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Benefits

Updated

Overview

Note: Help content (except videos) has been updated to reflect the UI/UX changes in BQE CORE.

BQE CORE allows you to create employee benefits list and manage all those benefits as part of the HR management. The benefits are usually non-monetary compensations provided to employees, such as health insurance, sick time, vacation, personal time off, retirement package, facilities, etc. CORE offers powerful benefits administration including benefits assignment, tracking and usage. Benefits usage is driven by time entries. You can also have time entries created from approved PTO requests that contribute to the benefits usage. 

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BQE CORE Owner and Admin user can manage a list of benefit profiles where they can define how a certain benefit is accrued and earned by employees. Click to watch this video on managing employee benefits in CORE.

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CORE HR has the ability to cater to your specific needs in terms of policies when regulating employee benefits. For each benefit, you can specify how to measure the benefit earned and how long an employee takes to earn that benefit. The flexibility provided in CORE allows you to customize the benefit management process according to your company's HR policies. Your company might have specific policies based on which employees are eligible for particular benefits. HR administrators have more control on how employees can earn benefits by specifying various attributes, roll-over rules and earning rules for the benefits.

Note: You can get a visual overview of this feature in CORE from the HR Management flowchart.

Field Descriptions

How To

Create Benefits

Add Earning Rules

Assign Benefits

Export Benefits

View Reports

Apply Filters

Mark Screen as Favorite

Field Descriptions

Field Name Field Description
Benefits > Add Benefit >
Type This helps to distinguish between different types of benefits and allows you to define a number of sub-categories under the same benefit. The benefits can be classified into two basic types:
  • Accrual: A benefit of type 'Accrual' allows you to define accrual rules and manage earned versus burned benefits. Accrual benefits can include vacation, sick, etc.
  • Fixed: A 'Fixed' type of benefit is one that only needs to be recorded from time to time. Fixed type benefits do not have any accrual rules. Fixed benefits can include medical insurance, etc.

This classification determines how the benefit is handled by CORE.
Benefit Details: Accrual Method If you have an Accrual benefit type, you can specify the accrual method for calculating benefits as:
  • Calendar: This method calculates the accrual benefits based on the calendar year and the time that has elapsed since the benefit was assigned till the current date. CORE calculates the accrued benefits in the following way:
    - It considers the number of working hours since the date of benefit assignment. This is based on the employee's Standard Hours set in the Employees screen or Settings.
    - The algorithm breaks this number into separate groupings depending on the benefit rules it falls into and calculates the benefits accrued in that rule period. The sum of the groupings yields the total benefit earned.
    So an employee earns x number of hours or days per accrual period of a day/week/month/year.
  • Time Card Hours: This method calculates the accrual benefits based on the approved time entries. It looks at the number of approved time card hours (excluding vacation, holiday and sick) since the benefit assignment and multiples it by the factor specified in the Benefits profile. Approved PTO creates an automatic time entry as it involves using a benefit. Time card benefits do not offer multi-tiered rules, but just an accrual factor. So an employee earns x number of hours for every hour entered on the time card.
Benefit Period This is the time frame for which the earned units is analyzed. In other words, it is the period the employees must work in the company to earn a particular accrual benefit. Employees can earn x number of days, weeks, months or years based on what you select here. Example: You might have a policy wherein after working for a year, employees get 7 days of vacation time. So you enter Day as the Earning Units and Benefit Period as Year.  

