Viewing Calculation Results

This chapter provides an overview of calculation results and discusses how to:

View the calculation results pages.
View detailed plan results.
Activate the Application Trace.

Understanding Calculation Results

A benefit calculation consists of a series of pension processes that together produce a benefit in all of its optional forms of payment. In addition to this end result, each component process generates its own results, which are frequently of interest to the participant and the plan administrator.

You use the Review Main Results (CALCULATION_SUM) component to view summary information for a participant and a calculation. The Calculation Summary page provides links that transfer you directly to the other calculation results pages.

The Review Main Results component contains three pages, which display calculation information that is not specific to a plan.

On the Review Main Results search page, the calculation results are keyed by the calculation name and EmplID. You must provide both values because you can run a calculation for multiple participants.

Note. When you use the Review Main Results component to access the calculation results pages, the system takes awhile to load the information. All the pages are in a single component, and the system receives the data for all pages when you first enter the component. However, after the component opens, you can quickly navigate among pages.

When you use the Individual Results component to access the detailed pages, each page loads separately when you access it. Instead of one long wait for all the pages, you experience a short wait each time you access a page.

There are links on the Calculation Summary page that transfer you to the plan-specific pages. These links access the pages in the Individual Results component.

The 17 plan-specific pages provide detailed information about the calculation parameters and the plan results. One page displays the calculation inputs, another displays beneficiary information, and the other 15 pages correspond to 15 of the system’s 16 core calculation functions.

Note. The other core calculation function, 415 limits, is not plan-specific. Therefore, it appears in the Review Main Results component.

When you access the plan-specific results, you narrow the search by entering a plan name.

When you view the plan-specific pages, the amount of detail displayed depends on whether you select the detailed results option on the calculation page.

See Also

Viewing Detailed Plan Results

Viewing the Calculation Results Pages

This section lists the pages used to view calculation results and discusses how to:

View calculation summary information.
View 415 processing results.
View action and reason history information.

Pages Used to View Calculation Results

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Calculation Summary	PA_CALCULATION_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Main Results, Calculation Summary	View information about a calculation and personal data about a participant. Access the detailed calculation results pages.
415 Limits	PA_CLC_415_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Main Results, 415 Limits	View results produced by 415 processing. Note. The Internal Revenue Code Section 415 limits are applied to a participant’s combined pension benefits from all plans.
Action/Reason History	PA_CLC_EMP_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Main Results, Action/Reason History	View participant information that might affect a calculation.

Viewing Calculation Summary Information

Access the Calculation Summary page.

Executed

Displays the date and time of the calculation.

Instance

Displays the instance assigned by the Process Scheduler when the calculation ran.

Note. Use the instance to access calculation error messages on the Message Log page.

ID

Identifies the participant whose results you are viewing. Although a calculation can process more than one participant, you can view results for only one participant at a time.

Benefit Plan

Select the plan to view.

Event Date and Reason

Display the termination information entered for the calculation.

Marital Status, Spouse Name, Gender, Spouse Birthdate, and Date of Birth

If you entered overrides for a participant or spouse birth date, those overrides appear on this page with the notation override value.

View

The links in this group box take you to the detailed results pages for the plan you select.

When you click a link, the system opens another instance of the pension menu (except for 415 Limits and Action/Reason History). Take care not open too many menus. Either close new menus when you finish, or, after you open the new menu, click the page tabs to move around in the component.

Note. You can also access the detailed results pages in the Individual Results component.

Viewing 415 Processing Results

Access the 415 Limits page.

