Document Specifications

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PensionPro's Document Specifications feature provides the ability to store plan document details, making this information easily accessible to users, whether viewed directly or referenced throughout other areas of the application. Document templates can be customized to capture the relevant information, and new plan documents can be added to a Plan directly or via import.

 

Tier Availability: Team, Business

 

Article Contents

 

 

 

Overview

 

Recording plan document data for each Plan allows this information to be used in a number of places throughout PensionPro, including:

 

  • Merge Fields in Blast Email and Merge Documents communications
  • Filtering options for Power Tools and Blast Email
  • Document Specifications reporting

 

Additionally, PensionPro provides version control for plan documents, making it possible to store older versions of plan specifications or prepare an amended document before it goes into effect.

 

Before Document Specifications can be added to a Plan, an appropriate Template will need to be created. This Template determines which specifications will be recorded; this may be the full plan document, or just a subset of the most useful specifications. For more information on creating a Template, refer to the article Document Specification Templates.

 

 

Doc Specs on the Plan Tab

 

To review and manage a Plan's Document Specifications, navigate to the Plan tab for the desired Plan, then select the Specifications view from the list on the left. The Document Specification Versions grid contains any Documents that have already been added, displaying the Template, Provider, Vendor, Effective Date, and Status.

 

Double-click on a Document to view its individual Specifications. For convenience, these Specifications are automatically grouped by their appropriate sections.

 

Note: Due to technical limitations, the Document Specifications grid is only able to load in a select number of Specifications per page. When using a Template containing a large number of Specifications, it may appear as though sections are missing from the Document. These sections are still available and can be found by navigating to subsequent pages using the controls below the grid; increasing the Items per page count may also be helpful.

 

 

Managing Specifications

 

Security Rights Required: Add/Edit Plan Doc Specs

 

On the Specifications view of the Plan tab, Documents may be added or edited as necessary. This section provides instructions for keeping Plan Specifications organized and up-to-date.

 

 

Adding a Document

 

To add a new Document to a Plan:

 

  1. Select Addadd.png at the top-right of the Document Specification Versions grid. The Add Document window displays.
  2. Select an Action.
    • Copy from Existing Document will make a copy of one of the Document Templates that has already been added to the Plan, along with its current values. This can be a good option if updating the Plan Document for an amendment.
    • Copy from Existing Template will use one of the created Document Specification Templates. Values for Specifications will be set to the default established in the chosen Template, or will be blank if no default is available. This should be used if adding a Template for the first time, or if a change was made to that Template's available Specifications.
  3. Select a Document or Template to copy from, depending on the chosen Action.
  4. Set the desired Status.
    • The items in this dropdown are determined by List Values, located under Core > General > Document Specification Status.
  5. Specify an Effective Date for the Document.
    • This value cannot be the same as the Effective Date for any of the Plan's other Documents.
  6. Select Save.

 

 

Editing a Document

 

To edit a Document's details, hover over the desired Document in the Document Specification Versions grid, then select Editedit.png on the right-hand side. Although few details are able to be changed after the Document is added, the Edit Document window allows the Status, Description, and Effective Date to be updated as necessary. In addition, the Document can be marked for deletion.

 

A Document's Specifications can also be edited. Double-click on the Document to open its specifications; locate and hover over the desired Specification, then select Editedit.png on the right-hand side to display the Edit Specification window. The formatting used for a Specification's value is determined by the Document Template. Although the Name of the Specification cannot be altered, its corresponding Tag may be changed if necessary.

 

Individual Specification line items may not be added or removed on the Plan tab; instead, the Template will need to be updated and re-added to the Plan.

 

 

Importing Document Specifications

 

Due to the size of some plan documents and the number of items they contain, it can be preferable to instead import Document Specifications from a spreadsheet template, rather than adding Documents to Plans one at a time. The instructions in this section outline this process, which involves obtaining a blank workbook template, followed by running the necessary Power Tool to import the workbook once it has been filled in.

