SAP HR Lovers

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Benefits User Exits

---------------------------------------------------------
| User exit | Replaces |
---------------------------------------------------------|
| PBEN0001 | Feature BAREA |
| PBEN0002 | Feature BENGR |
| PBEN0003 | Feature BSTAT |
| PBEN0004 | Feature CSTV1 |
| PBEN0005 | Feature CRDV1 |
| PBEN0006 | Feature ELIGR |
| PBEN0007 | Feature TRMTY |
| PBEN0008 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_BENEFIT_COST |
| PBEN0009 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_BENEFIT_CREDIT |
| PBEN0010 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_BENEFIT_SALARY |
| PBEN0011 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_COVERAGE_AMOUNT |
| PBEN0012 | Form CALC_ELIG_DATE |
| PBEN0013 | Form CALC_TERM_DATE |
| PBEN0014 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_SAVE_ER_CONTRIB |
| PBEN0015 | Form CHECK_ELIG_SERVICE |
| PBEN0016 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_PARTICIPATION_DATE |
| PBEN0017 | Feature EVTGR |
| PBEN0018 | Feature COVGR |
| PBEN0019 | Feature EECGR |
| PBEN0020 | Feature ERCGR |
| PBEN0021 | Funtionmodule HR_BEN_CALC_SPEN_ER_CONRIB |
| PBEN0022 | Function HR_BEN_GET_PROCESS_DATES |
| PBEN0023 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_CUTOFF_AGE |
| PBEN0024 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_CUTOFF_LOS |
| PBEN0025 | Function HR_BEN_CALC_CUTOFF_SAL |
| PCOB0001 | COBRA Letter |
| PCOB0004 | Form HR_BEN_COB_GET_TOTAL_COSTS |
----------------------------------------------------------

Main Modules in SAP HCM

The solution SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) contains all the process are classified in two major scenarios:

Workforce Process Management

That includes the following processes:

Talent Management

That includes the following processes:

Benefits USA

Authorisations

P_BEN_ALL see Maintain Authorizations in the Personnel Administration IMG

Features:

1. BAREA Benefit Area

2. CSTV1 Cost Grouping

3. CRDV1 Credit Grouping

4. COVGR Coverage Grouping

5. EECGR Employee Contribution Group

6. ERCGR Employer Contribution Grouping

BAREA Benefit Area

This feature enables you to define benefit

attributes. The return value determines the

employee is assigned.

You can use the following attributes in the

benefit areas:

Decision Field Table/Infoty

Country grouping T001P (using

Company code P0001

Personnel area P0001

Personnel subarea P0001

Employee group P0001

Employee subgroup P0001

Organizational unit P0001

CSTV1 Cost Grouping (decision field REGIO).

This feature enables you to define cost groupings according to employee

attributes. The return value determines the cost of a benefit plan for

an employee, as defined in a cost rule.

CRDV1 Credit Grouping (decision field ORGEH)

This feature enables you to define credit groupings according to

employee attributes.

The following employee attributes can be used by the decision

tree to define the credit grouping. The list below also gives

the infotype that supplies this information for each employee.

Unless otherwise explained, the information comes simply from

the field on the infotype itself.

The employee attributes below are dynamically assigned

during employee enrollment.

Benefit area

First program grouping

Second program grouping

Benefit plan

COVGR Coverage Grouping (decision field FAMST).

This feature enables you to define coverage groupings according to

employee attributes. The return value determines the appropriate

coverage for an employee in a benefit plan, as defined in a coverage

rule.

EECGR Employee Contribution Group (decision field WOSTD).

This feature enables you to define employee contribution groups

according to employee attributes.

The following employee attributes can be used by the decision

tree to define the employee contribution group. The list below

also gives the infotype that supplies this information for each

employee.

Unless otherwise explained, the information comes simply from

the field on the infotype itself.

ERCGR Employer Contribution Grouping (decision field ANSVH).

This feature enables you to define employer contribution groupings

according to employee attributes.

The following employee attributes can be used by the decision

tree to define the employer contribution grouping. The list below

also gives the infotype that supplies this information for each

employee.

Unless otherwise explained, the information comes simply from

the field on the infotype itself.

Notes:

Define Benefit Plan Types

The following plan categories are provided by SAP:

Health Plans

Insurance Plans

Savings Plans

Stock Purchase Plans

Flexible Spending Accounts

Credit Plans

Miscellaneous Plans

Define Seniority Groups

Example

Group	Seniority in months
Seniority group 01	0 ot 24
Seniority group 02	25 to 60
Seniority group 03	61 to 999

Health Plans

Example: Calculation of Imputed Income for Health Plans in which Domestic Partners/Domestic Partners' Children are Enrolled
Imputed income are often calculated by determining the difference between the provider cost for the dependent coverage options. This method is shown in the following example:

Dep.cov. option	Provider cost
Employee only	$210.65
Employee+1	$325.65
Dep.cov. option	Employee cost
Employee only	$10
Employee+1	$25

The imputed income for one domestic partner or domestic partner's child is calculated as follows:
Post-tax cost = Employee+1 cost - Employee only cost
Post-tax cost = $25 - $10
Post-tax cost = $15
(see Calculation of Pre- and Post-Tax Costs)
Provider cost (FMV) = Employee+1 cost - Employee only cost
Provider cost = $325.65 - $210.65
Provider cost = $115
Imputed income = Provider cost - Post-tax cost
Imputed income = $115 - $15
Imputed income = $100

Tables:

T5UBX_GTL_AWART Processing group for absence types

T5UBX_GTL_SUBTY Processing group definition for Beneficiaries

/V_FBN_T5UB2

V_FBN_T5UB3

V_FBN_T5UB3_1

V_FBN_T5UB4

V_FBN_T5UB9

V_FBN_T5UBA

V_FBN_T5UBT

V_FBN_T5UBU

V_FBN_T5UBV

V_T5UB1 Benefit Plan Type

V_T5UB2 Benefit Plan Status Feautre

V_T5UB3 Benefit Area Feature BAREA

V_T5UB4 Benefits Eligibility Grouping Feature ELIGR

V_T5UB5 Benefit Cost Grouping Feature CSTV1

V_T5UB6 Benefit Standard Health Selection

V_T5UB7 Benefit Standard Insurance Selection

V_T5UB8 Benefits Payment Model Assignment

V_T5UB9 Benefit Second Program Grouping Feature BSTAT

V_T5UBB Benefit Health Plan

V_T5UBE Benefit Health Plan Option

V_T5UBF Benefit Dependent Coverage

V_T5UBG Benefit Flexible Spending Account

V_T5UBJ Benefit Age Group for Calculating Imputed Income

V_T5UBK Benefit Salary Group

V_T5UBL Benefit Age Group

V_T5UBM Benefit Seniority Group

V_T5UBN Benefit Investment

V_T5UBO Benefit Investment Group

V_T5UBP Benefit Investment/Investment Group Assignment

V_T5UBQ Benefit Calculation Factor for Imputed Income

V_T5UBR Benefit Vesting Rule

V_T5UBS Benefit Vested Portion

V_T5UBT Benefit First Program Grouping Feature BENGR

V_T5UBU Benefit Program

V_T5UBV Benefit Eligibility Rule

V_T5UBW Benefit Provider

V_T5UBY Benefits Parameter Group

V_T7UNBEN_T5UBA NPO Benefit Plan Cost Rule Variant Maintanance View

V_T7UNBEN_T5UBH NPO Benefit Cost Rule Maintenance View

V_T7UNBEN_T5UBI NPO Benefit Cost Rule Settings Maintenance View

Benefits
PA85 - Benefits - Call RPLBEN11
PA86 - Benefits - Call RPLBEN07
PA87 - Benefits - Call RPLBEN09
PA89 - COBRA Administration
PA90 - Benefits Enrollment
PA91 - Benefits - Forms
PA92 - Benefits Tables - Maintain
PA93 - Benefits Tables - Display
PA94 - Benefits - Access Reporting Tree
PA95 - Benefits IMG - Jump to Views
PA96 - Benefits reporting
PA97 - Salary Administration - Matrix
PA98 - Salary Administration
PA99 - Compensation Admin - rel. Changes
PACP - HR-CH : Pension fund, interface

SAP PAYROLL Schema U000 Documentation

SCHEMA

US accounting scheme for RPCALCU0 (U000)

Object

Schema

Use

The scheme U000 contains the US components for calculation of gross and

net taxes.

Initialization of accounting

Object

Schema

Use

In this sub-scheme, important data/actions (switches) which are of

significance for the further course of accounting are supplied/performed

at the beginning of the accounting process.

Structure

Execution of the sub-scheme is made up of the following main steps:

o Specify program type (accouting or evaluation).

o Set switch for databank updates (YES/NO). All database updates are

controlled via this switch (otherwise simulation).

o Only the infotypes from the personnel data used for the selected

personnel number are read.

o All infotypes from Time Management are read in.

Specify check against the admin record PA03 (test or production).

US on-demand regular payroll check

Basic data (US)

Object

Schema

Use

This is a sub-scheme for reading basic data (Master Data), which are

indispensable for US payroll calculation. The basic data are then

printed in the payroll log (with program option = ON).

Structure

Execution of the sub-scheme is made up of the following main steps:

o provision of the name of the employee (P0001-ENAME).

o provision of the relevant workplace data and basic wage data from

the infotypes:

- Events P0000,

- Assignment P0001,

- Working time P0007,

- Basic pay P0008,

- Standard wage maintenance P0052 and

- Cost distribution P0027.

provision of the relevant address data.

o provision of the relevant address data.

o provision of the relevant Tax area data (resident).

o A check to ascertain whether all the necessary master date of an

employee are available for the accounting process (otherwise abort).

o Printout of the selected basic data in the break log.

Read previous result of current period

Read Last Payroll Results (international)

Schema Type

Payroll calculation schema

Use

The last payroll result (can be from previous period) is read in this

subschema, and made accessible to the current payroll run (for the

current period).

The imported last payroll results, or the values transferred, are then

printed in the payroll log (if program option = ON).

Structure

The subschema comprises the following main steps:

1. Import last payroll results (result table ORT)

2. Print results table (ORT) after import

3. Transfer relevant values to current payroll (LRT) Control is

effected via processing class 06 in table T512W

4. Print transferred values from LRT after import

Determine payroll modifiers

Processing of time data for payroll accounting

Object

Schema

Use

All information from Time Management that is used to determine working

times and monetary evaluation is processed in schema UT00.

Structure

The schema is made up of the following main steps:

o Generation of the personal shift schedule and provision of the

partial period parameters.

o Computation of valuation bases.

o Valuation of absences.

o Wage type generation.

o Processing of actual times.

o Processing of deviating payments.

o Valuation of time wage types.

o Consideration of wage slips from the incentive wage.

Gross feeding and RT storage of the time wage types^.

US Manual Check schema for RPCALCU0

Object

Schema

Use

The schema UMC0 contains the US components for calculation of gross and

Employer net taxes: employee net taxes are taken from Infotype 0221

(Manual check).

Reading in further pay and deductions

Object

Schema

Use

In this sub-scheme, the basic wage is supplemented by regular pay

components/deductions or supplementary payments.

Structure

Execution of the sub-scheme is made up of the following main steps:

o reading-in and processing of regular pay components/ deductions from

infotype P0014.

o reading-in and processing of supplementary payments from infotype

P0015.

Gross Calculation

Object

Schema

Use

After all the payroll components from the Master Data and Time

Management have become available, and after the bases for monthly

factoring (pro rata reduction of the monthly wage/salary through

multiplication with a partial period factor (number between zero and

one)) have been determined from the personal shift schedule (incl.

absences), you can perform evaluation in this sub-scheme.

Any pro rata payroll components (due, for example to the fact that the

employee has not worked the whole month (commencement/withdrawal during

the month or other unpaid absences)) are then grouped in gross buckets

for further processing.

Structure

The schema is executed in the following main steps:

o Generation of wage types /801 to /8nn for partial period factors

o Creating partial period factors in line with specific regulations.

As different wage and salary components are subject to different

reduction regulations, there also have to be several aliquot

factors.

o Determining monthly lump-sums for cost accounting.

o Evaluating wage and salary components, i.e. multiplication of an

amount (in user wage type Mnnn) with a factor (which is in the BPE

o Determining hourly rates for cost accounting.

o Processing standard wage maintenance.

o Gross feeding and storage of the wage types no longer required

during the course of further processing.

o Calculation of gross amount and cost distribution

R/CO cost accounting:

The KR/CO would like to know which part of the monthly wage/salary was

for "non-work" (paid leave, paid sick ness, other paid absences, public

holidays), in order to effect redistribution to other cost centers where

necessary (Social cost center, Overheads cost center).

