Calculating Pension Benefits

This chapter provides an overview of pension benefit calculations and discusses how to:

Run calculations for multiple employees.
Set up benefit calculations.
Run calculations.
Access calculation results.
View calculation messages.
Review processing results.
Protect a calculation.
Run Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) calculations.
Calculate social security.

Understanding Pension Benefit Calculations

Pension Administration uses the plan rules that you set up to calculate pension benefits.

When you run a calculation, you specify the employees and plans to include in the calculation. Additional fields enable you to enter assumptions about information that is not restricted by the plan rules. For example, you can enter a benefit commencement date or a salary escalation rate.

You can also enter overrides to set up what-if scenarios for information that plan rules normally control. For example, you can override the calculated vesting percentage with a 100 percent vesting assumption.

The system assumes that an employee who is not eligible, or who is eligible but not participating, has no benefit accrued. Therefore, a calculation does not end when the calculation determines that an employee is ineligible or not participating.

Running Calculations for Multiple Employees

This section provides an overview of how to run calculations for multiple employees, lists the page used to run calculations for multiple employees, and discusses how to:

Create a list of selected employees.
Create a calculation group.

Understanding How to Run Calculations for Multiple Employees

There are two ways to run calculations for multiple employees:

Use a predefined list of individually selected employees.
Use a group defined by a custom statement.

Page Used to Run Calculations for Multiple Employees

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Calculation Group List	PA_CLC_GROUP	Pension, Calculations, Create Group List, Calculation Group List	Create a list to use when running a calculation on a predefined list of employees.

Creating a List of Selected Employees

Access the Calculation Group List page.

Add employees to the list by inserting rows and entering each employee’s ID.

If you process large groups of employees, consider using a database tool, such as SQLTalk, to enter the data. For example, to run benefit calculations for all employees in a division, you probably do not want to enter every employee’s ID on this page. It’s faster to use SQLTalk to select all employees in that division and copy their employee IDs to the calculation group list.

Keep in mind that this is a static group based only on employee ID—not on dynamic criteria, such as salaried status or full-time status. Therefore, if you set up a list based on employees who meet certain criteria, you must maintain the list as employee data changes. In this situation, consider creating a custom SQR that you can run as often as needed to repopulate the list with current data.

Creating a Calculation Group

You can create a predefined calculation group that is based on custom statements, rather than specific, handpicked employees. Although calculations for predefined groups take longer than those for predefined lists, they are much quicker to set up, because you do not have to manually select individual employees who meet your calculation criteria, and they require no maintenance. They automatically select only employees who meet your criteria at a given point.

See Also

Grouping Employees

Setting Up Benefit Calculations

This section lists the pages used to set up benefit calculations and discusses how to:

Create a calculation naming standard.
Set up employee information and processing parameters.
Enter plan-specific information.
Enter override values.
Isolate individual calculation components.
Adjust amounts for individual components.

Pages Used to Set Up Benefit Calculations

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Main Page	PA_CALCULATION_2	Pension, Calculations, Define Calculation, Main Page	Set up employee information and processing parameters: Enter assumptions for employee hours, earnings, and beneficiaries. Request that detailed values be stored with the results. Run custom code to access employee data from another system. Assume full service credit. Establish when to delete results from the system.
Plan Inputs	PA_CALCULATION_3	Pension, Calculations, Define Calculation, Plan Inputs	Enter plan-specific information about ages, dates, and overrides.
Function Overrides	PA_CALCULATION_5	Pension, Calculations, Define Calculation, Function Overrides	Enter override values for calculation components. Note. The processes listed on this page are brought in when you identify a plan and an as of date on the Main Page.
Process Selection	PA_CALCULATION_4	Pension, Calculations, Define Calculation, Process Selection	Isolate individual calculation components to calculate those results without running through an entire calculation. For example, if you enter an override for the benefit formula result, you can process only the optional forms function, bypassing service, final average earnings, and all other functions that you already ignore by entering the benefit amount override. You must first enter a plan and as of date on the Main Page.
Adjustments	PA_CALCULATION_6	Pension, Calculations, Define Calculation, Adjustments	Adjust amounts for individual components, such as participation service and vested benefit. Arithmetically modify function results. You must first identify a plan and as of date on the Main Page.

Creating a Calculation Naming Standard

Use the calculation name to access calculation-related information throughout the system to view and report on the calculation results, to offer optional forms to employees, and to pay employees based on the optional form. For this reason, assign meaningful calculation names. The Calculation Name field is 20 characters long. Your naming standards could also incorporate employee names or IDs, the date or reason for the calculation, or sequential numbering when you have multiple calculations for a single employee. Develop a naming standard that gives you the information to distinguish one calculation from another at a glance.