 

Note: This section specifically covers importing Specifications from a spreadsheet. Firms utilizing PensionPro's integration with ftwilliam.com may instead opt to import Plan Documents directly from that system. In this case, refer to the article Importing ftwilliam.com Specifications.

 

 

Exporting a Blank Workbook

 

Security Rights Required: Add/Edit Plan Doc Specs

 

A pre-formatted import sheet can be downloaded from Document Specification Templates:

 

  1. Navigate to Maintenance > Preferences > Document Specifications. A new Document Specifications tab opens.
  2. Select Templates from the Views list on the left; the corresponding grid will be displayed.
  3. Single-click in the grid to select the Template that will be used for the import.
  4. At the top-right of the grid, select Moremore_options.png > Download Template.

 

An Excel workbook file will be downloaded. The import sheet in this workbook will provide each of the Template's Specification Tags as column headers, along with columns for Plan Name and ID. Complete the import sheet—using one row per Plan—then move on to the next section.

 

 

Utilizing the Import Power Tool

 

Security Rights Required: Access Power Tools

 

Once the import sheet has been completed, follow the below series of steps to import the new Document data into PensionPro:

 

  1. Navigate to Power Tools > Import > Document Specifications. The Document Specifications Import Power Tools opens at Step 1.
  2. Select the Template Provider for the Document Template that is being imported.
  3. Select the Template Name for the Document Template that is being imported.
  4. Use the File Selection box to navigate to and select the workbook template file to be imported.

 

The next steps determine how PensionPro matches rows on the import sheet to their corresponding Plans, as well as setting the correct Effective Date for each:

 

  1. Select the Plan field containing the PensionPro data to match against the import sheet. Options are Plan Name or TPA Plan ID.
  2. Select the column on the import sheet which contains the values that the Plan field will be matched against.
  3. Select the column on the import sheet which contains the Effective Date for each Document.
  4. Select Next.

 

The remaining steps complete the Power Tool:

 

  1. Step 2 of the Power Tool displays each recognized Plan and the Effective Date of the Document that will be applied to each. Review this information and make changes to the import sheet if necessary.
  2. Select Next.
  3. Step 3 provides an overview of the changes that will be applied upon completion of the Power Tool; confirm that this information is correct.
  4. Select Execute to perform the import.

 

Upon completion, the Document Specifications defined in the import sheet will be added to all relevant Plans.

 

If PensionPro detects an issue that will prevent import, it will display a red error banner containing a link to an Error Log. This may occur when selecting the import file in Step 1, or when reviewing the data in Step 2, depending on the nature of the issue.

 

 

Closing Old Document Versions

 

Plan Documents with older Effective Dates are not automatically made inactive when a new Document is added. Following an import, it may be desirable to "close out" these prior versions which are no longer relevant. The Field Update Power Tool for Document Specifications can be used to update the Status for Documents across multiple Plans (or, alternately, mark the Documents for deletion).

 

This Power Tool can be found by navigating the Power Tools > Field Update > Document Specifications.

 

For assistance using this Power Tool, refer to the general use instructions found in the article Power Tools.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

  • I'm receiving an error telling me that Document Specifications with the same Effective Date cannot exist. What am I doing wrong?
    PensionPro will not allow a Plan to have two Documents with the same Effective Date. In this case, either delete the older Document, or adjust the Effective Date of the new Document to one that is not already in use.

  • Do I have the ability to run a Fetch query on Plan Specifications?
    Yes. This data can be retrieved using the Fetch nodes under Locations > Clients > Plans > Document Specifications (or Document Specifications Pivoted).

  • If I encounter an error while importing Specifications, can I just import the records that did not produce any errors?
    Unfortunately, the import will not complete unless all records are error-free. If an error cannot be immediately resolved, consider removing it from the import sheet and try again at a later time.

  • When I import a template, nothing populates beyond the first section. What happened to the data?
    If a sufficiently large number of line items are imported, the data was likely imported correctly, but the Plan Specifications grid has pushed the remaining sections to another page of results. Use the page controls below the grid to access the remaining information.