This option is available for both Calendar and Time Card Hours accrual methods. It affects the accrual period in the Benefits Earning Rules section.
First Bi-Week Start Date If you select Bi-week as the accrual units, you must specify this date here. It represents the start date of the first biweekly cycle in your company's current fiscal year. CORE uses this to determine previous or future biweekly cycles
Earning Units The time span of a benefit (for example, sick time) that an employee earns after completing the specified term. In other words, this is the type of units earned within the evaluated period and is applicable when accrual method is based on the calendar. So you can earn accrual benefits in terms of x number of hours or days per benefit period. Example: You might have a policy wherein after working for a year, employees get 7 days of vacation time. So you enter Day as Earning Units and Year as Benefit Period.
Realization Date It is the date when a benefit can start being used. This option is available for accrual methods only. The options are:
  • As Earned: When you choose this option, the benefit becomes available as per the earned date. For each accrual unit, you earn benefits and realize them as earned. E.g., for each year, you can earn benefits in days and realize them as earned.
  • At Beginning of Period: When you choose this option, the full benefit amount becomes available at the beginning of the benefit earning period.
  • At End of Period: When you choose this option, the benefit becomes available at the end of the benefit earning period.
  • Specific Date: When you choose this option, the benefit becomes available from that specific date. In this case, you must specify a Realization Amount that can be used from this date. That could be Accrued Amount (available amount that has been accrued up to that point) or Full Amount (total amount earned in the earning period is front loaded).
Subtype Defines a particular type of benefit under the accrual benefit type, which has to be earned. There are two subtypes of benefits: Sick and Vacation.
Reset Date Benefits can be set to expire for employees. This is the date when a benefit balance is reset to zero. This option is available for accrual methods only. The options are:
  • None (default)
  • An employee’s Hire Date anniversary
  • Specific Date (month/day/year)
  • Recurring Date (month/day for each period)
Max Accrued You can enforce a cap or maximum number of units (hours) an employee can accrue benefits during a benefit period. CORE allows you to set a value up to 5 decimal places (e.g., 0.00001). This option is available for accrual methods only.

Max Carry Amount

Expire On

These are the maximum number of units (hours) that can be carried over to the next benefit period. Various options include:

  • None (default)
  • Fixed: You can enforce a cap or maximum number of accrued units (hours) that can carry over to the next earning period after a benefit period ends. If enabled, CORE checks the employee’s available balance at the end of the benefit period and allows an amount (up to this maximum amount) to carry over to the next benefit period.
  • Multiplier: If you choose this option, CORE multiplies the maximum accrued hours for this year by the value in the Max Carry Amount field and subtracts this year's accrued hours from it. The value you get is the hours you are allowed to roll over from the previous year. For example, if you have accrued 10 vacation hours this year and want to roll over vacation hours from last year with a Max Carry Amount set at 1.5, you can roll over 5 hours from last year (10 x 1.5 = 15; 15-10 = 5), which makes it a total of 15 hours accrued for this year. CORE does not allow values lower than 1.

You can choose for the Max Carry Amount to never expire or set it to expire on a selected date, say an employee’s Hire Date anniversary (default option), any Recurring Date (month/day for each period) or a Specific Date (month/day/year). Setting an expiration date expires any carried-over amount on the specified date. This option is available for accrual methods only.
Start Date

Date on which a benefit is assigned to an employee. This is the date when the employee starts earning that benefit. If you want the benefit to start the same date as the employee's hire date, you can choose that date as the start date. This option is available for fixed benefits only.
End Date

Date on which a benefit ends for an employee. In other words, the date an employee is no longer eligible for earning benefits. You can leave this field blank if you do not want to have an end date on benefits earning period. Example: The benefits earning is measured on accrual basis. So if for 1 year an employee earns 6 days leave and the benefit period ends before his first year is complete, say 6 months, the employee would earn 3 days of leave.

This option is available for fixed benefits only.
Period This is the time for which fixed benefits are provided. Employees can earn fixed benefits as per the period selected here (day, month, year, etc.). This option is available for fixed benefits only.
Value For fixed type benefits, you can set an amount for that benefit, say bonus amount per year. This option is available for fixed benefits only.
Max Value For fixed type benefits, you can set a maximum amount for that benefit. The benefit should not exceed this limit. This option is available for fixed benefits only.
Part of Compensation You can check this option if the benefits offered are a part of compensation and thus included in the employee's salary or payroll. This option is available for fixed benefits only.
Benefits Earning Rules

When the benefits are accrual-based, you can add earning rules for them based on the benefit period and earning units. For example, to regulate your sick time benefits, if an employee earns no sick time in the first six months, enter: Employee earns 0 Days per Year for 0.5 Years. Then, Employee earns 6 Days per Year for 5 Years.

Create Benefits

CORE provides HR managers with many options to add employee benefits, and configure how benefits can be earned and rolled over into the following period.

To create a benefit profile, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.