415 Limits

415 Limit Definition	Displays the name of the 415 processing rules. The actual 415 limit is the smallest of three separately calculated amounts in the following fields: FAE Limit/Adjusted, Maximum 415(b) Limit/Adjusted, or 415(e) Limit.
FAE Limit/Adjusted(final average earnings limit and adjusted final average earnings limit)	Displays the FAE limit, which is 100 percent of a participant’s high three consecutive years’ average earnings. This can be adjusted for short service. The page displays both the unadjusted and adjusted amounts.
Maximum 415(b) Limit/Adjusted	Displays the maximum 415(b) limit, a dollar amount published annually by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This can be adjusted for commencement date and for short service. The page displays both the unadjusted and adjusted amounts.
Historical 415(e) Limit, Historical DC Fraction (defined contribution fraction), and Historical DB Fraction (defined benefit fraction)	Displays the 415(e) limit, an amount based on the relative values of the participant’s defined contribution (DC) fraction and defined benefit (DB) fraction. These are values calculated according to IRS rules. This information is present only if defined contribution information was available for the participant.
Total SLA Benefit (total single life annuity benefit)	Displays a participant’s total annual pension benefit from all plans expressed as a single life annuity (SLA). If this is less than the amount in the Limit Used field, the benefit was not reduced.
Limit Used	Displays the lowest of the three possible limits. This is the limit that actually applies.
Reduction	If the total SLA benefit is higher, then this field displays the difference between the two.

415 Details

This group box lists all the benefits that are subject to 415 limits.

Reduced by User	This field displays the method used to reduce the benefit, if necessary. If the field label is Reduced by User, then the plans were reduced in a specific order. That is, the entire reduction was taken from the first benefit, and if that benefit was reduced to zero, any remaining reduction was taken from the next benefit, and so on.
Function Result Name	Displays the name that your organization assigned to the specific benefit in the plan.
Pre 415	Displays the SLA amount of the benefit before limits were applied.
Post 415	Displays the reduced benefit after limits are applied. The Pre 415 and Post 415 values are the same when the combined benefit does not exceed the limit.
415 Only	If this check box is selected, then the plan does not actually offer a single life annuity and you should not quote the displayed SLA amount to participants except to explain the 415 limits reduction.

See Also

Applying Section 415 Limits

Viewing Action and Reason History Information

Access the Action/Reason History page.

Action / Reason

A calculation builds a pension-specific history of each action and the associated reason in a participant’s job history. Not all events in the participant’s career appear on the Action/Reason History page, only those specified as relevant to your pension rules.

Typically, service is the only calculation function impacted by action and reason codes. Although the consolidations functions also use these codes, consolidations do not run as part of the calculation, only as part of periodic processing.

Short Name

Displays the history of a worker's changing types: Hourly, Salaried, Exception Hourly.

Viewing Detailed Plan Results

This section provides an overview of viewing detailed plan results lists the pages used to view detailed plan results, and discusses how to view:

Processing input information.
Benefit calculation results.
Optional forms results.
Service results.
Final average earnings results.
Vesting results.
Death coverage results.
Covered compensation results.
Social security results.
Cash balance results.
Employee account results.
Employee-paid benefit results.
Plan Eligibility results.
Plan participation results.
Benefit eligibility results.
Beneficiary information.

Understanding Detailed Plan Results

The detailed plan results display both the final benefit and the components used to determine the final benefit.

Note. The final benefit is not adjusted for 415 limits across multiple plans.

You can access all the detailed plan results in the Review Calculation Results component, or access individual results in the Individual Results component.

Note. Depending on which navigation path you use, the page name may appear different, although the Object Name will be the same. The graphics in this section navigate through the Review Calculation Results component.

Although the detailed plan results pages display results from all of the calculation functions (except 415 limits), your plan might not use all the functions. Therefore, you may not see results on every page.

