March 1, 2023

A Step-By-Step Guide to Benefits Reconciliation

For HR and Benefits professionals, reconciling employee benefit plan invoices is a critical task that cannot be ignored. However, in understaffed departments, accounting work can often take a backseat due to time constraints and limited resources. Ignoring this work can result in serious consequences such as non-compliance, financial penalties, and dissatisfied employees. The good news is that the Tabulera Portal provides a user-friendly solution that streamlines the reconciliation process, ensuring accuracy and saving time. This comprehensive guide will take you through the step-by-step process of reconciling employee benefit plan invoices using Tabulera, giving HR and Benefits professionals the tools they need to effectively manage accounting work and mitigate potential risks.

Connecting the nescessary data

Uploading the relevant source data is the first step in reconciling employee benefit plan invoices using the Tabulera platform. This is a crucial step in ensuring that accurate data is used to reconcile the invoices. The type of source data that needs to be uploaded includes enrollment data, payroll data, and carrier invoices.

Step 1: Log in to Tabulera Portal

Log in to the Tabulera Portal and navigate to the Home Page, which serves as the dashboard for the application.

The Home Page is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, allowing you to easily navigate through the various features of the Tabulera platform.The Home Page dashboard displays statistical information on the left, such as counts of the number of employers and employees, as well as counts of carrier plans. On the right, you will see the amounts of invoices yet to be received from third parties, if utilizing our rebilling features, and the amounts of payables still to be paid to insurance carriers. Additionally, the dashboard displays the total premiums paid during the last 30 days, providing a comprehensive overview of the financial status of the benefits program.

Step 2: Upload Source Data

Depending on the configuration of your HRIS and payroll systems, Tabulera can be configured to automatically retrieve data via API or sFTP, or alternatively, files can be manually uploaded.For the purpose of this demonstration, we will be utilizing the manual upload method. We will be reconciling benefits for our demonstration company, MediTech Pharmaceutical, and as such, will only be uploading files related to that organization.You'll notice the date ribbon across the top of the panel that identifies which month and year your file upload will apply to.

The upload process is simple and begins within the enrollment section. By clicking the "Upload file" button within the row corresponding to the desired company, a file can be selected from your local computer or a shared drive. Once the file has been uploaded, the status will change from "Missing" to "Completed," indicating that the process is complete, and the next step can be taken.

Next, we will move on to uploading carrier invoices. This can be done by clicking the "Upload Carrier invoices" button in the left navigation menu. The process for uploading these files is identical to that of the enrollment files, and Tabulera supports a variety of file formats, including CSV, PDF, and Excel.Finally, we will proceed to uploading payroll files. This can be done by navigating to the "Upload Payroll" menu and following the same process for uploading files.

Reconciling

Step 3: Access Reconciliation Application

To access the benefits reconciliation application, click the Reconciliation button located in the top navigation menu.

The invoice summary page is divided into three sections: a reconciliation date filter, a statistical panel that displays the overall status of your invoices including over payments, under collections against payroll, and items with identified issues, and a running plan balance of net over and under collections from this carrier invoice against payroll since plan inception. The bottom section displays a list of invoices that have been uploaded for the current period.


Step 4: Filter the List

To easily identify and resolve any issues, filters can be utilized to narrow down the list. By selecting "Unresolved" from the "All Items" menu, you can quickly view only the items with variances that require attention. The system automatically assigns a variance reason code to each item, allowing for a quick understanding of the suspected cause of the issue.


Step 5: Identify and Resolve Variances

By clicking on an item, a panel will slide out displaying the running plan balance and a "Detailed View" tab with additional plan-related information. Once the source of the variance has been identified, the "Resolve" button may be clicked to mark the item as resolved.

Step 6: Review Dashboard

The dashboard at the top of the page now shows the amounts of the beginning over and under collected premium variances and the Resolved transactions equal each other noting the successful reconciliation of the invoice.

Step 7: Repeat Steps for Additional Invoices

Repeat Steps 3 through 6 for any additional invoices that need to be reconciled.

Conclusion

In conclusion, by following these simple steps, you can easily reconcile employee benefits plan invoices using the Tabulera Portal. The platform's user-friendly interface and straightforward upload process make it easy to quickly and accurately reconcile employee benefits against both your enrollment and payroll information.

Don't forget to check our Case Study, where we show How we saved $531.742 to our group of clients by eliminating benefit write-off's with our Benefits Reconciliation Module.

Benefits Reconciliation

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