approved output version, and authorized action. Confirm whether the work is an original filing, an approved correction, or a replacement routed from a known prior outcome. Do not infer the action from a filename containing “final.”

Identify the operator and backup responsible for this release. Check the ledger for another active attempt using the same approved packet so two people do not transmit overlapping work.

Retain the employer's substantive approval reference. This preflight does not re-decide transmittal field meanings; it verifies that the packaged files are the files corresponding to that approval and that required technical checks have actually run.

Verify whether the intended destination is AATS testing or production and identify the actual channel in use. Keep the environment visible in the operator manifest and confirmation screen. A successful test submission does not establish that production reporting has occurred.

The IRS AIR page currently distinguishes the processing-year manifest schema from the tax-year form-data schema, including prior-year submissions. Record the selected package versions and have the technical owner confirm that they fit the packet's processing and reporting years.

Also verify the transmitter's applicable access, software, and authorization setup. Reference approved configuration records without placing credentials or private keys in the packet manifest. An account name alone does not demonstrate readiness for this particular channel and year.

Publication 5165 describes the Manifest File and Form Data File and the technical checks applied during processing. The operator should verify that metadata was generated from the exact final data file rather than copied from an earlier export.

Use the composition rules in Publication 5258 for exact technical requirements. A human-readable checklist complements the generated metadata; it does not replace it.

For each submission, compare the reported number of accompanying 1095-Cs with the actual packaged records. Publication 5165 requires those counts to match. Then reconcile the packaged submissions to the approved internal batch list.

Keep accompanying counts distinct from the employer-wide authoritative total. A packet can contain only part of the employer's work while the authoritative transmittal reports the reviewed employer summary. The operator should confirm the packaging preserves the approved structure, not replace the employer total with a file-level row count.

Investigate missing submissions, duplicated employer-batch assignments, or records included in two active packets. Preserve a count report tied to the final files so a later receipt can be reconciled to the same content.

Fictional Cedar Meridian Company approves two packaged submissions containing 130 and 70 employee records, for 200 in total. During preflight, the operator sees that the latest approved data file contains 130 and 72 because two reviewed records were added. The stored manifest and internal count report still describe the earlier version.

The operator stops release and asks the preparer to reconcile the revised employer approval and regenerate the technical packet. The new supported total is 202: 130 + 72. The team checks the exact new file pairing and refreshed count report before release.

The example is fictional and does not represent a real IRS validation result. It illustrates why recalculating metadata for a changed file and refreshing the related approval are both necessary; changing only the displayed count would leave the packet's provenance unclear.

Run the applicable schema and business-rule checks with the confirmed specification versions and preserve their results. If the files are regenerated afterward, rerun the checks affected by that change. A validation report for an older file is not evidence about the final packet.

Record the actual preflight reviewer, release operator, final packet reference, and next monitoring owner. After sending, capture the response and receipt information alongside that same packet. Receipt tracking is a separate follow-up step.

Use the downloadable checklist at the release desk. Its completion should mean someone verified each listed fact against the actual final files, rather than pre-checking every item because a vendor previously said the software supports AIR.