Annual Data Collection on PlanSponsorLink

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PlanSponsorLink provides the client with the ability to submit their year-end data through a secure portal. Once the client has completed this information, PensionPro will be updated. When the client logs onto PlanSponsorLink, the Year End Data Collection will be available on the My Active Task tab under the Plan Name. The client will click the Begin Task button to begin the Year End Data Collection Steps.

 

Tier Availability:  Essential, Premium, Business

Add-On Availability: PlanSponsorLink

 

Menu:

 

Viewing an Annual Administration Data Collection on PlanSponsorLink

In order for a Year-End Data Collection to appear in a contact's My Active Tasks tab, the following must occur:

  • The Annual Administration Project with Data Collection enabled must be launched against a plan.

  • The Census Request Task of the Data Collection must be completed.

    • Users can complete the Census Request Task of an Annual Administration by sending a Census Request Blast Email. For more information on using Blast Emails for Annual Administration Data Collection, click here.

  • The contact must be listed as a plan contact on the Plan > Contact Roles menu.

  • The contact must have the applicable Website Rights to view and edit information for the Data Collection process.

    • For more information on Website Rights, click here.

 

Annual Administration Data Collection Steps

When the year-end Data Collection is launched on PensionPro, the following steps are pre-populated, as long as the information is set up correctly in PensionPro. These steps are General, Company, Principals, Family, Business, Contact, and Employees.

 

General (Step 1)

The General step allows the client to review and edit the Company Contact Information such as Addresses and Numbers. Changes to these Addresses and Numbers will be immediately updated in PensionPro for the Client record.

 

Company (Step 2)

The Employer Company Data step allows the client to edit the EIN, Fiscal Year End, Entity Type, NAIC Code, Payroll Provider, and Payroll Frequency. EIN, Fiscal Year End, Entity Type, and Payroll Frequency are required fields. If these fields are not completed, the client will not be able to save this step.

 

Principals (Step 3)

The Principals step allows the client to add, edit, or delete owners and/or officers of their firm. If the client is a non-profit organization, then an entry using Company Name, No Title, and 100% ownership should be entered. The total ownership percentage must total 100% or greater or the plan sponsor will not be able to save this step. A calculated total will appear a the bottom of the Ownership column.

 

Family (Step 4)

The Family step allows the client to add, edit, or delete information for the family relationships of all principals that are employed at their firm. However, if the client does not enter any information in the grid, this step can be saved.

 

Business (Step 5)

The Businesses step allows the client to add, edit, or delete information for the other businesses owned. If the client does not enter any information in the grid, this step can be saved. Clients can click the Add button under owners to add any Other Company Owners information such as owner name and ownership percentages. 

 

Contact (Step 6)

The Contacts step allows the client to review the Name, Contact Information, Roles, and Rights of any contact that is linked to the plan in PensionPro. Here, the client can add any contact change requests (i.e. contact's address changed) by clicking the Add button.

 

Plan (Step 7)

The Plan step is the step in which the client completes the Annual Employer Questionnaire. Any answer that is marked as required will need to be completed before the client will be able to save the questionnaire. The questions contained in the questionnaire are created in the Annual Data Collection template in PensionPro. 

 

5500 (Step 8)

The 5500 step is the step in which the client completes the 5500 Questionnaire. Any answer that is marked as required will need to be completed before the client will be able to save the questionnaire. The questions contained in the questionnaire are created in the annual data collection template in PensionPro. 

 

Employees (Step 9)

The Employees step is the step in which the client imports or edits the Employee Census information. The Collection Fields contained in the Employee Census template are set up in PensionPro in Maintenance > Preferences > PensionPro > Collection Fields and are customizable to each plan type. If any change is made to these fields, it will immediately change the fields in PlanSponsorLink.

 

Enabling Mapping Preferences

To make sure that the Census Import Column Mapping is enabled:

  1. Click Maintenance > Preferences > PensionPro.
  2. Select Annual Data Collection from the menu on the left.
  3. Click the Edit icon next to the Census Import Column Mapping preference.
  4. Set the value to Yes.
  5. Click Save.

