This article will walk through an example Event, starting with its creation in Event Configuration to the completion of the Event. This walkthrough builds on the concepts presented in the following articles:
Scenario
In this example, we have 10 Plans we will need to perform Annual Administration on for the 2020 plan year. This Annual Administration will include Data Collection on PlanSponsorLink.
We would like to use an Event to track these Projects as Data Collection is completed by the client, so that we can quickly check how many have had data submitted, and identify the clients that we will need to follow up with to ensure timely completion.
Event Configuration
Our first step is to use Event Configuration to create a new Event called Data Submitted. Here are the settings we'll use:
Our 10 Plans represent a variety of Plan Types, so all of them are included in the Event Configuration. Additionally, our firm provides 3(16) services for all of these Plans. For simplicity, we'll assume all Plans are using the same Project Template for Annual Administration. Safe Harbor will be ignored as well.
As this is an Annual Administration, Project Frequency is set to Annual. We don't want to wait too long for the client to complete Data Collection, so the Due Date will be set to two months after the Period End date (more on this later). For this example, we will honor the Service Effective and Terminated On dates.
Now that the Event Configuration has been created, it should be added to the Project Template before it's launched. This can be done in whichever way you prefer to manage your Project Templates; in this case, we'll add it via Excel workbook and import it.
Because we want the Event to mark the point where Data Collection is completed by the client, we'll add the Event to the Final Approval Task. This Task is the final step of Data Collection, and is completed when the client approves and submits the data. You can see the new Data Submitted Event has been added to cell M68:
Before we launch the Project, however, let's look at Event Management first.
Event Management
To begin tracking our Event, let's add it to Event Management:
To add the Event, we use the Data Submitted Event Configuration. This Event will be performed for the 2020 plan year, so the Period End date will be 12/31/2020. Because we told the Event Configuration to set the Due Date to two months after the Period End date, the Due Date field is automatically set to 2/28/2021. We expect to have all data collected by this date, giving us plenty of time to meet our 7/31 filing deadline.
The Data Submitted Event is added to Event Management, and now appears within the grid:
You may notice that this Event shows 7 Eligible Plans, even though we expected 10. This tells us we likely have some troubleshooting to do. We can select the box in the Eligible Plans column to drill down into it and review our Plan information:
In our example, we might be able to identify what Plans are missing, but this is not always practical for large numbers of Plans. Instead, let's launch the Project first, and then circle back to troubleshooting in a bit.
After we launch Annual Administration for our Plans, here is what we see in Event Management:
Our numbers don't look any nicer. We would expect to see 10 Tasks Remaining—one for each Project—but Event Management shows 9. The Projects column also shows that a Project was launched for 6 of our 7 Eligible Plans, so it's quite possible that we forgot one.
If you're confused where these numbers are coming from, that's OK. The Event counts can be useful to help determine if an issue is present, but we also have another means of troubleshooting: the Issues Found column. Here, we'll select the box in the Projects column to drill down into it and review:
So it looks like there are a number of different issues to review. At a glance, we can see:
- Three Plans do not match the Event Configuration, leaving seven Eligible Plans. However, Projects were still launched for these Plans.
- One Plan does not have a Project launched for it. This means that only nine Tasks containing the Event exist. Additionally, the skipped Plan was one of our Eligible Plans, so only six of the seven Eligible Plans have had Projects launched.
This explains our incorrect counts. The number of issues may seem overwhelming, but we can actually get back on track quite easily. Here is an explanation of the problem causing each issue, along with steps for resolving it:
- The Gatesworth & Sons Plan has a Service Effective date of 1/1/2021. Because the Event Configuration was set to Honor the Effective Date, PensionPro doesn't expect there to be a 2020 plan year Project for a Plan that wasn't effective until 2021. If this date is incorrect, we can update it. If it is correct, we can either delete the Project, or update the Event Configuration to Disregard the Effective Date.
- The Sapphire Dynamics Plan doesn't have the 3(16) Service added to its Plan tab, so the Event Configuration doesn't consider it eligible for this Event. This can be resolved by adding the Service, or updating the Event Configuration to also return Plans with no Services Provided.
- The Harborview Medical Associates Plan doesn't have an associated Project—there's our missing Project! Once we launch it, our Task Remaining count should be corrected.
- The Quill & Canvas Plan Year End is actually set to 7/31, but our Event's Period End date is 12/31/2020. PensionPro does not believe this Plan should be part of this cycle. To resolve, either delete the Project, or revise the Plan Year End.
Once these issue are resolved, the counts in Event Management are correct. We have 10 Eligible Plans, and Projects were launched for each one:
(Depending on how the issues are resolved, these counts may change. For example, if we determined that two of our Projects were launched accidentally, our total count would drop from 10 to 8.)
Now that we know that the Event counts are accurate, we can begin to track these Projects. When a client submits the Final Approval step on PlanSponsorLink, the corresponding Task in the Project is completed at the same time. This is the Task that the Data Submitted Event is tied to, which means that the Tasks Completed and Tasks Remaining counts are updated whenever Data Collection is finished.
Here is our Event again after Data Collection has been completed for 7 of our 10 Projects:
Like with the other drill-down grids we've explored so far, we can select the Tasks Remaining count to drill down into the Tasks that haven't been completed yet. This allows us to quickly see which clients we need to follow up with:
Eventually, once all of the Tasks for the Event are complete...
...we can be confident knowing that we have all the data that we need, and can move forward with Annual Administration! At this point, the Event may be deleted, or it can be marked as Completed so that it may be archived and stored for future reference.