Pages Used to View Detailed Plan Results

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Inputs	PA_CLC_INPT_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Inputs	View information that you entered when processing a calculation.
Benefit Calculation	PA_CLC_CLC_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Benefit Calculation	View results from the benefit formula function, which produces the normal form of a benefit.
Optional Forms	PA_CLC_OFRM_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Optional Forms	View results from the optional forms of payment function, which converts the normal form of a benefit into all the optional forms that the plan offers.
Service	PA_CLC_SVC_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Service Results	View results from the service function, which provides a final service amount.
Final Average Earnings	PA_CLC_FAE_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Final Average Earnings	View results from the final average earnings function, which provides an amount calculated according to the plan’s averaging rules.
Vesting	PA_CLC_VST_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Vesting	View results from the vesting function, which provides a participant’s vesting percentage.
Age Adjustment Factors	PA_CLC_AGE_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Age Adjustment Factors	View results from the early and late retirement factors function, which produces a factor used to adjust a benefit when a participant retires before or after the normal retirement date.
Death Coverage Factors	PA_CLC_DTH_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Death Coverage Factors	View results from the Death Coverage function, which produces a factor used to reduce a benefit when a participant elects optional death coverage.
Covered Compensation	PA_CLC_CMP_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Covered Compensation	View results from the covered compensation function, which calculates covered compensation for a participant by averaging the taxable wage base for the 35 years up to and including the year in which the participant reaches social security retirement age.
Social Security	PA_CLC_SOC_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Social Security	View results from the social security function, which estimates a participant’s social security primary insurance amount (PIA).
Cash Balance Account	PA_CLC_CASH_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Cash Account Balance	View results from the cash balance accounts function, which provides a participant’s periodic accumulation and final balance under a cash balance plan.
Employee Account	PA_CLC_ACCT_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Employee Account	View results from the employee accounts function, which tracks the accumulation of contributions and interest for a participant in a contributory plan.
Employee Paid Benefit	PA_CLC_CONT_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Employee Paid Benefit	View results from the employee-paid benefit function, which determines what portion of a total benefit, expressed in its normal form, is attributable to participant contributions.
Plan Eligibility	PA_CLC_PEL_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Plan Eligibility	View results from the plan eligibility function, which determines whether a participant is eligible to participate in a plan.
Plan Participation	PA_CLC_PRT_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Plan Participation	View results from the participation function, which determines whether a participant meets plan participation requirements.
Benefit Eligibility	PA_CLC_BEL_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Benefit Eligibility	View results from the retirement eligibility function, which identifies whether a participant is eligible for a retirement type.
Beneficiary Info (beneficiary information)	PA_CLC_BENEF_SUM	Pension, Review Calculations, Review Calculation Results, Beneficiary Information	View beneficiary data used in calculating a participant’s benefit.

Viewing Processing Input Information

Access the Inputs page.

Benefit Commencement Date, Benefit Commencement Age/YY.MM, Lump Sum Date, and Lump Sum Age(YY.MM)

A message indicates whether these dates are based on the normal retirement date, early retirement date, or a user specified date.

The remaining fields display inputs used for projecting payroll information and social security tables.

Assumed Earnings Amount and Assumed Hours Amount	Displays the amounts used to determine the current period earnings and hours amounts for certain types of projection methods. The plan rules specify either that this amount replaces the entire period, or that it is prorated and used only for the incomplete portion of the current period.
Assumed Contributions Percent	Displays the percentage of projected earnings used to estimate future contributions.
Wage Base Escalation Rate	Displays the assumed rate of increase in the taxable wage base.
Assumed Salary Scale Percent Increase	Displays the assumed rate of salary increase.
Grant Full Service Credit	Indicates whether you assumed that service forfeited due to a withdrawal of contributions would be fully restored: Y (yes): Service is restored. N (no): Service is not restored.
Assumed CPI Percent Increase (assumed consumer price index percent increase)	Displays the assumed rate of increase in the CPI-W, the consumer price index (CPI) for urban wage earners and clerical workers. This table is used for social security general benefit increases.
Surviving Spouse Eligibility	Indicates overrides to your plan’s determination of whether a participant’s spouse is eligible for an automatic joint and survivor benefit, paid for by the plan with no actuarial reduction to the participant’s benefit. Typical eligibility criteria might be that a participant and spouse be married for a year.
Beneficiary Birthdate and Beneficiary Gender	Display overrides for non-spouse beneficiary data.

Viewing Benefit Calculation Results

Access the Benefit Calculation page.

Note. Typically a plan has multiple benefit formulas, such as the normal retirement benefit, the normal retirement benefit offset by any Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) amount, and the early retirement benefit.

Benefit Amount	Displays the amount of a participant’s benefit in the plan’s normal form of payment.
Auto Benefit Amount (automatic benefit amount)	Displays the amount of any benefit automatically available to an eligible spouse, regardless of the participant’s optional form selection, and available without any actuarial reduction to the participant’s benefit.
Form Code	Displays the normal form of the benefit.

Viewing Optional Forms Results

Access the Optional Forms page.

Form

Displays each allowable payment form offered by the plan. Single participants are ineligible for joint and survivor, last to survive, pop-up, and reversionary annuities. Participants older than the level income age are ineligible for level income options. Participants with benefits above a specified amount are ineligible for lump sums that you define as small benefit cashouts.