Setting Up Employee Information and Processing Parameters

Access the Main Page.

CalcType (calculation type)

You can run a calculation for an individual employee, a predefined list of employees, or a predefined group of employees.

ID, List Name, or Group List

The field that appears depends on the value you select in the CalcType field. When you select:

Individual, the ID field appears.

Enter the ID of the employee for whom you are running a calculation.

Pre-defined List, the List Name field appears.

Enter the name of a predefined calculation group list that contains a static list of employees.

Pre-defined Group, the Group Name field appears.

Enter the name of a predefined calculation group. This group need not be static. It can consist of criteria defined by a custom statement that is used to dynamically identify group members.

Event Date, Event Age (YY.MM), and Event Date Alias

An employee’s pension benefit depends on when the employee ends employment. Service stops accruing as of the event date. Benefit eligibility might depend on the event date, and other calculation components might use this date, depending on how you configure your calculation rules.

You can use one of these fields to set the event date:

Event Date: The current (system) date appears by default. You can enter other dates to perform historical calculation or estimates for the future.

Event Age: To use the event date associated with a specific age, enter the age in the format yy.mm.

Event Date Alias: You can use this option to calculate a precise event date. You can define the event date by specifying the hard-coded event date, the event age, or by using other factors, such as the number of years an employee has been with the company.

Note. Enter a value in only one of these fields.

As Of Date

Because your plan rules are effective-dated, you must enter an as of date for the plan rules. If you are reproducing a past estimate, this date ensures that you use the rules that were in effect at the time. Typically, the as of date is the same as the event date.

Note. The system brings the plan rules onto the calculation pages based on a combination of the plan and the as of date. If you’re testing changes to your plan rules, you must reenter one of these values, usually the as of date, to pick up the changes. This reloads all of the data on the Function Overrides and Process Selection pages, so you also must reenter data on those pages.

Reason Cd (reason code)

Enter one of the following codes to indicate the reason for the event:

Death

Disability

QDRO Alternate Payee

Retirement

TV - Deferred Pymt (terminated vested - deferred payment)

TV - Immediate Pymt (terminated vested - immediate payment)

Web Estimate

Your plan rules might reference this field when death and disability have different calculation rules from the rules used for regular termination and retirement. This field’s significance depends on how your company sets up calculation rules.

You can leave this field blank.

Archive/Delete Dt (archive or delete date)

Enter an expiration date here to have periodic processing delete the calculation and its results as of that date.

If you leave this field blank, the system uses the current date as the expiration date. If you do not want periodic processes to delete the calculation, do not run the Delete Calculations periodic process.

Periodic processing deletes calculation results if both of the following conditions are met:

The archive or delete date on the calculation page is in the past.

The calculation is not explicitly protected on the Protect Calculation page.

Benefit Commencement Date or Benefit Commencement Dt Alias

The field that appears depends on the value you select in the CalcType field. When you select:

Individual, the Benefit Commencement Date field appears.

Enter the date when benefits begin for the employee for whom you are running a calculation.

Pre-defined List or Pre-defined Group, the Benefit Commencement Dt Alias field appears.

Enter the name of an alias that contains the date when benefits begin for the group or list of employees for whom you are running a calculation.

Copy

To run calculations for several retirement scenarios (for example, different event dates or retirement dates for an employee’s retirement counseling), you must run multiple calculations. Most of the data in these calculations is the same. Use this button to clone the current calculation parameters in a new calculation. After you clone an existing calculation, you can make minor modifications to set up the alternative retirement scenario.

When you click this button, the system automatically saves changes to the current calculation.

Note. This button is not available in Add mode.

Warning! When you click this button, the system does not ask if you want to save changes; it just saves them. When using the Copy button, be careful not to save unwanted changes.

After the system saves the current calculation, it prompts you for a new calculation name and description.

Enter the information and click OK. The system displays the new calculation, but it has not yet been saved. Be sure to explicitly save the new calculation before leaving the page.

