Enrollment systems are sold on the demo and judged on the eligibility file.
Every benefits platform looks the same in a demonstration. What separates them is what happens at two in the morning on the first of the month, when a file moves between payroll, the benefits platform and the carrier and one of the three disagrees about who is covered. That disagreement is not discovered by the system. It is discovered by an employee at a pharmacy counter.
An integration connects the systems. It does not connect everything in them.
Employers reasonably assume that once payroll and the benefits platform are integrated, the data matches. In practice an integration carries some fields, carries others in one direction only, and quietly carries nothing at all for a short list of items that matter.
What moves, and which way
Demographic data is usually bi-directional and fast — a new hire or a termination entered in payroll can appear in the benefits platform inside a minute. Base compensation typically flows one way into the benefits platform, while deduction codes and employer contributions flow the other way, sent at enrollment or when a cost changes.
What never moves
Retirement plan deferrals, commuter accounts and domestic partner deductions are commonly excluded from the wire entirely and stay manual. The reason is structural rather than a vendor quirk: most systems cannot split a single deduction into its pre-tax and post-tax portions, so the safest behavior is to send nothing.
The termination reason
No documented integration passes the reason for a termination across the wire. The benefits platform records the separation and defaults it to voluntary, whatever actually happened.
That single field is what COBRA eligibility, unemployment response and rehire handling turn on, so it has to be set by a person who knows.
Read our position on payroll integration and termination data →
One seat on your service team owns this, and it is not a shared duty.
For proper coverage of an account we work in service teams of five, and one of those seats is technology. It is the seat most brokers do not have, which is why eligibility problems so often get handed back to HR as something to call the carrier about.
Platform selection
We evaluate systems on the file, the integration roster and the support model — not the interface. If the platform you already own can do the job, the right recommendation is to keep it and fix the configuration.
Open enrollment as a project
A build schedule, plan and rate entry, employee communications, sessions, and follow-up for the people who did not open the email. Enrollment is the one week a year every employee forms an opinion about their benefits.
One card, one portal
Pre-tax accounts run through a single benefits card and a single login, so employees are not carrying three cards and five passwords to use benefits they already have.
The audit most employers have never had run.
An eligibility reconciliation
Your carrier bill compared line by line against what the benefits platform and payroll each believe. Invoices disagree with enrollment more often than anyone expects, and the difference is usually money.
A documented file map
Which fields move, in which direction, on what schedule, and which ones a person has to touch. Written down once, so it survives the next person in the HR seat.
One home base
Compliance documents, claims analytics, benchmarking data and census information in one place rather than four carrier logins and an inbox.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
248.370.8853
719.425.2649
281.404.5670
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