Save tables before iteration

Object

Schema

Use

Before the deduction and tax iteration several tables have to be saved.

Function PITAB is used for this aim.

Load tables after start of iteration

Object

Schema

Use

After the loop begins the saved tables have to be reloaded. Function

PITAB is used for this aim.

Monthly Factoring and Storage (Cumul.of Gross Amount) US

Object

Personnel calculation schema

Use

This subschema contains the functions for the deduction function:

o Benefits

o Balances and Totals

o Limits

o Arrears

o Vacation Pay

o Workers' Net Compesation

Structure

US Tax calculation

Payroll functions available for US tax calculation

UPAR1 - Determine tax method for regular or retro-calculations

URSA - Cap tax withholdings for separate agregate method

USTAX - Process tax calculation

UTPRI - Process tax priority according to tax model

UTWE - Process tax when earned principle

UTXOR - Tax authority override

UNMEX - New Mexico workers compensation tax

UOTX0 - Freeze taxes across year-end

UGUPD - New Mexico workers compensation tax

CPYOT - Copy deduction tables of last for-period to current period

PTCRT - Override negative YTD TCRT check

For concurrent employment:

see Schema UTAC

Net Calculation - US

Object

Schema

Use

Sub-schemes are called up from the main scheme (e.g. U000) using COPY

(e.g. UNA0).

Decision: If deductions not taken (end of loop)

Retrograde accounting run - INTERNATIONAL

Object

Schema

Use

In this scheme, the differences are calculated which are caused by the

fact that the payroll accounting process is in a retrograde period, thus

resulting in deviations from the original invoice with regard to

remuneration. The differences are then taken into account in the same

sub-scheme of the original invoice of the current period.

Structure

Execution of the sub-scheme is made up of the following main steps:

o Query as to whether original invoice or retrograde accounting run.

Original invoice:

o Provision of received differences.

Retrograde accounting run:

o Reading of last accounting result (original invoice or old

retrograde accounting run).

o Printout of the read values (internal table ORT).

o Creation of differences and takeover of the non- revisable wage

types.

Composition of the new net pay.

o Storage of the new net pay in the difference table (internal table

DT).

o Takeover of the transfer(s) (from internal table BT) from the last

accounting result.

Net payments/deductions and transfers (US specific)

Object

Schema

Use

This subscheme is where the calculation of net pay is effected. The net

payments/deductions are taken into account.

Following this, the transfers are performed - either external transfers

and/or pay remittances. Any advance payments from previous payment runs

are included, after having been checked.

Additionally this subschema has a special net process ing for the

non-authorized manual check.

Structure

The subscheme comprises the following main steps:

o Query original payroll run.

Original payroll run:

o Take account of external transfers (infotype P0011).

o Import net payments/deductions and store in result table (internal

table RT)

o Process transfers from previous payment runs (advance payments).

Calculate net pay.

o Read bank data from infotype P0009 for pay remittance.

Always effected:

Storage of net pay/claim.

Personnel Calculation Schema for Month End Accruals

Object

Schema

Use

In scheme UAC0, month-end accrual calculations are performed in a

regular payroll run. The accruals are calculated using the function

Function UACGF.

If the accruals switch, Operation ACCMO is on. The results are stored in

table ACCR, which is also printed in the payroll log.

Structure

Schema UAC0 consists of the following main steps:

o Determine if in a regular payroll run

o Accruals switch on or off.

o Calculate accruals

o Print accruals table ACCR.

Notes

PC Rule UAC0

Schema U000

More information about month-end accruals can be found in the SAP

library under:

Personnel Admin. & Payroll -> Payroll -> Technical Basics of Payroll ->

Technical Basics of Payroll - United States -> Month End Accruals

Specific information about setting up month-end accruals can be found in

the implementation guide under Payroll USA -> Month End Accruals.

Final processing - US

Object

Schema

Use

At the end of the payroll accounting process, this sub-scheme performs a

check to determine whether the internal processing table is completely

executed. The cumulation is then recorded at wage type level, provided

that this is programmed for the respective wage type.

At the end of this sub-scheme, the last action in the payroll accounting

process is the export of the accounting results to the payroll account.

The results of payroll accounting are printed in the accounting log

(with program option = ON).

Structure

Execution of the sub-scheme is made up of the following main steps:

o Break of payroll accounting if the processing table (internal table

IT) has not been fully executed.

o Updating benefits tables

o Recording of cumulaton wage types (acc. to internal table CRT).

o Updating tax reporter tables

o Export of results from the payroll accounting function to the

payroll account (databank: PCL2 / cluster: RU)

SAP BENEFITS Configuration Document

Benefits

This section of the Implementation Guide (IMG) is where you set the SAP Benefits Administration component.

Here you enter in the system all the details of the benefit plans offered by your company.

You can access Enrollment in the Benefits system using the menu path:

Human resources -> Personnel management -> Benefits

Basic Settings

In this chapter of the IMG, you create the basic settings for your Benefits administration.

This section creates the basis for all subsequent customizing settings.

Define Benefit Area

In this step, you define benefit areas.

Benefit areas allow you to have separate administration of different benefit plan pools. This division is primarily for administrational purposes and would not normally be used for eligibility.

As you create your benefit areas, consider the following factors:

A benefit area can be administered in one currency at a time only. So for each currency you have, you must define a minimum of one benefit area.

If benefit plans are to be administered by different benefits offices in your organization, you can use different benefits areas to make this distinction.

If your subsidiaries are in the same country yet have vastly different benefit plan pools, you can create a benefit area for each subsidiary.

Note: Do not create more benefit areas than you strictly need because each benefit area is set up separately, and you need to set up a plan in each benefit area in which it is used.

You must also ensure that authorizations are maintained for your benefit areas. The benefits module allows you to control user access to benefit areas. For information on how to set up the authorization P_BEN_ALL see Maintain Authorizations in the Personnel Administration IMG.

Example 1

An organization provides a different set of benefits to employees in different regions.

Benefit area	Country grouping
01 Calif/Mary/Pens	10 USA
02 DC/NewEngland/Mass	10 USA

Example 2

An international organization with two subsidiaries aquires a third. The employees in the subsidiary still use the benefits from their previous company.

Benefit area	Country grouping
01 General Co.	10 USA
02 Subsidiary 1	10 USA
03 Subsidiary 2	08 Great Britain

Recommendation

The association of employees to a benefit area is done using the feature BAREA. This is accessed from the Benefit Area view using the feature function.

Activities

1. Define the different benefit areas needed within your organization.

2. Choose "New entries".

3. Enter a two-character identifier for each benefit area.

4. Enter the description and country identifier for each of your benefit areas.

5. Save your entries.

6. Choose "Feature".

The feature maintenance screen appears, and you can set up the feature decision tree for the benefit areas you have just defined.

Further notes

To copy and delete complete benefit area definitions, see
Copy benefit area
Delete benefit area

Assign Currency to Benefit Area

In this step, you specify the currency for the benefit area.

Example

Benefit area	Country grouping	Currency
01 Calif/Mary/Pens	10 USA	USD
02 DC/NewEngl./Mass	10 USA	USD

Activities

1. Determine the currency you will use for each benefit area you have defined.

2. Select the "New entries" function.

3. Enter the benefit area you want to define.

The system gives you default entries for the validity periods.

4. Enter the currency for the benefit area.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each benefit area.

6. Save your entries.

Further notes

In this view, you can only make new entries, with a time dependency of the beginning to the end of time. You can also delete old entries.

It is not possible to change entries. This is because other views in the Benefits component base their entries on this information. Any changes made here could cause data inconsistencies in the other views.

The currency conversion converts all currency and currency dependent entries. It delimits entries and creates new ones to represent the switch.

Define Benefit Providers

In this step, you enter the providers of the benefit plans you offer.

Example

This could be the Insurance company, or Health Maintenance Organization that receives the benefit plan costs.

Activities

1. Decide which companies are your Benefit Providers.

2. Select the "New entries" function.

3. Enter an eight-character identifier and description for the provider.

4. Enter the benefit provider number and Vendor identification.

5. Save your entries.

6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 for each provider.

Set Current Benefit Area

In this step, you set the relevant benefit area for your Customizing activities.

Note

If you have more than one benefit area to set up, you must set up each separately. After you have set up all the plans in one area, you should switch the benefit area in this step and work through the IMG again, making settings for the new benefit area.

Requirements

You have created your benefit area(s) in the step Define Benefit Areas.

Plan Attributes

In this section, you set up the basic structure into which you will put all your benefit plans. You can also define the possible statuses for your plans.

Define Benefit Plan Types

In this step, you enter the benefit plan types that you require for the plan categories predefined in the system.

The following plan categories are provided by SAP:

Health Plans

Insurance Plans

Savings Plans

Stock Purchase Plans

Flexible Spending Accounts

Credit Plans

Miscellaneous Plans

These categories are predefined because the system handles each differently. In order to reflect your own requirements regarding the categorization of plans, you define plan types within these categories.

Plan types are a control mechanism for enrollment, since the system does not allow an employee to enroll in more than one benefit plan per plan type. This allows you, for example, to offer a choice of regular health care from different providers under one plan type, without the risk of accidentally enrolling an employee in more than one of these benefit plans.

Within each plan category (for example, Insurance Plans) you should define one plan type for each sort of benefit plan that the employee is likely to elect (for example, Life Insurance, Spousal Life, Supplemental Life). Thus an employee can elect a plan from the Life Insurance as well as from the Spousal Life plan type.

Example

The following are examples of plan types for each of the plan categories:

Health Plans

General medical care

Dental care

Vision care plan

Insurance Plans

Basic life insurance

Dependent life insurance

Supplemental life insurance

Savings Plans

Retirement plan

Savings plan

Stock Purchase Plans

Own company stock plan

Flexible Spending Accounts

Health care spending account

Dependent care spending account

Credit Plans

Cafeteria plan

Miscellaneous Plans

Company car

Activities

1. Decide which benefit plan types are needed within your organization.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter a four-character identifier, description, and corresponding plan category for each plan type.

4. Save your entries.

Define Benefit Plan Status

In this step, you define the plan statuses that you require for benefits administration. You later assign these statuses as to your plans in their general data.

It is important that you assigning statuses in order to be able to control the availability of plans with a minimum of effort. For example, you can control whether or not employees can enroll in a plan simply by changing its status.

Example

Plan statuses might include:

Active: Employees can enroll in plan.

Locked: Employees can no longer enroll in plan because it is being phased out, but the plan is still active due to continued participation.

Closed: Plans has expired, but a record needs to be kept.

Test: Plan is only for testing purposes and is not available to employees in any form.

Activities

1. Decide which benefit plan statuses are required within your organization.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter a two-character identifier and description for each status.

4. Indicate whether the plan is active and whether it is available for enrollment.

5. Save your entries.

Define Employee Groupings

In this section, you can define employee groupingsto determine how plan-related amounts vary based on employee data.

At this point, you only determine the possible ways in which these amounts can differ between groups of employees. You do not specify actual amounts, nor do you determine exactly how amounts are determined for individual plans. This is done in the definition of the plans themselves.

Note

You do not necessarily need to define all of the types of employee grouping available in this section. The groupings that you need to define depend on the complexity of your plans and on company policy.

Define Employee Criteria Groups

In this section, you can define employee criteria groups to determine how plan-related amounts are to differ according to employee age, salary and/or seniority (or the age of the employee's spouse or domestic partner). These groups are later in the customizing of plans, in the definition of plan-related amounts.

You define employee criteria groups as follows:

1. Define parameter groups that will include individual criteria groups.

2. To each parameter group, assign the individual salary groups, age groups, and seniority groups that you require.

Define Parameter Groups

In this step, you define parameter groups. You decide which groups you require in two stages:

1. You consider which costs, credits, coverage and employee and employer contributions for your plans vary according to the age, salary and/or seniority of employees (or possibly the age of the employee's spouse).

2. You determine the different ways in which you need to divide your employees according to different value ranges for these criteria.

It is not possible to define overlaps of ranges for a criterion within a single parameter group. Therefore, if you require different employee groupings for different plans, you need to create a separate parameter group.

For each unique combination of criteria and their values, you need to define a parameter group.

In this step, you simply create the parameter groups to which you assign groups for the individual criteria in the following steps. You later refer to the parameter groups, where applicable, in the individual rule variants for plans. Since one parameter group can be referenced by multiple plans, Customizing effort is kept to a minimum. In the plan variant, you also have the flexibility of being able to specify that you only want to use certain criteria values belonging to a parameter group, for example, age ranges.

Example

The cost of the Annuity Life insurance plan varies depending on the age and salary of an employee.

