Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 Benefit Self Service Released: December 5, 2014 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 1
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION... 4 What is in this manual?... 5 Part 1: Employee... 5 Part 2: Human Resources... 5 Part 3: Implementation Best Practices... 5 PART 1: EMPLOYEE... 7 Chapter 1: Benefits View... 8 Employee Benefits Overview... 8 Chapter 2: Benefits Enrollment... 12 Benefits Enrollment... 12 Enrollment Submission... 17 Part 2: Human Resources... 20 Chapter 1: Benefit Attributes... 22 Benefit Attributes Overview... 22 Chapter 2: Plan Options... 24 Plan Options Overview... 24 Chapter 3: Plan Benefits... 25 Plan Benefits Overview... 25 Benefit Rights... 28 Validations... 29 Plan Option Details... 30 Plan Option Attribute Details... 32 Plan Benefit Attribute Details... 34 Chapter 4: Packages... 36 Packages Overview... 36 Chapter 5: Eligibility Rules... 37 Eligibility Rules Overview... 37 Chapter 6: Benefit Enrollments... 39 Benefit Enrollment Overview... 39 Employee Groups... 40 Chapter 7: Benefit Types... 43 Benefit Types Overview... 43 Chapter 8: HR Administer Benefit Enrollments Navigation List... 44 HR Administer Benefit Enrollments Navigation List... 44 Chapter 9: HR Package Assignment Utility... 48 Package Assignment Overview... 48 Chapter 10: Beneficiaries/Dependents... 51 Overview... 51 HR Benefit Options... 52 Status and Reasons... 54 PART 3: IMPLEMENTATION BEST PRACTICES... 56 Chapter 1: Setup Steps... 57 Chapter 2: Operational Steps... 59 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 3
Introduction The Benefit Self Service for Microsoft Dynamics GP product was created to provide employees with enhanced capabilities for viewing and enrolling into benefits. The Benefit Self Service module also provides capabilities for administrators to manage benefits and enrollment. Benefit Self Service provides the following features: Provides an entry point for employees to access their personal information, existing benefits, and to participate in open enrollment periods. Provides HR Administrators with configuration options for eligibility, enrollment and related administration of all benefits. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 4
What is in this manual? This manual provides a single source of information for learning about procedures and features that are included in Benefit Self Service. The manual is divided into a separate part for each module based on the employee s role. Part 1: Employee This part provides instructions for the use of the enhanced features contained in the Benefit Self Service product. The pages that are included in this part of the manual include: Benefits View Benefits Enrollment Part 2: Human Resources This part describes the concepts needed for HR Administrators to setup and administer the Benefit Self Service product features. The functional areas that are included in this part of the manual include: Setup Benefit Attributes Plan Options Plan Benefits Packages Eligibility Rules Enrollments Benefit Types Administer Benefit Enrollments Tasks Viewing Enrollments Returning / Deleting Enrollments Posting Enrollments Reports Package Override Utility Beneficiaries/Dependents Overview HR Benefit Options Status & Reasons Part 3: Implementation Best Practices This part describes the recommended procedures and practices for implementing and configuring the Benefit Self Service environment. It includes the following: Benefit Self Service User s Guide 5
Setup Steps Operational Steps Benefit Self Service User s Guide 6
Part 1: Employee The information in this part describes how the employee will access the Benefit Self Service functionality by accessing Dynamics GP back office or web-client with the appropriate credentials. When granted access, employees can view their specific benefits, and enroll in or waive benefits for which they are eligible. Chapter 1: Benefits View, allows the employee to view existing benefits and potentially pending changes to benefits. Chapter 2: Benefits Enrollment, allows the employee to view and make benefit selections as part of the benefit enrollment process. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 7
Chapter 1: Benefits View The Benefits page can be accessed in Microsoft Dynamics GP by choosing Cards > Self Service > Benefits View (enhanced). Employee Benefits Overview The Benefits page will be displayed when you choose Cards > Self Service > Benefits View (enhanced). To gain access to this menu option, the employee must be linked to a Dynamics GP user that has security access to the window. If the GP User ID is not assigned to an employee, they will receive a message telling them that there are no benefits to display. Figure A Benefit Self Service User s Guide 8
The Benefits page consists of the following areas. Each of these areas is described below: The General Header area displays the employee s ID and name. It also allows an employee to choose 1) Which benefits to display in the Benefit List scrolling window (Benefits radio group) 2) How benefit detail will be displayed in the Benefit Detail area (View radio group) The Benefit List scrolling window displays the collection of benefits for an employee. The list defaults to displaying only those benefits that are currently active for an employee. If the user selects All in the benefit portion of the General Header area, the list will grow more comprehensive to include those benefits, which are assigned to the employee, but are currently inactive. For purposes of defining when a code is considered active vs. inactive refer below: HR codes that have a Benefit Status of active are considered active codes. Those which have a different Benefit Status (such as Inactive, COBRA, Waived, Terminated etc.) are all considered to be inactive Payroll Benefit or Deduction codes are considered active, when the corresponding maintenance record has the inactive checkbox unmarked. When the checkbox is marked, the system will consider the benefit or deduction as inactive. When a deduction and benefit share the same name for their code, and at least one of the codes is considered active the system will display the benefit in the list. The user will then need to reference the Benefit Detail area to determine which of the two, if any, are set to inactive. Plan Benefit Codes which are not linked to any HRP codes are all considered active if the user is currently enrolled in the Benefit. A Plan Benefit will only be considered inactive, when the employee declines to enroll in the benefit while it is designated as Re-enrollment Required by the HR administrator. As a result, when a benefit first becomes active, it will remain that way, regardless of enrollment activity, until such time as both 1) the benefit requires re-enrollment and 2) the employee fails to reenroll. The benefit list also defaults to displaying the detail information for a benefit as is currently in force for the employee. In cases where the benefit in question is linked to an HR or Payroll code, the employee also has the option of toggling the view to Pending. When viewed in this fashion, the system will display the benefit detail as defined by its future effective record if one exists. In this way the employee can compare their existing benefit detail, to the detail which will become effective at a later date. Not all HR or payroll benefits may have pending changes defined in a future effective record. In this case, the system will simply display a message to the employee stating that no pending record was found. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 9
