Implementing ESS 3.1 with Costpoint 4.0 or 5.1 enables functionality that was not available with past ESS versions.
The following Costpoint screens will change in your system after you implement Deltek ESS 3.1. These options will be enabled only if you are licensed for ESS and the ESS Version in the ESS Global Settings screen is "3.1."
Added Rehires Eligible on Rehire Date checkbox to the screen. If you select this checkbox, a rehired employee's benefit start date will be his rehire date. If you do not select the checkbox, a rehired employee's benefit start date will be based on the benefit plan's Eligibility Rules.
The system also verifies that either the Any Time checkbox is selected or at least one of the following checkboxes is selected: On Hire, On Qualifying Event and/or Open Enrollment Period. If you did not select the Any Time, On Hire, On Qualifying Event, and Open Enrollment checkboxes for an existing Benefit Plan, the Any Time checkbox will automatically be checked with the implementation of ESS 3.1.
For screen readability, changed the Age Calculation Method, Salary Calculation Method, Coverage Type, and Rounding Criteria options from radio buttons to drop-down boxes. You do not need to make selections again for existing Benefit Plans.
Added "Coverage Start Date" and "Hire Date" as two new Age Calculation Method options.
Added the Coverage Limit column to the child table. Enter the Coverage Limit that applies to each age bracket where the Calculation Method is "F" (Factor). If the Calculation Method is "F," the specified limit will be applied to benefit options to which the table is assigned. Employees will not be able to elect or be assigned a coverage amount that exceeds the specified Coverage Limit. If the Calculation Method is "A" (Amount), this field will default to 999,999,999.99 and become disabled. This field is required. The Coverage Limit for any of your existing Coverage Amounts by Age tables will be set to 999,999,999.99 when you implement ESS 3.1.
Updated the calculations of coverage amounts based on age so that the Coverage Limit for the appropriate age bracket is applied.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Hire Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the hire date.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Coverage Start Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the coverage start date.
Updated the application so that when you enter a new record, the Federal Filing Status defaults to "Single" and the Federal No of Exempt defaults to 0 (zero). The fields remain enabled so that you can edit them.
Updated the application so that when you enter a new record, the Federal Filing Status defaults to "Single" and the Federal No of Exempt defaults to 0 (zero). The fields remain enabled so that you can edit them.
Updated the calculation of coverage amounts based on age so that the Coverage Limit for the appropriate age bracket is applied.
Updated the application so that all of the existing and new Eligibility Rules for the Benefit Plan are validated.
A new warning will display if the employee's dependent(s) are assigned to the same benefit plan but have different coverage ending dates.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Hire Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his age as of the hire date.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Coverage Start Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the coverage start date.
Updated the application so that, if the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Start of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the employee's age will be based on the first day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. This replaces functionality that based the employee's age on the first day of the system date year when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "Start of Year."
Updated the application so that, if the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "End of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the employee's age will be based on the last day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. This replaces functionality that based the employee's age on the last day of the system date year when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "End of Year."
Updated the application so that all of the existing and new Eligibility Rules for the Benefit Plan are validated.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Hire Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the hire date.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Coverage Start Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the coverage start date.
Updated the application so that, if the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Start of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the dependent's age will be based on the first day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. This replaces functionality that based the dependent's age on the first day of the system date year when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "Start of Year."
Updated the application so that, if the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "End of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the dependent's age will be based on the last day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. This replaces functionality that based the dependent's age on the last day of the system date year when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "End of Year."
Updated the calculation of coverage amounts based on age so that the Coverage Limit for the appropriate age bracket is applied.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Hire Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the hire date.
Updated the application so that, if the premium and/or coverage amount is based on age and the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Coverage Start Date" (new method), the employee's/dependent's age will be based on his/her age as of the coverage start date.
Updated the application so that, if the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Start of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the employee's age will be based on the first day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. This replaces functionality that based the employee's age on the first day of the system date year when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "Start of Year."
Updated the application so that, if the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "End of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the employee's age will be based on the last day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. This replaces functionality that based the employee's age on the last day of the system date year when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "End of Year."
Added the Print only last 4 digits of bank account number checkbox to the screen. If you select this checkbox, only the last four digits of the employee bank account numbers will print on payment advices and be displayed in the ESS 3.1 Electronic Paystub module. Any numbers preceding the last four digits of the account number will print or be displayed as an "X". This checkbox is automatically set to unchecked upon implementation of ESS 3.1. To apply this functionality, select the Print only last 4 digits of bank account number checkbox for the appropriate Pay Cycle(s) in the Direct Deposit Setup screen.
Updated the application so that, if you selected the Print only last 4 digits of bank account number checkbox for the employee's Pay Cycle in the Direct Deposit Setup screen, only the last four digits of the employee's bank account numbers will print on payment advices. Any numbers preceding the last four digits of the account number will print as an "X."