Guaranteed Payments

Displays the number of years of guaranteed payments (for example, 5 means five years—not five monthly payments).

Percent Continued

Displays the percentage of the benefit that is continued to the designated spouse beneficiary when a retiree dies.

Factor

Displays the factor used to convert a benefit from its normal form to this form.

Retiree Amount and Plan Beneficiary Amount

A form can have multiple payment types. Certain payment types are payable to a retiree, and others are payable to a beneficiary. Depending on the form and the number of beneficiaries, a single form can have multiple retiree payment types and multiple beneficiary payment types.

Pre 415 and Post 415

For each payment type, these group boxes display the amounts before and after 415 limits are applied. For all but your most highly compensated workers, the pre-415 and post-415 amounts are the same. The real amounts that are used for payments are the post-415 amounts; the pre-415 amounts are for your information only.

Total and Non Taxable

The system calculates the total pension benefit for the specified optional form without regard to taxability. If a benefit includes amounts attributable to participant after-tax contributions, that portion of the benefit is not taxable until the participant has completely recovered his or her contributions. That amount appears in the Non Taxable column.

Retiree Payment Types

A payment type appears to the left of each amount in the Pre 415 and Post 415 group boxes.

Retiree Payment Type	Description
Retiree Amount	Amount due to a retiree. Except in the case of lump sums, this is normally a monthly amount payable until death.
Retiree Pre-SSRA Amount (retiree pre-social security retirement age) Retiree Post-SSRA Amount (retiree post-social security retirement age)	For a level income option (LIO), a retiree’s benefit is higher before the retiree reaches social security retirement age (SSRA) and lower afterwards, when the retiree has presumably started receiving a social security benefit. Therefore, LIO forms produce two separate retiree amounts, the pre-SSRA and post-SSRA amounts.
Pop Up Amount	For a pop-up form of payment, the retiree amount increases if a beneficiary predeceases a retiree. The pop-up amount is the increased retiree amount.

Plan Beneficiary Payment Types

Payment Type	Description
Plan Beneficiary Amount	Amount payable to a spouse beneficiary at a retiree’s death. This can come from two different sources: a joint and survivor form (or any form that includes a percent continued) elected by the retiree, and an automatic plan benefit for which there is no actuarial reduction.
Nonspouse Beneficiary Amount	Amount payable to a non-spouse beneficiary after a retiree’s death under a joint and survivor form of payment.
Spouse Demonstration J&S (spouse demonstration joint and survivor)	If a married retiree selects a non-spouse beneficiary, the retiree’s spouse is entitled to know the amount that would have been payable to the spouse if the retiree had named the spouse as the beneficiary instead of naming a non-spouse beneficiary. This is different from the non-spouse beneficiary amount because the actuarial adjustment is based on the spouse’s age, rather than the non-spouse beneficiary’s age.
Survivor Amount	For a last to survive form, this is the amount due to the retiree or spouse after the other one has died.

Viewing Service Results

Access the Service page.

Note. If you produced detailed results for the calculation, this page displays the periodic service history used to produce the final amount.

Service Amount	You might have several service calculations, including service credit, vesting service and participation service. The service amount is the final service accrued as of a specified date—typically, the event date.
Process Through	This is the same as the end date for past periods; it is the same as the event date for the final period.
Service Amt without Breaks (service amount without breaks)	Indicates how much service a participant earned during the period, based only on the service definition.
Service Amount with Breaks	Indicates how much of the original service for the period is used after considering break rules and other reasons for forfeiture.
Service Adjustment	Indicates adjustments on the Service Adj page for the period. You can manually enter adjustments, or the system can automatically generate adjustments, based on a withdrawal of contributions, service buyback activity (repayment of contributions), or service purchase activity.
Accrued Service	Indicates how much service a participant accumulated as of the end of the period, based on the previous accrued service amount and the activity for the current period.
Breaks	Indicates whether the period counted toward a break in service.
Accum Breaks (accumulated breaks)	Indicates how many consecutive breaks a participant has up to and including the period.
Action (Reason)	For elapsed time definitions, which base service accrual on a participant’s action and reason history from the job record, this field displays the most recent action and reason.
Hours	Indicates how many hours a participant accrued during the period.