The Benefit Detail area displays the detail level information belonging to the benefit selected in the scrolling window. The area changes dynamically to accommodate the type of information on display, but in general conforms to the following rule: Benefit Detail information which is inherent to the type of benefit being displayed (aka system attributes for Health, Life, Retirement etc..) are displayed toward the top of the region; whereas benefit detail information which is supplied by the user setup effort (aka user defined attributes) is displayed toward the bottom. The former is general a collection of fields and in some cases a scrolling window. The latter is always contained within a scrolling window with two columns labeled Attribute Description and Attribute Value Refer to the Health Insurance example below. Red = System Attributes, Green=User Defined: Figure B Some plan benefits that are not linked to any HRP codes (and hence have no inherent attributes for a benefit type) will only display the user defined scrolling window. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 10
Example provided below. Note that the scrolling window consumes the entire benefit detail area. Figure C Benefit Self Service User s Guide 11
Chapter 2: Benefits Enrollment The Benefit Enrollment page is accessed via the Benefits Enrollment navigation list. Click the Benefit Enrollments navigation link (arrow) to display the list data. Figure.01 Benefits Enrollment The Benefit Enrollments list will open when you click the link in the navigation area on the left. The large bounding area above represents the main display for benefits enrollment. Each row represents a distinct benefit, into which the employee can potentially enroll. Clicking on a row will cause the preview pane (smaller bounding area above) to display detailed information about the benefit selected. The navigation list displays the benefit enrollments for the current employee and includes, by default, the following column information: Benefit Self Service User s Guide 12
Columns Selected This is where the employee can select a benefit to submit or enroll Information Indicator An indicator appears if there is additional Plan information available for viewing. Enrollment Description- This is taken from the Enrollment created by the administrator. The description is often a friendly name such as Annual 2010, which helps distinguish one enrollment from the next. Plan Description This is taken from the Plan Benefit created by the administrator. The description is often a friendly name such as Health & Dental, which helps describe the options that the benefit the employee will be enrolling into. Open The status of Yes or No refers to whether the employee can enroll into the benefit as of the user date. The ability to enroll is governed by the dates on the enrollment through which the benefit is being offered. Start Date Date that marks the beginning of the enrollment period for the employee End Date Date that marks the end of the enrollment period for the employee Effective Date - Date that marks when the benefit will take effect Enrollment Status Indicates what action the employee has taken on this benefit. Possible values are not started, saved and submitted. The appearance of the list contents in the main display can be filtered using the filter criteria provided. The default is to list all enrollments where the status is equal to open Filters can be added and deleted as desired. The items in the preview pane allow the employee to view some degree of detail without having to open the enrollment submission window. Unlike the main display area, the appearance of this preview pane cannot be customized or altered. Action buttons Submit This tool is used when the employee is ready to submit one or more benefits to the HR Administrator. Unlike the Enrollment Submission window (see below) the navigation list allows for submitting multiple benefits at one time. When pressed the system will present the user with the following dialogue which will ask the user to supply a signature and any optional comments. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 13
After submitting the benefit to the HR administrator the employee is presented with feedback on the navigation list such as seen below in Figure 2.02. Note that this feedback only applies when the employee submits the benefit from the navigation list. This does not apply when submitting benefits from the Enrollment Submission window. Figure.02 Enroll Pressing this button will open the Enrollment Submission window with the data prepopulated for the benefit selected in the navigation list. View - Pressing this button will open the Enrollment Submission window with the data prepopulated for the benefit selected in the navigation list. However the window will be in read only mode and will not allow changes. Summary Pressing this button will generate the Benefit Enrollment Report for the selected benefit or benefits. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 14
The report contains a detailed enumeration of the benefit information including detail on the options and attributes as well as general information. This report is most often printed by the employee for purposes of review before submitting final selections Figure.03 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 15
Plan information Pressing this button will open a window which displays a message and also the ability to view any attachments that the administrator may have included with the benefit plan. Figure.04 The top section of the window displays the custom message created in Plan Benefit Setup by the HR Administrator. If the HR administrator had provided a document attachment, such as a pdf or text file, it would be listed as a hyperlink in the attachments scrolling window. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 16
Enrollment Submission To open the Enrollment Submission window the user can double-click on a benefit in the Benefits Enrollment navigation list or by selecting a benefit and pressing the enroll button. The window consists of two parts: 1) Enrollment Submission Main Form 2) Enrollment Option Details companion window Figure.05 When the employee selects to enroll in a benefit the window displays certain read-only information including: Enrollment Benefit Start/End Dates Effective Date This is followed by a status bar which indicates the enrollment progress for an employee. Green indicates that step is finished, yellow indicates the step has not yet Benefit Self Service User s Guide 17
been completed. The first 4 indicators will turn green after the employee completes his actions. The last indicator will not be green until the enrollment is actually posted by the HR administrator. Action The drop down list will allow the employee to enroll, waive, or not enroll into the benefit. Which options appear in the drop down will depend upon whether the benefit has a required selection. If the benefit requires selection then the employee must either enroll or waive and submit. If the benefit does not require a selection then the employee can either enroll or fail to enroll (ie not enroll) Current Benefit Status If the employee is currently enrolled into at least one option as a result of a previous year s enrollment or other occasion, the status will indicate enrolled. If the user had previous waived coverage then the status will indicate waived. View The view radio group allows the employee to change the contents of the companion window (Enrollment Option Details) to reflect the state of the data. The options are as follows: Current Shows the current detail for the benefit option as is currently in force for the employee. Effective at enrollment shows the detail for the benefit as will be in effect after enrollment is posted. This is the default and most often used setting as it tells the employee what the details of the benefit will be once the enrollment effective date arrives. Pending Changes shows the detail for the benefit that reflect changes scheduled to take effect after the enrollment period is over and the effective date has passed. In this way the employee can gain visibility in any future effective records schedule to be activated after the enrollment effective date has passed. The current and pending changes views are read-only since they are provided for informational