Added fields to control the values in the ESS 3.1 Employee Directory. You now have the option of including any six of the following values: Employee Name, Title, Org ID, Org Name, Work Phone, Work Email, Labor Location, GLC, GLC Description, Employee Class, Full/Part Time and Manager Name.
These new fields will automatically be populated with the following options, in the specified order, when you implement ESS 3.1:
Column 1: Employee Name
Column 2: Title
Column 3: Org Name
Column 4: Org ID
Column 5: Work Phone
Column 6: Work E-mail
If you want a different setup for your ESS 3.1 Employee Directory, use the ESS Global Settings application to update the Employee Directory Settings.
The application now verifies that you have entered a Plan Year End Date in the Current Plan Year group box if there is at least one record in the ESS Life Event Setup table. If you are using or plan to use the Life Events/New Hires module in ESS, you should verify that this field is populated for all taxable entities ("companies" in Costpoint 4.0).
Added the Minimum W-2 Year field, which you can use to specify the earliest W-2 year to be displayed in the ESS 3.1 Electronic W-2 page. This field will be blank when you first implement ESS 3.1. If you leave it blank, there will be no minimum to the W-2 years employees will be able to see in the ESS 3.1 Electronic W-2 page.
Added a warning to notify you whether there are any taxable entities ("companies" in Costpoint 4.0) in the ESS Company Settings table that do not have a Plan Year End Date specified in the Current Plan Year group box. If you are using or plan to use the Life Events/New Hires module in ESS, you should verify that the Plan Year End Date field is populated for all taxable entities ("companies" in Costpoint 4.0) in the ESS Company Settings screen.
The application now verifies that the Designate Beneficiaries module is included in the user flow if the Dependents/Beneficiaries module is part of the user flow. If any of your current Life Event User Flows include the Dependents/Beneficiaries module, but not the Designate Beneficiaries module, the Designate Beneficiaries module will be automatically added when you implement ESS 3.1. This will ensure that changes in dependent type or inactivation of a beneficiary will prompt the employee to update his beneficiary designations.
Added the Indicates New Hire checkbox; use it to specify whether the Life Event represents a new hire life event and a benefit plan's eligibility rules should be used to determine the benefit start date. If you do not select this checkbox, the benefit start date for any benefits elected as a result of the Life Event will not be subject to the benefit plan's eligibility rules. This checkbox is initialized as unchecked when you implement ESS 3.1, but you can select it afterwards.
Added the Non-Withholding State checkbox to the screen. Select this checkbox if tax withholding does not apply to the State, but you would like employees to be able to select the state and have a filing status of "Non-Withholding State" default in the ESS 3.1 State Withholding page. If an employee selects a State for which this checkbox is selected and saves changes in ESS 3.1 State Withholding, his Filing Status will be set to "None" and the Total Exemptions, Total Dependents, Total Credits, and Additional Withholding will be set to zero. Selecting this checkbox will clear and disable the child table window and the Exemptions, Filing Status, and Additional Amount Allowed checkboxes. This checkbox will default as unchecked when you first implement ESS 3.1. To allow employees to select non-withholding states in the ESS 3.1 State Withholding modules, set up those states in this application after implementing ESS 3.1.
Added the Default column to the child table window. If you select this checkbox, the row's Filing Status will default when the State is specified in ESS' State Withholding screen. If you did not select the Non-Withholding State checkbox, you must flag one row in the child table window as the default for the State. You should select the default Filing Status for all existing ESS State Tax Settings records after implementing ESS 3.1.
Updated the application so that it validates all of the existing and new Eligibility Rules for the Benefit Plan.
Updated the application so that it calculates the coverage and/or premiums for benefit plans with an Age Calculation Method of "Coverage Start Date" or "Hire Date" (newly added methods).
Updated the application so that, when calculating coverage amounts, the system applies the specified Coverage Limit for any coverage based on age with a factor Calculation Method. Updated application so that it calculates the coverage and/or premiums for benefit plans with an Age Calculation Method of "Coverage Start Date" or "Hire Date" (newly added methods).
Updated the application so that, when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "Start of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the employee's age will be based on the first day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. Previously, when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "Start of Year," the employee's age was based on the first day of the system date year.
Updated the application so that, when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method is "End of Year" in the Benefit Plan Setup screen, the employee's age will be based on the last day of the open pay period year from the employee's Pay Cycle. Previously, when the benefit plan's Age Calculation Method was "End of Year," the employee's age was based on the last day of the system date year.
Updated the application so that it validates all of the existing and new Eligibility Rules for the Benefit Plan.
Updated the application so that it calculates coverage and/or premiums for benefit plans with an Age Calculation Method of "Coverage Start Date" or "Hire Date" (newly added methods).