Options

Calculate All Plans	If you select this option, the system runs the calculation on all plans associated with the employee, list, or group. If you select this check box, the system uses the plan normal retirement date (NRD) as the benefit commencement date and the lump sum date. You can override this default for individual plans by manually adding those plans to the scrolling area. If you set a different benefit commencement date without associating that date with a plan, you do not override the default. If you clear this check box, the system displays a warning message reminding you that 415 limits apply to all qualified plans and that you should be sure to include all plans for which the employee is eligible. Note. If each plan has a plan eligibility function that filters out ineligible employees, All Plans really means all the plans for which an employee is eligible. You can also run a calculation for more than one plan at a time by adding a row on the Plan Inputs page.
Load External Employee Data	Pension Administration normally receives employee data from the PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS tables. Users of a standalone system might not have this data available. If you select this check box, the system runs your own custom process to bring relevant employee data into the calculation linkage, where it is then available to all of the pension functions. This option does not populate the relevant PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS tables.
Detailed Worksheet	A benefit calculation is based on several components, including service, vesting percentage, earnings, and contributory balances. When you run a calculation, the system captures the values of all the components. This enables you to view basic information used to determine the benefit. In calculating each component, the system also produces intermediate results. For example, to calculate total service, the system calculates service for each annual period during the participant’s employment. If you select this check box, the system preserves these intermediate results for reporting purposes. The system already has fields to hold the results; selecting this option just captures the data.
Grant Full Service Credit	Contributory plans frequently associate contributions with service. Terminating employees who withdraw their contributions forfeit the corresponding service, and rehired employees who repay their contributions (with interest) can have that service credit restored. You might run calculations for a rehired employee who is considering buying back service or who is in the process of buying back the service. If you select this check box, the calculation gives the employee full credit for all of the service that was forfeited because of a withdrawal of contributions. This option does not affect the employee account balance, which still includes only money that was actually paid into the account.

Birthdate Overrides

Employee and Spouse or Number of Years added to Age

The field or fields that appear depend on the value you select in the CalcType field. When you select:

Individual, the Employee and Spouse fields appear.
- In the Employee field, you can optionally enter a date to override an employee's birth date.
- In the Spouse field, you can optionally enter a date to override a spouse's birth date.
  
  The spouse birth date applies only to beneficiaries who are spouses. Because employees can have different non-spouse beneficiaries for each plan, the beneficiary birth date override is a plan-level override. The beneficiary birth date override field is on the Plan Inputs page.
Pre-defined List or Pre-defined Group, the Number of Years added to Age field appears.

Note. This override applies only to an employee—not to a spouse or other beneficiary. The Beneficiary Birth Date Override field on the Plan Inputs page doesn't change for group calculations; it is therefore inappropriate to enter beneficiary birth date overrides when running group calculations.

Assumptions

To estimate a benefit for a future event date, you must usually estimate future earnings, hours, and contributions. To calculate social security for a future retirement, you must make assumptions about annually published government tables, such as the taxable wage base table.

You can enter assumptions for each plan. If you select the Calculate All Plans check box, you can only enter assumptions for plans that you specifically add to the list of included plans.

Functions and utilities that use this information (social security, projections, and others) automatically have access to your parameters.

Earnings Amount and Hours Amount	When a calculation projects earnings or hours, these values determine the current period amounts, if the rules so specify. The plan rules can specify either that this amount replace the entire period or that it be prorated and used only for the incomplete portion of the current period.
Wage Base Escalation Rate	Indicates the assumed rate of increase in the taxable wage base. This is used for social security calculations and can also affect other calculation components, depending on plan rules.
CPI Percent Increase (consumer price index percentage increase)	Indicates the assumed rate of increase in the CPI-W table. This is used for social security benefit increases.
Salary Scale Percent Increase	Indicates the assumed rate of increase in periodic earnings. This is used when projecting earnings. Enter a rate that is consistent with the type of earnings period (annual, monthly, or other).

See Also

Protecting a Calculation

Accessing Calculation Results

Maintaining Employee Pension Data

Running Periodic Processes

Entering Plan-Specific Information

Access the Plan Inputs page.

Plan Inputs

Plan and Pension Type

When you enter a plan name, the system displays the pension type: Qualified or Nonqualified.

By inserting a new row in this section, you can calculate multiple plans at once.

Ben Commencement Age/Date

Many aspects of a calculation depend on when benefits begin. You specify that information on this page.

Plan NRD (plan normal retirement date), Plan ERD (plan early retirement date), or Other	Select the plan NRD, ERD, or other option, as defined in the plan rules.
Age(YY.MM), Date and Date Alias	Specify the benefit commencement age and date (or date alias) for calculating benefits from a plan.

Lump Sum Age/Date

If your plan rules reference a lump sum date that is different from the benefit commencement date, use this group box.

For a group calculation, you usually select the Plan NRD or Plan ERD option, because these are determined for each individual employee. If you enter an actual date, this causes different employees in the group to commence benefits at different ages, at which they might not be eligible to receive benefits. For a lump sum, enter an age instead of a date, for the same reason.

