HCM 8.9 HR BenAdm Processing Guide BPG 20080610

HCM 8.9 Business Process GuideBen Admin Processing Guide

Last Revised: 06/10/08

DRAFT

HCM 8.9 Benefits Administration Processing Guide DRAFTBusiness Process Guide

REVISION CONTROL

Document Title: HCM 8.9 Business Process Guide: Ben Admin Processing Guide

Author: Tammy Hines (CMS), Maria Sandoval (CMS)

File Reference: document.doc

Date By Action Pages

03/09/07 Tammy Hines Draft of New Document All

02/12/08 Maria Sandoval, Review and modify draft All

06/10/08 Maria Sandoval Final Draft All

Review/Approval History

Date By Action Pages



Table of Contents

Page

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 1

Business Process Workflow Diagram..........................................................................................................2

Process Prerequisites/Assumptions.............................................................................................................2

1.0 Fields used by Ben Admin - Ben Admin Triggers.............................................................................3

2.0 Ben Admin Triggers - Personal Information.......................................................................................5

2.1 Personal Information...............................................................................................................5

3.0 Ben Admin Triggers - Job................................................................................................................. 6

3.1 Job Information....................................................................................................................... 6

4.0 Ben Admin Triggers - CSU Job........................................................................................................8

4.1 CSU Job.................................................................................................................................. 8

5.0 Ben Admin Triggers – Benefit Program Participation........................................................................9

5.1 Benefit Program Participation..................................................................................................9

6.0 Processing Overview....................................................................................................................... 10

7.0 Reviewing BAS Activity...................................................................................................................10

7.1 BAS Activity........................................................................................................................... 11

8.0 Batch Processing............................................................................................................................. 12

9.0 Ben Admin Daily Tasks...................................................................................................................13

10.0 Event Maintenance.......................................................................................................................... 17

10.1 Using the CSU Benefit Summary..........................................................................................17

10.2 Using the Processing Controls Update Pages......................................................................20

10.3 Event Coordination................................................................................................................21

10.4 Voiding Disconnected Events................................................................................................22

10.5 Reprocessing........................................................................................................................ 23

11.0 Transactional/ Processing Impacts..................................................................................................27

11.1 Use of Correction Mode........................................................................................................27

11.2 Impact of Entering Retroactive Transactions.........................................................................27

12.0 Manual Events Using BAS_ACTIVITY............................................................................................27

13.0 Troubleshooting............................................................................................................................... 27



IntroductionThe Ben Admin Processing Guide provides an overview of the Benefits Administration processing rules.

Benefits Administration allows you to manage your benefit enrollment activity through automated processes. This guide is designed for staff in central Human Resources (HR) and Academic Personnel offices that enter job data information into the Oracle/PeopleSoft application for HR. It will review key processing fields used to determine eligibility.

There are four basic phases in the Benefits Administration process:

Prepare Schedule - determine the population;

Assign Program - determine benefit program eligibility

Prepare Options - prepare enrollment options

Validate and finalize - validate and load the elections to Base Benefits.

All data keyed into Personal and Job data, once saved, is used to determine benefits eligibility. Therefore, data must be entered accurately the first time. As of the effective date of a new hire in the system, all fields should be entered, including current local address, SSN and date of birth. Any omission of this data will impact the timely enrollment of the employee into their benefits. When data is saved, a BAS_ACTIVITY row is created which will be used in the automated benefits process.

NOTE: Once a campus has implemented Benefits Administration, access to update the Base Benefits tables manually should be restricted or eliminated. This is due to the fact that Ben Admin will process events and write the results to the Base Benefits tables. In addition, Ben Admin processing tables stores information related to the event processed. If the Base Benefits tables are updated manually, this will cause the Ben Admin processing tables to be out-of-sync and may create issues with other integrated processes that rely on this information, i.e. SCO Interface process.

As stated in the Ben Admin Implementation Guide, CMS only recommends that a campus allow the Base Benefits tables to be updated manually for enrollments prior to the Ben Admin Start Date. If a campus has a need to update this Base Benefits tables manually they should LOG A HELP DESK TICKET and report the issue to CMS.

Last Revised: 06/10/08 Page 1 of 29


Business Process Workflow DiagramBenefits Administration Overview:

Benefits Administration Visio located on CMS Website:

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/CMS_04B_HR89_01C_BenAdmin.asp

Process Prerequisites/Assumptions

Prerequisite/Assumption Detail

Ben Admin has been implemented Ben Admin is turned on the Installation Table and the Ben Admin Start date has been set.



1.0 Fields used by Ben Admin - Ben Admin Triggers

Many of the fields listed below affect eligibility or Ben Admin processing. Some of these fields may trigger an update to BAS Activity after they are saved.

Record Field Description of Use

Personal Data Effective Date Many of the Event Rules are running off of the date entered. Any date is okay to enter but note the date as you process benefits and identify your expected results.

Gender Gender

Birth Date Birth date is used to determine age limit processing. It is required for proper assignment of the Benefit Program.

Postal Code The Postal Code and State information is used to determine eligibility based on geographic location.

State The Postal Code and State information is used to determine eligibility based on geographic location.

Job Effective Date Many of the Event Rules are running off of the date entered. Any date is okay to enter but note the date as you process benefits and identify your expected results.

Action/ Action Reason Action/Reason values translate to Benefits actions. Each Action/Reason indicates what type of action Ben Admin should take.

Expected End Date This field is used to determine if a temporary employee meets the eligibility criteria for duration. Elig Config 1 is updated to a “Y” (Yes) or “N” (No).

