BC Pension Plan Report Creation

The BC Pension Plan Report Creation lists all the pension figures and information according to the Teachers and Municipal Pension Plan Instructions for Employers, as supplied by BC Pension Corporation. See section 7 of the Instructions for Employers for reporting examples and information. The report and file extraction formats follow the BC Pension Corporation IPAS Standard Format requirements. All BC Pension report and extract files are generated using the pension reporting year. This means that new pension files are created each year. This method maintains the old pension report information and eliminates the need for clearing out of old information when reports are reprocessed.

All BC Pension Plan Report values can be adjusted as necessary through the BC Pension Report Record Changes and then re reported through the BC Pension Plan Report Regeneration option. The BC Pension Report Record Changes allows for the manual addition, deletion or changes of pension records to be reported. Various service event types of pension records may be added as necessary allowing an employee to have multiple pension reporting records.

This BC Pension Plan Report Creation generates a unique pension file based on the pension deduction code and the pension year being reported. The pension work file PENA##.Pyy is created at the logical SRB$OPSDAT0: points to, where ## is the pension deduction code and yy is last two digits of the year. For example, PENA10.P06 is a pension report file created for pension deduction 10 for the year 06.

The extract file for submission to BC Pension Corporation is in IPAS Standard format and the file SRB$OPSWRK:cPP_PEN##.Eyy, where c is T for Teach or M for Municipal, ## is the pension deduction and yy is the last two digit of the pension year. When creation of the extract file is selected, the full file name and location is included in the header of the report.

Please refer to Instructions for Employer Data Reporting Requirements Reporting of Service Event Records in IPAS Standard format, supplied by the BC Pension Corporation. Please note, the OPS payroll system generates the Standard format file not the excel format.

The Global pension can be loaded into the global pension file PENGLT.Pyy for Teachers or PENGLM.Pyy for Municipal pension, from both the BC Pension Creation or Regeneration processes. The system will automatically replace only the information you are processing within the global pension reporting. The use of the Global pension reporting requires the 'Global Pension Directory' be completed under the User Specific Parameters Profile.

This reporting process includes the option of generating a separate pension record to include the pension values for a person with more than 35+ years of service. A second pension deduction would be defined with no employee contribution portion and used for those employees that have now contributed pension for 35 years. In the year the employee reaches 35 years of service the employee may have two separate pension records to reflect the change.

This report includes the option to report the vacation/holiday pay and subsequent pension credit bump up based on the vacation/holiday percentage. You defined a list of pay codes that represent the earnings that make up the applicable vacation/holiday earnings. You also have the option to define a list of pay codes of earnings that are vacationable but are not pensionable. The report will calculate the percentage from the total vacation/holiday in relation to the pension eligible, per employee per pay period. The percentage will then be used to bump up the pension service credits for the pay period. The report will subtract out any variable deductions eligible amount and add in the nonpensionable for the applicable pension deduction, before calculating the percentage to ensure variables will not impact on this formula. The bump up of the pension service credit only appears on the report the employee's pension credit records are not actually adjusted. This feature is also available under the Pension Credit Report where you can get details of the pension credit bump up per employee per pay period.

This process includes the option to maintain multiple sets of stored prompts.

Name the prompt sets by defining a title up to 10 characters, with a 30-character description.

On the first prompt click the Report Defaults icon to select an existing set of prompt values. You can delete prompt sets or change the description from the Report Default icon.

Enter Pension Reporting Year

• Enter the year the pension report is generated for. This value is used in the report heading and electronic file information. All pension files will be created using the pension year in the file name, allowing for unique files per year.

Enter Regular Pension Deduction Code

• Enter at least 1 or up to 5 pension deduction codes one at a time, to include on this report as regular pension. At least one pension deduction must be entered.

The first pension deduction code entered here is used in the naming of the pension work files. Access for changes and re-reporting of the pension information will require this deduction code value.

Enter 35 + Years Pension Deduction Code 

• Enter 1 or up to 5 pension deduction codes that represent pensionable earnings for employees that have reached 35 years of service. This would be an alternate pension deduction defined with no employee contributions. When an employee has pension history for a 35+ years of service pension deduction, a separate pension record is created. In the year the employee has reached 35 years of service the employee will have to pension reporting records. The 35+ years of service pension record may be adjusted or manually added as necessary through the BC Pension Record changes. This special pension record is recorded separately and not merged with the regular pension record.

Enter Special AGREEMENT Deduction Codes

• Accept the default, if no deduction amount should be reported as a special agreement.

• Enter one or up to 5 pension deductions that are special agreement contributions.

