Each Benefit Set Line Item has defined budgeting limits. If the desired benefit amount is outside these limits, an exception is necessary. Each Benefit Set Line Item choice can have an exception, and for each exception, a reason is required.
After exceptions have been saved, the Assignment Package step shows the list of exceptions that must all be approved before an Assignment Package can be generated. Each exception can be expanded to show additional information.
Clicking the
button locks previous Authorization steps, populates the list of approvers for any exceptions with a status of “New” and sends approval emails to the appropriate approvers.
When Core Flex Exceptions approval emails are sent, a link is included in the email for the approver to click on and provide their response. The Approval Link Window (APRLNKWNDW) system preference sets the limit in days that the link will work. If the approver has not given a response and the link has passed its window, internal users will see the email has expired and they can click on the
button to resend a new email to the approver. Also, if the “Approvers must be authorized with SSO/Login” is enabled in the System Preference, the approver must be a known user of the Equus Platform to open the said link. If not a user, access to this window will be restricted.
The page can be revisited to see the latest approver information including the approver status, date of change, and comments for each approver. Quick Workflows can optionally be configured to send a notification email for various states of approval statuses.
To define the list of appropriate approvers, the selected policy must have a Core Flex Policy Exception Approval Ruleset that is properly configured to match business needs. As a preventative measure, if the Approval Ruleset conditions result in any exception that does not have any approvers, the user is shown an error and cannot proceed. This is a configuration error that must be fixed.
Note, if the “Approvers must be authorized with SSO/Login” is enabled, the added approver must be a known Equus Platform user and the email address to be used must be the one linked to the account. An unmatched email address when added will result in a warning message.
The following is an example of a single Approval Rule for a Core Flex Policy Exception Approval Ruleset.
In this example, Johnny Approver is a required 1st round approver whenever an exception is generated and any one of the following conditions are met for that exception:
The benefit is in the “Tax & Social Security” section
The benefit has a description with the word “shipment” in it
The benefit choice stores its data in the “Temp Housing Days” User Table and the user desired a value of 60 Days (60 days must be configured to trigger an exception)
The user desired a benefit choice that resulted in a calculated cost of more than 10000 USD
Refer to the Approval Rulesets User Manual for more information on configuring Rulesets.
As with other approval routing workflows in the Equus Platform, approvers can approve or deny the request. Revisiting the Assignment Package step in the Authorization will display the current status of each exception.
If any exception is denied, the [Retry] button is enabled. Clicking the button will reset the status of currently denied exceptions, unlock the previous Authorization steps, and allow the user to make changes to their desired benefit amounts. Approved exceptions and exceptions awaiting approval are not affected.
Upon returning to the Services step, previously denied exceptions can be easily identified by their “New” status. Approved exceptions have their reason locked, but any benefit choice can be changed at this time. If the user’s new desired choices also result in exceptions, those exceptions can be routed by advancing to the Assignment Package step and again clicking the [Route New Exceptions for Approval] button. If the user’s new desired choices result in no exceptions, then the user will need to wait for current exceptions to be approved. If there are no more current exceptions needing approval, the user will be taken directly to the Assignment Package step.
If for any reason, changes are made to the Authorization that cause the Benefit Set to be recalculated, all exceptions for the Benefit Set, regardless of their status, are deleted as well.
The following information is automatically saved to Core Flex policy exceptions and may be useful for reporting purposes:
Number – Unique identifier generated by the system
Assignment Policy – Null
Policy Section – set to “Generated From a Core Flex Benefit Set at Time of Authorization"
Policy Field Description - Set to the Benefit Set Line Item’s Description and appended with the minimum and maximum amounts.
Exception Description – Set to “Exception Generated as part of an Authorization using a Core Flex policy,” and appended with the desired benefit choice.
Reason – Entered by user.
Estimated Cost – This is the result of the cost calculation for the Benefit Set Line Item. Note that in the case of a line item with multiple choices, this cost is the result of all desired choices for that line item just like on the Services It’s possible for a single line item to have an exception for multiple desired amounts. In that case, the cost would be reported and identical for all exceptions; however, the cost would not actually need to be paid multiple times.
When an Authorization that contains approved exceptions is completed, the exception information and history is automatically copied to the created Assignment. To make creating any future exceptions easier, a Policy Field is created for each flexible Benefit Set Line Item and includes the minimum and maximum benefit amounts. This occurs regardless of the existence of any exceptions and means that Policy Fields do not have to be defined manually in the policy configuration. Keep in mind that because the minimum and maximum information is a snapshot of data calculated at the time of Assignment creation, it can become out of date due to Benefit Set configuration changes or Employee and Assignment changes.
