We receive many calls regarding benefit reports in Abra. There are so many ways to generate reports to gather this information either using Abra Secure Query, Standard Reports, the Crystal Library or creating your own custom Crystal Reports.Given the complexity of the benefit data using Query is rarely recommend.
To understand how to get reports you need to understand the key components in a benefit record. The key fields are the Start date, the all important Expiration date and the beneid which identifies if the record is current or history. The beneid is not seen from the detail page but is changed when a history record is created for any reason. Below are the codes used:
I = Current Insurance or expired plan
N = History Insurance
S = Current Savings
V = History Savings
Once you identify the current record for either Insurance or Savings you need to address the expiration date of the plan in the current record. When running your report for current enrollments your expiration date should be greater than the date of your report. For example if you run a report for February enrollments and it’s now March you can’t filter for an expiration date as of today, it needs to be set back in time to >= 2/1/2008.
Filtering out based on an employee active status doesn’t help as the employee may have been enrolled in the period you are reporting on but the status is now “T”.
Some of the Standard Reports in Abra need to be further defined to eliminate pulling history records.
1. Access the report's Standard Criteria tab.
2. From the Custom Criteria drop-down menu, select "Visual FoxPro Expression Builder".
3. Enter following expression:
INLIST(Be.b_beneid,"I","S") AND ( Be.b_expdate>DATE() OR Be.b_expdate={ })
4. Print or preview the report.
Either use DATE() for today’s date or {enter date} for specific period.
Benefit Enrollment by Plan:
The effective date on the specific criteria tab must be the same date as your custom criteria date.
Criteria Formula: INLIST(Be.b_beneid,"I","S") AND ( Be.b_expdate>= {02/01/2008} OR Be.b_expdate={ })
I’ll have more information on the Criteria tables/builders in a future blog.
Employee Coverage by Employee:
Change the date and employee number as needed. The effective date on the specific criteria tab must be the same date as your custom criteria date.
Criteria Formula: INLIST(Be.b_beneid,"I","S") AND ( Be.b_expdate>= {02/01/2008} OR Be.b_expdate={ }) AND alltrim( Pe.p_empno)="9999"
Benefit Letter:
This report defaults to only Active employees, you can use the above formulas based on your needs.
Crystal Reports:
When using crystal reports it’s critical to use your beneid filter and check for the expiration dates.
CurrentDate or {hbene.b_expdate} = Date (0, 0, 0))
Posted by: Julie Brown