purposes and are not subject to enrollment. Options The options scrolling window displays the options that belong to the benefit. Each option is a potential item into which an employee can enroll. Whether an employee can enroll into more than one option is a function of how the HR Admin set up the plan benefit. Some benefits require only one option be enrolled into. Other give the employee a choice. Regardless, the mechanics for enrollment remain the same. The employee selects an option in the scrolling window and then proceeds to enter data into the fields in the adjacent companion window which accept data. Some fields may be read only. Others may require data entry or choice selection. This will depend upon the benefit and option being selected. Dependent/Beneficiaries This scrolling window displays the list of dependents/beneficiaries associated with the employee. Depending on the benefit, some options may require the employee to select dependents and/or beneficiaries. Others may limit the number of dependents and beneficiaries that can be selected or may prevent their selection altogether. The process for selecting beneficiaries and dependents is to mark them in the scrolling window and provide the appropriate percentage allocations. The employee may also be prompted to provide Change reasons. One way to determine if the requirements have been satisfied is to consult the status areas at the bottom of the scrolling window labeled: Benefit Self Service User s Guide 18
Total Primary Percentages Total Secondary Percentages These will appear in green if the system determines the requirements have been met. They will appear in yellow if incomplete. A Max Dependents value is also provided for reference. This is useful guidance to the employee to know how many beneficiaries or dependents to select. If the total of Primary and Secondary beneficiaries allocation does not equal 100%, a message will remind you to adjust your selections. Enrollment Option Details This companion window resizes itself to accommodate the unique number of items on a per benefit/option basis. The order in which the fields appear is directly attributable to order in which the HR Administrator set the attributes in the Benefit Rights section of Plan Benefit Setup. Whether field can be edited or what default appear are a function of the HR Administrator setup and also whether the employee currently is enrolled into the same benefit. As a general rule, if an employee is currently enrolled into the same benefit, and this is simply the next in a series of enrollments that take place from year to year; then the values in the option detail should closely resemble last year s selections. This is the default behavior and is designed to save the employee time when making benefit selections. Reports - The system allows the employee to print a Benefit Enrollment Report via the print button the Enrollment Submission window. The report is contains a detailed enumeration of the benefit information including detail on the options and attributes as well as general information. This report is most often printed by the employee for purposes of review before submitting final selections. See figure.03 earlier in this chapter for an example of the report. Submit When the employee has finished making selection and has decided to commit to an enrollment, they can submit the enrollment via the submit button. The system will prompt with the following dialogue. After supplying the information and submitting, the Enrollment Status on the Benefit Enrollments navigation list will change to Submitted At this point the employee can take no further action on the enrollment until the HR admin returns it, removes it, or posts it. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 19
Part 2: Human Resources The information in this part describes how the HR administrator will set up data and configure options which will support the employee s enrolling into benefits. Each chapter describes a separate setup window and its elements. Although, detail is provided regarding the data needed for setup, additional hints and best practices can be found in the implementation section of this guide. All setups are located under the main menu of Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions and are listed in the navigation in the general order that they will need to be completed. Benefit offerings are first constructed from smaller building blocks and then included in packages which will in turn be made available to the employee. The means by which packages are made available to employees are via enrollments. The process is outlined in the following chapters: Chapter 1: Benefit Attributes, allows the HR Administrator to create the building blocks of a benefit that are designed to collect information from employees and also display information to employees. Chapter 2: Benefit Options, allows the HR Administrator to create the individual items that will be included in a benefit for use during enrollment. Benefit Options represent the selections an employee makes during enrollment, for example, single, spouse, family coverage, and so on. Chapter 3: Plan Benefits, allows the HR Administrator to establish a container for the collection of plan options into which an employee will enroll. Chapter 4: Packages, allows the HR Administrator to group plan benefits together to be offered as a collection during enrollment. Chapter 5: Eligibility Rules, allows the HR Administrator to create rule sets which govern which packages will be made available to which employees. Chapter 6: Benefit Enrollments, allows the HR Administrator to establish a benefit offering to a group of employees with flexible criteria in establishing the group. Chapter 7: Benefit Types, provides a way for the HR Administrator to categorize Plan Benefits for reporting purposes. Chapter 8: HR Admin Enrollment Navigation List, is meant to provide a way for the HR Administrator to post the employee annual enrollment benefit selections. It also allows the administrator to return or delete enrollments. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 20
Chapter 9: HR Package Assignment Utility, is meant to provide a way for the HR Administrator to view the benefits package available to specifically assign a package. In this way, default package availability via an eligibility rule can be overridden. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 21
Chapter 1: Benefit Attributes Benefit Attributes Overview The Benefit Attribute Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Benefit Attributes. Figure 1.01 Benefit Attributes are the smallest building block of a benefit offering and are used to provide information to, and collect information from, employees during the enrollment process. Any information that you wish to convey to the employee or collect form the employee, takes the form of an attribute. Examples are premium amounts, policy numbers, amounts for 401k withholding, co-pays, life insurance amounts, etc. The system is preconfigured with benefit attributes for all the data elements represented by the 4 benefit types in Dynamics GP HR (Health, Life, Retirement, and Miscellaneous). These are collectively referred to as System Attributes. Any attributes created by the user are referred to as User Defined Attribute. System attributes are not editable with exception of the description, which can be modified so the HR administrator can exercise control over the presentation to the end user. Figure 1.01 depicts a user defined benefit attribute. Note the areas that are read only once the record is saved. This particular attribute is configured as a drop down list of choices that the employee can select from during enrollment. Items in the drop down list can Benefit Self Service User s Guide 22
