Purpose

There are two distinct processes that a Benefits Administrator must manage when enroling eligible employees in company car plans. The first concerns the process required to enrol an employee who is selecting a car plan for the first time. This is a generalised process, which will, of course, vary depending on your organisation’s specific business requirements.

Process Flow

For employees eligible for a company car, a generalised company car plan enrolment process is described below:

HR Benefits Administrator runs a report to produce a list of employees who are eligible for a company car in the Flexible Benefits system.

Benefits administrator informs eligible employees and creates the Car Selection event for the eligible employees by maintaining the adjustment reason Car Selection in the infotype Adjustment Reasons (0378).

In the event of Car selection , no infotype 0442 record is created.

The annual (open) enrolment period for Flexible Benefits opens. Using Employee Self Service (ESS), eligible employees select their car from the car options list. If they wish, employees can also choose Cost Overview to see the effect of their car selection on their Flexible Benefits package.

Before the cars are delivered to employees, the actual cost of the car is unknown. Therefore, the estimated benefit cost for company car is used to simulatethe flexible benefit cost of providing the company car. Employees cannot enrol the selected option with the estimated benefit cost for company car, and thus, enrolment of the cars can only take place once the car is delivered.

Employees contact the car administrator to agree on the detailed specifications of the car selected. The Car Administrator then contacts the car plan provider to place the order.

This process step is completed outside of the Flexible Benefits system.

When the cars are delivered, the Car Administrator, the employees and Benefits Administrator are informed by the provider.

This process step is also completed outside of the Flexible Benefits system.

The Benefits Administrator and the Car Administrator receive the detailed information about the delivered cars from the car provider. The Benefits Administrator creates infotype Company Car (0442) records, after having calculated the benefit cost for the employees’ cars, according to the organisation’s policy.

This value is entered into the Flexed value field on each employee’s infotype 0442 record. On the creation of infotype 0442, the adjustment reason Car Delivery (stored in infotype 0378) is presented and must be saved.

The creation of infotype Adjustment Reasons (0378) with the reason Car Delivery triggers an enrolment option Car Delivery on the ESS enrolment screen for eligible employees. The flexible benefit cost incurred is calculated from infotype 0442 and is displayed on the detail screen. Employees’ specific cars are presented and employees must enrol (accept) the car which subsequently creates an infotype Miscellaneous Plans (0377) record.

Multiple company car enrolment is not yet supported in GB FlexBens.

The begin date of infotype 0377 is closely related to the begin date of infotype 0378, which itself depends on your individual customising settings.

You must ensure that the start date/end date of infotype 0442 is consistent with the start date/end date of infotype 0377.

After company car data has been maintained in infotype 0442, Car Selection can no longer be processed within the Flexible Benefits System.

During the entire company car enrolment process, employees can only simulate the benefit cost of their car selection, which is not stored in the GB FlexBens system.

Employees themselves, or the Benefits Administrator, can only “enrol” cars after they have been delivered to the employees concerned.

Result

The required company cars have been delivered to employees, who are then officially enroled in their selected company car plan.

Example

The following scenario illustrates a typical benefits process for an employee who is eligible for his or her first company car, who has not previously been enroled in a company car plan. In this scenario, according to your organisation’s policy:

Company car contracts are valid for a three-year-period

Eligibleemployees are allowed up to two months to select their company car.

This scenario is as follows:

The Benefits Administrator runs a report on April 01 of the current benefits year and finds a particular employee is eligible for a company car starting from June 01 in that year.

On April 13, the administrator enables the Car Selection enrolment event for the employee by creating an infotype Adjustment Reasons 0378 record. The start date of the record is set to May 01 and the end date to June 30 of the current benefits year.

On May 03, using Employee Self-Service (ESS), the employee selects “car selection” and simulates the costs for different car selections.

The employee selects his or her desired car and contacts the car dealer and/or the car administrator for the car to be ordered.

The car is delivered to the employee on August 07. The Benefits Administrator and/or Car Administrator receives details about the car.

The Benefits/Car Administrator then carry out the following, to enrol the car for the employee:

Maintain the car details in infotype 0442. The start date of infotype 0442 is set to August 07, and the end date to August 06 in three years time.

Maintain the reason Car delivery in infotype 0378. The start date of infotype 0378 is set to August 07, and the end date set to September 06 of the current benefits year.

Informs the employee that they must now accept (enrol) the car.

The employee enrols his or her selected car via ESS, which creates a record in infotype 0377. The start date of infotype 0377 is set to August 07 of the current benefits year, and the end date to August 06 in three years time.