Position In order for an employee to have an Enrollment Worksheet generated, a position must be used.

Job Code Used to determine types of benefits available and program eligibility.

Union Code Used to determine Benefit Program eligibility. It auto populates when a position is entered. This field should not be overridden.

FTE Used to determine Benefit eligibility. For employees with one active job, the system will look at FTE to determine if the minimum FTE requirement has been met. For employees with more than one active job, the system will combine the FTE’s for all benefits-eligible jobs and determine if the minimum FTE requirement is met.



Record Field Description of Use

Pay Group Used to determine program eligibility. It drives benefits for AY employees who have a start date prior to a pay period. For example, faculty who have a start date in August, but don’t get paid until September, will have a benefits effective date of October 1. The Pay group value of “ACD” is used to identify these employees who use the Academic Year Pay Calendar.

Employee Type This is one of the factors used in looking at multiple jobs to determine which job is primary.

CSU Job Empl Class Used to determine eligibility to Benefit Programs and what types of benefits are available. FERP and Rehired Annuitant are the only employee classes that are used in the eligibility rules.

AY Duration of Appointment This value is used to determine if a temporary employee meets the eligibility criteria for duration. Elig Config 1 is updated to a “Y” (Yes) or “N” (No).

Benefit Program Participation

Benefit Record Number All Benefits Eligible jobs should be assigned a Benefit Record Number of 0. Non-eligible jobs should have a Benefit Record Number of 1.

This field is automatically populated on the Save

Benefits System This value will default to Benefits Administration.

Elig Config 1 This field is automatically populated after the custom Ben Admin process is run. This field will be set to a Y if the employee meets the duration requirement, otherwise it will be set to N.

Elig Config 2 This is the employee’s job code. This field is populated on the Save.

Benefit Program This value should initially be set to “NOB”. (Default is set to “NOB” in Pay group). It will be populated with the appropriate benefit program after the Ben Admin process runs.



2.0 Ben Admin Triggers - Personal Information

Displayed below are screen shots of the Personal Information fields, which are used by Ben Admin.

2.1 Personal Information Navigation: Workforce Administration > Personal Information > Biographical > Modify a Person

Processing Steps Screen Shot

Effective Date

1. Many of the Event Rules are running off of the date entered. Note the date as you process benefits and identify your expected results.

Birth Date

2. This filed is used to determine age limit processing. It is required for proper assignment of the Benefit Program.

SSN

3. SSN

Gender

4. Gender

Postal Code

5. Postal Code is used to determine eligibility based on geographic location.

State

6. The State information is used to determine eligibility based on geographic location.



3.0 Ben Admin Triggers - Job

Displayed below are screen shots of the Job fields, which are used by Ben Admin to determine eligibility.

3.1 Job InformationNavigation: Workforce Administration > Job Information > Job Data


Effective Date = Benefits Event Date

1. This date determines the Benefits Event Date. Many of the Event Rules use the date entered. Note the date as you process benefits and identify your expected results.

Action/Action Reason

2. Action/Reason values translate to Benefits actions. Each Action/Reason indicates what type of action Ben Admin should take.

Action Reasons mapped to the HIR event may automatically process and enroll an employee in Vision, Life AD&D or LTD benefits, based on eligibility.).

Expected End Date

3. This field is used to determine if a temporary employee meets the eligibility criteria for duration. Elig Config 1 is updated to a “Y” (Yes) or “N” (No).

Position

4. In order for an employee to have an Enrollment Worksheet generated, a position must be used.

Job Code

5. This field is used to determine eligibility. This value is stored in Elig Config 2.

Empl Class



6. Empl Class used to determine eligibility to Benefit Programs and what types of benefits are available. FERP and Rehired Annuitant are the only employee classes that are used in the eligibility rules.

FTE

7. FTE used to determine Benefit eligibility. For employees with one active job, the system will look at FTE to determine if the minimum FTE requirement has been met. For employees with more than one active job, the system will combine the FTEs for all benefits-eligible jobs and determine if the minimum FTE requirement is met.

Union Code

8. This field is used to determine eligibility. It auto populates when a position is entered. This field should not be overridden.

Employee Type

9. Employee Type is one of the factors used in looking at multiple jobs to determine which job is primary.

Pay Group

10. Pay Group used to determine program eligibility. It drives benefits for AY employees.



4.0 Ben Admin Triggers - CSU Job

Displayed below is a screen shot of the custom CSU Job page, the field which is a Ben Admin trigger is indicated.

4.1 CSU JobNavigation: Workforce Administration > CSU Job


Duration of Appointment

This value is used to determine if a temporary employee meets the eligibility criteria for duration. Elig Config 1 is updated to a “Y” (Yes) or “N” (No).



5.0 Ben Admin Triggers – Benefit Program Participation

Displayed below are screen shots of the Benefit Program fields used by Ben Admin.

5.1 Benefit Program ParticipationNavigation: Workforce Administration > Benefit Program Participation


Benefit Record Number.

1. All Benefits Eligible jobs should be assigned a Benefit Record Number of 0. Non-eligible jobs should have a Benefit Record Number of 1.


Benefit System

2. This value will default to Benefits Administration.

Eligibility Config 1

3. This field is automatically populated after the custom Ben Admin process is run. This field will be set to a Y if the employee meets the duration requirement, otherwise it will be set to N.