The cost of the Standard Life insurance plan also varies by these criteria, but the salary groups are different to those in the Annuity Life plan.

Therefore, two different parameter groups must be created for these two insurance plans, as follows:

	Parameter grp ANNU	Parameter grp STRD
Age group 01	1 - 39	1 - 39
Age group 02	40 - 99	40 - 99

Sal. group 01	$0 - $30,000	$0 - $20,000
Sal. group 02	$30,001+	$20,001+

Activities

1. Identify the different parameter groups you require.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter a four-character identifier and description for each parameter group.

4. Save your entries.

Define Salary Groups

In this step, you define the salary groups that are required within this benefit area.

Depending on your needs, you may find for some parameter groups, you can leave out this step, if for example there is no requirement to differentiate between employees based on salary.

A salary group is associated with a previously defined criteria identifier. The system automatically asks you to define this as you go along.

A salary group defines a specific salary span by associating high and low values with a salary group identifier. When it later dynamically assigns employees to salary groups, the system does this based on an employee's benefit salary.

Example

Under the parameter group STRD, the following is set up:

Group	Salary
Salary group 01	$0 to $20,000
Salary group 02	$20,001 to $999,999

Activities

1. Decide which parameter groups need salary groups.

2. Select the specific parameter group to which you want to associate your salary groups.

3. Select the "New entries" function to access the salary group input screen.

4. Use a four-character identifier to represent each salary group.

5. Enter the salary group identifiers, descriptions, low salary values, high salary values.

6. Save your entries.

7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for each parameter group.

Define Age Groups

In this step, you define the age groups for the parameter groups that you defined in a previous step.

Depending on your needs, you may find for some parameter groups, you can leave out this step, if for example there is no requirement to differentiate between employees based on age.

Example

Group	Age in years
Age group 01	1 to 39
Age group 02	40 to 99

Activities

1. Decide which parameter groups need age groups.

2. Select the specific parameter group to which you want to associate your age groups.

3. Select the "New entries" function.

4. Use a four-character identifier to represent each age group.

5. Enter the age group identifiers, descriptions, low age values, high age values.

6. Save your entries.

7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for each parameter group.

Define Seniority Groups

In this step, you define the seniority groups for the parameter groups that you have already defined.

Depending on your needs, you may find for some parameter groups, you can leave out this step, if for example there is no requirement to differentiate between employees based on seniority.

Example

Group	Seniority in months
Seniority group 01	0 ot 24
Seniority group 02	25 to 60
Seniority group 03	61 to 999

Activities

1. Decide which parameter groups need seniority groups.

2. Select the specific parameter group to which you want to associate your seniority groups.

3. Select the "New entries" function.

4. Use a four-character identifier to represent each seniority group.

5. Enter the seniority group identifiers, descriptions, low length of service values and high length of service values.

6. Save your entries.

7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for each parameter group.

Define Cost Groupings

In this step, you define cost groupings and determine how employees are allocated to these groupings. You only need to do this if you want to differentiate between costs for employees using additional criteria to those available in the cost variant. For example, you may want to use geographical location, job classification, or marital status as criteria.

Example

The cost of a health care plan depends on which of the three subsidiaries the employee works at. Employees at the Texas subsidiary pay $1 more than employees at the Maryland and Pennsylvania subsidiaries.

The cost groupings TEXA and MDPA are defined and the cost grouping feature is set up to sort employees by region (decision field REGIO).

Standard settings

You determine how employees are allocated to cost groupings using the feature CSTV1.

To display information on the structure and use of the feature, choose Goto -> Documentation from within the decision tree.

Note

Since the cost grouping feature is customized centrally in this step, you need to ensure that you define the decision tree to take account of all the different cost groupings that you require in your system.

Define Credit Groupings

In this step, you can define credit groupings and determine how employees are allocated to these groupings. You only need to do this if you want to differentiate between credits for employees using additional criteria to those available in the credit variant. For example, you may want to use geographical location, job classification, or marital status as criteria.

Example

The credit offered to employees depends on which of the two subsidiaries the employee works at. Employees at the Alabama subsidiary receive $100; employees at the California subsidiary receive $130.

The credit groupings ALAB and CALI are defined and the credit grouping feature is set up to sort employees by organizational unit (decision field ORGEH)

Standard settings

You determine how employees are allocated to credit groupings using the feature CRDV1.

To display information on the structure and use of the feature, choose Goto -> Documentation from within the decision tree.

Note

Since the credit grouping feature is customized centrally in this step, you need to ensure that you define the decision tree to take account of all the different credit groupings that you require in your system.

Define Coverage Groupings

In this step, you can define coverage groupings and determine how employees are allocated to these groupings. You only need to do this if you want to differentiate between coverages for employees using additional criteria to those available in the coverage variant. For example, you may want to use geographical location, employment contract, or residence status as criteria.

Example

The coverage offered to employees depends on their marital status. Coverage for a married employee is 1.6 x salary. Coverage for all other employees is 1.5 x salary.

The coverage groupings MARR and SING are defined and the coverage grouping feature is set up to sort employees by marital status (decision field FAMST).

Standard settings

You determine how employees are allocated to coverage groupings using the feature COVGR.

To display information on the structure and use of the feature, choose Goto -> Documentation from within the decision tree.

Note

Since the coverage grouping feature is customized centrally in this step, you need to ensure that you define the decision tree to take account of all the different coverage groupings that you require in your system.

Define Employee Contribution Groupings

In this step, you can define employee contribution groupings and determine how employees are allocated to these groupings. You only need to do this if you want to differentiate between employee contributions for employees using additional criteria to those available in the employee contribution variant. For example, you may want to use geographical location, weekly hours, or residence status as criteria.

Example

The amount an employee may contribute to a plan depends on weekly hours worked. Employee who work 20 hours or more can contribution up to 5% of salary. Employees who work less than 20 hours can only contribution up to 3% of salary.

The employee contribution groupings ECG1 and ECG2 are defined and the employee contribution grouping feature is set up to sort employees by hours per week (decision field WOSTD).

Standard settings

You determine how employees are allocated to employee contribution groupings using the feature EECGR.

To display information on the structure and use of the feature, choose Goto -> Documentation from within the decision tree.

Note

Since the employee contribution grouping feature is customized centrally in this step, you need to ensure that you define the decision tree to take account of all the different employee contribution groupings that you require in your system.

Define Employer Contribution Groupings

In this step, you can define employer contribution groupings and determine how employees are allocated to these groupings. You only need to do this if you want to differentiate between employer contributions for employees using additional criteria to those available in the employer contribution rule variant. For example, you may want to use geographical location, weekly hours, or residence status as criteria.

Example

The amount the employer contributes to the employee's plan depends on the employee's employment contract. Part-time employees are given $50, full-time employees are given $100.

The employer contribution groupings FULL and PART are defined and the employer contribution grouping feature is set up to sort employees by work contract (decision field ANSVH).

Standard settings

You determine how employees are allocated to employer contribution groupings using the feature ERCGR.

To display information on the structure and use of the feature, choose Goto -> Documentation from within the decision tree.

Note

Since the employer contribution grouping feature is customized centrally in this step, you need to ensure that you define the decision tree to take account of all the different employer contribution groupings that you require in your system.

Plans

In this chapter, you define the plan information, according to plan category.

Define Health Plan General Data

In this step, you define the general data for health plans.

Requirements

You have created the appropriate plan type, plan status, and benefit provider in the preceding steps.

Activities

1. Decide which health plans you want to offer.

2. Choose "New entries".

3. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the plan.

4. Enter the validity dates.

5. Enter the plan type, plan status, and benefit provider.

6. Enter the plan number.

7. Enter a short text. The short text is used in the system for example in report lists, where abbreviations are required.

8. Enter the plan attributes. You will find more detailed information on each field in the F1 help.

9. Enter the dependent/beneficiary groups if required. A green check symbol next to the push button indicates that the dependent/beneficiary groups are maintained. If there is no symbol, all dependents/beneficiaries can participate.

10. Save your entries.

11. Repeat steps 2 to 10 for each health plan.

Define Options for Health Plans

In this step, you define the options of your health plans, consisting initially of a description only. When you have defined the other elements of your health plans, you assign these as attributes of the plan options for each plan in the step Assign Health Plan Attributes.

Note

You must define specify at least one option per health plan.

Example

The options for the Standard Medical plan differ only by deductible amounts:

Option I has a deductible amount of $200 per person and $600 maximum per family.

Option II has a deductible amount of $500 per person and $15,000 maximum per family.

Two options are set up for this plan:

DDT1 - Option I low deductible

DDT2 - Option II high deductible

Define Dependent Coverage Options

In this step, you define the dependent coverages that you require for all health plans and plan options.

You can specify a minimum and/or a maximum number of dependents for each dependent coverage. If you do not specify a maximum number, this is interpreted as meaning zero, rather than no maximum, and therefore no dependents are allowed. If you want to define the maximum number of dependents per type of dependent, you can do this in the next step Define Minimum and Maximum Number of Dependents.

If you specify a minimum number requirement, only those dependent coverage options are included in a benefit offer for which the requirement can be fulfilled, given the possible dependents of an employee. During enrollment, the system also ensures that no fewer/more dependents are named than allowed.

Note

If you are using the COBRA functions in the SAP Benefits Administration component, the coverage option of a COBRA-relevant health plan is automatically adjusted for continued regular plan coverage if dependents, but not the employee, lose coverage after a qualifying event and the minimum number of dependents for the original coverage option is no longer available. This can be the case after the event types Divorce, Legal separation, and Child's loss of dependent status. If you specify minimum and maximum number of types of dependent in the next step, these are also taken into account.

You should, therefore, set up dependent coverage options for COBRA-relevant plans so that exactly one option matches each possible set of dependents. This ensures that exactly one new coverage option can be determined for continued regular plan coverage.

Example

The dependent coverages required in benefit area 10 are as follows:

Dependent coverage	Min.dependents	Max.dependents
EE (Employee only)	-	-
EE+S (Employee and spouse)	1	1
EE+C (Employee and children)	1	20
EE+F (Employee and family)	2	20
E+DC (EE+dom.partner & child)	2	20
E+DF (EE+domestic family)	2	20
E+DP (EE+domestic partner)	1	1
E+NC (EE+non-tax. DP & child)	2	20
E+ND (EE+non-taxable DP)	1	1

Define Minimum and Maximum Number of Dependents

Use

In this step, you can restrict participation in a health plan under a dependent coverage option to certain types of dependent, as determined by the subtypes of the Family/Related Persons infotype (0021). You can also define a minimum and maximum number of persons of a particular type that can be covered. During enrollment, the system only includes those dependent coverage options in the benefit offer for which the appropriate dependents are available.

For the subtypes 13 and 14 (Domestic Partner and Domestic Partner's Child), you can specify minimum and maximum numbers of taxable and non-taxable persons. The taxability of a person is determined by the Non-taxable indicator on the country-specific infotype maintained via the Family/Related Persons infotype (0021).

Note

If you restrict eligibility by entering a subtype, you need to enter all the other subtypes that are eligible. Any subtypes that you do not enter are automatically ineligible. If you do not make any entries for a dependent coverage, there are no restrictions regarding the type of dependent that can enroll.

If you restrict eligibility by entering a subtype, you must specify a maximum number of taxable or non-taxable dependents. However, you do not need to specify a minimum number of taxable or non-taxable dependents.

The system checks the minimum and maximum numbers of dependents specified in this step and the total minimum and maximum numbers of dependents specified in the previous IMG step separately during enrollment.

Requirements

You have defined dependent coverages in the previous step Define Dependent Coverage Options.

Example

Under the dependent coverage option EE+F (employee+family), only spouse and children can be enrolled as dependents. A maximum of 20 children or stepchildren can be enrolled in the plan. The following settings are made for the dependent coverage option:

Subtype	Min.dependents	Max.dependents
1 (Spouse)	1	1
2 (Child)	-	20
6 (Stepchild)	-	20

The total minimum number of dependents for EE+F (as specified in the step Define Dependent Coverage Options) is 2.

During enrollment, the dependent coverage EE+F is, therefore, only offered to married employees with children. Under this option, the spouse and at least one child must be enrolled as dependents.

Define Cost Variants

In this step you define cost variants to determine which factors influence the cost of a health plan for an employee. Variants are plan-specific; each plan has its own variant(s).

You do not enter any actual costs in this step. You simply define the possible ways in which costs for a plan can vary depending on selected criteria. You determine how costs vary for plan options and dependent coverage options in the step Define Health Plan Attributes.

Before you start to define cost variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often costs vary for all the combinations of option and dependent coverage that you have defined in each plan.

This indicates how many cost variants you need. You can use the same cost variant more than once, for example, if costs are always identical for the dependent coverages 'employee only' and 'employee plus family' within a plan, regardless of the plan option.

