Dynamics AX 2012 provides the ability to setup and maintain benefits for your employees. In this blog post we will discuss at a high level the benefit functionality you will find in Dynamics AX 2012. This will be the first in a series of blog posts regarding Benefits. Stay tuned for the next blog post in this series where we will cover eligibility and enrollment in more detail.
Before creating a benefit you need to define the components which make up the benefit. These three components called Benefit elements, establish default settings such as deduction limits and accounting details (if using US Payroll) as well as allowing you to group similar benefits. These elements are broken down into type, plan, and option.
- Type – A collection of plans for a specific benefit, such as medical or parking.
- Plan – A specific benefit contracted from a provider.
- Option – The coverage level, such as employee only or employee and spouse.
Other benefits and deductions such as equipment you issue to workers (perhaps cell phones, company cars, etc.), garnishments and tax levies ordered against employees can also be tracked in Dynamics AX.
If you are using US Payroll for Dynamics AX you will find additional information can be tracked on each benefit. Depending on the Payroll category selected on the Type and the Payroll impact indicated on the Plan, different fields become available. For example, deduction and contribution limits can be established on each Plan and tax information can be set so that Benefits are taxed or not taxed appropriately.
After the appropriate benefit elements have been created you are able to create the actual benefits you want to make available to your employees. When you create a benefit you combine the Plan with the appropriate Option.
Within each benefit you can indicate if all employees are eligible, eligibility should be bypassed on this benefit (for example, garnishments or tax levies) or eligibility should be based on a rule. Eligibility rules can be created allowing you to customize which employees are eligible for the benefit based on criteria defined in the rule.
Once you have completed the creation of your benefits and indicated the appropriate eligibility requirements you can run the eligibility process. An eligibility process can be run for one or more employees against one or more benefits. Once an eligibility process has been completed you can view which employees are eligible and which employees are not eligible for each benefit selected.
Upon completing the eligibility process you can begin enrolling your employees in benefits. The enrollment process allows you to handle scenarios where you may need to enroll a single employee in one or more benefits or you can process a mass enrollment allowing you to enroll several employees in one or more benefits.