Eligibility Config 2

4. This is the employee’s job code. This field is populated on the Save.

Benefit Program Effective Date

5. This date must match the date on job if the Action is Hire. This date is used to determine when the employee is eligible for a particular benefit program. It is updated as appropriate when the Ben Admin process runs.

Benefit Program

6. This value should initially be set to “NOB”. (Default is set to “NOB” in Pay group). It will be populated with the appropriate benefit program after the Ben Admin process runs.



6.0 Processing Overview

Benefits Administration manages benefit enrollment activity through automated processes. This guide is designed for staff in central benefits offices. It focuses on the automated processes that run nightly, those processes that must be handled manually, and the management of the results produced. There are five basic phases in the Benefits Administration process: determine the population; determine benefit program eligibility; prepare enrollment options; validate and load the elections to Base Benefits and create enrollment worksheets to be sent to eligible employees. Each phase will require analysis and intervention to move events through the process until finalized.

The typical business process will include the following steps:

1. Data entered or changed in Personal and Job data fields will create benefit activities to be processed by the Ben Admin COBOL process.

2. The Benefits Administration System (BAS) Activity table can be reviewed prior to the process running to anticipate the expected outcome.

3. The Ben Admin COBOL process will run nightly and can be run as needed during the day - review and analyze the results of the nightly batch process. This review will include resolution of processing errors and coordinating events that are flagged by the process as needing review.

4. Enrollment Worksheets can be created as required and sent to employees.

5. Benefits Office staff will process manual events as needed which include health and dental enrollments, TSA elections, Flexible Spending Accounts and Family Status Changes that affect benefits.

7.0 Reviewing BAS Activity

When data is keyed into Personal and Job Data the action is written to the BAS activity table. The BAS Activity page displays the unprocessed events that will be processed by Benefits Administration. Before running the Benefits Administration process, use the BAS Activity page to:

Review the unprocessed activities that have been triggered for employees.

Action reasons reflected in job are classified for benefits purposes by associating an Event Class to each action reason. The event class is displayed in BAS Activity. The values relate to the type of benefit activity the action should cause.

•HIR: These actions will create hire benefit actions. (Modified for CSU business needs; automatic enrollment in Life AD & D, LTD and vision).

•MSC: These actions are typically miscellaneous transactions that do not typically affect benefits. These benefit events will most likely cause no change to benefit options and/or eligibility.

•TER: These actions will create termination benefit actions. All enrollments will be terminated due to loss of eligibility if eligibility and employment has ended.

•ACT: These actions are typically transactions that may have affected benefits. For example, this would include changes to duration, time base, or union code.

•LVE: These actions are assigned to unpaid leave of absence and disability leave actions. Typically benefits in PeopleSoft will not be affected unless eligibility changes. However, the benefits office may need to do additional benefits analysis outside the system.

Insert manual events for Event Maintenance processing that can be picked up during the nightly process. Use the BAS Activity page to insert manual events to be processed through On Demand processing as described later in this document.

Delete unprocessed activities—a capability used on a very exceptional basis. It may become useful to delete certain transactions prior to processing. For example, if a person’s hire date is



corrected on the same day it is entered the incorrect transaction can be deleted to avoid a disconnected event.

The Business Process guide for reviewing BAS Activity is located on the CMS Website at: http://cms.calstate.edu/T2hr89bp.asp

7.1 BAS ActivityNavigation: Benefits > Manage Automated Enrollment > Events > Review BAS Activity


Benefit Record Number.

1. All Benefits Eligible jobs should be assigned a Benefit Record Number of 0. Non-eligible jobs should have a Benefit Record Number of 1.


EmplID

2. The ID of the employee you are adding a manual event for.

Name

3. Name: The name of the employee you are adding a manual event for.

4. Action Source: This will default to Manual whenever you key a manual event. In the example above, you also see sources of JobChg and MultJobChg, indicating that changes on one or more job records have caused an update to occur.

5. Empl Rcd #: The Employment Record Number from Job is displayed.

6. Event Date: The Event Date is the effective date of event.

7. Event Effseq: If there are multiple events on the same day, an effective sequence must be used. If there is only one event, the default of 0 can remain.

8. BAS Action: This is the Benefits Administration System action – mapped to Job action/reasons. Depending on the type of event, only certain benefits can be updated/added. When entering health enrollments, the BAS action of HBE must be used.


http://cms.calstate.edu/T2hr89bp.asp



9. Suppress Forms: This field is not used.

10. COBRA Action: This field is not used, and data appearing in the example above was for testing purposes only. The CSU does not administer COBRA at the campus level.

8.0 Batch Processing

The Benefits Administration process is used to perform Event maintenance to process changes in employee events that affect eligibility, hiring of employees and terminations. When the process runs it identifies open participant events that have occurred since the last run of the process that may (or may not) change the eligibility of the participant. This includes family status changes (such as divorce), job-related information changes (such as Time Base change) and the act of being hired and terminated. The batch process can be run on demand or scheduled to run each night. For hires, terminations and time base changes the batch process should be used.

The batch process will perform the following steps:

1. Set Elig Config 1 field on Job for everyone in the BAS_ACTIVITY table. Elig Config 1 field is used to determine whether an employee has met duration requirements for eligibility.

2. Sets the Benefit Record Number on Job to the appropriate value. Benefit record 0 pertains to all jobs that are potentially benefits eligible. Benefit Record 1 is used for all excluded job classifications.

3. Checks primary job settings and makes changes as necessary.

4. Ben Admin COBOL process runs – this determines population, eligibility, prepares enrollment options and validates/loads the elections to Base Benefits.