2. Determine how costs vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and cost grouping to determine cost. You can also indicate whether the gender of employees and whether or not they are smokers are cost criteria.

Example

In the Standard Medical plan, Option I allows the following dependent coverages, and the following cost variants are created for them:

Dep. coverage	Cost variant
EE	STRI - Standard cost I
EE+1	STRI - Standard cost I
EE+C	FAMI - Family cost I
EE+F	FAMI - Family cost I

Both the STRI and FAMI cost variants use the cost grouping feature to determine costs for different groups of employees. STRI also uses 'smoker' as a criterion.

Option II has identical dependent coverages and cost variant criteria. But because the deductible is higher than in Option I, the costs are lower. This means that different cost variants are required for Option II:

Dep. coverage	Cost variant
EE	STII - Standard cost II
EE+1	STII - Standard cost II
EE+C	FAII - Family cost II
EE+F	FAII - Family cost II

Requirements

You have defined all the health plan options and dependent coverages that you require.

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define Parameter Groups.

Activities

1. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

This period applies to all rules associated with the variant.

2. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of cost in the variant.

a) If required, enter a parameter group and indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the Cost grouping indicator if you want to use this feature to group employees.

c) Indicate whether the gender of the employees and whether or not they are smokers are cost criteria.

d) Specify whether the age, gender, and/or smoker data of the employee, spouse, or domestic partner is used as the basis for calculating cost.

3. If, for any of the criteria you have attributed to the variant, you want employees to be allocated to a grouping using values on a specific day, enter a cutoff day. Otherwise the system calculates the grouping based on the calculation base date.

4. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

Define Cost Rules

In this step, you use cost rules to define the actual costs for a health plan. You do this for each cost variant for each plan.

You can define the following type of flat costs:

Employee costs

Additional post-tax costs

Employer cost (or credit, if the indicator EE costs are not credited to the employee is not set in the plan general data)

Provider costs

Imputed income

You need to define a rule for each possible combination of employee grouping that exists for the criteria in the variant. To help you, the system only allows you to enter those employee groupings that you defined as relevant in the cost variant. If a variant has no criteria, you only need to assign one rule to it.

Example

In the Standard Medical plan, the cost of Employee Only coverage in Option 1 depends on whether an employee live in California or Maryland/Pennsylvania, and whether or not he/she is a smoker. The employer cost is not credited to the employee.

The cost variant STRD is defined for the plan, and uses a cost grouping feature to determine an employee's state of residence, and the attribute Smoker is also selected. In the parameter group assigned to the variant, there are two cost groupings; CST1 and CST2. Therefore, a total of four cost rules are set up for the variant STRD:

Cost grpg	Smoker	EE cost	ER cost	Provider cost
CST1	x	$11.00	$5.00	$15.00
CST1		$10.00	$5.00	$14.00
CST2	x	$11.50	$6.00	$16.50
CST2		$10.50	$6.00	$15.50

Note that, in this example, administrative costs are included in the employee cost, therefore the sum of employee and employer cost is greater than the provider cost.

Assign Health Plan Attributes

In this step, you bring together all the definitions relevant to the health plan that you have made in the previous steps.

You assign to each health plan:

Its options

Its dependent coverages

The cost variants for the combination of options and dependent coverages

Example

The plan Standard Medical, has two options, three dependent coverages and two cost variants. They are associated as follows:

Option	Dependent Coverage	Cost Variant
DDT1	EE	STRD
DDT1	EE+1	STRD
DDT1	EE+C	FAMI
DDT1	EE+F	FAMI

DDT2	EE	STII
DDT2	EE+1	STII
DDT2	EE+C	STII
DDT2	EE+F	FAII

Define Evidence of Insurability Conditions

For certain levels of coverage, employees may be required to provide evidence of their insurability. In this step, you define evidence of insurability (EOI) requirements in accordance with the policies of the plans that you offer.

You can perform the following activities in this step:

Specify which plan options/dependent coverages require employees to present EOI in order to be enrolled.

Define the changes in election that require EOI.

Determine the action the system should take if EOI is not provided at the time of enrollment.

Specify grace periods within which the employee must provide EOI.

Example

The Standard Health plan requires EOI to be provided within 1 month of participation in Option II, regardless of whether it is a change in election or a new enrollment in the plan. Option II is therefore defined as an option requiring EOI.

A pending record is to be created if Option II is selected, and a grace period of 1 month from the participation start date is set.

Activities

1. Choose Options requiring EOI to enter the dependent coverages and plan options that require EOI.

If all coverages within an option require EOI, enter the option only.

If EOI is only required on initial enrollment, set the InitEnrol. indicator.

2. Choose Changes requiring EOI to specify the jumps in option and/or coverage that require EOI.

You can specify that a jump from one option to another or a change in option within a plan requires EOI.

3. In the Action field, choose the appropriate procedure for creating infotype records in cases where EOI is required but not yet provided.

4. If required, enter the grace period, within which employees must provide EOI, and specify whether the grace period starts on with enrollment participation.

Further notes

If you enter an option as requiring EOI, you do not need to enter all jumps to this option as changes requiring EOI. The fact that the option is defined as requiring proof is sufficient to ensure that any employee changing to this option is required to provide EOI.

In the event of EOI not being provided at enrollment, the system can create infotype records in either of the following ways:

1 - Create an active record for the chosen option

2 - Create a pending record for the chosen option

The action that you choose determines how the infotype records created during enrollment are attributed.

	Action	Locked	EOI reqd	EOI provided
EOI provided	n/a		x	x
EOI not provided	1		x
	2	x	x

These attributes are read by the EOI Monitor, which displays the status of EOI provision and indicates whether enrollments are pending or active. Pending enrollments are those for which the infotype record is locked.

Define HSA-relevant HDHP plans

Use

In this step, you define whether a high deductible health plan (HDHP) is relevant for a Health Savings Account (HSA).

This table stores the following information:

For each health insurance plan, the annual health plan deductible amount for each employee and the employee's family.

All the plans that have been classified as HDHP plans, and that form the prerequisites for HSA plans.

The annual deductible amount for the employee and family that differ for the same plan. If the employee chooses to be in 'Self', then the Self annual deductible amount of that plan is taken from this table.

You can run an eligibility check for having an HDHP for an HSA plan in the IMG step Benefits -> Flexible Administration -> Prerequisites and Corequisites -> Define Corequisite plans. Here, you can assign HDHP plans to HSA plans. Select Any plan required for all the HDHP plans assigned as corequisite. As a result, the employee cannot enroll into an HSA plan without enrolling in the corequisite HDHP plan.

Activities

1. In the table, enter the following:

Deductible Self Only: Here, you enter the deductible amount for employees with Self-only coverage.

Deductible Family: Here, you enter the deductible amount for employees with Family coverage.

Deductible Embedded: Here, you enter the individual deductible amount for employees with Family coverage.

Deductible Umbrella: Here, you enter the total deductible amount for employees with Family coverage.

2. Save your entries.

Insurance Plans

In this section of the IMG you enter all the information specific to your insurance plans, imputed income rates and age groups.

Define Insurance Plan General Data

In this step, you define general data for insurance plans.

Requirements

You have created the appropriate plan type, plan status, and benefit provider in the preceding steps.

Activities

1. Decide which insurance plans you want to offer.

2. Choose "New entries".

3. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the plan.

4. Enter the validity dates.

5. Enter the plan type, plan status, and benefit provider.

6. Enter the plan number.

7. Enter a short text. The short text is used in the system for example in report lists, where abbreviations are required.

8. Enter the plan attributes. You will find more detailed information on each field in the F1 help.

10. Save your entries.

11. Repeat steps 2 to 10 for each insurance plan.

Define Coverage Variants

In this step, you define coverage variants to determined which factors influence the coverage an employee is entitled to in a plan. Variants are plan-specific; each plan has its own variant(s).

You do not enter actual coverage in this step. You simply define the possible ways in which coverage for a plan can vary depending on selected criteria.

For plans in the category Insurance, you determine how coverage varies for coverage options in the step Define Insurance Plan Attributes. For plans in the category Miscellaneous, you determine how coverage varies for plan options in the step Define Miscellaneous Plan Attributes. Note that you only need to define coverage variants for those miscellaneous plans that you specified as coverage-relevant and requiring a coverage variant in the step Define Miscellaneous Plan General Data.

Before you start to define coverage variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often coverage varies for different coverage options.

This indicates how many coverage variants you need. Note the following:

If a plan has set coverages (including salary multiples), you need a coverage variant for each.

If a plan allows employees to choose any amount of coverage within a range, you need only one coverage variant.

If a plan has options, you will need a coverage variant for each option.

2. Determine how coverage varies according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings. For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and coverage grouping to determine coverage.

Example 1

In the Standard Life insurance plan, there are the following set coverages:

$40,000

$70,000

Two coverage variants 40KK and 70KK must be set up, one for each coverage.

Example 2

In the Extra Life insurance plan, employees can choose their coverage in multiples of $10,000. The maximum coverage an employee can choose varies according to the salary groups in the parameter group STRD.

The coverage variant BASC is entered, with parameter group STRD, and the salary group indicator selected.

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define Parameter Groups.

Activities

1. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

This period applies to all rules associated with the variant.

2. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of coverage in the variant.

a) If you specify a parameter group, indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the Coverage grouping indicator if you want to use this feature to group employees.

c) Indicate whether the gender of the employees or whether or not they are smokers are coverage criteria.

d) Specify whether the age and/or gender of the employee, spouse, or domestic partner is used as the basis for determining coverage.

4. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

5. If want to assign rules to the variant in which coverage is based on employee salary, and you want the benefit salary used as a basis to be calculated on a day other than the calculation base date, enter a cutoff day.

Define Coverage Rules

In this step, you define the actual coverages for a plan.

You need to define coverage for each possible combination of employee grouping in the criteria you have attributed to each variant. If you have not specified any criteria in a variant, you assign one rule only.

Coverage can be defined as a flat amount or as a factor of salary.

Example

The Standard Life insurance plan has the coverage variants 40KK and 70KK. Two coverage rules are set up as follows:

Plan	Cov. variant	Coverage amount
Standard Life	40KK	$40,000
Standard Life	70KK	$70,000

Example

The Extra Life insurance plan has the coverage variant BASC. Two coverage rules for BASC are set up as follows:

Plan	Cov.variant	Salary grp	Maximum coverage
Extra	BASC	$0-$20,000	$70,000
Life	BASC	$20,001+	$90,000

Activities

1. Determine the different coverages that apply to different groups of employees in your organization.

2. Select the plan and coverage variant for which you want to define coverage rules, as prompted.

3. Choose New entries.

4. Enter the combination of employee groupings for which you want to define coverage rules.

To help you, the system will only allow you to enter those employee groupings that you defined as relevant in the coverage variant.

5. Enter the validity dates for the rule.

6. Enter the coverage as either a flat amount or as a factor of salary.

If coverage is dependent on salary, the benefit salary is used as the basis.

7. If required, enter a rounding rule and divisor to determine how coverage is to be rounded.

8. Specify the minimum and/or maximum coverage, if required.

9. Save your entries.

10. Choose Back and repeat steps 2 to 9 for each coverage rule, for each variant in each plan.

Define Cost Variants

In this step you define cost variants to determine which factors influence the cost of an insurance plan for an employee. Variants are plan-specific; each plan has its own variant(s).

You do not enter any actual costs in this step. You simply define the possible ways in which costs for a plan can vary depending on selected criteria. You determine how costs vary for coverage options in the step Define Insurance Plan Attributes.

Before you start to define cost variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often cost varies for different coverage options:

If an insurance plan has set flat coverage options and flat costs, you need to define a cost variant for each flat cost.

If you have set flat coverage options and the flat costs are directly proportional to the coverage stated in the flat cost, you need only one cost variant.

If an employee can choose any amount of coverage within a range and the cost of the coverage is directly proportional to the coverage, you need only one cost variant.

2. Determine how costs vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and cost grouping to determine cost. You can also indicate whether the gender of employees and whether or not they are smokers are cost criteria.

Example

The Standard Life insurance plan has two coverage options:

$40,000

$70,000

In each case, the cost is directly proportional to the coverage chosen by the employee.

The cost of the plan varies according to the employee's salary and age. The provider also offers a lower rate for non-smokers.

Standard Life needs only one cost variant STLI with the parameter group STRD, from which the salary, age, and smoker groups are used.

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define Parameter Groups.

Activities

1. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

This period applies to all rules associated with the variant.

2. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of cost in the variant.

a) If required, enter a parameter group and indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the Cost grouping indicator if you want to use this feature to group employees.

c) Indicate whether the gender of the employees and whether or not they are smokers are cost criteria.

d) Specify whether the age, gender, and/or smoker data of the employee, spouse, or domestic partner is used as the basis for calculating cost.

e) Set the Step limit indicator if you want to define a graduated cost calculation for different levels of coverage.

4. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

Define Cost Rules

In this step, you define the actual costs for an insurance plan.

You need to define costs for each possible combination of employee grouping in the criteria you have attributed to each variant. If you have not specified any criteria in a variant, you assign one rule only.

An insurance plan can have flat costs or costs based on coverage.

In the cost rules, you need only specify an amount if the plan has flat costs. If cost is based on coverage, you need to specify the cost factor per base unit (for example, $0.15/$1,000).

The system calculates cost as follows:

(Coverage amount / Base unit) * Cost factor = Benefit cost

Example

The Standard Life insurance plan offers the following coverages:

$40,000

$70,000

The total cost of the plan is based directly on the coverage chosen by the employee.

The plan also uses the parameter group STRD to define different costs for employees in different salary and age groups, and smokers/non-smokers.

The cost rule for cost variant STLI is set up as follows:

SalGrp	AgeGrp	Smoker	EE factor	ER factor	Provider factor
0020	0139	x	0.15	0.10	0.24
0020	0139		0.12	0.10	0.21
0020	4099	x	0.19	0.10	0.28
0020	4099		0.15	0.10	0.24
2099	0139	x	0.12	0.10	0.21
2099	0139		0.10	0.10	0.19
2099	4099	x	0.15	0.10	0.24
2099	4099		0.12	0.10	0.21

The base unit in all these cost rules is $1,000.

The employee cost per $1,000 of coverage varies, depending on the employee's salary, age and smoker criteria.

The employer cost is $0.10 for all employees.

The sum of the employee and employer cost is greater than the provider cost in order to cover administrative costs.

Activities

1. Determine the different costs that apply to different groups of employees in your organization.

2. Select the plan and cost variant for which you want to define cost rules, as prompted.

3. Choose New entries.

4. Enter the combination of employee groupings for which you want to define costs.

To help you, the system will only allow you to enter those employee groupings that you defined as relevant in the cost variant.

5. Enter the validity dates for the rule.

6. Enter the employee costs, employer costs/credit and provider costs as either flat amounts or factors of coverage

If you enter a factor, you must also enter a base unit.

7. If required, specify how costs are to be rounded.

Note that rounding takes place on the basis of the period which you set in the variant, and which is displayed in this view for informational purposes. Values are first calculated for this period and then rounded.

8. Save your entries.

9. Choose Back and repeat steps 2 to 8 for each combination of employee grouping, for each cost variant in each plan.

Assign Insurance Plan Attributes

In this step, you bring together all those parts of an insurance plan, that you have already defined in the previous few steps.

You define the insurance plan options, then associate to each insurance plan:

Cost variant

Coverage variant

Example

The Standard Life insurance plan has the following two options:

$40,000

$70,000

The cost is directly proportional to the coverage the employee chooses. The coverage variants and cost variant have already been defined. The two options are defined as follows:

Option	Coverage variant	Cost variant
40KK	40KK	STLI
70KK	70KK	STLI

Activities

1. Identify the different options, coverage and cost variants for each insurance plan.

2. Choose the insurance plan you want to further define.

3. Select the "New entries" function.

4. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the option.

5. Assign the cost and coverage variants to the option.

6. Enter the validity dates for the option.

7. Save your entries.

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 for each option within each plan.

Define Evidence of Insurability Conditions

You can perform the following activities in this step:

Specify the plan coverage amounts above which the employees must present EOI in order to be enrolled and in the situations in which EOI is required for these amounts.

Define the changes in election that require EOI.

Determine the action the system should take if EOI is not provided at the time of enrollment.

Specify grace periods within which the employee must provide EOI.

Example

The Extra Life insurance plan allows coverage multiples of $10,000 up to a maximum of $250,000. EOI is required in the following situations:

On initial enrollment, for all coverages

On any increase in coverage of $50,000 or more

For coverages of more than $200,000

The maximum coverages allowed without provision of EOI are as follows:

Initial enrollment	$0.01
Change in coverage	$49,999.99
Enrollment any time	$200,000

A pending record is to be created in cases where EOI is required but not provided, and a grace period of 10 months from the enrollment date is set.

Recommendation

If EOI is required for a new enrollment, regardless of coverage, enter $0.01 as the coverage above which EOI is required on initial enrollment. If you do not make an entry the system assumes that no EOI is required for new enrollments.

Activities

1. Enter the maximum coverages without provision of EOI.

You can enter coverage thresholds either as flat amounts or multiples of the employee's benefit salary or both. If you enter both, the coverage threshold is the sum of these two values.

2. If required, enter a rule and divisor to determine how coverage is to be rounded.

3. If you want the benefit salary on which coverage is based to be calculated on a day other than the calculation base date, enter a cutoff day.

4. In the Action field, choose the appropriate procedure for creating infotype records in cases where EOI is required but not yet provided.

For more information on the possible system actions, see the further notes below.

5. If required, enter the grace period, within which employees must provide EOI, and specify whether the grace period starts on with enrollment participation.

Further notes

In the event of EOI not being provided at enrollment, the system can create infotype records in any one of the following ways:

1 - Create an active record for the chosen option

2 - Create a pending record for the chosen option

3 - Create an active record for maximum possible coverage/jump in coverage

4 - Create a pending record for the chosen option (a) and create an active record for the maximum possible coverage/jump in coverage (b).

The action that you choose determines how the infotype records created during enrollment are attributed.

	Action	Locked	EOI reqd	EOI provided
EOI provided	n/a		x	x
EOI not provided	1		x
	2	x	x
	3
	4(a)	x	x
	4(b)

If you select either action 3 or 4, the maximum possible coverage/jump in coverage that is permitted by the plan without provision of EOI is automatically determined during enrollment and entered as the alternative coverage on the active infotype record. Note that if you select action 3, employees do not have the opportunity to subsequently provide EOI in order to be given a higher coverage, the alternative coverage is fixed until a new enrollment or changes to enrollment are possible.

Combined Coverage

When you define coverages for plans such as insurance, you can set limits on the coverage amount. This is often used when the coverage is an amount dynamically calculated when the employee chooses her coverage.

However these limits apply only to one plan and yet you might need to define limits which combine the coverages of more than one plan.

In this chapter, you define these combined limits as follows:

1. The limit that might span 2 or more plans is reduced to a mathematical equation, where there is an amount on one side and plan coverages on the other side. The two sides of this equation are then DIVIDED BETWEEN the two views in this chapter.

2. The first view defines the limit in monetary terms which is one side of the equation. It also defines the operator (equals, is greater than, and so on).

3. The second view defines the other side of the equation in terms of the plan coverages.

Example

An employee is not allowed to have a combined coverage under Standard Life and Supplementary Life of more than $200,000.

As an equation it would look like this:
$200,000 >= Standard Life + Supplementary Life

Therefore in the first view you would enter $200,000 and the operator >=. In the second view Standard Life and Supplementary Life.

Example

An employee is not allowed to take out Supplementary Life coverage that is more than 50% of his Standard Life coverage.

As an equation it would look like this:
Supplementary Life <= 50% x Standard Life

As a solved equation with amount on the left and plan coverages on the right, it would look like this:
$0 <= 50% Standard Life - Supplementary Life

Therefore in the first view you would enter $0 and the operator <=. In the second view Standard Life with a factor of 0.5 and Supplementary Life with a factor of -1.0 .

IMPORTANT NOTES:

In some combined limits, the plans fall into a hierarchy. As in the second example, the employee first enrolls in the Standard Life, without restrictions, but upon enrolling in the Supplementary Life, the coverage is limited to 50% of the Standard Life.

Thus the Standard Life is the primary plan and the Supplementary Life is the secondary plan. When such a hierarchy exists, you should always attach the limit (in the first view) to the secondary plan. This is because the system checks the limit only when the employee enrolls in the second plan.

If, as in the first example, there is no hierarchy of plans, where there is simply a limit set that is applicable to both Standard Life and Supplementary Life, then you should attach the limit to BOTH plans. The system will then check that the limit is not exceeded when the employee enrolls in either of the two plans.

Define Combined Coverage Limits

In this step, you enter the first half of the equation and the operator for the equation, as defined in combined coverages.

Activities

1. Decide which of your plans require combined coverages.

2. Reduce these combined coverages to mathematical equations, so that an amount is on the left and the plan coverages are on the right.

3. Select the plan you want to define the combined coverage for. This should be the plan for which the system checks for combined coverage limits, when the employee enrolls in it. This is therefore the plan that the employee enrolls in after the other plan(s) in the equation.

4. Select the "New entries" function.

5. Enter the limit four-character identifier and description.

6. Enter the amount from the left side of your equation.

7. Alternatively you can enter a factor of a wage type. This will probably be a wage type that is already in use in the benefits set-up. It will otherwise need to be set up by the payroll administrator. In either case, please liase with your payroll administrator.

8. Enter the rounding rule and rounding divisor.

9. Enter the as of date.

10. Enter the operator (from your equation).

11. Save your entries.

12. Repeat the preceding steps for every limit for every plan.

Define Combined Coverage Limit Expressions

In this step, you enter the second half of the equation, as discussed in combined coverages

Activities

1. Select the plan and limit for which you want to define the second half of the equation, which you calculated in the previous step.

2. Select the "New entries" function.

3. Enter the factor and plan for each of the plan coverages on the right side of your equation.

4. Save your entries.

5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for every limit for every plan.

Imputed Income for Selected Benefits

In this section of the IMG, you define the criteria needed to calculate Imputed Income.

Imputed Income is based upon benefits paid for by the employer and calculated using rates set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This value is then treated as taxable income for the employee.

Review Age Groups for Imputed Income

In this step, you check that the Imputed Income age groups are correct.

The age groups and the associated rates for the calculation of imputed income are set and published by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Further notes

SAP is not responsible for keeping this information up to date. You must maintain this screen with any changes the IRS publishes.

Activities

1. Use a two-character identifier to represent each age group.

2. Select the "New Entries" function and enter the age group identifiers, descriptions, low age and high age into the system.

3. Save your entries.

Review Calculation Factors for Imputed Income

In this step, you check that the Imputed Income Rate Table entries are correct.

The imputed income age groups are associated with the rates/factors set by the IRS.

Further notes

SAP is not responsible for keeping this information up to date. You must maintain this screen with any changes the IRS publishes.

Activities

1. Select the "New Entries" function to change the age group identifiers and descriptions.

2. Enter the validity dates and IRS designated rates/factors.

3. Save your entries.

Savings Plans

In this section of the IMG, you define the information specific to your savings plans.

Overview of Retirement Plan Customizing

Retirement plans are administered as savings plans in the SAP System but require additional settings. In order to set up retirement plans, you therefore need to ensure that you have completed the following activities:

1. Specify whether the third party administrator for the plan provides a full or partial calculation service in the step Define Savings Plan General Data.

2. Define the calculation of service relevant to retirement plans in the section Retirement Plan Service (if length of service is calculated in your SAP System rather than by a third party administrator).

3. If you calculate service by counting hours, specify the calendar type for cumulations in the step Define Savings Plan General Data.

4. If you want to define an eligibility waiting period based on length of service, make the appropriate settings in the section Dynamic Eligibility.

5. Set up wage types to store data for the retirement plan calculations in your country version of the Payroll Implementation Guide, in the section related to Benefits.

Define Savings Plan General Data

In this step, you define general data for savings plans.

Requirements

You have defined the relevant type, status, and provider for each plan in the Basic Settings section of Customizing for Benefits (PA-BN).

Activities

1. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the plan.

2. Enter the plan validity dates.

3. Specify the general data for the plan.

In the Short text field, you can enter a text that is used in place of the full plan description, for example, in report lists.

4. Specify the plan's attributes.

5. Specify dependent/beneficiary groups, if required.

A green check symbol next to the Selection groups pushbutton indicates that groups have been specified. If no groups are specified, all dependents/beneficiaries can participate.

6. If the plan is a retirement plan, specify the following:

The scope of service provided by a third party administrator (TPA) for the calculation of projected benefit amounts.

The calendar type for service calculation

You only need to specify this if you have a partial TPA service agreement and calculate length of service on the basis of hours (as defined in the section Retirement Plan Service).

The calendar type determines the period over which hours are cumulated to determine equivalent service. You later set up equivalent service in the section Retirement Plan Service -> Define Benefit Equivalent Service.

Define Employee Contribution Variants

In this step you define employee contribution variants to determine which factors influence the permitted employee contribution to a plan. Variants are plan-specific; each plan has its own variant(s).