    Benefits.png

  2. Click Create Benefit on the top-right.
  3. On the Add Benefit dialog, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Benefit Name
    • Type: The benefits can be classified into two basic types:
      - Accrual
      - Fixed
    • Subtype
    • Accrual Method: If you have an Accrual benefit type, you can specify the accrual method for calculating benefits as:
      - Calendar
      - Time Card Hours
    • Benefit Period
    • Earning Units
    • Realization Date: This option is available for accrual methods only. The options are:
      - As Earned
      - At Beginning of Period
      - At End of Period
      - Specific Date
    • Reset Date: This option is available for accrual methods only. The options are:
      - None (default)
      - An employee’s Hire Date anniversary
      - Specific Date
      - Recurring Date
    • Max Accrued: This option is available for accrual methods only.
    • Max Carry Amount: Various options include:
      - None (default)
      - Fixed
      - Multiplier: Check Field Descriptions above for details. This option is available for accrual methods only. 
    • Start Date: This option is available for fixed benefits only.
    • End Date: This option is available for fixed benefits only.
    • Period: for which fixed benefits are provided. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
    • Value: This option is available for fixed benefits only.
    • Max Value: This option is available for fixed benefits only.
  4. Click Continue.

CORE automatically adds an earning rule for a new benefit with 0 values by default. You can then add your own values, as required. After creating a list of benefits your company offers, you can assign those benefits to the employees.

Add Earning Rules

CORE Owner or Admin user can set the basic rules of how employees can earn benefits of the accrual type. CORE allows them to provide the number of hours (or any unit they choose) the employees earn if they work for a certain number of years (or any other unit). You can define any number of rules to be applied in the order they have been entered. The rules can be set based on the Calendar or Time Card Hours accrual method.

Note: CORE automatically adds an earning rule for a new benefit with 0 values by default. You can add earning rules to each benefit profile either while creating the benefits or from the detail view after creating them.

To set up an earning rule for a benefit, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.
  2. In the list view, select a benefit on the grid and click on its row to view the details.
  3. In the detail view, click Add Earning Rule.

    benefits_earning_rules.png

  4. Under Benefits Earning Rules, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
  5. Click Save. The rule gets added to the list.

You might want to set additional rules to show how the benefits are earned over time. You can repeat the above steps to do so. Example: Employee earns 6 Days per Year for 5 Years.

Assign Benefits

You can assign benefits to employees from the Benefits screen as well as Employees screen. Here, you can assign a benefit to multiple employees in a batch.

To assign a benefit to an employee, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.

    BenefitsAssign.png

  2. Select a benefit on the grid and click dropdown-caret.png to select Assign Employee. You can also do this from the detail view via Actions > Assign Employee.
  3. On the Assign Employees dialog, select the employees on the grid to whom you want to assign the benefit.
  4. Click Assign.

Note: If an employee’s hire date is missing, the checkbox for that row is grayed out, and an exclamation icon appears indicating that the benefit assignment cannot be completed. To proceed, you must set the employee's hire date.

Export Benefits

In CORE, you can export benefits to the Comma Separated Values file format. CORE exports data from all available columns and not just the columns visible in the grid.

To export benefit records to a .CSV file, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.

    BenefitsExport.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Export as CSV.
  3. A .csv export file is created and saved on your system at the default download location, say your desktop. Click to open the spreadsheet.

You can also check the detailed video on exporting data in CORE.

View Reports

To view a report:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.

    BenefitsReport.png

  2. In the list view, click More > View Reports.
  3. Select a report from the Report List dialog. It opens in the viewer.
  4. Preview the report and then choose to export or print it.

You can also check the detailed video on running and managing reports in CORE.

Apply Filters

When using the filter search or applying filters, CORE intelligently updates the info bars to reflect the values of the filtered list. Besides filtering data using the standard fields on a screen, you can also use the custom fields for that, if you have set them up.

To view selective data on the grid, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.

    BenefitsFilter.png

  2. In the list view, click filters-01.png on the right.
  3. On the Filters panel, select a filter from the drop-down and specify individual records or range.
  4. Click Add Filters to specify more filters.
  5. When you have finished, click Apply Filter. You can see selective data now.
  6. In the list view, you can remove the individual filters by clicking remove-01.png on each. To disable applied filters temporarily or remove all filters, click filter_icon.png next to the Filters icon and select Disable Filters or Clear All, respectively.

You can also check the detailed video on applying filters in CORE.

Mark Screen as Favorite

You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings.

To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Benefits screen from the side menu > Human Resources.

    BenefitsFavorite.png

  2. In the list view, click favorites.png on the top-right.
  3. You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.

You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.

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