5. Updates the finalize flag for employees as necessary – in order to process the automated benefits and create the file for transmission to the SCO, employees must be finalized.

6. Update run control for event maintenance to reset for next run.



9.0 Ben Admin Daily Tasks

Daily processing tasks include reviewing processing results, performing event maintenance and processing manual benefit events such as health and dental enrollments. Review Processing Results

View Schedule Summary

Review the schedule summary for an overview of process status and open events. The schedule summary is a collective summary of any activity processed under the schedule ID. The values will increment over time.Navigation: Benefits>Manage Automated Enrollment>Review Processing Results>Schedule Summary



Check Messages for Schedule

Each time the process for a specific schedule ID runs, the system refreshes the set of error messages associated with that schedule ID. Employees who still have errors from previous runs will be reviewed and flagged as errors. In addition any errors associated with the schedule will be listed. Use these messages to locate the source of the error(s) and correct them before rerunning the process.

These messages are also listed on the BAS003 report, which is part of the batch job. A complete description of the error message along with tips on where to fix the error is included in the BA troubleshooting guide.Navigation: Benefits>Manage Automated Enrollment>Review Processing Results>Processing Messages

Understanding process status values

As Ben Admin runs various process statuses are assigned. After the events are assigned to a schedule and the open event is identified, the system will use eligibility rules to assign the employee to a benefit program. Typically an event will move through Program Assignment, and continue through prepare options and be finalized. Events will receive a different process status depending on the system evaluation results.

Here is a description of the status’s that can be assigned and the steps to enable the event to continue through the process and be finalized.

Program Assignment

Process Status Description Troubleshooting Steps Next Processing Steps

AS - Program Eligibility Assigned

Participant event is assigned to a benefit program. – Process Successful

Typically an event will not stay in an AS status. It will continue on in the process. However, if you see an event at the AS process status after Event Maintenance Runs, it means that there are employees being processed who have more than one event

Event will continue on in the process through the prepare options step. The outcome will depend on the associated participant's eligibility for benefit options.



Program Assignment


assigned to them. The event will stay in AS status until the open event has completed.

AN - Program Eligibility Assigned None

Participant event is not assigned to a benefit program.

You should not see events in a status of AN. Run the Eligible Participants report to evaluate employees who are eligible but not being assigned to a program.

Events with an AN status will continue on through the process and end at a finalized – Assigned None (FA) status if current elections have not been made. If elections exist in Base Benefits the system will assign them to a prepared status for action on the elections. All employees should fall into a program assignment.

AE - Program Eligibility Assigned Error

Participant event is assigned to multiple programs.

Employee is eligible for more than one Benefit Program. You'll most likely need to make corrections to participant personal, employment or job information or to program eligibility information. Check Benefit Record number assignment and evaluate job data for cross bargaining unit instances. If the employee is qualified for more than one program EmplID override is necessary.

The system cannot process the participant event through the next stage (Option Preparation) until you correct the errors. Each time you run Benefits Administration, the system will reevaluate events with an AE designation and (try to) move them along in the process.

Prepare Options


PR - Prepared The system has calculated eligible options for the participant associated with the event, and current elections have been identified for default processing.

Event requires Election Entry or finalization.

The batch process that runs at night will force finalize prepared events so that automated benefits can be written to base benefits. The system will bring the event to a process status of FE (Finalized - Enrolled)

When processing manual events this status will be viewed in On Demand. Enrollment processing will stop until elections are entered.



Prepare Options


FA - Finalized - Benefit Program None

Participant event has no program assignment and no current elections.

Benefit Program assignment should occur for all employees. Program eligibility should be reviewed.

PeopleBooks suggests running the eligibility reports to determine eligibility issues for this status.

There is no further processing for this event. The online page description for this process status (on the Schedule Summary page, for example) is Program None.

FP - Finalized - Prepared None

System has assigned participant event to a benefit program, but the associated participant is ineligible to elect any new options.

Event did not change eligibility. Prepared none should indicate no change in benefits. No further action required.

No further processing will occur for this participant event. The online page description for this process status (on the Schedule Summary page, for example) is Prepare None.

PE - Prepare Error The system has encountered an error during option preparation for the participant associated with the event. Events are given a PE process status during option eligibility determination or calculation of credits.

To correct, you should make corrections to the personal/employment/job information of the associated participant or to plan and option eligibility information.

Each time you run Benefits Administration, the system will reevaluate events with a PE designation and (attempt to) move them along in the Benefits Administration process.

Entering Elections


ET – Entered A benefits administrator has entered the participant's new elections into the system and they are ready for validation by the Benefits Administration process.

Event needs finalization. If the validation process finds no errors with the elections, the elections will be posted to the appropriate benefit and payroll tables, and the system will update the process status to FE (Finalized - Enrolled).

On the other hand, if there are errors with the elections, if any of the employee's choices are invalid, event rules will be consulted to determine whether current elections or defaults should be loaded. The system will set the process status to EE (Elections Error).

EE - Election Error System encountered an error in processing the elections for the

You will need to correct the errors by reentering employee elections.

No further processing will occur for this participant event. When the Benefits



Entering Elections


participant associated with the event. No elections are posted to the Base Benefits tables.

Errors are posted to the Message table and are identified by participant and event.

The previous process status was either ET (entered) or EE (election error).

Administration process runs again it will try to carry the event's process status forward to FE (Finalized - Enrolled).