You do not enter any actual contributions in this step. You simply define how contributions vary according to:

Plan

Option (only for plans in the plan category Miscellaneous)

Employee data

Before you start to define variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often employee contributions vary for plans and any plan options.

This indicates how many contribution variants you need.

2. Determine how employee contributions vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and employee contribution grouping to determine employee contribution.

Example

The contribution an employee may make to a benefit plan is based on salary, as defined in the parameter group STRD. Within this parameter group, only the seniority group is used to determine contribution.

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define parameter groups.

Activities

1. Enter a four-character identifier and description for each variant.

2. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

3. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of contribution in the variant.

a) If required, enter a parameter group and indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the EE contr.group. indicator if you want to use the employee contribution grouping feature to group employees.

4. If, for any of the criteria you have attributed to the variant, you want employees to be allocated to a grouping using values on a specific day, enter a cutoff day. Otherwise the system calculates the grouping based on the calculation base date.

5. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

6. If you want the benefit salary on which employee contribution is based to be calculated on a day other than the calculation base date, enter a cutoff day.

7. Define a waiting period, if required.

If you want the waiting period for contributions to start on a date other than the participation begin date, enter a date override.

8. If you specify a waiting period, you can determine the day on which contributions start after this period.

Define Employee Contribution Rules

In this step, you define the employee contribution limits for each plan.

You need to define employee contributions limits for each possible combination of employee grouping in the criteria you have attributed to each variant. If you have not specified any criteria in a variant, you assign one rule only.

You can define minimum and maximum employee contribution in the following ways:

As a fixed amount

As a percentage of salary

As a contribution unit

In Payroll, the total employee contribution is the sum of these amounts.

Example

The employee contribution variant EECR with the criteria salary is defined for a plan. Two employee contribution rules for EECR are set up as follows:

Salary group	EE salary	Max. post-tax EE contribution
LOW	$0-$20,000	10% of gross salary
HIGH	$20,001+	12% of gross salary

Activities

1. Determine the different employee contributions that apply to different groups of employees in your organization.

2. Select the plan and employee contribution variant for which you want to define contribution rules, as prompted.

3. Choose New entries.

4. Enter the combination of employee groupings for which you want to define employee contributions.

To help you, the system will only allow you to enter those employee groupings that you defined as relevant in the employee contribution variant.

5. Enter the validity dates for the rule.

6. Select the permitted contribution types.

7. Select the permitted types of pre- and post-tax contributions.

8. Enter the contribution limits for regular and bonus payments.

You can enter any combination of amounts, percentages and units. The unit's actual value is defined in the last step of defining a plan when you assign the plan attributes.

9. Enter the pre-tax, post-tax and total maximum annual limits.

10. If required, specify how percentage contributions are to be rounded.

Note that rounding takes place on the basis of the period that is set in the variant and displayed in this view for informational purposes only. Values are first calculated for this period and then rounded.

11. Save your entries.

12. Choose Back and repeat steps 2 to 11 for each combination of employee grouping, for each employee contribution variant in each plan.

Further notes

Note that you can enter a contribution of 0 (zero) so that, during enrollment, you can specifically record that an employee has chosen not to participate in the plan.

Define Employer Contribution Variants

In this step you define employer contribution variants to determine which factors influence the contribution the employer makes to a plan. Variants are plan-specific; each plan has its own variant(s).

You do not enter any actual contributions in this step. You simply define the possible ways in which employer contributions for a plan can vary depending on selected criteria.

For plans in the category Miscellaneous, you determine how employer contributions vary for plan options in the step Define Miscellaneous Plan Attributes. Note that you only need to define employer contribution variants for those miscellaneous plans that you specified as contribution-relevant and requiring an employer contribution variant in the step Define Miscellaneous Plan General Data.

Before you start to define variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often employer contributions vary for plans and any plan options.

This indicates how many contribution variants you need.

2. Determine how employer contributions vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and employer contribution grouping to determine employer contribution.

Note

For information on employer matching, see the SAP Library (Human Resources -> Personnel Management -> Benefits Administration (PA-BN) -> Benefits Administration -> Case Studies -> Employer Matching).

Example

The contribution awarded to an employee for a plan is based only on the employee's age, as defined by the age groups in the parameter group STRD. Therefore, this parameter group is entered in the variant, and the criterion Age is selected.

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define Parameter Groups.

Activities

1. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

This period applies to all rules associated with the variant.

2. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of contribution in the variant.

a) If you specify a parameter group, indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the ER contr.group. indicator if you want to use the employer contribution grouping feature to group employees.

4. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

5. If want to assign rules to the variant in which contributions are based on employee salary, and you want the benefit salary used to determine actual deductions to be calculated on a day other than the calculation base date, enter a cutoff day.

6. Define a waiting period, if required.

If you want the waiting period for contributions to start on a date other than the participation begin date, enter a date override.

7. If you specify a waiting period, you can determine the day on which contributions start after this period.

Define Employer Contribution Rules

In this step, you use rules to define the contributions made by the employer to employee benefit plans. You do this for each employer contribution variant for each plan.

You can define the contribution amount and the contribution limit in either of the following ways:

As a fixed amount or amount per unit contributed by the employee

As a percentage of employee salary or employee contribution

If contributions are dependent on salary, actual salary is used as the basis for determining deductions, whereas the benefit salary is used as the basis for calculating contributions outside payroll, for example, in reporting and cost overviews.

Note

Employer contributions can be based on pre-tax, post-tax or pre- and post-tax employee contributions.

You can define multiple employer matching rules for one employee contribution in a single rule, using sequence numbers. For information on employer matching, see the SAP Library (Human Resources -> Personnel Management -> Benefits Administration (PA-BN) -> Benefits Administration -> Case Studies -> Employer Matching).

Even if you are only defining a single employer contribution in the rule, you still need to enter a sequence number. If you are defining multiple employer matching rules in a single rule, you need to enter a different sequence number for each employer contribution (the order of numbering is irrelevant).

If your organization requires more complex customizing for multiple contributions, you may need to implement a user exit.

If you define a contribution limit as a percentage of employee base salary or employee contribution, and the resulting value on the calculation key date is zero (for example if the salary is zero), the limit is zero currency units, and no employer contributions are made.

Rounding takes place on the basis of the period that is set in the variant and displayed in this view for informational purposes only. Values are first calculated for this period and then rounded.

Example

In the Standard Savings Plan, the employer matches employee contributions according with a certain percentage. The employer contribution variant ERCO with the criterion Age is defined for the plan. In the parameter group assigned to the variant, there are two age groups; AGE1 and AGE2. Therefore, two rules are set up for the variant ERCO:

Age group	EE age	ER match
AGE1	00-39	30% of gross salary
AGE2	40-99	40% of gross salary

Vesting

In this section of the IMG, you define vesting information to determine the amount of access that the employee has to employer contributions to plans.

You define vesting rules and their respective vested portions, and then assign these to a plan in the plan attributes (the last step in the plan definition).

Define Vesting Rules

In this step, you define vesting rules, which you later use to assign vested portions to a plan.

As part of the vesting rule, you can specify a hire date override if you want to use a date other than the employee's hire date as the start date for the measurement of service for vesting. Any employee with a Date Specifications infotype containing the date type you specify here will have their vesting calculated from that date. If you do not enter an override or if an employee does not have a valid infotype record, the normal hire date is used.

Activities

1. Identify the different vesting rules needed within your organization.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter a four-character identifier and description for each rule.

4. Specify a Hire date override, if required.

5. Save your entries.

Define Vested Portions

In this step, you define the vested portions for each vesting rule.

Activities

1. Identify the vested portions used in your organization.

2. Select the vesting rule for which you are defining portions, as prompted.

3. Choose New entries.

4. Enter the contribution percentages to be vested and the service periods that are prerequisite to vesting.

5. Save your entries.

6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 for each vesting rule.

Investments

In this section of the IMG, you define the investment information for plans which allow employees to choose how their money is invested.

This step enables you to offer different investments within a plan. During enrollment, the employee then chooses in which investment(s), the money should be invested.

Here you define the investment options and investment groups separately. Then you assign the options as required to each group.

Later you assign one investment group to every plan.

Define Investments

In this step, you enter the investment options available to your employees.

Example

Employees participating in the Standard Savings plan have three investment options:

STOK - their own organization's stock

GROW - a long-term growth oriented mutual fund

GOLD - gold bullion

Employees participating in the Principle Savings plan have three investment options:

STOK - their own organization's stock

RISK - a high risk dividend oriented mutual fund

GOLD - gold bullion

The four options STOK, GROW, GOLD and RISK are entered in this step.

Activities

1. Identify the individual investment options you require.

2. Use a four-character identifier for each investment option.

3. Select the "New entries" function.

4. Enter the identifier and a short description for each investment option.

5. Enter a provider for an investment option if you want to use different providers for different investment options.

Note

If you enter a provider here, this will override the provider you maintained at the plan level. If you do not enter a provider here, the system uses the provider maintained at the plan level. This field allows you to depict multiple vendor scenarios.

6. Save your entries.

Define Investment Groups

In this step, you enter the different investment groups. You later assign these investment groups to plans.

Example

The Standard Savings plan uses the investment group SAFE;

Your organization's stock

Long-term growth mutual fund

Gold bullion

The Principle Savings plan uses the investment group SPEC;

Your organization's stock

High risk dividend-oriented mutual fund

Gold bullion

The two investment groups SAFE and SPEC are entered in this step.

Activities

1. Identify the different investment groups you require.

2. Select the "New entries" function.

3. Enter a four-character identifier and a short description for each investment group.

4. Save your entries.

Assign Investments to Groups

In this step, you associate individual investments with investment groups, all of which you have already defined.

Example

The following options are assigned to groups.

Standard Savings plan

Investment group SAFE,

Investment options STOK, GROW, GOLD

Principle Savings plan

Investment group SPEC,

Investment options STOK, RISK, GOLD

Activities

1. Identify the different investments to be assigned to each group.

2. Choose the investment group you want to define.

3. Select the "New entries" function.

4. Select the investment options for each investment group.

5. Save your entries.

6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 for each investment group.

Retirement Plan Service

In this section of the IMG, you determine how the system calculates employee length of service (LOS) by means of calculation processes and their associated valuation models.

You need to complete this section if either of the following apply:

You want service relevant to retirement plans to be calculated in your SAP System rather than by a third party administrator.

You want to use LOS as a dynamic eligibility condition.

Note

The service calculation function is used by several Human Resources components and the Customizing steps in the subsection Seniority Calculation are standard. The documentation for these steps is therefore general and not specific to the Benefits component.

Use

LOS can be used as the basis for various calculations and can be divided into corresponding categories:

Eligibility service

Participation service *

Benefit accrual service *

Vesting service *

The types of service marked * are relevant for retirement plans only. Eligibility service, however, can also be used for other plan categories.

For more information on the different types of service, see the SAP Library (Human Resources -> Personnel Management -> Benefits Administration (PA-BN) -> Benefits Administration -> Retirement Plan Administration -> Service Calculation).

You can set up service calculation processes to use the following methods:

Elapsed time evaluation

This method determines LOS as the time that has elapsed since hiring, taking into account interruptions in service, if necessary. It reads the relevant data from infotypes that you specify.

You typically use this method to calculate the LOS of salaried employees.

Hours-counting

This method determines LOS as the number of hours worked since hiring. The basis for calculation is cumulated payroll results that are stored after extraction on Retirement Plan Cumulations records (infotype 0602)

You typically use this method to calculate LOS for hourly-paid employees.

It is possible to use both of these methods in a single calculation process and to apply each method to a particular group of employees by means of the feature SENOR.

Note: You can only use the hours-counting method for plans in the category "Savings".

Standard settings

SAP provides a calculation process for each of the four types of service. To each of these processes, valuation models for both LOS calculation methods are assigned, for example, CRTM Credited service based on time. A total of 8 valuation models are therefore provided. Since each calculation process refers to both service calculation methods, the feature SENOR is also predefined to determine which method is used in which situation. For hourly-paid employees (feature returns CMHR) the valuation model for hours counting is referenced and for other employees (feature returns TIME) the valuation model for elapsed time evaluation is referenced.

Benefits-specific logic for service calculation is provided by selection exits that are assigned to a valuation model via a selection class and selection rule. The name of the exit, class, and rule are identical. Two selection exits are predefined; one for each service calculation method:

Elapsed time measurement

For the calculation of participation service and credited service, the exit PLPA Benefits service based on plan participation is used, which refers to the function module HR_BEN_SRV_SEL_EXIT_PLAN_PART.