****Please note that this switch will immediately enable the Column Mapping feature for all users of PlanSponsorLink.****

 

Mapping/Formula Check

  • If the column headings in the excel spreadsheet are different then what is in PensionPro, then the user will see a screen which will Map Columns for Employee Import.
  • The client will choose a heading in the From Sheet column and a heading in the From System column and then click an arrow to move them to the Sheet > System column.
  • Once all of the columns have been selected, the user will click Import. 
  • Also, if the import sheet contains formulas, the spreadsheet will not import but instead an error message will return with the cells that need to be updated to import successfully.

 

Employee Census Data Checking Rules

During the process of entering data using the Add or Edit screens and during the import of your data from an Excel spreadsheet, the following list of rules is used to verify that the data you are providing is as accurate as possible.

 

 When entering or editing employee data manually, the following rules apply:

  • Any field marked as required must be populated with data for you to save the record
  • If the value for hours is zero, a warning is generated
  • If the Date of Separation is before the start of the plan year, a warning is generated
  • If the Date of Separation date is after the end of the plan year, a warning is generated
  • Hire date cannot be earlier than the date of birth
  • Date of Separation cannot be earlier than the date of hire
  • If compensation is zero, a warning is generated

 When importing data from a spreadsheet, the following rules apply:

  • First Name and Last Name are required to import the spreadsheet
  • Rows missing the two items above will be skipped during import
  • If the type of data in a cell doesn't match the type of data for that column, the import will not continue

The Employee Census Errors and Warnings message area will appear if any of the following are true after importing data:

  • If the value for hours is zero, a warning is generated
  • Hire date cannot be earlier than the date of birth
  • Termination date cannot be earlier than the date of hire
  • If the termination date is before the start of the plan year
  • If the termination date is after the end of the plan year
  • If compensation is zero, a warning is generated
  • If all employees have pretax or Roth deferrals

Employee Census Warnings and Errors:

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Census Data Population

If census data was entered for the previous plan year, that data will roll forward to the current plan year when the Data Collection is launched. Compensation, Deferral entries, and Employees with a Date of Separation entered are not rolled forward to the current year.

  • Note: When launching a Data Collection, if the Data Collection's Period Start Date is not 1 day after the prior year Data Collection's Period End Date, users will receive a "No Prior Year data was found to roll forward" message. Any Client Address and Phone Number data will pull forward into the Data Collection portion of the project, however, no other data will be able to be pulled forward. This ensures data collection information will be clean and accurate when plan sponsors complete data collection on PlanSponsorLink.
  • Note: When launching a Data Collection, if the Data Collection's Period Start Date is 1 day after the prior year Data Collection's Period End Date, any prior year census data from the prior plan year Data Collection will roll forward to the current plan year. If no prior census data was available, users will get a "No Prior Year data was found to roll forward" message. This is only an alert and will not interfere with launching the Data Collection.

 

Export a Template

The client can export the Employee Census template by clicking the Export button. Once the information in the template has been completed, the template can be imported using the Import button.

 

Import a Completed Template

When importing the data, the Employee Census Import Mapping tool will give the plan sponsor the ability to map the columns from the census import sheet to PlanSponsorLink. This will assist the client in the importing of the census data. Note: If a contact is using their own Census Import excel file, the tab containing census information must be the first tab of the Excel file.

 

Copy

If the plan sponsor clicks the Copy button, it will allow them to copy any census data from another plan year. Example: If the plan sponsor has completed census data from 2019 but did not complete it for 2020. When the 2021 project is launched, the plan sponsor may use the Copy button to copy over the census data from the 2019 plan year and make necessary edits from there if applicable. 

Note: If the plan is linked to a client record that has multiple plans, the plan sponsor can select which plan and plan year they want to copy census data over for when available.

 

Formulas

If the import sheet contains formulas, the spreadsheet will not import but instead, an error message will return with the cells that need to be updated to import successfully.