See Also

Administering Contributory Plans

Viewing Final Average Earnings Results

Access the Final Average Earnings page.

Note. If you produced detailed results for a calculation, this page displays the earnings history used to produce the amount.

Process Through	Displays the latest date that was included in the calculations for the period, which is the end date for past periods.
Projected Flag	Indicates whether the earnings are projected. This applies only to future-dated calculations.
Generated Earnings	Displays the earnings after applying the plan’s generation rules.
Adjusted Earnings	Displays the final earnings used in a calculation, which reflect minimums and maximums specified in the plan rules. Adjusted earnings that appear black on this page are included in the averaging period; gray amounts are disregarded.

Viewing Vesting Results

Access the Vesting page.

Viewing Age Adjustment Results

Access the Age Adjustment Factors page.

Adjustment Factor

Displays the factor used to reduce or increase a benefit due to early or late benefit commencement. If there is no adjustment, the factor is 1.000000.

Viewing Death Coverage Results

Access the Death Coverage Factors page.

Adjustment Factor

Displays the factor used to reduce a benefit due to a participant’s preretirement survivor annuity (PRSA) coverage.

Viewing Covered Compensation Results

Access the Covered Compensation page.

Covered Compensation Amount

Displays the result of a covered compensation calculation. This might be a monthly or annual amount, depending on how you set up your covered compensation calculation.

Viewing Social Security Results

Access the Social Security page.

Primary Insurance Amount

Displays the initial social security PIA.

Adjusted Primary Insurance Amt (adjusted primary insurance amount)

Displays the final PIA after both general increases and increases or reductions, based on the commencement date.

Eligibility Year

Displays the year in which a participant reaches age 62 or the year of death or disability.

NAW Indexing Year (national average wage indexing year)

This is two years before the year of eligibility.

NAW Index Year Amount (national average wage indexing index year amount)

Displays the national average wage (NAW) for the indexing year.

# of Computation Yrs (number of computation years)

Indicates how many years of a participant’s earnings history are used in social security determination. Some years might be estimates based on your projection and regression rules.

AIME (average indexed monthly earnings)

To produce the average indexed monthly earnings, the system:

Takes the lesser of a participant’s earnings and the taxable wage base for each computation year.

Indexes it with a factor representing the growth in the national average wage.

Divides the total by the number of months in the computation period.

Adjusts this value further by bend point factors to produce the initial PIA.

Birthdate and Social Security Age

The birth date determines the social security age.

Social Security BCD (social security benefit commencement date)

This is the assumed benefit commencement date for social security benefits. This is important because benefits are reduced or increased for early or late commencement.

Taxable Earnings

Displays the lesser of the taxable wage base amount and the actual participant earnings.

Natl Avg Earnings (national average earnings)

Indexing is based on NAW growth. This field displays the national average earnings for the NAW indexing year.

Indexed Amount

The indexed amount is determined by multiplying the taxable earnings by a factor in which the numerator is the NAW for the indexing year and the denominator is the NAW for the year being indexed.

Indexed Amount Used in Calc (indexed amount used in calculation)

Displays the final indexed amount used to determine the AIME.

The earnings can come from two sources:

The system’s consolidated earnings history, regressed and projected according to your plan assumptions.
The Employee Soc Sec Earnings page, where you can override a participant’s earnings history.

Viewing Cash Balance Account Results

Access the Cash Balance Account page.

Note. If you produced detailed results for the calculation, this page displays the periodic accumulations.

Begin/End Date	If a participant had a startup balance from the time that you loaded data into Pension Administration, the first period begins and ends on the startup as of date. This startup period has an ending balance, but no other supporting detail.
Cont/Int Rate (contribution or interest rate)	The contribution rate displays the percentage of earnings for the period that was credited to the account. The interest rate displays the interest rate used on the beginning balance.
Beginning Balance/Earnings	Displays the accumulation amount at the beginning of the period and the total earnings for the period.
Credit/Interest	Credit is the non-interest amount credited to the account during the period. The credit is a percentage of earnings, based on the contribution rate and earnings amounts. Interest is the amount of interest credited to the account during the period.
Credit/Interest Adjustments	If there were manual adjustments to the credit or interest during a period, the displayed amounts reflect those adjustments. These fields also indicate what portion of the credit or interest was due to an adjustment.
End Balance	Displays the accumulation as of the end of the period.