be added and removed using the Drop Down List Values scrolling window. The order in which they appear can also be customized. If the HR administrator is not planning on collecting or displaying any information to the employee beyond what the existing Dynamics GP HR benefits allows for, then there is no need to create any user defined attributes. Once a Benefit Attribute is created and saved, it cannot be deleted, if there are enrollment records that utilize it. To prevent an attribute from appearing you can inactivate the attribute. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 23
Chapter 2: Plan Options Plan Options Overview The Plan Options Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Plan Options Figure 2.01 Plan Options are the actual enrollment choices presented to an employee during enrollment. These are used for defining enrollment categories for a specific benefit (e.g. Employee Only vs. Whole Family, 401K vs. 457 Retirement, Health and/or Dental etc ) A plan option code cannot be deleted if it is currently being used by a Plan Benefit. If you attempt to remove a plan option while it is in use the system will display a warning message and you won t be able to delete the option. To prevent a plan option from appearing as a choice in future benefits you can inactivate that option. This window simply allows for creation of the option. More configuration details including dependencies for plan options are available via the Plan Benefit setup window. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 24
Chapter 3: Plan Benefits Plan Benefits Overview The Plan Benefit Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Plan Benefits. Figure 3.01 This is the main window for defining the benefits, whose options employees will select for enrollment. These plan benefits and/or individual options can be linked to the system s HR Benefits. If HR is not being used, they can be linked directly to a Payroll Benefit/Deduction codes as well. Plan Benefits are created by defining a code and description. The description will be visible to the employee during enrollment. For the example in figure 3.01, during enrollment, the employee would see Health Insurance RS as the benefit title. Upon Benefit Self Service User s Guide 25
attempting to enroll, the employee would be presented with choices as to which Health Insurance plan to enroll into. In this case there would be 3 choices, Whole Family, EE + Spouse, and Employee Self only. You will note that these are the options that were set up in Option Setup. For more information on enrollment consult Part 1 Chapter 2. Benefit Type: Is used to assign the Benefit a category. This is used mostly for reporting purposes and does not affect enrollment. HRP Code: This field is used to select an existing Benefit Code in Dynamics GP for linkage. The system accepts HR Benefit Codes, Payroll Deduction Codes and Payroll Benefit Codes. A plan benefit must be linked to an HRP code if the system is to know which HRP code record to update, create or inactivate during the posting process. An employee can still enroll into a plan benefit which is not linked but the posting process will only record the information in BSS module, it will not update existing HR Benefit or Payroll Deduction/benefit records. Selection Required: This check box determines whether an employee is forced to make a selection during enrollment. This is for use when a record must be kept of an employee s decision to waive coverage or enroll. If it is not checked an employee can simply neglect to enroll in the benefit. See Part 1 Chapter 2 for more on enrolling. Single or Multiple refers to how many option an employee can select during enrollment. Single is used to constrain the employee to an either / or decision regarding enrollments such as in Health insurance Full Family vs. Single Only. Multiple is used when allowing the employee to enroll into more than one aspect of a benefit. For example, Life Insurance where an employee may select the base coverage and also a spouse supplement option. Option Scrolling Window: This window contains all of the options that an employee will be presented with during enrollment. The Require re-enrollment check box is used to tell the system when to inactivate a benefit if an employee does not enroll. In figure 3.01 above, if the employee currently has Single coverage for health and then, during the next enrollment event, does not enroll into the Single option (perhaps selecting Full Family instead); then during posting the system will create a benefit record for INS2 Full Family and inactivate the old record INS (Single). If the HR Administrator does not use the require re-enrollment checkbox then any existing benefits which the employee may already be enrolled into will persist from enrollment period to enrollment period and a manual process will need to be enforced to inactivate old benefits. The scrolling window also provides access to the Plan Option Details window but clicking on the Option Code expansion button while an option row record is selected. See Plan Option Details section in this chapter for more information. Attached Information: When clicked, this note icon will open the Note window Benefit Self Service User s Guide 26
The information entered on this screen will be visible to the employee during the benefit enrollment process. Additional documents (i.e., ext files, pdfs or.doc files) can be attached by clicking the paper clip button. Note that the Attach button is for actually assigning the note to the plan benefit. It does not refer to attached documentation. A plan benefit code cannot be deleted if it is currently being used by an Enrollment. If you attempt to remove a plan benefit while it is in use the system will display a warning message and you won t be able to delete that option. To prevent a plan benefit from appearing as a choice in package creation you can inactivate the plan. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 27
Benefit Rights Click the Benefit Rights button to open the Benefits Window. Benefit rights are used to control which attributes will be visible to an employee during enrollment, and which ones (if any) will be editable. It also provides access to the Plan Benefit Attribute Details window via the expansion button next to the attribute code. Figure 3.02 The attributes in the scrolling window can be filtered to more manageable groups using the View radio group and the Filter Drop Down List. The View Radio group allows you to select which type of benefit, as depicted in figure 3.02. The filter drop down further categorizes based on the radio group. When HR is selected the options are Health, Life, Retirement, Miscellaneous. When Payroll is selected the options are Deduction, and Benefit When All or User Defined are selected there are no option to further define them. Finally, the Show Only Marked checkbox will constrain the result set in the scrolling down to only those item that are currently have one or more checkboxes marked. This constraint is in addition to the other filters. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 28
After determining how the attributes should appear you can select the order in which they will be listed on the Enrollment Submission window / Benefits View window, using the up/down arrows on the right. Enrollment View: Checking this box for an attribute ensures that it is visible to the employee during enrollment. Example: Display Premium to employee Edit: Checking this box for an attribute ensures that the employee will be able to provide a value or select a value during enrollment. Example: Ask Employee to provide a Driver s License number or membership ID Number Existing View: Checking this box for an attribute ensures that it is visible to the employee from the Benefits View window when an employee selects to view their benefit. Note that this restriction only applies to viewing employee benefits that are subject to linkage. In other words, the benefit in question is specified in an HRP Code field somewhere on a plan benefit setup record. Existing benefits being displayed which are not linked via plan benefit record are not subject to benefit rights settings. Validations The validation button opens the Plan Benefit Validations window. Figure 3.03 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 29
When an employee attempts to submit an enrollment into one or more of a plan benefit s options, the system will apply plan-level validations before processing the submittal. These plan level validations are configured in the Plan Benefit Validations window depicted in figure 3.03. Employee Age Checking this box will cause the system to validate that the age of the employee attempting to enroll into the benefit falls within the range specified in the From: To: fields. In the above example the minimum required age for Health Insurance is 18. Age as of To further define the age parameter you can specify whether the employee age must fall with the range as of the current calendar year end or the Effective date of the benefit. In the above example, a 17 year old could enroll into the health insurance benefit, if his age would be 18 on or before the enrollment effective date. Plan Prerequisites This scrolling window is used to specify other plan benefit codes that are setup in the system for purposes of establishing a pre-requisite. This scrolling window is empty by default. If a plan is specified then an employee will be required to 1) Have already enrolled into the specified plan or 2) Be currently enrolling into the specified plan before being allowed to submit the enrollment for the current plan. If neither condition is met the submission will fail. In the above example, if the employee attempts to enroll into Health Insurance without first being enrolled in (or is currently enrolling) into the Life Insurance NRS benefit; then the system will generate a warning message and prevent submission. Plan Option Details This window is accessible from the expansion button in the option scrolling window on Plan Benefit Setup. It contains option-level validation and settings. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 30
Figure 3.04 The window displays the plan code / description as well as the option code / description whose details are being viewed. When an employee attempts to submit an enrollment into one or more of a plan benefit s options, the system will apply the option-level validations before processing the submittal. These option- level validations are configured in the Plan Option Details window depicted in figure 3.04. Employee Age Checking this box will cause the system to validate that the age of the employee attempting to enroll into this option falls within the range specified in the From: To: fields. In the above example the required age for Whole Family option is 18-30. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 31
Age as of To further define the age parameter you can specify whether the employee age must fall with the range as of the current calendar year end or the effective date of the benefit. In the above example, a 17-year-old could enroll into the whole family option, if his age would be 18 on or before the enrollment effective date. However, if a 30- year-old currently enrolling would turn 31 before the effective date, then the system will prevent the submission. Option Prerequisites This scrolling window is used to specify other option codes that are set up in the system for purposes of establishing a prerequisite. This scrolling window is empty by default. If an option is specified then an employee will be required to be currently enrolling into that option as part of this plan benefit submission before being allowed to submit the enrollment. If this condition is not met, the submission will fail. This type of prerequisite is useful for items such as supplemental life insurance; where the employee must first be enroll into the standard life policy before being allowed to enroll into a supplement. Option Attributes This scrolling window contains a list of all the attributes for an option. By default it lists only those options, which are marked as view/edit in Benefit Rights. You can display all the options by checking the show all box. The main purpose of this scrolling window is to allow the user to configure the individual attributes for the option via the expansion button by the attribute code. Plan Option Attribute Details The plan option attribute details window is used to configure the behavior of the attribute during enrollment for the individual option. This will govern how the attribute is displayed to the employee and what values can be entered. It is the most granular configuration option available for attributes. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 32
Figure 3.05 The window displays all the identifying elements of the attribute from plan to option to attribute. When an employee enrolls into an option and is presented with the Membership ID attribute, the system will enforce validations at the field level and display any defaults. In the example in figure 3.05 the system would do the following: 1) Display a default value for the attribute. In this case the default that will display in the enrollment submission companion window would be 500. 2) Make the field required. If an employee attempts to exit a field that is required then the system displays a warning and prevents the user from moving on. 3) Enforce the constraint that the membership ID must be a value between 100 and 1000. If the user enters a value outside this range the system will display a warning and prompt the user to enter a different value. These validations are field level and take effect on the enrollment submission window during benefit enrollment. See Part 1 Chapter 2 for more detail on enrollments. Plan/Option Attribute The default values and the validations both have a radio group allowing the user to select Plan Attribute or Option Attribute. In the above example the system is set to Option Attribute and therefore the values that are specified in the window will be enforced during the enrollment process. In situations where there are multiple benefit options and you wish to enforce the same behavior across all attributes for all options, Benefit Self Service User s Guide 33
then you can set the value to From Plan Attribute. The system will then take these values from the Plan itself. For more information on where to configure those values at the plan-level see the Plan Benefit Attribute Details section in Chapter 3. When a plan or an option is linked to an HRP code then default values for attributes will be taken neither from Plan Option Attribute Details nor Plan Option Attribute details. Rather the system will display defaults according to the following: If there is an existing employee maintenance record (payroll) or employee HR benefit enrollment record (HR)for the linked HRP code; then the system takes the default from there. If there is no such record then the system takes the default from the HR Benefit setup record (HR) or the Benefit/Deduction setup record (Payroll). Plan Benefit Attribute Details The Plan Benefit Attribute Details window allows you to specify the following for attributes at the plan level: 1) Default Value 2) Required 3) Minimum and Maximum Ranges Figure 3.06 Values specified in this window will govern the behavior of attributes during enrollment unless values have been specified at the attribute-level in Plan Option Attribute Details window and the user has selected From Option Attribute for validations or defaults. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 34
The functionality of the fields in figure 3.06 is the same as the corresponding fields in figure 3.05. When a plan or an option is linked to an HRP code then default values for attributes will be taken neither from Plan Option Attribute Details nor Plan Option Attribute details. Rather the system will display defaults according to the following: If there is an existing employee maintenance record (payroll) or employee HR benefit enrollment record (HR) for the linked HRP code; then the system takes the default from there. If there is no such record then the system takes the default from the HR Benefit setup record (HR) or the Benefit/Deduction setup record (Payroll). Benefit Self Service User s Guide 35