Alternatively, you can arrange to "force finalize" this participant event (or the entire set of participant events in the Benefits Administration Open Enrollment schedule) to finalize it with errors. The system will load the default value(s) for the associated participant's erroneous benefit option election(s). If a dependent/beneficiary or investment choice is in error, the system will load the employee's option choice but will not load the dependent/beneficiary or investment choice.

10.0 Event Maintenance Event maintenance is the process of coordinating multiple events for employees and reprocessing flagged events. Some coordination will occur automatically through the Benefits Administration process. However, other coordination will require analysis and manual manipulation of the event. For example, when an event is retroactively entered into the system that has an earlier event date than an event currently in process, the system will stop processing the event and change its Event Status from Open to Closed. It will then open the “new” retroactively entered event and begin processing it. Once that event has finished processing, the system will automatically start processing the stopped event again. Additionally, Benefits Administration will automatically stage some events for reprocessing if the event has been flagged. If an event has not yet reached Prepared (process status equal to Assigned, Assign Error, Assign None, or Prepare Error) and one or more of the eligibility flags are set, then the event will get set back to Assign Program before any further processing on this event occurs.

The exception occurs when the “new” event requires that an event in process have assignment, eligibility, or rate recalculations. The event will be flagged as Out of Sequence and you will need to use the Event Status page to queue those events for reprocessing. (See reprocessing in the next section)

10.1 Using the CSU Benefit Summary

The CSU Benefits summary page collects JOB and Benefits information on one set of pages so everything can be viewed together from one source. This replaces looking at the information on each base record and each job record one at a time. The data is captured through a custom page and displayed.

Use the CSU Benefit Summary Inquiry Page to review employee benefits. This is the starting point to review the event maintenance issues that were reported on the nightly Ben Admin reports. The page will



list the benefits the employee is currently enrolled in and future benefit enrollments. The current benefit enrollments are highlighted in blue for easy reference.

The Review Employee Benefits-CSU Benefits Summary Business Process Guide provides instructions for the user to review employee and benefits information through the custom CSU Benefits Summary page.

The Business Process guide for reviewing the CSU Benefits Summary pages is located on the CMS Website at: http://cms.calstate.edu/T2hr89bp.asp.Navigation: Home > Benefits> Review Employee Summary >CSU Benefits Summary


https://cmsdev.calstate.edu:4212/servlets/iclientservlet/h8fretrn/?ICType=Script&ICScriptProgramName=WEBLIB_MENU.ISCRIPT3.FieldFormula.IScript_DrillDown&target=main0&Level=0&RL=&navc=6417



To view all benefits for the employee, select view all.



Employee Summary

The employee summary gives a recap of job data key fields that are used to determine benefits eligibility.

10.2 Using the Processing Controls Update Pages

Use the Processing Controls Update component to locate and review the event processing status of individual participant events. The Processing Controls Update pages can be used to search for participant event records based on a variety of criteria. For example, select the set of participant events that belong to a particular schedule or benefit program. Also search for specific values, for example employees assigned to EE (election error). The system displays the results page to review the process status information of the participant event records that match your search criteria.



Navigation: Benefits>Manage Automated Enrollment>Events>Update Processing Controls

10.3 Event Coordination

Benefits Administration can only actively process one event per employee at a time, but it can have several events scheduled for later processing. To manage the schedule, Benefits Administration uses an event status of Open, Closed or Void. Events must have Open status to be processed. If you run Event Maintenance, the system creates events for changes to employee job, labor code, and address information. It also takes note of unprocessed events that were manually inserted through the Ben Admin Activity page. Events are dynamically opened and closed for processing based on event date and event priority.

The system always tries to process events in a logical sequence; usually this means that the system tries to process events in the order that they occur. The management of multiple events for a participant is referred to as event coordination.

While an employee’s current event is in process, the system continues to recognize new events as they are triggered. If a new event has an earlier date than the current event, the system temporarily closes the current event and opens the new event for processing. The employee’s Event Status value changes from Open to Closed. When the new event finalizes and changes to a closed status, the system reopens the interrupted event.

The system may flag a participant event for reprocessing if the event was processed out of sequence or if the address, union, or job eligibility associated with the event was changed. These events need to be coordinated and reprocessed to ensure the Benefits tables correctly reflect their eligible benefits. Out of Sequence

This flag is set if one or more of the following scenarios occurs:

New event date is less than the existing event date. A retroactive row is inserted.

New event date is equal to the existing event date but the priority is higher.

While a participant event is in process, the system will continue to recognize new events as they are triggered. If the Event Date of a new event is later than the Event Date of the event in progress, the system will simply schedule and assign the second event to a benefit program and close it with a process status of AS (assigned). In the meantime, it will continue to process the first event through election validation and finalization.

If a retroactive event is created and an event is currently in process the system closes the event in process and opens the new event for processing. The first event's Event Status value is changed from Open to Closed and is flagged as Out of Sequence. This event will report on the flagged participant report. The



Event out of Sequence flag indicates that the eligibility information for this event may have changed and therefore the event might need to be reprocessed. Disconnected

This flag indicates that the Job, Personal Data, or Job Labor record that created this event has been deleted, or one or more of the eligibility records does not exist.

When the system flags a participant event as being disconnected, it means that information that the system uses to track and/or process the event was deleted at some point after the event was triggered. Once an event is disconnected, it can no longer be processed by the system, except to be voided. There are two ways a participant event can become disconnected: when the changed HR record that previously triggered the event is deleted, and when one or more HR records needed for eligibility processing do not exist. A common example of a disconnected event is a correction to the effective date. Generally, once a participant event becomes disconnected, it will no longer be picked up by the system. The disconnection needs to be analyzed to determine what impact it might have on the benefit processing of the employee associated with the event. However, if an event is disconnected after it is finalized, you may want to void the event through reprocessing.

