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Benefits Overview
Benefits Overview

Payroll benefits overview, health & retirement benefits, adding a health benefit, adding a policy, assigning a health benefit to a worker

Isabelle Talkington avatar
Written by Isabelle Talkington
Updated over a month ago

Health and retirement benefits are two of the most common employee benefits offered by employers. They are funded through a combination of employee deductions and employer contributions that are calculated with every paycheck. Once configured, they will be calculated automatically and appear on the employee pay stubs. Please note that even though the system calculates these benefit deductions and contributions, it is the employer’s responsibility to pay the premiums directly to the benefits provider.

Health benefits

A health benefit is an employer-provided health insurance coverage offered to their employees. The employer typically covers part of the premium through employer contributions and the other part is paid by the worker through a payroll deduction. Health benefit deductions from an employee’s paycheck may be set as pre-tax or post-tax deductions. An employer should refer to their plan documents for confirmation. We support for types of health benefits:

  • Medical (pre-tax)

  • Dental (pre-tax)

  • Vision (pre-tax)

  • Post-tax health benefit

  • S-corp health benefit (please refer to this article)

Adding a health benefit

In order to set up a health benefit, we recommend the employer sets it up in the employer profile first so they can set default values which can then be easily applied to the employees receiving said benefit. Here are the steps to add an employer health benefit.

  1. Navigate to the employer profile

  2. Locate the Benefits card and click Edit

  3. Click on “Add new benefit”

  4. For benefit category select ‘Health benefit’

  5. For benefit type select the appropriate benefit type being added

  6. Next, indicate that you want to set company default values (most common)

  7. Indicate if the contribution amounts will be calculated per paid period or a fixed amount per month

  8. Indicate if this benefit is funded through an employee deduction, an employer contribution, or a combination of both

  9. Enter the amounts to be calculated then click Save

Adding a policy to an employer health benefit

By default, if an employer adds a benefit and sets company defaults, the system creates a default policy for that benefit. However, the employer may need to add more than one policy if they have different groups of employees that have different configuration rules. For example, an employer might have one policy for part-time employees and another policy for full-time employees. Each policy might have different contribution rates, but they are both a Dental Insurance benefit. The employer can set up one Dental Insurance benefit and add multiple policies for the different groups of employees. Here are the steps to add a benefits policy.

  1. Navigate to the employer profile

  2. Locate the Benefits card and click Edit

  3. Locate the appropriate benefit to add a policy to and click Edit

  4. If there are any policies added, they will appear there. To add a new policy, click “Add a policy”

  5. Enter a display name to help you recognize it later. This name is only visible to the company admins and will not be shown on worker pay stubs.

  6. Indicate if the contribution amounts will be calculated per paid period or a fixed amount per month

  7. Indicate if this benefit is funded through an employee deduction, an employer contribution, or a combination of both

  8. Enter the amounts to be calculated then click Save

Assigning a health benefit to a worker

Once the employer health benefit has been configured, it is time to add it to an employee. Here are the steps to assign a health benefit to an employee.

  1. Navigate to the worker list

  2. Select the appropriate employee and navigate to their profile

  3. Locate the Benefits card and click Edit

  4. Click “Add new benefit”

  5. For benefit category select ‘Health benefit’

  6. For benefit type select the appropriate benefit type that was added earlier

  7. If there is a policy created for that benefit, select the appropriate policy

  8. The benefit configuration will auto-fill to match the policy. The employer can choose to override some of the values on an employee by employee basis if they choose to.

  9. Click Save

Retirement benefits

A retirement benefit is another employee benefit that can be set up to be funded by a combination of employee deductions and employer contributions. In general, retirement benefits are not taxed for income withholding taxes (like Federal Income Tax) but some might be post-tax. Employers should consult their benefit documents to make sure they are setting it up correctly. We support 3 different types of retirement benefits:

  • 401(k)

  • Roth 401(k)

  • SIMPLE IRA

Retirement plans have two annual limits to select from, the Standard limit and the Catch-up limit for workers that will be 50 years or older in the calendar year. You can view more information on Catch-up limits here.

Adding a retirement benefit

Adding a retirement benefit works exactly the same as adding a health benefit. The only differences are selecting ‘retirement benefit’ as the category` and selecting the Standard or Catch-up limit.

Adding a policy to an employer retirement benefit

Adding a policy to an employer retirement benefit follows the same steps as adding a policy to a health benefit.

Adding a retirement benefit to a worker

Adding a retirement benefit to a worker follows the same steps as adding a health benefit to a worker.

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