Does this decide whether an employee is actually eligible?

No. It calculates selected date conditions and flags federal timing issues. The written plan document, service records, excluded-class terms, rehire rules, and administrator determinations control actual eligibility.

Can the calculator determine a 1,000-hour year of service from hire date?

No. For hours-of-service designs, enter the administrator-confirmed service completion date. The tool does not infer credited hours from hire date, payroll cadence, or schedule.

Can a plan require two years of service?

Only in the narrow supported model when immediate 100% vesting is confirmed. The calculator blocks two-year modeling unless that confirmation is selected and tells users to verify the plan document.

Are plan entry dates moved for weekends?

No. This calculator does not invent a weekend or holiday adjustment for plan entry dates. It shows the selected raw plan entry date and flags federal outside timing limits.

Browser-local calculator

Employee eligibility date calculator

Calculate the earliest date an employee satisfies selected age and service conditions, then find the next selected plan entry date. The result is not a plan-document interpretation or individualized legal, tax, fiduciary, employment, or benefits advice.

Use the calculator Review sources

Calculate eligibility and entry dates

Use dates only. Do not enter names, SSNs, emails, payroll records, participant balances, or account numbers.

Birth date

Used only to calculate the selected age condition.

Hire date

Used for elapsed-time service anniversaries.

Age condition

Federal participation rules generally do not permit an age condition beyond 21.

Service condition

Two years requires immediate 100% vesting confirmation.

Service computation method

Do not infer hours from hire date; enter the administrator's completion date.

Entry convention

Select the written plan's entry-date pattern.

Result is current for the displayed inputs.

Modeled result

Earliest modeled entry date: 2027-04-01. The employee first satisfies selected age/service conditions on 2027-01-15.

Age condition date: 2011-02-28
Service condition date: 2027-01-15
Later satisfaction date: 2027-01-15
Plan entry date: 2027-04-01

Warnings

Assumptions

The calculator uses UTC calendar dates and does not store, transmit, or persist inputs.
It calculates only selected age, service, and entry-date terms; the written plan document controls actual eligibility.
No weekend or legal-holiday adjustment is applied to plan entry dates because the cited participation rules set outside limits, not business-day filing deadlines.
Elapsed-time service is modeled as the selected anniversary of hire; if the plan uses hours of service, enter the administrator-confirmed completion date instead.

Unresolved facts

Employee class exclusions, union or nonresident-alien exclusions, controlled-group service, rehired employee service, breaks in service, credited hours, long-term part-time eligibility, and plan-document interpretation are not decided here.

Source provenance

IRC section 410: Maximum age/service and commencement timing rules.
ERISA section 202: Parallel minimum participation standards, breaks in service, and long-term part-time rule.
IRS eligibility overview: IRS explains age 21, one year, two-year/100%-vesting exception, and plan-document control.
DOL fiduciary responsibilities: DOL identifies written plan documents and SPD eligibility descriptions as plan-administration controls.

What this calculator answers

Use this tool when a ROBS-sponsored qualified plan or other employer plan has an employee who may be approaching a plan entry date. It models three dates: the selected age condition date, the selected service condition date, and the next entry date after the later of those two conditions. IRC section 410 and ERISA section 202 generally prohibit a qualified plan from requiring participation conditions beyond age 21 and one year of service, with a narrow two-year service rule tied to immediate full vesting. [1] [2]

The calculator also compares the selected entry schedule with the federal outside commencement rule: an otherwise entitled employee who has satisfied the age and service requirements must commence participation no later than the earlier of the first day of the first plan year beginning after satisfaction or six months after satisfaction. [1]

How to use it

Enter only dates and selected plan terms. Do not enter personal identifiers, account numbers, payroll records, or participant balances.
Choose the age condition from none, age 18, or age 21. Age 21 is the supported federal maximum for this general calculator; plan terms may be more generous. [3]
Choose elapsed-time service only when the written plan uses anniversary-style elapsed-time service. Choose hours-of-service when the administrator has already determined the service completion date.
Use the two-year service option only after confirming the plan provides immediate 100% vesting as required for that longer condition.
Select the written plan entry-date convention. Custom dates should be plan entry dates, not payroll or notice dates.

Key definitions and caveats

A year of service under the cited participation rule generally means a 12-month period with at least 1,000 hours of service, measured from the employment commencement date unless regulations and plan terms use another computation period. This tool does not count hours. [1]

Elapsed-time and hours-of-service methods are different administrative designs. An elapsed-time anniversary can be calculated from hire date; an hours-based result requires credited-hours records and plan terms that this browser tool cannot verify.

Breaks in service, maternity or paternity absence credits, long-term part-time employee rules for 401(k) and 403(b) arrangements, collective-bargaining exclusions, nonresident-alien exclusions, controlled-group service, rehired employees, and excluded classes require administrator or professional review. [1] [2]

Examples

Age 21 and one year, quarterly entry

A worker born February 28, 2005 and hired January 15, 2026 satisfies age 21 on February 28, 2026 and one elapsed year on January 15, 2027. The later satisfaction date is January 15, 2027. With quarterly entries on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1, the modeled entry date is April 1, 2027.

Hours completion date

If the plan uses a 1,000-hour year-of-service rule, do not assume the hire-date anniversary is enough. Enter the administrator-confirmed date the employee completed the service condition; the calculator then applies the later-of and next-entry calculations.

Limitations

The calculator is educational and browser-local. It does not store inputs, transmit data, set cookies, use query strings, create reminders, or file notices.
It does not decide employee classification, eligibility exclusions, credited hours, rehire service, break-in-service restoration, union or nonresident exclusions, long-term part-time eligibility, nondiscrimination testing, or fiduciary compliance.
It does not infer plan terms from a provider template, a ROBS setup package, or common 401(k) defaults. Confirm the written plan document and SPD. [4]
It does not score employees, rank risk, or decide whether an employee must buy employer stock.

Sources and verification

Authored by Dennis Shirshikov. Published 2026-08-13; last updated 2026-08-13. This page is educational and not legal, tax, fiduciary, investment, employment, payroll, or benefits advice. Citation proximity is kept near the rules the calculator applies.

IRC section 410. IRC section 410 sets federal qualified-plan minimum participation standards: age 21, one year of service, the two-year/100%-vesting exception, 1,000-hour year-of-service language, entry timing limits, and excluded coverage categories. Checked Aug. 13, 2026.
ERISA section 202. ERISA section 202 parallels the participation standards and includes break-in-service and long-term part-time 401(k)/403(b) language. Checked Aug. 13, 2026.
IRS eligibility overview. IRS explains that employees generally must be allowed in a qualified plan at age 21 with one year of service, that plan documents can be less restrictive, and that two years of service requires immediate vesting in non-401(k) examples. Page last reviewed May 31, 2026.
DOL fiduciary responsibilities. DOL states that a written plan and SPD describe when and how employees become eligible and that fiduciaries follow plan documents unless inconsistent with ERISA. Checked Aug. 13, 2026.