This exit is not used for the calculation of eligibility service and vesting service. Instead, a separate selection class must be assigned to calculate LOS as of the hire date. The selection class 1BFU is preset as an example.

Hours-counting

The exit CMHR Benefits service based on cumulated hours is used, which refers to the function module HR_BEN_SRV_SEL_EXIT_ACC_HOURS. For participation service and credited service, this function module automatically takes into account only the hours cumulated during employee participation in the retirement plan in question. The module also translates the actual hours counted into service in days/months/years (see step 3 below).

Activities

The steps that you need to perform in this IMG section depend on whether you want to use the definition of service calculation provided by SAP or set up a more complex calculation. However, you must do the following as a minimum:

1. In the section Valuation Model, you work through each activity to determine whether the predefined valuation models and their selection classes calculate service for retirement plans as required for your organization. If you have additional requirements, you should add or replace selection classes. You can delete any valuation models that you do not require.

2. In the step Calculation Process -> Assign Valuation Model and Rounding Rule to Process Step, you check that the valuation model and rounding rules assigned to each calculation process meet your requirements, and make any necessary adjustments. You can delete any calculation processes that you do not require.

If you use a calculation process with two valuation models (one for hours counting and one for measurement of elapsed time), you need to determine in which case which model is used. You should therefore set up the feature SENOR and assign a different feature result to each model.

You may also want to modify the attributes of a calculation process. For the calculation of each type of service except eligibility service, a special function module HR_BEN_SRV_PROCE_LOGIC_DELTA is preset. If you want to use a different function module, enter this in the step Override Attributes for Calculation Process.

3. If you are using the hours-counting method of service calculation, you determine the day/month/year equivalent for actual hours worked by an employee in the step Define Benefit Equivalent Service.

4. You determine which calculation processes you want to use for participation service, credited service, and vesting service for each plan in the step Assign Savings Plan Attributes.

If you want to use a calculation process to calculate eligibility service, you specify this in the step Flexible Administration -> Programs -> Employee Eligibility -> Dynamic Eligibility.

5. If you are using the hours-counting method of service calculation, you assign a compensation model for hours and a compensation wage type in your country version of the Payroll IMG, in the step Benefits -> Define Wage Types for Benefit Plans.

Further notes

For more information on the full range of options for service calculation, refer to the IMG documentation for the section Seniority Calculation.

Assign Savings Plan Attributes

In this step, you complete the definition of savings plans by bringing together the relevant elements that you have already defined:

EE contribution variant

ER contribution variant

Vesting rule

Investment group

Service calculation processes (retirement plans only)

Activities

1. Identify the elements that are applicable to each savings plan.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter the savings plan that you want to further define.

4. Specify the elements associated with the plan.

You must specify at least one contribution variant, however, you do not need to specify a vesting rule or an investment group.

5. If you have specified an employee contribution variant and any of the associated rules defines contributions in terms of units, specify the unit value here.

6. If the plan is a retirement plan and your organization calculates length of service in the SAP System rather than outsourcing this task to a third party administrator, specify the calculation processes that you want to use for different types of service.

7. Save your entries.

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 for each savings plan.

Combined Contribution

When you define employee contributions for plans such as savings, you can set limits on the contribution amount.

However these limits apply only to one plan and yet you might need to define limits which combine the contributions of more than one plan.

In this chapter, you define these combined limits as follows:

1. The limit that might span 2 or more plans is reduced to a mathematical equation, where there is an amount on one side and plan contributions on the other side. The two sides of this equation are then DIVIDED BETWEEN the two views in this chapter.

2. The first view defines the limit in monetary terms which is one side of the equation. It also defines the operator (equals, is greater than, and so on).

3. The second view defines the other side of the equation in terms of the plan contributions.

Example

An employee is not allowed to make a combined contribution to the Standard Savings plan and the Extra Savings plan of more than $25,000.

As an equation it would look like this:
$25,000 >= Standard Savings + Extra Savings

Therefore in the first view you would enter $25,000, because this is the latter plan that the employee will enroll in. You also enter the operator >=.

In the second view you enter the plans Standard Savings and Extra Savings, each with factors of 1.

Example

An employee is not allowed to make a contribution to the Long Life Savings plan that is more than 50% of his Standard 401(k)plan.

As an equation it would look like this:
Long Life Savings <= 50% x Standard 401(k)

As a solved equation with amount on the left and plan coverages on the right, it would look like this:
$0 <= 50% Standard 401(k) - Long Life Savings

Therefore in the first view you would enter $0 under the Long Life Savings plan, as this is the latter plan the will enroll in. You also enter the operator <=.

In the second view you enter Standard 401(k) with a factor of 0.5 and Long Life Savings with a factor of -1.0 .

IMPORTANT NOTES:

In some combined limits, the plans fall into a hierarchy. As in the second example, the employee first enrolls in the Standard 401(k) plan, without restrictions, but upon enrolling in the Long Life Savings, the contribution is limited to 50% of the Standard 401(k) plan.

Thus the Standard 401(k) is the primary plan and the Long Life Savings is the secondary plan. When such a hierarchy exists, you should always attach the limit (in the first view) to the secondary plan. This is because the system checks the limit only when the employee enrolls in the second plan.

If, as in the first example, there is no hierarchy of plans, where there is simply a limit set that is applicable to both Standard Savings and Extra Savings, then you should attach the limit to BOTH plans. The system will then check that the limit is not exceeded when the employee enrolls in either of the two plans.

Define Combined Contribution Limits

In this step you, enter the first half of the equation and the operator for the equation, as discussed in Combined contributions.

Activities

1. Decide which of your plans require combined contribution limits.

2. Reduce these combined contributions to mathematical equations, so that an amount is on the left and the plan contributions are on the right.

3. Select the plan you want to define the combined contribution for. This should be the plan for which the system checks for combined contribution limits, when the employee enrolls in it. This is therefore the plan that the employee enrolls in after the other plan(s) in the equation.

4. Select the "New entries" function.

5. Enter the limit four-character identifier and description.

6. From the left side of your equation, enter one of the following:

An amount

A factor of salary.

7. Enter the rounding rule and rounding divisor.

8. Enter the period for which this limit is valid.

9. Enter the wage type, if you have entered a factor.

The wage type might already be in use in the benefits set-up. If not it will need to be set up by the payroll administrator. In either case, please liase with your payroll administrator.

10. Enter the cut off day, if required.

11. Enter the operator (from your equation).

12. Enter the period that the combined contribution limit is valid for.

13. Save your entries.

14. Repeat the preceding steps for every limit for every plan.

Define Combined Contribution Limit Expressions

In this step, you enter the second half of the equation, as defined in Combined coverages.

Activities

1. Select the plan and limit for which you want to define the second half of the equation, which you calculated in the previous step.

2. Select the "New entries" function.

3. Enter the factor and plan for each of the plan contributions on the right side of your equation.

4. Select either pre-tax or post-tax contribution, or both, to indicate which plan contribution is to be taken into account.

5. Save your entries.

6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 for every limit for every plan.

Further notes

If you select both the pre and post-tax indicators, the system will take the sum of these two contributions to compare with the permitted limit.

Stock Purchase Plans

In this section of the IMG, you define the details of your stock purchase plans, as follows:

1. You set up the basic data of your plans.

2. You define variants to determine how employee and/or employer contributions can vary for different employees, according to various criteria.

3. You define the employee contribution limits and/or actual employer contributions by setting up rules.

4. You bring together all the elements of the plan definition in the step Assign Stock Purchase Plan Attributes.

Define Stock Purchase Plan General Data

In this step, you define the basic data for stock purchase plans.

Requirements

You have created the plan types, plan statuses, and benefit providers that you require in the Basic Settings section of the IMG.

Activities

1. Define the general data of the plan.

The short text for the plan appears where abbreviations of the full plan description are required, for example, in reports. You should therefore enter a meaningful text.

2. Define the plan attributes.

See the documentation (F1) for each field for more details about the possible settings.

Define Employee Contribution Variants

You do not enter any actual contributions in this step. You simply define how contributions vary according to:

Plan

Option (only for plans in the plan category Miscellaneous)

Employee data

Before you start to define variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often employee contributions vary for plans and any plan options.

This indicates how many contribution variants you need.

2. Determine how employee contributions vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and employee contribution grouping to determine employee contribution.

Example

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define parameter groups.

Activities

1. Enter a four-character identifier and description for each variant.

2. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

3. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of contribution in the variant.

a) If required, enter a parameter group and indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the EE contr.group. indicator if you want to use the employee contribution grouping feature to group employees.

5. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

6. If you want the benefit salary on which employee contribution is based to be calculated on a day other than the calculation base date, enter a cutoff day.

7. Define a waiting period, if required.

If you want the waiting period for contributions to start on a date other than the participation begin date, enter a date override.

8. If you specify a waiting period, you can determine the day on which contributions start after this period.

Define Employee Contribution Rules

In this step, you define the employee contribution limits for each plan.

You can define minimum and maximum employee contribution in the following ways:

As a fixed amount

As a percentage of salary

As a contribution unit

In Payroll, the total employee contribution is the sum of these amounts.

Example

The employee contribution variant EECR with the criteria salary is defined for a plan. Two employee contribution rules for EECR are set up as follows:

Salary group	EE salary	Max. post-tax EE contribution
LOW	$0-$20,000	10% of gross salary
HIGH	$20,001+	12% of gross salary

Activities

1. Determine the different employee contributions that apply to different groups of employees in your organization.

2. Select the plan and employee contribution variant for which you want to define contribution rules, as prompted.

3. Choose New entries.

4. Enter the combination of employee groupings for which you want to define employee contributions.

To help you, the system will only allow you to enter those employee groupings that you defined as relevant in the employee contribution variant.

5. Enter the validity dates for the rule.

6. Select the permitted contribution types.

7. Select the permitted types of pre- and post-tax contributions.

8. Enter the contribution limits for regular and bonus payments.

You can enter any combination of amounts, percentages and units. The unit's actual value is defined in the last step of defining a plan when you assign the plan attributes.

9. Enter the pre-tax, post-tax and total maximum annual limits.

10. If required, specify how percentage contributions are to be rounded.

11. Save your entries.

12. Choose Back and repeat steps 2 to 11 for each combination of employee grouping, for each employee contribution variant in each plan.

Further notes

Note that you can enter a contribution of 0 (zero) so that, during enrollment, you can specifically record that an employee has chosen not to participate in the plan.

Define Employer Contribution Variants

You do not enter any actual contributions in this step. You simply define the possible ways in which employer contributions for a plan can vary depending on selected criteria.

Before you start to define variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often employer contributions vary for plans and any plan options.

This indicates how many contribution variants you need.

2. Determine how employer contributions vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and employer contribution grouping to determine employer contribution.

Note

Example

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define Parameter Groups.

Activities

1. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

This period applies to all rules associated with the variant.

2. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of contribution in the variant.

a) If you specify a parameter group, indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the ER contr.group. indicator if you want to use the employer contribution grouping feature to group employees.

4. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

6. Define a waiting period, if required.

If you want the waiting period for contributions to start on a date other than the participation begin date, enter a date override.

7. If you specify a waiting period, you can determine the day on which contributions start after this period.

D Define Employer Contribution Rules

In this step, you use rules to define the contributions made by the employer to employee benefit plans. You do this for each employer contribution variant for each plan.

You can define the contribution amount and the contribution limit in either of the following ways:

As a fixed amount or amount per unit contributed by the employee

As a percentage of employee salary or employee contribution

If contributions are dependent on salary, actual salary is used as the basis for determining deductions, whereas the benefit salary is used as the basis for calculating contributions outside payroll, for example, in reporting and cost overviews.

Note

Employer contributions can be based on pre-tax, post-tax or pre- and post-tax employee contributions.

If your organization requires more complex customizing for multiple contributions, you may need to implement a user exit.

Rounding takes place on the basis of the period that is set in the variant and displayed in this view for informational purposes only. Values are first calculated for this period and then rounded.

Example

Age group	EE age	ER match
AGE1	00-39	30% of gross salary
AGE2	40-99	40% of gross salary

efine Employer Contribution Rules

In this step, you use rules to define the contributions made by the employer to employee benefit plans. You do this for each employer contribution variant for each plan.

You can define the contribution amount and the contribution limit in either of the following ways:

As a fixed amount or amount per unit contributed by the employee

As a percentage of employee salary or employee contribution

Note

Employer contributions can be based on pre-tax, post-tax or pre- and post-tax employee contributions.

If your organization requires more complex customizing for multiple contributions, you may need to implement a user exit.

Rounding takes place on the basis of the period that is set in the variant and displayed in this view for informational purposes only. Values are first calculated for this period and then rounded.