Example: The effective date on an employee's HIR job row is changed from June 1, 2008 to June 5, 2008. Two Bas Activity rows are created: one for the soon-to-be-disconnected June 1, 2008 row, and one for the about-to-be-created June 5, 2008 row. The original June 1,2008 row will be disconnected, and the new June 5, 2008 row will be set to open and prepared.

If the original (now disconnected) event is in a Finalized-Enrolled (FE) status, then the employee has already made their benefit elections. Any disconnected events in FE status need to be voided so that the elections posted by that event will be rolled back. Be sure to write down the employee's benefit choices before voiding the event, as these elections will be lost once the void is complete.

10.4 Voiding Disconnected Events

Under most circumstances, when a disconnected event is identified verify that the disconnection did not occur due to a data entry error in the HR data associated with the event. The action taken when an event has been disconnected is dependent upon how far the event has gone in the Benefits Administration cycle. For any disconnected event review the impact of the event's disconnection as well as the impact of the correction of the event disconnection. For example, if the disconnection takes place because HR data was inadvertently deleted, the correction of that mistake will most likely cause the system to create new BAS_ACTIVITY records and possibly a new participant event.

If a participant event is disconnected after it has been finalized (also because eligibility information related to the event was lost), you may have to take action to reverse the enrollment changes it has made to a participant record. To do this, you'll void the disconnected event to back out any election information entered by the event.

Voiding a disconnected event involves bringing up the record of the finalized, disconnected event on the Processing Controls Update - Controls page or Event Status Update page, selecting a Process Indicator value of Void (if you are working with a disconnected event, Void will be the only Process Indicator value the system will allow you to choose), and reprocessing the event. When you do this, the system backs out elections associated with the event, sets the event's Event Status to Void, and the event's process status to RE (reentered). Address eligibility change

This flag indicates if the STATE and POSTAL fields in Personal Data have been changed, deleted or another record inserted that may affect the outcome of event that has been flagged.



Job eligibility change

This flag indicates that the Job record that provided the job eligibility parameters for the event's eligibility processing has either changed, been deleted, or another record has been inserted whose effective date is between the event date and the Job effective date.

If the data changed on the inserted event does not impact the eligibility of the event, then nothing needs to be done to the impacted event except to turn off the Job Eligibility Changed Flag. If the data changed will impact the employee's benefits eligibility, such as lowered time base, then the event will need to be opened up and set back for reprocessing after the Time Base Change has completed. Multi-Job Indicator Changed

This flag is set when an employee's primary job record has been changed, deleted, or another Primary Job record has been inserted that may affect the outcome of the event that has been flagged.Multi-Activity Indicator

This flag shows those records for which there was more than one BAS Activity with the same Benefit Record, Event Date, and Event Class. When Ben Admin runs, it consolidated these two events into a single event.

10.5 Reprocessing

Reprocessing can be necessary in a number of instances. For example, you may want to reprocess an event when it is processed out of order or when eligibility information related to the event has been changed. You might also need to reprocess the event when a family status change occurs. You can reprocess the employee’s event to any previous stage of the Benefits Administration cycle.

Analyze the situation carefully before you reprocess: for example, if you have an ET (Entered) event and you reprocess it to an AS (Assigned) status, the system backs out all the election information you entered for the event.

The system moves the event through the process again. If an event is reprocessed back to AS process status, the system then attempts to process the event all the way to the Prepared (PR) process status, where it will await the printing of enrollment forms and data entry of employee elections. Option eligibility, costs, credits, defaults, and pre-entry values are rechecked.

Listed below you will find steps to reprocess the following events:

A job reclassification changing employees benefits eligibility.

A family status change such as marriage, birth, divorce or dependent turns over age 23.

Example: Job Reclassification occurs changing employees benefits eligibility.

Steps to reprocess an open enrollment event back to Assigned:



1). Change the Event Status to “Assigned” and “Open” and save.

2). Reprocess the event through on-demand and re-enter the benefits elections:

3). Select the Validate/Finalize button.

Benefits Administration gives you the capability to reprocess an event to any stage of the Benefits Administration cycle, as long as the stage you want to reprocess it to precedes the stage the event is currently at. For example, if you have an event at the PR (prepared) process status, you can arrange to reprocess it back to the AS (assigned) process status, but you can't reprocess it to an ET (elections entered) process status. In short, you can't reprocess an event to a future process state.

When a participant event is reprocessed, the system backs the event out to the stage indicated on either the process status Update - Controls page or the Event Status Update page essentially returning the event to the exact state it was in when it was last at the specified process status. So if an event at ET (elections entered) status and you reprocess it to an AS (assigned) status, the system backs out all of the election information you entered for it, disregards all of the options it had prepared for the event, and takes the event back to the stage it was in when it was simply scheduled and assigned to a benefit program.

When you reprocess an event, the system takes the event back to the state you've indicated, and then it runs the event through the process again. The system will attempt to move the event as far along the process status flow as it can. For example, if you tell the system to reprocess an event back to the AS process status, the system will first back the event out to the AS status and then attempt to process the event all the way down through the process status flow. During this time, option eligibility, defaults, and pre-entry values will be rechecked.



