Human Resources Interface

The Employee Benefits System interfaces with the Human Resources System. The connection between the two systems enables the following:

• The system references cost and other benefit data from Human Resources' Deduction table carries through to Employee Benefits' Benefit Codes table.

• Benefits assigned to employees' primary pay rates in Human Resources default to employee records in Employee Benefits. Additional benefits can be assigned to employees in Employee Benefits, though they usually should be added through Human Resources. You can also update or delete the default benefits as needed.

• Personal information also defaults to employee records in Employee Benefits from employees' Employee Information pages in Human Resources.

• Benefit effective dates and deduction stop dates from Employee Deductions pages in Human Resources default to employees' benefit records in Employee Benefits. These dates can be changed as needed.

• Coverage amounts and projected costs are calculated in Employee Benefits based on the Human Resources defaults.

• The Benefit Record Updates option can be run to manually update information from the Employee Deductions into the Employee Benefits System to update deduction information that does not automatically transfer between Human Resources and Benefits. For details, refer to Benefit Record Updates.

This section explains how the Human Resources interface affects the setup and maintenance of records in your Employee Benefits database.

Prerequisites

Following is a synopsis of the requirements for the interface between Human Resources and Employee Benefits:

• The Benefits checkbox in your Human Resources Profile must be selected.

• Employees must have primary pay rates set up in Human Resources.

• Employees must have at least one benefit assigned in Human Resources.

• Relevant payroll and personnel data must be entered in Employee Information windows in Human Resources.

• For additional information on these requirements, refer to the following sections.

Interfacing Benefit Records

You can assign benefits to employee records as follows:

• Existing benefits in Human Resources are automatically assigned to employees in Employee Benefits, provided the employees have primary pay rates.

• When you add a benefit in the Employee Deductions page in Human Resources, it is automatically added to the employee's record in Employee Benefits. Again, the employee must have a primary rate to default the benefit information.

• You can assign benefits to employees in the Benefit Information page in Employee Benefits. We recommend, however, that you use Human Resources' Employee Deductions page instead, since the interface only copies data from Human Resources to Employee Benefits and not the reverse. The "one way" nature of the interface protects your payroll and personnel data from errors.

• To update benefit information from the Employee Deductions page to the employee's record in Employee Benefits after the initial add, you can use the Benefit Record Updates option. This option can also update dependent information, based on the criteria selected. For more information on this option, refer to Benefit Record Updates.

Changing Benefit Records

Not all changes in Human Resources are automatically copied to Employee Benefits. For example, you must perform a separate procedure to allow Human Resources to update projected costs in Employee Benefits when employees' pay rates change. This procedure, which is outlined at the end of the Human Resources Interface section, enables Human Resources to update benefit cost projections. Otherwise, you must enter them manually.

One other consideration is that most of the personal data that defaults from employees' records cannot be changed in Employee Benefits. For example, an employee's name, address, birth date, status, and department can only be entered in Human Resources' Employee Information page.

Gender and marital status, both of which default from Human Resources, are exceptions.

• If the employee's gender is incorrect, you should make the correction in Human Resources. This corrects the error in Employee Benefits.

• In Human Resources, marital status is a taxfiling issue, so you only need to indicate if the employee is married or single. In Employee Benefits, the status could impact on benefits, so you can further indicate if the employee is widowed, divorced, or classified under a general (Other) category.

Deleting Benefit Records

Deletions made in Human Resources sometimes affect your Employee Benefit records, but not always. For example:

• If you assign a benefit to an employee in Employee Benefits, deleting it in Human Resources' Deduction table does not affect the benefit in Employee Benefits. However, if the benefit defaulted through the interface, this deletes it in Employee Benefits.

• Deleting the start or end date in Human Resources' Employee Deductions page deletes the corresponding date in Employee Benefits.

Calculating Benefit Costs

Projected benefit costs calculated in Employee Benefits are based on a percentage or amount from one of two sources in Human Resources: Deduction table or Employee Deductions page. The Benefit Method code in the benefit's Deduction table record determines both the method and the source.

Percentage Benefits

The system calculates percentage benefits by multiplying the percentage times the annual salary in the primary pay rate. The source of the rate is determined by one of the following benefit methods, as referenced by the code shown:

P - Table % - Uses the percentage from the Benefit Rate/Amt. field in Human Resources' Deduction table.

R - Record % - Uses the percentage from the Employee Deductions page, which takes precedence over the table-defined rate.

Amount Benefits

The system calculates amount benefits by multiplying the per period amount times the number of pays per year, as specified in the employee's primary rate. The amount's source is determined by one of the following benefit methods:

A - Table Amount - Uses the amount from the Benefit Rate/Amt. field in Human Resources' Deduction table.

S - Record Amount - Uses the amount from the Employee Deductions page, which takes precedence over the table-defined amount.

Updating Projected Costs

Entries in certain pages in Human Resources may require an additional procedure to update an employee's benefit costs in Employee Benefits.

• Pay Rate Data Page: Entering a new salary schedule, different pay hours, or any other change affecting the per period rate in the primary rate requires an update in benefit costs.

• Deduction (table) Page: Changing the benefit rate or method affects a benefit's costs and thus requires an update.

Changes in employees' Employee Deduction pages are updated automatically. For example, if you change the benefit rate in this page, the rate is updated in Employee Benefits when you save the record.

Updating projected costs using the Employee Deductions page

1. Select Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Employee > Employee Information to display the Employee Information search page.

2. Enter selection criteria to identify an employee or group of employees, and then click Find.

3. Select an employee, and then click OK to display the Employee Information detail page.

4. On the Action Bar, select Payroll Information, and then click Deductions to display the Employee Deductions page.

5. Select the benefit in question, and then click OK to display its data in the Employee Deduction Information section.
   You can identify benefits by the Benefit Amt/Rate fields in the List section near the top of the page. If a field's value is greater than zero, the record includes a benefit.

6. Click OK to save the benefit record and trigger the calculation in Employee Benefits.