Example

Age group	EE age	ER match
AGE1	00-39	30% of gross salary
AGE2	40-99	40% of gross salary

Assign Stock Purchase Plan Attributes

In this step, you define the stock purchase plans by bringing together their main elements.

Example

The Standard Stock Purchase plan allows employees to buy company shares on a monthly basis.

The company matches 25% of the employee contribution. Employees can buy shares up to a limit of 10% of their gross income.

The reference period is the infotype validity.

Activities

1. Identify the employee contribution variant and employer contribution variant for each stock purchase plan.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter the stock purchase plan to be further defined.

4. Enter the appropriate employee contribution variant and employer contribution variant.

5. If the plan's employee contribution variant defines contributions in terms of units, specify the unit value here.

6. Select the reference period for contributions.

This is the period for which the contribution is deducted, and is set as the default on the infotype during enrollment. You can specify either the employee's pay period or the infotype validity period as default. Whether or not this default can be changed on the infotype during enrollment depends on the enrollment procedure used:

If employees are enrolled using standard enrollment processing, the reference period is a fixed default that cannot be changed.

If a Stock Purchase Plan record (infotype 0379) is created manually, the reference period is shown as a default, but can be overwritten/deleted and any time period or payroll period entered as the reference period on the infotype.

7. Save your entries.

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 for each stock purchase plan.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

In this section of the IMG, you define the information specific to your Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs).

Define Spending Account General Data

In this step, you define general data for flexible spending accounts (FSAs).

Requirements

You have created the appropriate plan type, plan status, and benefit provider in the preceding steps.

Activities

1. Decide which FSA plans you want to offer.

2. Choose "New entries".

3. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the plan.

4. Enter the validity dates.

5. Enter the plan type, plan status, and benefit provider.

6. Enter the plan number.

7. Enter a short text. The short text is used in the system for example in report lists, where abbreviations are required.

8. Save your entries.

9. Repeat steps 2 to 8 for each FSA plan.

Define Employer Contribution Variants

You do not enter any actual contributions in this step. You simply define the possible ways in which employer contributions for a plan can vary depending on selected criteria.

Before you start to define variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often employer contributions vary for plans and any plan options.

This indicates how many contribution variants you need.

2. Determine how employer contributions vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and employer contribution grouping to determine employer contribution.

Note

Example

Requirements

You have created any parameter groups that you want to assign to your variant in the step Define Parameter Groups.

Activities

1. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

This period applies to all rules associated with the variant.

2. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of contribution in the variant.

a) If you specify a parameter group, indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the ER contr.group. indicator if you want to use the employer contribution grouping feature to group employees.

4. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

6. Define a waiting period, if required.

If you want the waiting period for contributions to start on a date other than the participation begin date, enter a date override.

7. If you specify a waiting period, you can determine the day on which contributions start after this period.

Define Employer Contribution Rules

In this step, you use rules to define the contributions made by the employer to employee benefit plans. You do this for each employer contribution variant for each plan.

You can define the contribution amount and the contribution limit in either of the following ways:

As a fixed amount or amount per unit contributed by the employee

As a percentage of employee salary or employee contribution

Note

Employer contributions can be based on pre-tax, post-tax or pre- and post-tax employee contributions.

If your organization requires more complex customizing for multiple contributions, you may need to implement a user exit.

Rounding takes place on the basis of the period that is set in the variant and displayed in this view for informational purposes only. Values are first calculated for this period and then rounded.

Example

Age group	EE age	ER match
AGE1	00-39	30% of gross salary
AGE2	40-99	40% of gross salary

Assign Spending Account Attributes

In this step, you enter the details of your flexible spending accounts including contribution limits, an employer contribution variant (if required), and rules for the reimbursement of claims.

Example

The Dependent Care Spending account requires a minimum contribution amount of $100 and allows a maximum contribution of $4,000.

There is no employer contribution.

The minimum payout is $25.

Employees can make claims up to 90 days after the end of the year for expenses from that year.

The maximum payout for a claim is the annual contribution, even though the employee may not have actually contributed the total annual amount.

Activities

1. Enter minimum and maximum annual contributions, as required.

2. If you want to use an off-cycle plan year, enter the start date (see the notes on plan years below).

3. If the employer contributes to the plan, enter the appropriate employer contribution variant.

4. Enter a claim reimbursement wage type.

This wage type is required by payroll in order to repay employees for incurred expenses, and is set up in your country version of the Payroll Implementation Guide. Liase with your payroll administrator to ensure that this wage type is set up correctly.

5. Enter the minimum claim amount.

6. Enter the date until which employees can make claims from the previous year against the previous year's FSA balance.

7. Specify whether the maximum reimbursement amount is the current account balance or the annual contribution.

Further Notes on Plan Years

You can enter an off-cycle plan year to override the calendar year as the default cumulation year for contributions. The plan year does not determine the validity of FSA records (infotype 0170); this is controlled by the benefits administrative parameters for enrollment or can be specified manually on the infotype itself.

It is possible to have plan years that run for less than 12 months. To do this, you should create back-to-back entries for the same plan in this step. The entries should run for the period of the plan year you require, and the plan year on the entry should be the begin date of the entry. You must also ensure that the FSA infotypes also have the same validity as the entries you make here.

Since the annual contribution amounts are stored on FSA infotypes, SAP recommends that use a cumulation year (either calendar or off-cycle) that matches the validity period of the infotype records. This ensures that the annual contribution amount is cumulated over the same period.

Contributions are always calculated until the end of the current plan year, regardless of infotype validity. Therefore, if your plan years do not coincide with the validity period of FSA infotypes, the following occurs:

If an FSA infotype record begins in the middle of a plan year, the target amount on the record is reached by the end of the plan year (that is in less than 12 months) and before the end of the infotype validity.

If an FSA infotype record ends in the middle of a plan year, the system calculates deductions as if the record runs until the end of the plan year. Therefore, the target amount is not reached by the end of the infotype validity.

Example

Your plan year for FSAs is 1 April to 31 March. An employee wants to participate in an FSA from 1 January to 31 December.

The annual target contribution is $1200.

Between the start of participation and the end of the plan year, the employee pays the full contribution (1200/3 = $400 per month for January to March).

From April, contributions are deducted as they would be in order to reach the target amount over 12 months (1200/12 = $100 per month). This amount is deducted from April until the end of the infotype validity in December (9 months x $100 = $900 total contribution).

It is therefore possible to enroll employees shortly before the close of a plan year, and still allow them to contribute and benefit from the full annual amount.

Define Spending Account Claim Types

In this step, you enter the receipt types for FSA claims processing. These receipt types are used in the FSA Claims (Infotype 0172) records and you can define them as you like.

Example

Receipt type	Text
CHLD	Child care
DOCT	Doctor visit
GLAS	Prescription glasses
HOSP	Hospital visit
PRES	Prescription

Activities

1. Define the receipt types required in your company.

2. Enter the receipt types and texts for each.

3. Save your entries.

Credit Plans

In this section of the IMG, you define the details of your credit plans, as follows:

1. You set up the basic data of your plans.

2. You define variants to determine how credit awarded can vary for different employees, according to various criteria.

3. You define the actual credit by setting up rules.

4. You bring together all the elements of the plan definition in the step Assign Credit Plan Attributes.

Define Credit Plan General Data

In this step, you define the credit plan, and its general data.

Start by analysing your credit plans needs as follows:

Decide how many credit plans you need. For example, you might want to define credit plans for different groups of employees that you separate using the features BENGR (first program grouping) and BSTAT (second program grouping).

You might want to define different credit plans for allocating credit to different categories of benefit plan (Health, Insurance and so on). Remember however that in the Benefits component you cannot make specific links between plans to ensure that a credit plan pays only for a certain plan or category of plan. You can currently only specify in a plan that an employee may pay for the plan using credits.

For each credit plan, you define a credit variant in the next step. Unlike cost variants, for each credit plans you must and can have only one credit variant.

Example

For one benefit area, you decide that you need two credit plans, one for weekly paid employees and one for monthly paid. The two employee groups receive different credit, and then within each plan, the credit variants allocate credit according to employee age.

Activities

1. Choose "New entries".

2. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the plan.

3. Enter the validity dates.

4. Enter the plan type, plan status, and benefit provider.

5. Enter the plan number.

6. Enter a short text. The short text is used in the system for example in report lists, where abbreviations are required.

7. Save your entries.

8. Repeat steps 1 to 7 for each insurance plan.

Define Credit Variants

In this step you define employee credit variants to determine which factors influence the credit allocated to an employee. Variants are plan-specific; each plan has its own variant(s).

You do not enter any actual credit in this step. You simply define how credit varies according to:

Plan

Option (only for plans in the plan category Miscellaneous)

Employee data

Before you start to define variants, you need to do the following:

1. Determine how often credit varies for plans and any plan options.

This indicates how many credit variants you need.

2. Determine how credit varies vary according to employee data.

This determines how you need to set up your variants using employee groupings.

For each variant, you can specify a parameter group and credit grouping.

Example

In the Standard Credit plan the credit allocated to an employee is based upon age only. It uses the parameter group STRD, which is also used by the Standard Life insurance plan. Within this parameter group, only the age group is used.

Activities

1. Enter a four-character identifier and description for each variant.

2. Select the period for which the variant is valid.

3. Specify the criteria that are relevant to the calculation of credit in the variant.

a) If required, enter a parameter group and indicate which of the referenced employee criteria groups you want to use.

b) Set the Credit grouping indicator if you want to use this feature to group employees.

5. If you want to use a date other than the employee's hire/termination date as the start/end date for seniority calculation, enter a date override.

For the calculation of seniority, you have the option of entering a calculation process instead of using the standard benefits calculation.

6. If you want the benefit salary on which credit is based to be calculated on a day other than the calculation base date, enter a cutoff day.

Define Credit Rules

In this step, you define the actual credit for a plan.

You need to define credit for each possible combination of employee grouping in the criteria you have attributed to each variant. If you have not specified any criteria in a variant, you assign one rule only.

Example

In the Standard Credit plan, the credit variant uses the age groups from the STRD parameter group.

The plan pays a credit factor of 5% or 6% of base salary, depending on age, rounded up to the nearest $10.

The credit rules are set up as follows:

Age group	Credit factor
01 - 39	5%
40 - 99	6%

Activities

1. Determine the different credits that apply to different groups of employees in your organization.

2. Select the plan and credit variant for which you want to define credit rules, as prompted.

3. Choose New entries.

4. Enter the combination of employee groupings for which you want to define credit.

To help you, the system will only allow you to enter those employee groupings that you defined as relevant in the credit variant.

5. Enter the validity dates for the rule.

6. Enter the credit as either a flat amount or as a factor of salary.

If credit is dependent on salary, the benefit salary is used as the basis.

7. If required, specify how credit is to be rounded.

8. Specify the minimum and/or maximum credit, if required.

9. Save your entries.

10. Choose Back and repeat steps 2 to 9 for each credit rule, for each variant in each plan.

Assign Credit Plan Attributes

In this step, you assign a credit variant to each credit plan, and specify the percentage of excess credit that is returned to employees.

Activities

1. Identify the credit variant for each credit plan.

2. Choose New entries.

3. Enter the credit plan.

4. Enter the validity dates for the definition.

5. Enter the credit variant for the plan.

6. Enter the excess credit percentage.

7. Save your entries.

8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 for each credit plan.

Miscellaneous Plans

In this section of the IMG, you define the details of your miscellaneous plans, as follows:

1. You set up the basic data of your plans.

2. You define variants to determine how the values of the relevant plan elements vary for different employees, according to various criteria.

3. You determine the actual values of the plan elements by setting up rules.

4. If required, you also define vesting rules and investments.

5. You bring together all the elements of the plan definition in the step Assign Miscellaneous Plan Attributes.

Define Miscellaneous Plan General Data

In this step, you define general data for miscellaneous plans.

Requirements

You have created the appropriate plan type, plan status, and benefit provider in the preceding steps.

Activities

1. Decide which miscellaneous plans you want to offer.

2. Choose "New entries".

3. Enter a four-character identifier and description for the plan.

4. Enter the validity dates.

5. Enter the plan type, plan status, and benefit provider.

6. Enter the plan number.

7. Enter a short text. The short text is used in the system for example in report lists, where abbreviations are required.

8. Enter the plan attributes. You will find more detailed information on each field in the F1 help.

The selections you make here regarding costs, credit, and contributions determine which cost, credit, coverage, employee contribution and employer contribution variants you must later define for each plan.

9. Enter the dependent/beneficiary groups if required. A green check symbol next to the push button indicates that dependent/beneficiary groups are maintained. If there is no symbol, any dependents/beneficiaries can participate.

10. Save your entries.

11. Repeat steps 2 to 10 for each miscellaneous plan.