Pension Reporting for Teacher or Municipal

• Enter 'T' if this report is for a Teachers pension, plan ID 05TPP.

• Enter 'M' if this report is for a Municipal pension, plan ID 04MPP.

This prompt determines some of the extract header values such as pension plan id, valid values of Employee Group Code and the T/M is used as part of the extract file name.

Employee Group Code – Municipal Pension

• The Employee Group Code of 04GENERL is automatically loaded for Municipal Pension.

When A Teacher Pension Is Being Reported:

For the current Teachers pension, define the applicable Employee Group to be used followed by selection criteria. The default Employee Group code of 05GE10MO will be used for employee not matching any defined selection criteria. The IPAS document defines the Employee Groups as 04GENERL for MPP and 05GE10MO or 05GE12MO for TPP.

• Enter the applicable Employee Group per payroll or payroll selection. When a whole payroll is all one Employee Group, the Additional Optional Selection would not be required. The Optional Selection Criteria allows you to define additional selections based on Pay Code, Employee Type Code, Pay Cycle or Deduction code base on the employee's master function line. With additional selection by function line you can define multiple Employee Groups with a payroll.

• Enter Pension Employer Number

• Enter your employer organization id number as a 5-digit number. This number will be used on the report header and in the electronic file format information when the electronic file option was selected.

Create the Pension Extract File

• Enter to bypass the creation of the pension electronic file.

• Enter 'Y' to create the IPAS format extract file for submission to BC Pension Corporation.

The extract file SRB$OPSWRK:cPP_PEN##.Eyy, where c is T for Teach or M for Municipal, ## is the pension deduction and yy is the last two digits of the pension year. When creation of the extract file is selected, the full file name and location is included in the header of the report.

If you are loading all pension data into a Global pension and will be generating a global pension extract file, it is not necessary to generate the extract file at this location level.

Please refer to the Pension Corporation for their instructions on Electronic Submission Methods.

Add Data to Global Pension File

• Enter 'N' to omit the generation of a global pension file.

• Enter 'Y' to produce a pension report for this payroll and to update the global pension file with the information for each employee. The current payroll's Payroll Number will display. In order to use the Global Pension system, each payroll in the Payroll Location Changes must have had a payroll number assigned. Should you run the BC Pension Report Creation / Regeneration multiple times, the system will automatically replace the Global information for the payroll being processed, when Add to the Global Pension file is selected.

This option provides employers with the ability to produce a single pension report amalgamating all the employees from various payrolls into one pension report of like pension (one Teacher and one Municipal), for submission to the BC Pension Corporation. To use this function, you must have completed the Global Pension Directory field in the User Specific Parameters Profile defining the global pension directory. Each payroll is assigned a unique Payroll Number (setup on the Payroll Location Changes) for reporting under the Global Pension system. Two Global pension reports are possible at the same time, per year, a Teachers and Municipal. The Global pension report is required in order to process the BC Pension Adjustment Update (PA loading from data sent from the BC Pension Corporation).

When all payrolls which are to be included in the global pension report have been run, BC Global Pension Plan Report is used to produce the global report for submission to the BC Pension Corporation. The values loaded into the global pension file can be adjusted through the 'BC Global Pension Report Changes'. Additional employees may also be added at that time if necessary.

Invalid Global Pension File – Refresh File or Exit

This prompt will only appear when a version change affects the global pension file structure.

• Enter 'R' to create a new global pension file in the new format. When you are just starting your pension reporting for the year this step will have no impact other than to reset the structure of the global pension file.

• Enter 'E' to exit this process when you do not want the existing global pension file deleted. You will not be able to run this report loading data into the selected year's global pension file.

Enter Start Period Number

• Enter the starting pay period to be reported. This pay period defines the range of history periods to be used on the pension report.

Enter the Reporting Period Start Date

By default, the first start date of the Start Period will be displayed.

• Enter the reporting start date that will be used as the default Effective Start Date on the report and Service Event record. For each employee the process will use the starting date of the first pay period where the employee has pension contributions. The report will omit displaying the employee's start date when the start date matches this default date. The employee's start date is included on the Service Event record for electronic submissions.

Enter End Period Number

• Enter the ending pay period to be included on the report. This pay period defines the range of history periods to be used on the pension report.

Enter the Reporting Period End Date

By default, the first end date of the End Period will be displayed.