Viewing Employee Account Results

Access the Employee Account page.

Note. If you produced detailed results for a calculation, this page displays the periodic accumulations.

Employee Account

Accumulation Amount

Displays the final value for the account as of the event date.

Period Dates

Begin/End Date	If the participant had a startup balance at the time that you loaded data into Pension Administration, the first period begins and ends on the startup as of date. This period has no current period data, only ending balances in the total columns.
Int Rate (interest rate)	Displays the interest rate applied to the prior period balance.
Pre-tax Credit/Interest and Post-tax Credit/Interest	Display the pretax and posttax credits applied to the account during the current period and the interest earned by each. The first value in each column is the credit; the second is the interest. Posttax interest is just the interest on posttax contributions; the interest itself has not yet been taxed. If there were manual adjustments during a period, the current period data displayed reflects those adjustments.
Total Pre-tax Credit/Interest and Total Post-tax Credit/Interest	Displays the same information as the Pre-tax Credit/Interest and Post-tax Credit/Interest fields, but rather than displaying only credits and interest for current period, these fields display the running balances.
Purchasable Service	Displays the service that a participant can receive if the participant repays previously withdrawn contributions or sets up a service purchase arrangement. The value is zero until either a contribution withdrawal or service purchase arrangement establishes an initial amount of purchasable service. As the service is restored, which can be all at once or gradually, the purchasable service amount is reduced. For example, if Lucia withdraws 2,000 USD of contributions and thus forfeits three years of service, the withdrawal account has an ending balance of -2,000 USD and a purchasable service amount of 3.0. The adjustment to the account balance rolls up to the plan’s main contributory account, but the purchasable service does not. Therefore, the main contributory account still displays zero purchasable service. For a service purchase arrangement, a plan administrator must establish the initial amount of purchasable service and enter it (and the dollar amount necessary to purchase the service) on the Empl Acct Adj page.
Purchased Service	Displays service that was restored during the period, as defined by the Begin/End Date field.
Purchasable Service Adjustment	Displays manual adjustments to purchasable service during the period. For example, if you set up a service purchase process incorrectly and have to change the amount of purchasable service, you enter a manual adjustment on the Empl Acct Adj page. During the next periodic processing, the purchasable service is adjusted by that amount, and the results for the period include both the adjustment amount in this field and the adjusted amount in the Purchasable Service field.

Note. The service fields on this page apply only to withdrawal and service purchase subaccounts. Although the dollar activity in these accounts rolls up to the plan’s main contributory account, the service information does not.

Reviewing Service Buyback and Purchase Activity

Sometimes activity in a participant account affects service. This happens in one of three ways:

Participants withdraw contributions and forfeit the corresponding service. This typically occurs at termination.
Participants repay the withdrawn contributions and buy back the service originally forfeited. This typically occurs after a rehire.
Participants make contributions for times when they were not accruing service and thus purchase service credit for that time. The purchased service period is typically a time when a person was employed but not eligible for the plan. Plans might also allow service purchase for time spent on military leave or other qualified leaves.

Viewing Employee-Paid Benefit Results

Access the Employee Paid Benefit page.

Account Balance at Event Date

Displays the value of the contributions, plus interest, as of the event date.

Interest Rate for Projection

Indicates how the participant contributory balance was projected from the event date to the determination date.

Account Balance at Determination Date

Displays the value as of the date for refunding contributions—typically, the benefit commencement date or the lump sum date from the calculation inputs.

Interest Rate for Projection

Displays the rate used to project the account balance from the date of determination to normal retirement date.

Factor to Convert to Annuity

Displays the factor used to convert from a lump sum to the plan’s normal form. This enables you to eventually compare this amount to the total benefit.

Employee Benefit Amount

Displays the value of the account in the plan’s normal form of payment as of the later of either the normal retirement date or the date of determination.

Viewing Plan Eligibility Results

Access the Plan Eligibility page.

Eligibility Status

Indicates whether the employee is eligible to participate in a plan.