 

Delete Census Information

If the client clicks the Delete button, a Delete All Employees message will appear "Are you sure you want to delete all the employees? This cannot be undone. It is recommended that you export before deleting." The client can then select either No or Yes to cancel or delete.

 

Skipping the Census 

If the grid is entirely empty and the client clicks the Save button, an Alternative Census Submission message will appear. This message is controlled by the PensionPro Preference for Employees Step No W2s Message. For more information on this preference and other, please review Creating/Maintaining PensionPro Preferences This will allow the client to Skip This Step. If the client clicks Skip This Step, the Employees step will be completed without any information.

 

Approval (Step 10)

The Approval & Census Submission step is where the client can add any Documents or Notes before submitting the information. Once all the Documents and Notes have been added then the client should click the Sign and Submit button. If all the required information is not complete the client will receive a message indicating that they need to complete all the information. If all of the information is complete then the client will need to fill in the Sign and Submit Collection pop-up box with their Name, Title, Phone, and Email Address. Name and Email Address are required fields. 

When a client clicks the Submit button on the Approval step, a popup appears stating "Thank you for completing all the steps in the Annual Administration process. A confirmation email has been sent to [submitter's email address here]." The body of the sent email can be customized by updating the Data Collection Submission Email under the PlanSponsorLink Preferences. Users can find more information on updating this preference in Creating/Maintaining PensionPro Preferences. The email is sent from admin@plansponsorlink.com.

If the person does not receive the Data Collection Submission Email, they should check their Deleted and Spam folders first for the file. The person may need to have their IT team whitelist emails from admin@plansponsorlink.com to ensure they receive this email.

 

Changes Made to Data Collection on PlanSponsorLink

As plan sponsors make updates to Data Collection on PlanSponsorLink, users will see a notification on the Data Collection tab of the Annual Administration Data Collection Project (Essential, Premium, and Business users only) or Plan Cycle in PensionPro. PensionPro users will see a yellow triangle icon next to the Data Collection tab. The related data grid will show red text that the information was Changed On Web.

  • General
  • Company
  • Principals
  • Family
  • Business
  • Contacts

Changes made to the Employer Questionnaire, 5500 Questionnaire, and Employee Census do not create a Changed On Web indicator.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The plan sponsor has noted that census information is incorrect on the Employees task on PlanSponsorLink, how can we update this information? The contact that is completing the Employees task on PlanSponsorLink can click the Edit button to the right of the grid for the participant record to be updated. An Employee popup window will appear, where they can make changes to applicable fields and click Save when done. Alternatively, PensionPro users can open the Data Collection in PensionPro and click Data Collection > Employees from the Views panel on the left. On the Employees grid, the user can select a participant record and click the Edit icon to update collection field(s) for a participant.

  • When my client attempts to import their Employee Census on PlanSponsorLink, they get an error message stating that "Header(s) '' found more than one in worksheet: 'Employees'. What are they doing wrong? When a plan sponsor submits data and gets this error message, they have column headers with the same formula or trailing space in more than one column even though the column appears blank. To fix, highlight the blank column headers in the excel file and delete the blank columns. The plan sponsor can save the file and attempt to import again.

  • If a plan sponsor imports a new census template over data that is currently showing, will that create duplicate information? When a plan sponsor imports a new census template on the Employees task of PlanSponsorLink, the import will overwrite any previously entered census data, leaving only the census information that was in the imported template. If a PensionPro user imports a new census data on the Data Collection > Employees tab in PensionPro, that import will also overwrite any previously entered census data.

  • My plan sponsor imported their census data and the values for a collection field are appearing blank after the census was imported. Why aren't these populating in PensionPro? In order for the data to import, the column headers for collection field on the import template must directly match the Field Description Display Name for the collection fields in PensionPro.  Users can confirm the Field Description display names by clicking Maintenance > Preferences >PensionPro and selecting the Field Descriptions menu. If the column header on the import template does not directly match that Field Description Display Name, it will not import that information.

 

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