Chapter 4: Packages Packages Overview The Benefit Package Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Packages Figure 4.01 Benefit Packages are used as containers for a collection of benefits that will be offered to groups of employees. They are created by defining a code and description. To add plan benefits to a package simply select plan benefits to be added to the scrolling window. A package code cannot be deleted if it is currently being used by an enrollment or if it has been explicitly assigned to an employee via the HR Admin Package Assignment Utility. If you attempt to remove a package while it is in use the system will prompt with a warning message and prevent deletion. To prevent a package from appearing as a choice in future enrollments you can inactivate the package. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 36
Chapter 5: Eligibility Rules Eligibility Rules Overview The Eligibility Rule Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Eligibility Rules Figure 5.01 Eligibility rules are used to determine how packages will be assigned to an employee(s). If the criteria defined in the rule apply to an employee then the employee will be eligible for the package. It is possible that more than one rule could apply to an employee or no rule could apply to an employee. In each of these cases the HR Administrator will need to manually specify which package an employee will be eligible for. The rules themselves are created by defining a code and description, followed by the package for which, you wish to create criteria. General Demographic Criteria The general criteria that are employee specific are as follows: entering values restricts the potential pool of employees. Criteria are cumulative in effect: Benefit Self Service User s Guide 37
Years of Service can be used for separating employees by number of years Work Hours per Year can be used to separate by amount of work Date used to specify a date range for Hire Date, Adjusted Hire Date, or Seniority Marital Status used to separate by Single, Married or N/A statuses Company Criteria The company criteria scrolling window is driven by the Criteria by drop down list, which includes groups inherent within Dynamics GP used to categorize employees. After a criterion is selected the window populates with a list of values found. For example when the criteria is set to Department, the list will contain all departments found within the company. As with General demographic criteria, the selections made here will restrict the pool of employees, but are not cumulative in effect. For example, if department Accounting and department Sales are marked, then anyone in either department is eligible. Values for the Criteria By include: Department Position Employee Class Employee Type Location Secondary Status Division HR Status Having too many rules with overlapping criteria could result in many employees being eligible for more than one package. To reduce the need for the HR Package assignment tool you can inactivate rules which are no longer in use. To include everyone under one rule for eligibility you need only create one rule and leave all the criteria blank. This will have the effect of assigning no restrictive criteria thereby including everyone. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 38
Chapter 6: Benefit Enrollments Benefit Enrollment Overview The Benefit Enrollment Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Enrollments Figure 6.01 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 39
This is where HR Administrators will create enrollments and define their open periods. Enrollments can be created for multiple purposes such as annual, semi-annual and life event employee enrollments. Enrollments are created by defining a code, description and the necessary dates. Employee Enrollment The Employee Enrollment checkbox is used to designate an enrollment as Employee, meaning that it is something other than an annual enrollment. The distinction is often used for reporting purposes and to create enrollments that are special or periodic such as life events. Checking the box automatically checks the Enrollment Groups box so that the employee groups functionality can be used. This allows the user to create enrollments for subsets of employees or individual employees. See Employee Groups later in this chapter. Plan Scrolling Window This window is used to define which plan benefits are being offered as part of this enrollment. In Figure 6.01 multiple plans are being offered in the enrollment, but this does not necessarily mean all the benefits will be visible to the employee. An employee is still restricted to seeing only the benefits which belong to the package they are eligible for. In this way, an employer who has a once a year benefit enrollment period covering all benefits, could make everything available in one enrollment period. Then let the packages drive which employees can see which benefits. Conversely, an employer may wish to establish multiple enrollments, which only contain related benefits i.e., health and dental. Enrollment Groups The enrollment groups checkbox enables the Employee Groups feature on the window. It is not required and can be used by annual enrollments and/or special enrollments designated as employee. Archive Enrollment Use the archive enrollment checkbox to archive an enrollment. This prevents further posting of benefits for the enrollment. Archiving an enrollment can be undone. As enrollments accumulate over time the HR Admin Navigation list may become populated with prior enrollment data which was never posted. Archiving an enrollment also removes it from the navigation lists. Employee Groups The Enrollment Groups feature allows an HR administrator to group employees by various criteria for purposes of staggering enrollment periods. This is typically done to Benefit Self Service User s Guide 40
accommodate special circumstances or reduce HR workload of entire workforces enrolling into benefits during the same time period. To create an enrollment group simply enter a Name for the group and the start and end dates into the Enrollment groups scrolling window. Dates can overlap for each group. To specify employees to be included in the group you must select a group and click the Name expansion button. This opens the Select Employees window below figure 6.02. Figure 6.02 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 41
Employee Ranges The various ranges are used to restrict the result set for employees to include in the group. Ranges are cumulative in effect so each restriction compounds upon the next. After selecting the range criteria press the Redisplay button to refresh the employee scrolling window. Once a manageable subset of employees has been reached you can select all, none, or a partial list by checking the selected checkbox next to the employee name. Pressing Ok will return you to the enrollment setup window and the group will now include the selected employees. Note: If the employee list changes (e.g., new hire) you will have to return to the Select Employees window in order to update the group s list. The list does not add the employee automatically. You must check the new employee, press redisplay and then select done. With respect to enrollment group dates: a given start date for an enrollment group cannot be before the start date of the enrollment itself. Likewise and end date for a given enrollment group cannot be later than the end date for the enrollment group itself. To create an enrollment groups for employees using last name as a category (eg employees A-F, G- T etc ), make sure to set the end criteria to catch all instances of the last letter. For example A-F should be set to A-FZZZZ in order to catch all last names beginning with F. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 42