Overrides

Certain plans offer an automatic joint and survivor benefit to qualified spouses—that is, a joint and survivor benefit that does not require an actuarial adjustment to an employee’s benefit. If you provide this benefit, you establish the eligibility criteria in your plan rules. For example, perhaps the employee and spouse must be married for a full year before being eligible for this benefit.

Surviving Spouse Eligibility	Override the eligibility criteria by selecting the appropriate option: N - Override to Ineligible. Y - Override to Eligible.
Beneficiary Birthdate and Beneficiary Gender	If the employee has a non-spouse beneficiary on record, you can override information about the beneficiary in these fields. Since this information depends on data for an individual, do not use these fields for group calculations.
Assumed Contributions Pct (assumed contributions percentage)	To calculate possible future contributions, enter a percentage. When the calculation projects contributions, the system applies this percentage to projected earnings to arrive at future contribution amounts.
Use Function Overrides	Select to enter overrides for a plan. Enter the actual overrides on the Function Overrides page.
Use Process Selection	Select to indicate processes to run on the Process Selection page.
Use Adjustments	Select to enter adjustments for a plan. Enter the actual overrides on the Adjustments page.

See Isolating Individual Calculation Components.

Entering Override Values

Access the Function Overrides page.

Override

If you select the Use Function Overrides check box on the Plan Inputs page, select the Override check box for each value to override.

Function Name

Displays the pension function that controls the processing.

Process Name

Displays the name your organization assigned to the process (the function result name).

Field Name and Field Value

Field Name displays the fields to override. Enter the override value in the Field Value field.

Subsequent processes in the job flow use this override value instead of the calculated value. For example, if you override a final average earnings value, the benefit formula uses the earnings amount that you enter, rather than actual earnings data.

Many functions have only a single value. For example, the final average earnings and vesting functions both produce a single result. Conversely, some functions produce multiple (or compound) values. For example, the service function produces service amount, service units (years or months), and date attained.

Although you do not have to enter overrides for all of the values, enter overrides for values that are necessary for the calculation. For example, there’s no need to enter 10 fields of intermediate information for social security results, but enter the PIA_AMT_ADJ, which is the final adjusted social security benefit.

If you enter overrides for the benefit amount (shown on the page as BENCALC), enter overrides for all four of the benefit amount fields:

Amount

Form code

Payment frequency

Automatic spousal benefit

The first three fields are required for optional forms conversions. The automatic spousal benefit override default is zero.

Note. If you enter an override for one of a function result’s values, that function result produces only the result that you enter. Therefore, there are no detailed results.

Pension Administration produces a benefit amount through a series of processes that build upon each other. Normally, each process produces a result according to rules that you set up. Instead, however, you can bypass the calculation process and enter override values for calculation components. Use the Function Overrides page to enter these override values.

As an example of when you might use overrides, suppose a terminated vested employee remarries before beginning to receive payments. Because the new spouse has a different birth date from the previous spouse, the joint and survivor factors must be recalculated. Instead of running a new calculation from the beginning, use the original benefit amount as an override. This way, you can recalculate optional forms factors while ensuring that the normal benefit amount is the same as the amount that you calculated at the time of termination.

Overrides also enable you to set up what-if scenarios by manipulating a portion of the calculation.

Using Overrides

Consider the following when working with overrides:

Do not enter overrides for the plan eligibility function. This prevents the system from producing the timeline of eligible and ineligible periods that might be needed for other processes. If you know that your plan rules do not reference this timeline, you can skip eligibility processing.
Valid participation overrides are Y (yes) and N (no).
When you enter a vesting override, use a percentage rather than a factor. For example, if an employee is 60 percent vested, enter 60—not 0.6.
The social security function has 10 result fields, all of which appear in the overrides section. Enter just a final social security amount in the PIA_AMT_ADJ field.
Enter early and late retirement adjustments as adjustment factors—not adjustment amounts. For example, if an employee’s benefit is to be reduced by 20 percent, the factor is 0.8. If an employee’s benefit is to be increased by 5 percent, the factor is 1.05.
Enter death coverage factors as adjustment factors—not adjustment amounts. For example, if an employee’s benefit is to be reduced by 2 percent, the factor is 0.98.