When you tell the system to reprocess events that have already been finalized and loaded the system will bring the event to an interim process status called RE (reenter). You'll reenter data entry for the participant event and then the system will attempt to validate and load the elections to get the event back to the ET status.

You control reprocessing for selected participants by your entries on the participant event control fields. The events allow you to enter values for process indicator and event status. Benefits Administration will use your entries to reprocess the participant's event. The table below lists the processing completed by the system in response to your reprocess request in the Process Indicator field.

Process Indicator Processing

Assign Pgm (assign benefit program) Event Status must be equal to Open.

Schedule assignment will not be reviewed.

Elections for participant events will be rolled back (deleted) from the Base Benefit enrollment tables. Elections will not be retained (in BAS_PARTIC tables) for the participant events.

Program eligibility will be rechecked.

Option eligibility, defaults and pre-entry will be recalculated.

The system will attempt to reprocess participants to a PR (prepared) Process Status.

Elect Optn (elect options) Event Status must be equal to Open.

Schedule assignment, program assignment and option eligibility will not be reviewed.

The system will roll back elections from Base Benefit enrollment tables. It will revalidate elections for this event and load them, if there are no errors, back into the Base Benefit enrollment tables, resetting the final Process Status to FE (Finalized - Entered).

Normal Prc (normal processing) Standard processing for Benefits Administration.

Prep Optn (Prepare Options) Event Status must be set to Open.

Schedule assignment and program assignment will not be reviewed. Elections for participant events will be rolled back (deleted) from the Base Benefit enrollment tables. Elections will not be retained (in BAS_PARTIC tables) for the participant events.

The system will recalculate option eligibility, defaults, and pre-entry information. The system will attempt to reprocess participants to a PR (prepared) Process Status.

Re-Enter You'll use this Process Indicator value to correct election errors for finalized events with enrollment information that has been loaded to benefit tables.

Event Status must be equal to Open.

Schedule assignment, program assignment and option eligibility will not be reviewed.

The system will roll back elections back from Base Benefit enrollment tables. It will retain your elections for this event in the BAS_PARTIC table. The system will leave the event at a Process Status of RE (Reenter).

When you post election changes to the Data Entry component, the system will update the Process Status to ET (entered).



Process Indicator Processing

Void The system will update the Event Status to Void, and will remove the event from processing. The system will not review schedule assignment, program assignment and option eligibility. If the event is in a Process Status of Enrolled, elections will be rolled back from Base Benefit enrollment tables. The system will retain your prior elections for this event in the BAS_PARTIC table. The system will leave the event at a Process Status of Re-Enter.

Reprocess Indicator Value (Can see in On Demand)

Processing

None Standard processing for Benefits Administration.

Schedule - (reassign schedules) You'll reassign the Open Enrollment schedule in situations where you want to start over with Benefits Administration processing. You might do this when you work through test runs during implementation, for example.

No participant events on the selected Benefits Administration schedule can be in a Process Status of NT (notified), EE (election error), ET (entered), RE (Re-Enter) or FE (finalized-enrolled). The system will check this at the start of the run and terminate processing if this condition is not met.

When you reprocess to reassign the Open Enrollment schedule, the system will ignore the participant events' Process Indicator status and Event Status—all events, Open and Closed, will be included.

The system will delete all participant event data for this schedule and then recalculate it through option preparation. This includes program assignment and the determination of eligible options/defaults.

The system will attempt to process participant events to a PR (prepared) Process Status.

Assign Benefit Program The system will not review schedule assignment.

The system will roll back (delete) elections for participant events from the Base Benefit enrollment tables. The system will not retain participant event election information in the BAS_PARTIC table.

The system will recheck program eligibility.

The system will recalculate option eligibility, costs credits, defaults, and pre-entry information.

The system will attempt to process participant events to a PR (prepared) Process Status.

Prepare Options Schedule assignment and program assignment will not be reviewed.

The system will roll back (delete) elections for participant events from the Base Benefit enrollment tables. The system will not retain participant event election information in the BAS_PARTIC table.

The system will not recheck program eligibility.

Option eligibility, costs credits, defaults and pre-entry will be recalculated.

The system will attempt to process participant events to a PR (prepared) Process Status. t



Reprocess Indicator Value (Can see in On Demand)

Processing

Elect Options The system will not review or reprocess schedule assignment, program assignment, and option eligibility.

The system will roll back elections from Base Benefit enrollment tables. It will revalidate elections for this event and load them, if there are no errors, back into the Base Benefit enrollment tables, resetting the final Process Status to FE (finalized - entered).

11.0 Transactional/ Processing Impacts

11.1 Use of Correction Mode

Using Correction mode should be limited in order to avoid excess processing by the benefits staff. It is recommended that appropriate action/reasons be used to correct errant data. When existing rows are corrected, new rows are inserted into the BAS_ACTIVITY table, and then all eligibility rules are checked again. This will cause additional work for the benefits staff and may impact an employee’s benefits. If a correction must be made, it is recommended that formal communication to the benefits staff be developed so they are aware of the changes that are made and can monitor the BAS_ACTIVITY table.

11.2 Impact of Entering Retroactive Transactions

Enrolling employees directly in benefits is not possible without Personal and Job data being in PeopleSoft, so data must be keyed in a timely manner. Retroactive hire transactions may cause additional analysis to be completed by the benefits staff and may delay an employee’s benefits becoming available for use.

Based on campus classification review and Systemwide bargaining unit changes, there will inevitably be retroactive transactions that must be entered. When these are entered, communication to the benefits office must take place so they can monitor the BAS_ACTIVITY table and ensure that the employee’s benefits are updated as necessary.

