Defining Flat Contributions

This procedure enables you to define contributions for plans in which every employee in a group pays the same flat amount, flat percent, or percent of salary. Use this procedure only for plans with either coverage amounts or no coverage.

Note: If the plan does not have unique contributions for specific employee groups, you only need to define this form once for a plan by leaving the Employee Group field blank. If the plan has different contributions for different groups of employees, complete this form for each employee group for with unique contributions. If you define multiple contribution records for one plan, you may choose to leave the employee group field blank on one of the records. The application applies the record with no employee group to all eligible employees who do not belong to the group(s) attached to the other record(s).

To define flat contributions

Access Benefit Plan (BN15.1).
Select the Company, Benefit Type, and Plan for which you want to define flat contributions.
Select Inquire function.
Click the Contrib button. The Company, Benefit type, and Plan are already filled in when Flat Contributions (BN18.3) opens.
Select the plan participants for the contribution record from the Coverage Type field.
Type the start date for the contribution.
If you are defining contributions that are unique to a particular group of employees, select the employee group for which this contributions applies.

Note: If you choose to leave the group field blank, the application applies the record with no employee group to all eligible employees who do not belong to the group(s) attached to the other record(s).

If you are defining contributions for COBRA participants, leave this field blank.

Note: If you define contributions by employee group, make sure employee groups are defined such that an employee can be a member of only one group at a time. If an employee belongs to more than one group for which contributions have been defined, benefit entry programs and benefit update reports show the situation as an error.
Define calculation attributes for this contribution using the following guidelines:

Calculation Type

Select the method the contribution is calculated.

If every employee in a group pays the same amount for a coverage option, select Flat Amount.

If you are defining contributions for COBRA participants and retirees, select Flat Amount.

If the annual contribution is a percent of the employee's annual salary, select Percent of Salary.

If the contribution is a percent of the employee's pay period wages, select Flat Percent.

Note: When you select 2 - Flat Percent or 3 - Percent of Salary, you can type a percentage with up to 4 decimal places in the Employee, Company, and Flex Credit Contribution fields to support percent contribution elections.

Note: The calculation type selected must match the calculation type defined on the deduction codes that are attached to the plan.

Contribution Tax Type

Select whether the employee contributions are pretax, after-tax or both pretax and after-tax.

If the plan does not allow for employee contributions, select No Employee Contribution.

If you are defining contributions for COBRA participants and retirees, select After-Tax.

Note: This must match with the deductions attached to the plan.

Default Tax Type

If employees can choose between pretax and after-tax contributions and you want a tax type to default on benefit entry forms, select the contribution tax type that you want as the default. You can override the default contribution tax type on benefit entry forms.

If you selected Pretax or After-Tax in the Contrib Tax Type field and you leave this field blank, this field defaults to the value in the Contrib Tax Type field.
Define calculation attributes for this contribution using the following guidelines:

Employee

If the plan participant contributes to the plan and the calculation type is not Rate Table, type the annual participant contribution.

For COBRA participant contributions, include the administrative fee, if any. The application uses this amount to create either deductions for employees or the billing amount for COBRA participants and retirees.

If this is a flex benefit plan, the employee contribution can be a negative amount. If the employee contribution is negative, employees receive flex credits when they elect this benefit.

Note: If the contribution is positive, the application creates employee deductions. If the contribution is negative, the application creates or updates a standard time record for the employee.

Flex Credits

For flex plans, type the annual amount of flex credits the company gives to employees who elect this benefit.
If the calculation type is not Rate Table, type the company's annual contribution in the Company field.
If the Calculation Type field is Rate Table, select the rate table that you want used to calculate contributions for plan participants affected by this contribution record. For COBRA participant or retiree contributions, select an age rate table.

Note: If you add on BN18.2 and a rate table is attached, BN18.8 opens automatically.
If you selected a rate table, click the Criteria button. The Salary Age Service (BN18.8) opens. Define how you want the application to determine an employee's salary, age, and years of service. Fill in the appropriate fields for the rate table you selected on the BN18.3.
Click OK. The Options Amount Range (BN18.2) displays.
Select the Add function.

Related Reports and Inquiries


To	Use
List benefit plan information	Plan Parameter Listing (BN215)