Reviewing Examples of Overrides

Use the following table to understand appropriate values for the override fields:

Function	Field	Description	Example
Plan eligibility (PLANELIG)	ELIG_STATUS_PA	Eligibility status.	Do not enter overrides.
Participation (PLANPARTIC)	PARTICIPATION_TYPE	Participation status.	Y (participating) N (not participating)
	PARTICIPATION_DATE	Participation date.	01/31/1999
Service (SERVICE)	SERVICE_AMOUNT	Service amount.	10.50
	DATE_ATTAINED	Date on which the service amount is attained.	12/31/1999
	UNITS	Service units.	Y (years) M (months)
Vesting (VESTING)	VESTING_PERCENT	Vesting percentage.	80
Plan eligibility (BENELIG)	BEN_ELIG_STATUS	Benefit eligibility status.	Y
Final average earnings (FAE)	FAE_AMOUNT	Final average earnings amount.	54321.89
Cash balance accounts (CASHBAL)	ACCUM_AMT	Cash balance value as of event date. If you use an override, the system does not produce the secondary aliases that provide the value at other dates.	158674.47
Employee accounts (EMPLACCTS)	ACCUM_AMT	Employee account value as of the beneficiary date.	10543.89
Social security (SOCSEC)	PIA_AMT	Unadjusted primary insurance amount (PIA).	861.40
	PIA_AMT_ADJ	Adjusted PIA—adjusted for early or late commencement. This is the final result for social security.	861.40
	SOC_SEC_AGE	Social security normal retirement age. Enter partial ages as decimals.	65.333333
	SOC_SEC_BCD	Social security benefit commencement date.	65
	INDEX_YR	Social security indexing year (two years before the eligibility year).	1999
	ELIG_YR	Social security eligibility year (the year an employee attains age 62 or the year of death or disability).	2001
	AIME	Average indexed monthly earnings.	1920.00
	AVGWAGES_INDEX_YR	National average wage for the index year.	23132.67
	BIRTHDATE	Employee’s birth date.	12/01/1939
	COMPUTATION_YRS	Number of years of earnings history used in the social security computation.	35
Covered compensation (COVRDCOMP)	COMP_AMT	Covered compensation amounts.	3500
Early and late retirement factors (AGEADJUST)	ADJ_FACTOR	Adjustment factor.	0.8
	PRD_OF_ADJ	Number of periods (months or years) used to arrive at the factor.	4
Death coverage factors (DEATHCVRG)	ADJ_FACTOR	Final death coverage adjustment factor.	0.98
	NUM_PRD	Number of periods (months or years) used to arrive at the factor.	10
Benefit formula (BENCALC)	BEN_AMT	Dollar amount of the employee’s benefit in the plan’s normal form of payment.	3404.32
	PYMT_FREQ	Payment frequency of the normal form of the benefit. (Valid values appear on the Benefit Formula - Normal Form of Payment page.	M (monthly)
	FORM_CODE	Optional form code. (Form codes appear on the Benefit Formula - Normal Form of Payment page).	LIFE
	AUTO_AMT	Dollar amount of the benefit automatically available to an eligible spouse, regardless of the employee’s optional form selection.	25
Employee-paid benefit (CONTSBEN)	ACCT_BAL_EVENT	Account balance as of the event date.	10543.89
	ACCT_BAL_DOD	Account balance at the date of determination.	13276.18
	ACCT_BAL_NRD	Account balance as of the normal retirement date.	13276.18
	EE_BEN_AMT	Annuity value of the employee account at the normal retirement date. This is the final result for the employee-paid benefit function.	55.317417
	INT_RT_1	Interest rate used to project from the event date to the date of determination.	5
	INT_RT_2	Interest rate used to project from the date of determination to the normal retirement date.	5
	FACTOR	Factor used to convert the balance as of the normal retirement date to annuity.	0.004167
	DT_OF_DET	Date of the determination.	12/31/1998
Optional forms of payment (OPTFORMS)	No overrides available.	N/A	N/A
415 limits (LIMIT415)	No overrides available.	N/A	N/A

Note. When you apply 401(a)(17) limits (or other limits) to final average earnings or cash balance accounts, a regular calculation also produces secondary values with the unlimited FAE and cash balance amounts. You normally access these values through function result aliases. When you use overrides, the system does not calculate these secondary values.

See Also

Defining Benefit Formulas

Viewing Social Security Results

Using Function Result and Actuarial Factor Aliases

Isolating Individual Calculation Components

Access the Process Selection page.

Note. The processes listed on this page are brought in when you identify a plan and an as of date on the Define Calculation - Main Page.

Process Name	Displays the name that your organization assigned to the process (the function result name).
Process Type	Indicates how your organization defines the processing rules; disregard this field.
Execute	If you select the Use Process Selection check box on the Define Calculation - Plan Inputs page, select the Execute check box for each process to run. If you select a process that depends on values obtained from previous processes, either run those processes or enter overrides for them.

Adjusting Amounts for Individual Components

Access the Adjustments page.

Adj (adjustment)

Select this check box for each function that you need to adjust.

