Defining Options Amount

You can use the contribution type of options amount for employee, COBRA participant, and retiree contributions. For flex plans, you can define the amount of flex credits the company gives to employees for electing each benefit coverage option.

The contribution amount can be calculated as a flat amount, percent of salary, or a flat percent.

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 with unique contributions. When you define the form for a plan leaving the Employee Group field blank, the application uses the contribution record for employees who do not meet the criteria for a specific employee group contribution record.

To define options amount

  1. Access Benefit Plan (BN15.1).
  2. Select the Company, Benefit Type, and Plan for which you want to define options amount.
  3. Select the plan participants for the contribution record from the Coverage Type field.
  4. Type the start date for the contribution.
  5. If you are defining contributions that are unique to a particular group of employees, select the employee group for which this contribution applies.
    Note: If you leave this field blank, the application uses this contribution record for employees who do not meet the criteria for a specific employee group contribution record.

    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 so 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 an error.
  6. Define calculation attributes for this contribution using the following guidelines:
    Calculation Type

    Select the method in which 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: 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.

    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 field 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.

  7. If calculation type is percent of salary, select the salary type you want to use for the options amount calculation in the Type field. The following table explains the different salary options.
    Note: If you select a salary field other than the Employe Salary, (for example, BN Salary 1), be sure that field is being logged to history on Data Item Attributes (HR10.1).
    Select To use
    Employee Salary the employee's annualized rate of pay from Employee (HR11.1) or, if applicable, the employee's step and grade schedule.
    Total Employee Salary The employee's total salary from all positions.
    Benefit Salary the benefit salaries from the Benefit tab of HR11.1.
    Flex Salary the employee's salary from Employee Flex Credits (BN45.1).
    Emp and Ben Sal the employee's annualized rate of pay from HR11.1 plus a benefit salary. You use this option if only some of your employees in this plan will need to have a benefit salary amount maintained. For example, commissioned employees.
    Total Emp and Sal The employee's total salary from all positions plus a benefit salary.
  8. If you selected a salary type, select the date you want to use to determine employee salaries in the Date field. The table below explains the date options.
    Select To determine an employee's salary
    Current on the date the benefit begins.
    First of Month on the first of the month in which benefit begins.
    As of Date on a particular month and day. The application uses the month and day that you specify in the AS of MMDD field.
  9. Complete the form using the following guidelines:
    As of MMDD and Year

    Type the date you want to use to determine an employee's salary.

    • If you selected As of Date in the Date field, type the month and day.

    • If you leave the Year field blank when you use the As of Date, the application calculates an employee's salary on the latest month and day specified.

    • If you type a Year, the employee's salary is determined on the exact month, day, and year you specify.

    • If an employee does not have a salary history for the date specified, the application uses the current salary.

    Minimum and Maximum

    Type the minimum and maximum salary amounts for calculating contributions. If an employee's salary is either less or greater than these amounts, the application uses these amounts to calculate flex credits for the employee.

    Method

    This is a required field if you selected a salary type. If you don't want the application to use any rounding methods, select No Rounding.

  10. Click the Options button. The Options Rates (BN19.1) form opens. Define the annual employee, Cobra, retiree, and company contribution for the plan. The coverage options you defined for the plan on Coverage Options (BN17.1) display on the form.
    Note: Selecting the Add form function on Options Amount (BN18.1) automatically opens Options Rates (BN19.1) just like clicking the Options button.
  11. Select the Add function.

Related Reports and Inquiries

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