Chapter 7: Benefit Types Benefit Types Overview The Benefit Types Setup window is located in Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits & Deductions > Benefit Types Figure 7.01 Benefit Types are used for grouping different employer provided benefits (e.g., Health, Retirement, Life Insurance, Memberships, etc.) and are primarily used for reporting purposes. Benefit Types are created by specifying a Benefit Type Code and Description. The inactive checkbox prevents the code from being assigned to a Plan Benefit. Benefit Types do not impact or interact with any HRP codes or fields within Dynamics GP and are strictly for tagging a Plan Benefit for future reporting. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 43
Chapter 8: HR Administer Benefit Enrollments Navigation List HR Administer Benefit Enrollments Navigation List The navigation list is accessible from the HR & Payroll Menu Tab > Administer Benefit Enrollments Figure 8.01 This navigation list is used by the HR administrator to perform various tasks related to employee benefit enrollment. Some of the features available are identical to the features outlined in Part 1 Chapter 2. For purposes of this chapter we will focus on the specific tools and functionality unique to the administrator. The navigation list displays the benefit enrollments for all employees and includes, by default, the following additional column information: Employee ID Employee Name Enrollment Code Plan Code Benefit Self Service User s Guide 44
Package Code Package Description Eligibility Code Eligibility Description The ribbon bar contains additional tools not available on the Benefit Enrollment navigation list. These are described below. Edit Enrollment Status When an employee submits an enrollment by mistake, or neglects to include information, the administrator can take action by selecting the Edit Enrollment status tool from the action pane. The resultant dialogue consists of two choices: Selecting Return Enrollment will change the status of the enrollment to saved and the employee will be able to make corrections or addition, then re-submit. Selecting Remove Enrollment will change the status of the enrollment to not started. This effectively removes the submission altogether and all changes are lost. The employee must start from the beginning and re-submit. Post Enrollment When an employee enrollment has been submitted and the administrator is ready to post, he takes action using the Post Enrollment tool in the action pane. The resultant dialogue presents a message and confirmation button. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 45
The posting process moves the enrollment data to history and completes the necessary changes in HR and Payroll as the message suggests. The administrator can post more than one benefit at a time by selecting the desired rows in the navigation list before posting. Once the process is complete a status message will appear indicating whether the process was successful or not. This status message is the same as the Benefits Enrollment (see Part 1 Chapter 2) With respect to Future Effective Records: if future effective records are being used, it is essential to activate them for the HRP Benefits BEFORE the posting process is initiated. Otherwise the system will update benefits using existing setup and maintenance records. Send To Excel If the administrator wishes to export one or more enrollment for data analysis purposes, he can use the Export to Excel tool. The result is that the data appears in a spreadsheet with column headers representing the column header in the navigation list. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 46
The data exported to Excel is not detail level data of employee benefit selection. It consists of the information displayed in the columns of the main navigation list. Print This List This tool is similar to the Send to Excel functionality but instead generates a report in a different format. The information is the same for this report as for the excel document. (Report headers representing the column headers in the navigation list.) Benefit Self Service User s Guide 47
Chapter 9: HR Package Assignment Utility Package Assignment Overview The Package Assignment Utility window is located in Tools > Utilities > Human Resources > Package Override Assignment Figure 9.01 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 48
This utility allows an HR admin to manually specify which package an employee will be eligible for. It is meant to override the defaults, resolve a conflict if an employee is eligible for more than one package, or provide a package if the employee is not currently eligible for any. The process for using the window is as follows: Select an employee range by specifying one or more range criteria. Select a qualified eligibility status radio option (All, None, Multiple, Package assigned) Press Redisplay to display the employees in the scrolling window Mark the desire employees Select a package from the Drop Down List Press the Remove or Assign button to commit the changes Employee Ranges The employee ranges function the same as the ranges in Employee Groups, see Part 2 Chapter 6. Before pressing the redisplay button, however, it is necessary to specify which eligibility conditions are being displayed. The Qualified Eligibility Rules function according to the following: Multiple Displays employees who are eligible for more than one package based on their demographics and the existing eligibility rules defined in the system. None Displays employees whose demographics make them ineligible for any rule. All Displays all employees regardless of package eligibility status Packaged Assigned - Displays employees who have bene explicitly assigned a package. Note that this package may be different from one (or more) that the employee is eligible for. Employee Scrolling Window This window is read only with exception of the select check box. Employee ID and name are displayed along with the package for which the employee is eligible (Qualified Package). If the employee is ineligible for any package this field will be blank. Additionally, the package assigned to the employee (Package Assigned) is displayed. If the employee has not been explicitly assigned a package via this utility, then this field will be blank. Packages that are explicitly assigned to an employee take priority over packages for which the employee is eligible via an eligibility rule. The select checkbox is used to indicate which employees will have action taken upon them using the Remove Assign buttons as described below. Remove / Assign Packages After a group of employees has been displayed in the scrolling window and the appropriate selections have been made, you can explicitly assign or remove a package from the employee(s). Press the remove button to remove package assignments for the selected employees and then press redisplay to observe the changes. To assign a package, select a package from the drop down list and press assign. This will assign the chosen package to the selected employees. Press redisplay to observe the changes. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 49
When the scrolling window is displaying employees who are eligible for multiple packages the Qualified Package column will display the first package that the system determines the employee is eligible for, even if there are several others. When packages are removed (un-assigned) from one or more employees, then the qualified package(s), if any, that apply to those employees will again be in effect. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 50