Function Name	The name of a pension function—for example, BENCALC for the benefit formula function.
Process Name	The name your organization has assigned to a process (the function result name).
Field Name	The name of a value that you can adjust.
Field Value	Enter the adjustment amount in the text box.

Reviewing Examples of Adjustments

Use the following table to understand the appropriate values for the adjustment fields:

Function	Field	Description	Example
Service (SERVICE)	SERVICE_AMOUNT	Adjustment is added to the calculated service amount for the specified function result before the service minimum and maximum are applied.	10.50
Benefit formula (BENCALC)	BEN_AMT	Multiplier is applied to the dollar amount of the employee's benefit in the plan's normal form of payment for the specified function result.	2

Function

Field

Description

Example

Service

(SERVICE)

SERVICE_AMOUNT

Adjustment is added to the calculated service amount for the specified function result before the service minimum and maximum are applied.

10.50

Benefit formula

(BENCALC)

BEN_AMT

Multiplier is applied to the dollar amount of the employee's benefit in the plan's normal form of payment for the specified function result.

Running Calculations

This section provides an overview of Process Scheduler, lists the page used to run calculations, and discusses how to enter the calculation name.

Understanding Process Scheduler

Process Scheduler manages all PeopleSoft processes. To access Process Scheduler, you need a run control ID, which provides Process Scheduler with information about the process. In the case of pension calculations, it provides the calculation name, which is the key to the rest of the parameters. The run control ID also provides generic processing parameters, such as when to run the process and whether to run the process on the client or the server.

For most processes, you access a search page with a run control ID. Pension calculations are somewhat different. Because you save the calculation parameters in the system, you identify calculations by a calculation name rather than by the run control ID used to process the calculation. Therefore, you enter run control IDs on the first parameter page, not on the search page.

See Also

Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Page Used to Run Calculations

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Calculate Pension	PA_CALCULATION_RUN	Pension, Calculations, Request Calculation, Calculate Pension	Enter the calculation name to run the Report Manager, Process Monitor, and Run Processes pages.

Entering the Calculation Name

Access the Calculate Pension page.

Calculation Name

If you access this page from the Calculate Pension component, the default is the calculation name from the Calculate Pension component.

Accessing Calculation Results

When a calculation finishes and you refresh the Main Page, Results Exist appears. You have two options for viewing your calculation results: online pages or a calculation report.

To view the results online on the Calculation Summary page:

Select Pension, Review Calculations, Review Main Results.
Click the View Results button on the Main Page.

To generate a calculation worksheet report:

Select Pension, Calculations, Create Worksheet, Calculation Worksheet.
Click the Run Report button on the Main Page.

Viewing Calculation Results

Pension Administration Reports

Viewing Calculation Messages

This section lists the page used to view calculation messages and discusses how to view calculation messages.

Page Used to View Calculation Messages

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Message Log	PA_MESSAGE_LOG	Pension, Calculations, Review Processing Messages, Message Log	View warnings or errors generated during the calculation (or during periodic processing).

Viewing Calculation Messages

Access the Message Log page.

Search Criteria

To view messages from a calculation, select Instance. Look up the instance associated with a calculation on the Calculation Summary page or Calculation Recap page.

Process Instance and To Instance

After you find the instance, enter it in these fields.

Search

Click the Search button to display the processing errors in the Messages group box.

Show Program Names

If you select the Show Program Name check box, the following fields appear: Instance, Job ID, DateTime, and Program Name.

Instance, Job ID, DateTime, and Program Name

These fields identify where the error occurred.

Each row also includes the error message. The calculation name, employee ID, and plan appear at the end of the message.

Click the More button next to the message to view additional explanatory text.

See Also

Viewing Processing Errors

Reviewing Processing Results

This section lists the page used to review processing results and discusses how to review processing results.

Page Used to Review Processing Results

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Calculation Recap	PA_SUMMARY_STAT	Pension, Calculations, Review Calculations, Calculation Recap	Review the processing results after you run a calculation.

Reviewing Processing Results

Access the Calculation Recap page.

Calculation Name, Run Control ID, and Process Instance

Identify the calculation. You must know the process instance to review messages (errors or warnings) generated during processing.

As Of Date

Displays the as of date from your calculation.

Employees

Displays the number of employees who are included in the calculation.

Function Results

Displays the number of function results that are processed.

Plan Count

Displays the number of plans that you ran for the listed employee.

Event Date

Displays the event date from your calculation.

Benefit Amount

Disregard this field.

Protecting a Calculation

This section lists the page used to protect a calculation and discusses how to protect a calculation.

Page Used to Protect a Calculation

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Protect Calculation	PA_CLC_PROTECT	Pension, Calculations, Protect Calculations, Protect Calculation	Protect a calculation from deletion or modification.

