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UBEF - ALBERTA PENSION ADMINISTRATION (APA) SYSTEM#

The Generate Benefit/Payroll Interface (UBEF) screen may be used to generate a pension interface file for the province of Alberta. The following describes the necessary set up required in order to create this type of interface.

Step 1 - Define Plan Type in IBPT#

A plan type must be set up for the Alberta Pension Administration (APA) system. The plan type may be defined by the user, but all pension plans associated with APA must be identified as being in this plan type. The following example illustrates the set up of 'PENSION' plan type in the system.

Step 2- Define Plan Definitions in IBPN#

Each APA pension plan must be set up and identified with a 'PENSION' plan type (as illustrated in this document). The plan code can be defined by the users, but keep in mind that the 4th-7th characters of the plan name will be used to report to the Alberta Pension Administration.

There are currently three pension plans being supported, they are PSPP, MEPP, and MSRP plans. Since this system passes only the 4-7th characters of the plan code to the Alberta Pension Board, therefore it is mandatory that those positions of the Plan code includes eitherPSPP, MEPP, or MSRP as appropriate.

Please note that it is possible to define the plan code in other ways, in this case, the IDIF file definition must be changed accordingly or it will not produce the desired result.

Due to different contribution rules which apply to different employment statuses, each of these pension plans should have four coverage codes. The currently supported coverage codes are 'Active', 'LTD', 'Leave', and 'Leave No-cont'. (See UBEF Processing section 5.11 for further details of each Coverage).

Only record types 18-4, 18-A, 18-L, 18-M, and 18-W as defined by APA is supported at this time.

Step 3 - Define User Fields in IMUF#

A new 'PN-EMPLOYER NUMBER' user-defined field must be set up for each APA pension plans. This employer number is assigned by the Alberta Pension Administration.

Once this UDF is correctly set up, it can then be access through the IBPN screen using the 'Edit User Fields' button in the tool bar.

Step 4 - Define Pay Elements in IPPE#

A number of pay elements must be set up for the APA pension system. These pay elements will be used in the IDIF definition in order to obtain the correct Pensionable Salary and Contributions. (This list contains suggested Pay Element names that are used in the standard supplied IDIF definitions. These Pay Element names can be modified, and new ones added, as long as the corresponding IDIF definition is also modified accordingly).

APA ELEMENTS

Step 5 - Define Usercalcs in IMUC#

A number of UserCalcs may be required to process any exceptions to the standard function. You are responsible for writing and maintaining your own UserCalcs.

Step 6 - Define Interface Format in IDIF#

HL$ABPERS-184 is provided in the IDIF screen as an example of a Pipe Delimited interface file for generating Record Type 18-4 for the Alberta Pension Administration.

HL$ABPERS-184C is also provided in IDIF as an example of a Comma Delimited file for generating an audit report of Record Type 18-4.

Standard IDIF definitions are provided for the other supported record types (HL$ABPERS-18A and HL$ABPERS-18AC for record type 18-A; HL$ABPERS-18L and HL$ABPERS-18LC for record type 18-L; HL$ABPERS-18M and HL$ABPERS-18MC for record type 18-M; HL$ABPERS-18W and HL$ABPERS-18WC for record type 18-W).

You should copy (use Copy Definition) definitions into a different Interface code and then enter your own company data.

IDIF FIELD DEFINITIONS

Interface File Layout for the Alberta Pension Administration#

The file is pipe delimited

Each file contains one header record and multiple detail records. The Transaction code and Detail type for the header record is always '94-1' for all files, while the Transaction code and Detail type for the detail records can be either '18-4', '18-A', '18-L', '18-M', or '18-W'.

UBEF APA Interface File Layout

Supported Transaction Types for the Province of Alberta#

Transaction Type	Description
94-1	Batch Header Record, a record of this type will be created together with all other transaction types in the file.
18-4	Annual Year End Detail Record
18-A	Reports Leave without Salary: earnings and service
18-L	Reports the Leave of Absence detail, or adjustments to this detail, where the member has continued to contribute while on leave
18-M	Reports Parenting Leave without Salary: earning and service
18-W	Reports the Parenting Leave of Absence detail, or adjustment to this detail, where the member has continued to contribute while on leave.

Step 7 - Run UBEF To Create APA Interface File#

Processing Information#

One file will be created each time the UBEF function is executed; each execution will be for one plan and for one transaction type only. One file will be generated for each pension plan and transaction type combination.

For the three supported plans and the five supported transaction types, a total of 15 interface files will be generated (i.e. one interface file for the PSPP plan for transaction type 18-4, one interface file for the MEPP plan for transaction type 18-4, one interface file for the MSRP plan for transaction type 18-4, one interface file for the PSPP plan for transaction type 18-A, one interface file for the MEPP plan for transaction type 18-A, one interface file for the MSRP plan for transaction type 18-A, one file for the PSPP plan for transaction type 18-L, etc.…).

To generate an audit report, the UBEF function must be executed a second time, using a 'Comma Delimited' Interface File format to create a file with a file extension of '.csv'. This file can then be viewed through an Excel spreadsheet.

UBEF Calculations#

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Report Parameters#

Report Parameters
Entity	You must enter an entity Mandatory
From Date	Enter a Pay Period Begin Date
To Date	Enter a Pay Period End Date
Interface Code	Enter the Interface code from the IDIF screen Mandatory
Interface Level	Specify the level for the Interface file to be produced; this must be '10'. Mandatory Lexicon X_INTERFACE_LEVEL values are: 01 - EEM + EASD (not applicable for UBEF processing) 02 - EEM + EASD + Contacts (not applicable for UBEF processing) 10 - BE Plans 11 - BE + Contacts (not applicable for UBEF processing)
ER Addr Location	This allows you to enter an overridden location to retrieve the employer’s address. If this is not specified, the entity's location address is used. Optional
Sort by Active/Inactive	Check this toggle to sort inactive employees first.
Sort Employees By	You should sort employees by Last Name/First Name, however, you may sort by the employee's pay destination or sort by Person code
Create File	This field provides an option to create the file
Directory Name	Enter a valid directory name
File Name	Enter a file name or use the default file name from IDIF screen
Exception Level	You should always run with the Exception level unless for tracing In Trace Level 1, the employee header with Person Code and Employee Name are displayed with performance time, this can be used for Progress bar or to locate employee with problem In Trace Level 2, the BE plans are displayed after employee header information People List Code Please specify if People list is to be used (Optional)
Person Code	Enter one or more Person Codes (Optional)
Location	Enter one or more Location codes(Optional)
Authorization	Enter one or more Authorization Areas (Optional)
Department	Enter one or more Department Codes (Optional)
Org Level Type	Enter one or more Org Level Types (Optional)
Org Level	Enter one or more Org Level within Org Level Types (Optional)
Unit	Enter one or more Unit codes (Optional)
Group	Enter one or more Group codes (Optional)
Payroll	Enter one or more Payroll Codes (Optional)
Employment Status	Enter one or more Employment Statuses (Optional)
Termination Reason	Enter one or more Termination Reasons (Optional)
Plan Type	This field is applicable if Interface Level = 'BE plans' (Optional)
Plan	This field is applicable if Interface Level = 'BE plans' (Optional)