Viewing Plan Participation Results

Access the Plan Participation page.

Note. If a participant is not participating in a plan, the calculation stops after running the participation calculation.

Plan Participation Date

Indicates when a worker became a participant or, for calculations with projections, when the worker is expected to become a participant.

When participation is based on age, the participation date is the same day that the worker attains the specified age, subject to date adjustments that you specify (either date rounding or plan entry dates).

When participation is based on service, however, the system does not necessarily determine the exact day the worker attains the specified amount of service. Instead, the system checks the service history, finds the period when the worker attained the specified service amount, then uses the first day of the next period. The accuracy of this date depends on how you set up your service requirement.

Viewing Benefit Eligibility Results

Access the Benefit Eligibility page.

Benefit Eligibility Status

Indicates whether a participant is eligible or ineligible for a retirement type.

Depending on how you set up your calculation rules, this can be the eligibility status as of the event date or the benefit commencement date.

Typically, a plan has one retirement eligibility function result for each allowable retirement type, such as early retirement and normal retirement. You also use this function to determine eligibility for ancillary benefits, such as death and disability.

Viewing Beneficiary Information

Access the Beneficiary Info page.

Surviving Spouse Eligibility

If a plan offers an automatic spouse benefit, this field indicates whether a participant and spouse met the plan’s criteria to be eligible for the automatic benefit.

Beneficiary Birthdate, Beneficiary Gender, and Beneficiary Name

If a participant has a non-spouse beneficiary, these fields display information about that beneficiary.

The calculation parameters include override fields for all of these fields except for the beneficiary’s name. The values on this page display the information that the calculation used, regardless of the data source.

Activating the Application Trace

This section provides an overview of the application trace, lists the page used to activate the application trace, and discusses how to activate the application trace.

Understanding the Application Trace

If the PeopleSoft Global Support Center is helping you troubleshoot a calculation error, the person assisting you might ask you to activate the application trace. The trace is a debugging tool that records information that PeopleSoft uses to track down concerns. The information is useful only to PeopleSoft, so do not use this tool unless so instructed. The application trace is not meant to be used as an everyday tool to view calculation results.

Page Used to Activate the Application Trace

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Application Trace	PA_AUDIT_PNL	Set Up HRMS, Product Related, Pension, Utilities, Pension Processing Trace, Application Trace	Activate and deactivate the application trace.

Activating the Application Trace

Access the Application Trace page.

Trace Activation Level

Inactivate Application Trace

Select this option to deactivate the trace. Leave the trace off except when you need to use it; running the trace has a severe performance impact.

Note. Deactivate the trace when you finish using it.

Produce SQL Output Only, Produce Display Output Only, and Produce Display and SQL Output

Select an option to activate the trace and set the output destination.

SQL output is stored in the PS_PA_AUDIT_TRACE table in the database. Review the information using a database tool, such as ISQLw, or another query tool appropriate to the database platform. Saving the trace in the database keeps the trace information available permanently. Distinguish the data from different calculations by the process instance number. This enables you to save the traces from several calculations and reference them separately, but it also means that you must periodically delete old trace data to avoid storing large amounts of irrelevant data.

Display output appears on the process menu. If you run this on the client, the process menu appears on your client workstation. If you run this on the server, the database platform determines where the display appears. Because you cannot scroll backward on the process menu, use the menu to monitor the progress of the calculation.

To access the output after information has scrolled by, open the log file that PeopleSoft PeopleTools writes to the temporary directory. This log file contains the contents of the process menu, so putting the trace information on the display menu ensures that the trace information appears in the log file. Log files are overwritten each time you run any PeopleSoft process—not just a calculation. To save the information, save the log file with a different name or in a different location before running your next process.

Trace Detail Level

Use this group box to select the processes to trace. Because the application trace dramatically slows your processing, run the trace only on the process that you are troubleshooting.

Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Process Scheduler

Executed	Displays the date and time of the calculation.
Instance	Displays the instance assigned by the Process Scheduler when the calculation ran. Note. Use the instance to access calculation error messages on the Message Log page.
ID	Identifies the participant whose results you are viewing. Although a calculation can process more than one participant, you can view results for only one participant at a time.
Benefit Plan	Select the plan to view.
Event Date and Reason	Display the termination information entered for the calculation.
Marital Status, Spouse Name, Gender, Spouse Birthdate, and Date of Birth	If you entered overrides for a participant or spouse birth date, those overrides appear on this page with the notation override value.
View	The links in this group box take you to the detailed results pages for the plan you select. When you click a link, the system opens another instance of the pension menu (except for 415 Limits and Action/Reason History). Take care not open too many menus. Either close new menus when you finish, or, after you open the new menu, click the page tabs to move around in the component. Note. You can also access the detailed results pages in the Individual Results component.

Form	Displays each allowable payment form offered by the plan. Single participants are ineligible for joint and survivor, last to survive, pop-up, and reversionary annuities. Participants older than the level income age are ineligible for level income options. Participants with benefits above a specified amount are ineligible for lump sums that you define as small benefit cashouts.
Guaranteed Payments	Displays the number of years of guaranteed payments (for example, 5 means five years—not five monthly payments).
Percent Continued	Displays the percentage of the benefit that is continued to the designated spouse beneficiary when a retiree dies.
Factor	Displays the factor used to convert a benefit from its normal form to this form.
Retiree Amount and Plan Beneficiary Amount	A form can have multiple payment types. Certain payment types are payable to a retiree, and others are payable to a beneficiary. Depending on the form and the number of beneficiaries, a single form can have multiple retiree payment types and multiple beneficiary payment types.

Primary Insurance Amount	Displays the initial social security PIA.
Adjusted Primary Insurance Amt (adjusted primary insurance amount)	Displays the final PIA after both general increases and increases or reductions, based on the commencement date.
Eligibility Year	Displays the year in which a participant reaches age 62 or the year of death or disability.
NAW Indexing Year (national average wage indexing year)	This is two years before the year of eligibility.
NAW Index Year Amount (national average wage indexing index year amount)	Displays the national average wage (NAW) for the indexing year.
# of Computation Yrs (number of computation years)	Indicates how many years of a participant’s earnings history are used in social security determination. Some years might be estimates based on your projection and regression rules.
AIME (average indexed monthly earnings)	To produce the average indexed monthly earnings, the system: Takes the lesser of a participant’s earnings and the taxable wage base for each computation year. Indexes it with a factor representing the growth in the national average wage. Divides the total by the number of months in the computation period. Adjusts this value further by bend point factors to produce the initial PIA.
Birthdate and Social Security Age	The birth date determines the social security age.
Social Security BCD (social security benefit commencement date)	This is the assumed benefit commencement date for social security benefits. This is important because benefits are reduced or increased for early or late commencement.
Taxable Earnings	Displays the lesser of the taxable wage base amount and the actual participant earnings.
Natl Avg Earnings (national average earnings)	Indexing is based on NAW growth. This field displays the national average earnings for the NAW indexing year.
Indexed Amount	The indexed amount is determined by multiplying the taxable earnings by a factor in which the numerator is the NAW for the indexing year and the denominator is the NAW for the year being indexed.
Indexed Amount Used in Calc (indexed amount used in calculation)	Displays the final indexed amount used to determine the AIME.

Account Balance at Event Date	Displays the value of the contributions, plus interest, as of the event date.
Interest Rate for Projection	Indicates how the participant contributory balance was projected from the event date to the determination date.
Account Balance at Determination Date	Displays the value as of the date for refunding contributions—typically, the benefit commencement date or the lump sum date from the calculation inputs.
Interest Rate for Projection	Displays the rate used to project the account balance from the date of determination to normal retirement date.
Factor to Convert to Annuity	Displays the factor used to convert from a lump sum to the plan’s normal form. This enables you to eventually compare this amount to the total benefit.
Employee Benefit Amount	Displays the value of the account in the plan’s normal form of payment as of the later of either the normal retirement date or the date of determination.

Surviving Spouse Eligibility	If a plan offers an automatic spouse benefit, this field indicates whether a participant and spouse met the plan’s criteria to be eligible for the automatic benefit.
Beneficiary Birthdate, Beneficiary Gender, and Beneficiary Name	If a participant has a non-spouse beneficiary, these fields display information about that beneficiary.