Protecting a Calculation

Access the Protect Calculation page.

Protect Calculation

Select to protect a calculation.

Protection Reason

Initially, all calculations are labeled Estimate Calculation and are not protected. Select a reason: Final Calculation, Final Calculation Candidate, QDRO Recipient Candidate, Related Primary Calculation (for example, a calculation that establishes a minimum benefit), or Other.

Because you can quickly accumulate huge amounts of calculation information, it’s important to regularly delete calculations that you no longer need. Periodic processing includes a deletion process for this purpose.

Because of this regular deletion process, you must take measures to protect calculations that you do need. These include estimates that you provide to employees, final calculations, or calculations used in a divorce settlement to establish the amount granted to a former spouse.

Protecting a calculation prevents someone from deleting the results, modifying the calculation parameters, or rerunning the calculation.

Running QDRO Calculations

When a former spouse gains a share in an employee’s pension benefit through a QDRO, the former spouse (the QDRO alternate payee) becomes a plan participant and receives an employee ID for the plan.

On the QDRO Process page, enter the dollar amount due to the alternate payee. However, if the alternate payee decides to begin collecting the pension payment at a time other than when the original employee reaches the plan’s normal retirement age, you might need to apply early or late retirement factors to the benefit.

Furthermore, the QDRO alternate payee is often entitled to many of the same optional forms that employees might choose (with the notable exception of joint and survivor options that provide a benefit to a new spouse). When you use Pension Administration to schedule payments to the QDRO alternate payee, you reference the optional forms produced in the QDRO calculation.

To calculate early and late retirement factors and optional forms, run a calculation under the QDRO alternate payee’s employee ID.

When you do this, use the Process Selection page to limit the calculation, so that you only run the following factors:

Early and late retirement factors.
Alternate payee’s benefit formula, which typically just uses the QDRO amount that you enter on the QDRO Process page.
Optional forms of payment, based on the alternate payee’s benefit.

This is important, because you do not want the system to try to calculate eligibility, service, final average earnings, or other plan components that are not applicable to an alternate payee.

Note. For QDRO calculations, use the Process Selection page to restrict a calculation to only relevant functions, typically these: early and late retirement factors, benefit formula, and optional forms of payment. Alternatively, if your plan rules are set up so that QDRO alternate employees are eligible for the plan, and if the rules prevent all other calculation components from processing QDRO alternate payees, you do not have to make a manual process selection for each calculation.

Administering QDROs

Calculating Social Security

Even if your plans do not incorporate social security integration, you might provide your employees with social security estimates to use during retirement counseling.

If your organization defines social security calculation rules, either embedded in an actual plan or in a dummy plan for this explicit purpose, you can produce these estimates. Include the social security plan when setting up your calculation parameters. Social security results are available through the same pages and reports that provide the rest of the calculation results.

