Rules and Data Setup
Two tasks must be completed before using Pension Administration:
Establish all processing rules.
The biggest part of this job is setting up calculation rules; but it is also necessary to set up pension status processing (used for Form 5500 participant counts and the actuarial valuation extract) and the retiree administration control tables.
The steps involved in establishing the processing rules are covered in "Understanding Plans."
Get employee data into PeopleSoft tables.
The nature of pension calculations may require moving an entire career's worth of information into the system.
Every part of the pension administration system is tied to information about employees. Where does that information come from?
If the pertinent information exists in your PeopleSoft HCM database, it is automatically available. PeopleSoft Human Resources provides benefit plan data, personal data, and job data, and tracks human resources events and statuses. PeopleSoft Payroll for North America provides information such as hours and earnings. All of this data is automatically and transparently accessible to Pension Administration.
When using another human resources system and a standalone version of Pension Administration, it is necessary to transfer biographical and startup data into the PeopleSoft system during implementation; then, you update the PeopleSoft tables when necessary.
Because pension calculations can require data from an employee's entire career, some information may not exist in the PeopleSoft system. It is possible to load entire working histories for employees—or, if there are no retroactive plan changes, startup values can be used to represent accruals up to the time the history becomes available. For example, rather than loading 20 years of payroll data, it is acceptable to load precalculated service amounts for those years.