12.0 Manual Events Using BAS_ACTIVITYPeopleSoft provides the BAS Activity page as a collection device for all events to be held until either the batch process runs or the events are manually processed through the On-Demand processing pages. The BAS Activity page is a place to maintain the BAS Activity events or start new events. Only Manual Events can be manually entered into the BAS Activity page.

Manual Events Classifications include:

1. FSC: Family Status Change – Used to update benefit information due to a change in a qualifying Permitting Event. This option is also used to Waive coverage that has been previously elected. All options will open us with this event.

2. FS1: Family Status Change – Used to update benefit information due to a change in a qualifying Permitting Event. This option is also used to Waive coverage that has been previously elected. Options are limited to change in Coverage Code and Waive only.

3. FSA: Flexible Spending Accounts – Used to update benefit information for HCRA/DCRA enrollments. This option is also used to Waive coverage that has been previously elected.

4. HBE: Health Benefit Enrollment – Used to enroll and waive medical coverage. All benefit options will open up with event.

5. TSA: Tax Sheltered Annuity – Used to enroll and waive TSA enrollments.



Note: Based on the event classification, paperwork not submitted and/or returned in a timely manner, may be subject to a 90 day waiting period for enrollment. Ben Admin does NOT calculate this information for you. Follow current procedure to calculate the date and enter the Event Date accordingly.

13.0 Troubleshooting The Ben Admin Troubleshoot Guide is provided to detail actions to take and what to look for during the Benefits Administration process. The guide provides actions to take against errors or reports and details the Benefits custom reports that have been incorporated into the delivered PeopleSoft Benefits Administration process. The troubleshooting guide provides information on each of the reports to provide as assistance in resolving problems identified on these reports.

The Ben Admin Troubleshooting guide contains information on the reports that fall within the Ben Admin process, information about the report, and some tips and tricks on what to look for and how to handle an error situation. Users who review the reports will need to thoroughly review reports to make sure nothing is missed on a daily basis. The processes and reports are listed according to the different levels of processing that occur throughout the nightly batch process:

Benefits Administration Pre-Processing

CSUBAS01 – CSU Benefits Administration Pre-Processing

Benefits Administration Post-Processing

CSUBAS02 – CSU Benefits Administration Post-Processing

•Eligible for Benefits but Terminated Plans

•JOB Changes Prior to Ben Admin Start Date

Benefits Administration Audit Reports

BAS003 – Benefits Administration Preparation and Election Errors Report

CSUBAS27 - Employee Processing Status Report Summary

CSUBAS08 – Report on Flagged Items

The Ben Admin Troubleshooting guide also contains information on the following delivered reports:

BAS010 – Ineligible Participants Report

BAS001 – Eligible Participants Report

BAS006 – Missing Elections Report

The Ben Admin Troubleshooting guide is located on the CMS Website at: http://cms.calstate.edu/T2hr89bp.asp.

Ben Admin processing guides are available on the CMS website and provide steps to investigate exceptions, review eligibility results, perform participant election entry, print enrollment statements, process on-demand event maintenance, review BAS Activity, run automated event processing, review processing results and on running the various CSU reports and interfaces. The Ben Admin processing guides listed below are located on the CMS Website at: http://cms.calstate.edu/T2hr89bp.asp.

Investigate Exceptions-Review Eligibility Results

Participant Enrollment-Perform Election Entry

Participant Enrollment-Print Enrollment Statement

Process Events-CSU On-Demand Event Maintenance

Process Events-CSU On-Demand Pre-Processing

Process Events-Review BAS Activity


http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_PREvents-Review%20BAS%20Activity_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_PREvents-CSU%20On-Demand%20Pre-Process_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_PREvents-On-Demand%20Event%20Maint_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_Enroll-Print%20Enrollment%20Statement_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_Enroll-Perform%20Election%20Entry_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_Exceps-Rev%20Elig%20Results_BPG_20051115.doc




Process Events-Run Automated Event Processing

Process Events-Update Event Status

Process Events-Update Processing Controls

Review Employee Benefits-CSU Benefits Summary

Review Processing Results-Employee Event Detail

Review Processing Results-Processing Messages

Run CSU ACES Interface

Run CSU Benefits Transaction Report

Run CSU Payroll Deduction Audit Report

Run CSU SCO Interface


http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BaseBenefits/HCM%208.9_HR_Ben_Run%20CSU%20SCO%20Interface_BPG_20061117.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BaseBenefits/HCM%208.9_HR_Ben_Run%20CSU%20Payroll%20Ded%20Audit%20Report_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BaseBenefits/HCM%208.9_HR_Ben_Run%20CSU%20Ben%20Transact%20Rpt_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BaseBenefits/HCM%208.9_HR_Ben_Run%20CSU%20ACES%20Interface_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_Review%20Results-Processing%20Messages_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_Review%20Results-Empl%20Event%20Detail_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_Review%20Empl%20Ben-CSU%20Ben%20Summary_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_PREvents-Update%20Processing%20Controls_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_PREvents-Update%20Event%20Status_BPG_20051115.doc

http://cms.calstate.edu/04_Applications/04C_HumanResources/HCM89_HR/HCM89_HR_PSWD-01/HCM89_HR_BPGs/BenefitsAdministration/HCM%208.9_HR_BenAdm_PREvents-Run%20Auto%20Event%20Processing_BPG_20051115.doc

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HCM 8.9 HR BenAdm Processing Guide BPG 20080610

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