CalcType (calculation type)	You can run a calculation for an individual employee, a predefined list of employees, or a predefined group of employees.
ID, List Name, or Group List	The field that appears depends on the value you select in the CalcType field. When you select: Individual, the ID field appears. Enter the ID of the employee for whom you are running a calculation. Pre-defined List, the List Name field appears. Enter the name of a predefined calculation group list that contains a static list of employees. Pre-defined Group, the Group Name field appears. Enter the name of a predefined calculation group. This group need not be static. It can consist of criteria defined by a custom statement that is used to dynamically identify group members.
Event Date, Event Age (YY.MM), and Event Date Alias	An employee’s pension benefit depends on when the employee ends employment. Service stops accruing as of the event date. Benefit eligibility might depend on the event date, and other calculation components might use this date, depending on how you configure your calculation rules. You can use one of these fields to set the event date: Event Date: The current (system) date appears by default. You can enter other dates to perform historical calculation or estimates for the future. Event Age: To use the event date associated with a specific age, enter the age in the format yy.mm. Event Date Alias: You can use this option to calculate a precise event date. You can define the event date by specifying the hard-coded event date, the event age, or by using other factors, such as the number of years an employee has been with the company. Note. Enter a value in only one of these fields.
As Of Date	Because your plan rules are effective-dated, you must enter an as of date for the plan rules. If you are reproducing a past estimate, this date ensures that you use the rules that were in effect at the time. Typically, the as of date is the same as the event date. Note. The system brings the plan rules onto the calculation pages based on a combination of the plan and the as of date. If you’re testing changes to your plan rules, you must reenter one of these values, usually the as of date, to pick up the changes. This reloads all of the data on the Function Overrides and Process Selection pages, so you also must reenter data on those pages.
Reason Cd (reason code)	Enter one of the following codes to indicate the reason for the event: Death Disability QDRO Alternate Payee Retirement TV - Deferred Pymt (terminated vested - deferred payment) TV - Immediate Pymt (terminated vested - immediate payment) Web Estimate Your plan rules might reference this field when death and disability have different calculation rules from the rules used for regular termination and retirement. This field’s significance depends on how your company sets up calculation rules. You can leave this field blank.
Archive/Delete Dt (archive or delete date)	Enter an expiration date here to have periodic processing delete the calculation and its results as of that date. If you leave this field blank, the system uses the current date as the expiration date. If you do not want periodic processes to delete the calculation, do not run the Delete Calculations periodic process. Periodic processing deletes calculation results if both of the following conditions are met: The archive or delete date on the calculation page is in the past. The calculation is not explicitly protected on the Protect Calculation page.
Benefit Commencement Date or Benefit Commencement Dt Alias	The field that appears depends on the value you select in the CalcType field. When you select: Individual, the Benefit Commencement Date field appears. Enter the date when benefits begin for the employee for whom you are running a calculation. Pre-defined List or Pre-defined Group, the Benefit Commencement Dt Alias field appears. Enter the name of an alias that contains the date when benefits begin for the group or list of employees for whom you are running a calculation.
Copy	To run calculations for several retirement scenarios (for example, different event dates or retirement dates for an employee’s retirement counseling), you must run multiple calculations. Most of the data in these calculations is the same. Use this button to clone the current calculation parameters in a new calculation. After you clone an existing calculation, you can make minor modifications to set up the alternative retirement scenario. When you click this button, the system automatically saves changes to the current calculation. Note. This button is not available in Add mode. Warning! When you click this button, the system does not ask if you want to save changes; it just saves them. When using the Copy button, be careful not to save unwanted changes. After the system saves the current calculation, it prompts you for a new calculation name and description. Enter the information and click OK. The system displays the new calculation, but it has not yet been saved. Be sure to explicitly save the new calculation before leaving the page.

Override	If you select the Use Function Overrides check box on the Plan Inputs page, select the Override check box for each value to override.
Function Name	Displays the pension function that controls the processing.
Process Name	Displays the name your organization assigned to the process (the function result name).
Field Name and Field Value	Field Name displays the fields to override. Enter the override value in the Field Value field. Subsequent processes in the job flow use this override value instead of the calculated value. For example, if you override a final average earnings value, the benefit formula uses the earnings amount that you enter, rather than actual earnings data. Many functions have only a single value. For example, the final average earnings and vesting functions both produce a single result. Conversely, some functions produce multiple (or compound) values. For example, the service function produces service amount, service units (years or months), and date attained. Although you do not have to enter overrides for all of the values, enter overrides for values that are necessary for the calculation. For example, there’s no need to enter 10 fields of intermediate information for social security results, but enter the PIA_AMT_ADJ, which is the final adjusted social security benefit. If you enter overrides for the benefit amount (shown on the page as BENCALC), enter overrides for all four of the benefit amount fields: Amount Form code Payment frequency Automatic spousal benefit The first three fields are required for optional forms conversions. The automatic spousal benefit override default is zero. Note. If you enter an override for one of a function result’s values, that function result produces only the result that you enter. Therefore, there are no detailed results.

Search Criteria	To view messages from a calculation, select Instance. Look up the instance associated with a calculation on the Calculation Summary page or Calculation Recap page.
Process Instance and To Instance	After you find the instance, enter it in these fields.
Search	Click the Search button to display the processing errors in the Messages group box.
Show Program Names	If you select the Show Program Name check box, the following fields appear: Instance, Job ID, DateTime, and Program Name.
Instance, Job ID, DateTime, and Program Name	These fields identify where the error occurred. Each row also includes the error message. The calculation name, employee ID, and plan appear at the end of the message.
	Click the More button next to the message to view additional explanatory text.

Calculation Name, Run Control ID, and Process Instance	Identify the calculation. You must know the process instance to review messages (errors or warnings) generated during processing.
As Of Date	Displays the as of date from your calculation.
Employees	Displays the number of employees who are included in the calculation.
Function Results	Displays the number of function results that are processed.
Plan Count	Displays the number of plans that you ran for the listed employee.
Event Date	Displays the event date from your calculation.
Benefit Amount	Disregard this field.

Protect Calculation	Select to protect a calculation.
Protection Reason	Initially, all calculations are labeled Estimate Calculation and are not protected. Select a reason: Final Calculation, Final Calculation Candidate, QDRO Recipient Candidate, Related Primary Calculation (for example, a calculation that establishes a minimum benefit), or Other.