Chapter 10: Beneficiaries/Dependents The information in this chapter describes how the HR administrator will setup data and configure options which will support the employee s dependents/beneficiaries choices when enrolling into benefits Overview The process for defining Beneficiaries and Dependents for purposes of Benefit Self Service, has been simplified in no small part due to their consolidation. The new navigation for defining Beneficiaries and Dependents is Cards > Human Resources > Employee > Dependents/Beneficiaries. Figure 10.01 Although the navigation and window name have changed, the core functionality regarding for how a dependent is handled in Dynamics GP has not. There is a single location where dependents are stored and managed. The distinction as to whether a person is considered a dependent or beneficiary for purposes of a Benefit Self Service User s Guide 51
benefit, is now handled as a function of the enrollment process. See Part 1 Chapter 2 for more details surrounding designation of dependents/beneficiaries during enrollment. HR Benefit Options Configuring the system to properly account for Dependent and Beneficiaries during enrollment, is accomplished on a per-benefit basis. Navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP menu > Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Benefits and Deductions > Health, Life, Retirement or Miscellaneous Setup window. By using the lookup option, select a Benefit Code, then select the GoTo option and select Benefit Options. Figure 10.02 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 52
Figure 10.03 The following options directly impact how the benefit will present during enrollment and are explained as follows: Maximum Dependents Allowed - Enter the maximum number of Dependents that the system will allow during enrollment. The system will interpret a zero amount as being unlimited. Allow Assignment of Inactive Dependent/Beneficiaries By default the system will not display inactive dependents on the enrollment submission window during enrollment. As a result, you cannot designate inactive people as a dependent or beneficiary. To allow this behavior, you must check this option. Prohibit Beneficiaries Check this box to prohibit the employee from designating beneficiaries during enrollment. Prohibit Dependents Check this box to prohibit the employee from designating dependents during enrollment. Require Beneficiaries Check this box to require the employee to designate at least one beneficiary during enrollment. Require Dependents Check this box to require the employee to designate at least one dependent during enrollment. If the user elects to prohibit dependents the system will ignore the value in the Maximum Dependents allowed checkbox. Additionally, if both dependents AND beneficiaries are prohibited then the system will not display anything in the dependents and beneficiaries scrolling window for that benefit during enrollment. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 53
The Benefit Options listed in figure 10.03 only apply to plan benefits that are linked to the HRP code for which the benefit options are being configured. Plan Benefits that are not linked will allow the assignment of dependents and beneficiaries without restriction. Status and Reasons During the enrollment process when the employee makes changes to beneficiaries or dependents the system prompts them for a reason for the status change. These reasons are in the form of items in a list, from which the employee can choose. In order to set up these reasons, navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP menu > Tools > Setup > Human Resources > Plan Status Reasons. The following illustrations provide examples of Plan Status Reasons for a Beneficiary or Dependent that is no longer qualified to receive a benefit. The record has been setup for Inactive. During enrollment, if an employee changes a dependent or beneficiary status to Inactive the system will present them with the reasons indicated. To set up your own custom reason choose the Record Type, Status Type and then type in your own Status Reasons descriptions. Figure 10.04 illustrates 4 Plan Reasons that were created for example purposes. Once you create your custom reasons, select OK to commit the changes. These Plan Status Reasons will be listed as choices during enrollment. In order to temporarily disable a reason you can check the Inactive checkbox in the right column of the scrolling window. This will prevent the reason from showing as a choice during enrollment until it is re-activated. Figure 10.04 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 54
Figure 10.05 illustrates a different set of reasons created for the condition when a beneficiary or dependent is qualified to receive the benefit. During enrollment, if an employee changes a dependent or beneficiary status to Active the system will present them with the reasons indicated. To set up your own custom reasons, choose the Record Type, Status Type and then type in your own Status Reasons descriptions. As shown in the following illustration, there are 3 Plan Reasons that were created for example purposes. Once you create your custom reasons, select OK to commit the changes. These Plan Status Reasons will be listed as choices during enrollment. In order to temporarily disable a reason you can check the Inactive checkbox in the right column of the scrolling window. This will prevent the reason from showing as a choice during enrollment until it is re-activated. Figure 10.05 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 55
Part 3: Implementation Best Practices The information in this section describes a method for setting up data and establishing enrollments for employees. It highlights pitfalls to avoid and factors to consider. Benefit Self Service User s Guide 56
Chapter 1: Setup Steps 1) Setup the user defined Benefit Attributes first. These are the smallest building blocks in Benefit Self Service and other setups depend on them. Take time to determine which information you will be collecting from, and displaying to, employees. If you are simply using the default attributes that are found with existing GP benefits then you can skip this step. 2) Create the Status Change Reasons. These are employee-facing dialogues that will display when they change or modify dependent beneficiary selections during enrollment. Their enumeration should be given thought because the employee will be forced to choose from a drop down list. Creating an item called other may be useful if it is impossible to predict a reason for change. 3) If you plan to link plan benefits to HRP codes for purposes of updating benefits and deductions with GP then it is advisable to follow these guidelines when establishing links to HRP codes: Figure 101 Set each option to be linked to its own, distinct code. This is especially important when multiple option selections are allowed. Figure 101 above Only use the Plan Benefit level HRP code link when o o all options will post to the same HRP benefit only a single option selection is allowed Benefit Self Service User s Guide 57
o you want to use a single HR or Payroll code for the sake of enrollment Figure 202 below Figure 202 Benefit Self Service User s Guide 58
Chapter 2: Operational Steps 1) Pre-Enrollment process: a. Assign a Dynamics GP User ID to all of your employees that will be utilizing online enrollment. This does require that these employees have a Dynamics GP login. A Limited User login is acceptable for using selfservice functionality. b. Create user defined benefit attributes (if needed) c. Create Plan Options d. Create Plan Benefits i. Configure the benefit rights ii. Link the plan to HRP codes as necessary iii. Define any validations e. Create packages to contain the benefits f. Create eligibility rules to make packages available to employees g. Verify all employees are eligible for some type of package and, if not, use the Package Override Assignment utility to resolve conflicts and exceptions. h. Create an enrollment record to offer benefits (at this point you are ready to run a trial enrollment) 2) Standard enrollment process: a. Create future effective benefit record(s) *if necessary i. These are especially useful if the employer costs or deduction amounts are changing (e.g. Health Insurance cost is increasing for the new plan year) Benefit Self Service User s Guide 59