• Enter the reporting end date that will be used as the default Effective End Date on the report and Service Event record. For each employee the process will use the ending date of the last pay period where the employee has pension contributions. The report will omit displaying the employee's end date when the end date matches this default date. The employee's end date is included on the Service Event record for electronic submissions. When an employee is Terminated and the employee's Termination date falls within the date range of the last pay period the employee has pension contributions, the Termination date will be used as the employee's end date.

Build Contributor Service from Timesheets 

• Enter "N' to have the Contributor Service and employee's Effective Start and End dates determined based on the employees Year to Date History records.

• Enter 'Y' to have the employee's Contributor Service determined from the dates on the employee's timesheet entries for the range of pay period defined. Timesheet with pay code that are excluded from pension will be excluded from this process. Timesheets with pay codes set to Hours Pensionable = No will be excluded as well. Timesheet with dates earlier than the start date of the beginning pay period will be omitted. This feature would only apply to employees that are paid only be timesheet entry.

Report All or Selected Employees

Sort by Employee Number or Employee Name

• Enter 'N' to produce the report sorted by the employee name.

• Enter 'E' to produce the report sorted by employee number.

Include Employee Salary Grid

This option will only print the employee's current master function line salary grid on the BC Pension report. The salary grid field is not available on the Global BC Pension report.

• Enter 'N' to omit printing the employee's salary grid from the master function line.

• Enter 'Y' to include printing the employee's salary grid from the master function line. The salary grid is only included on the report and is not part of the extract file to be submitted to BC Pension Corporation.

When the Salary Grid is to be Included:

Sort by Employee Salary Grid

When creating a new report and include printing of the employees' master function line salary grid, you have the option to produce the report sorted by salary grid.

• Enter 'N' to omit a sort by salary grid.

• Enter 'Y' to produce the pension report sorted by salary grid. The report will be sorted by employee number within salary grid except when you indicate to produce the report by employee name. When report by employee name was also selected the report will be produced sorted by employee name within salary grid.

Double Space Report

• Enter 'Y' to produce the report with the employees reported with a blank line between each employee. The BC Pension Corporation prefers a double-spaced report be submitted when a pension electronic file is NOT submitted.

Bump Up Pension Credit by Vacation Percent

• Enter 'N' when the pension service credits should not be bumped up.

• Enter 'Y' when the pension service credits should be bumped up by the vacation/holiday pay percentage.

When 'Y'ES Bump UP the Pension Service is Selected the next three prompts will display:

Enter Vacation Pay Codes for Service Increase

• Enter one or up to 25 pay codes, that represent the vacation/holiday pay earnings that are pensionable. The total earnings from these pay codes will be used to calculate the employee's percentage and the pension service credits will be bumped up by that percentage. When the employee has no vacation/holiday earnings, the pension credits will not be adjusted.

Enter Vacationable but Not Pensionable Pay Codes

• Enter one or up to 25 pay codes, which represent the earnings that were included in the vacation/holiday pay earning generation but are not pensionable and therefore not included in the pension eligible. For example, overtime may be included in the vacation pay percentage calculation but is not pensionable earnings. The earnings accumulated from these pay codes will be added to the pension eligible for the determination of the vacation percentage.

Round Percentage to 2, 3, Or 4 Decimals

Define the number of decimals the vacation/holiday percentage should be rounded to. For example, if you vacation percentage is 4.4% or .044 you would want to calculate to 3 decimals, while a percentage of 4% or .04 would only require calculations to 2 decimals.

Enter Retro Pay Codes to be Reported Separately

• Enter one or up to 18 pay codes, which represent the retro earnings that are to be reported as a separate RT pension record. The retro earnings are divided by the total pensionable salary to determine what percentage of contribution will be moved from the RG record to the RT record. No contributor service nor pensionable service will be reported on the retro record.

Enter Default Retro Start Date

When one or more retro pay codes are defined, you will be prompted to enter the retro starting date to be used on the RT pension record.

• Enter Default Retro End Date

• Enter the retro ending date for reporting on the RT pension record.

Enter REHAB Pay Codes to BE Reported Separately

• Enter one or up to 7 rehabilitation pay codes which represents the rehab earnings to be reported as a separate RH pension record. To facilitate the automatic generation of the RH pension, record the employee returning to work must be paid under a different and unique Rehab pay code. The month in which Rehab earnings are paid will count as contributor service on the RH record as well as the pension service for those applicable pay periods. The pension contribution reported on the RH record will be a percentage of full contributions as defined by the percentage of Rehab earnings to full pensionable salary.

The report header lists the following:

• Location and exact name of extract file for electronic submission

• Employer name (from Employer Constant Database)

• Employer Organization id

• Pension year

• Plan id

• Reporting Start and End dates

The report lists the following: