This article contains instructions for adding a census to model an employer group.
We highly encourage you to add all your current clients to the benefitbay® platform to model for ICHRA. Even if you know in advance your client isn't a good fit for ICHRA, you want to show you care enough about their company that you have checked each year. When adding new clients, start the employer group in lead and move them to prospect after you follow this article and add their census. For any client you can get a "final" census, we encourage you to model for the quickest path to success.
Uploading the Census
Once you have added the new employer information to benefitbay, you can upload the census (if you haven't added the group, click here to view the article to complete this step).
- Navigate to the employer's "Enrollment periods" tab. Move to the "Add your employees" checklist item and select "Upload employee census".
- Click the blue "Upload new census file" button on the "Census management" page.
- To upload the employee census, click the blue "Choose File" button and select the census file. If you are overwriting a data file that has previously been uploaded, check the box (this option is not available when the group is in "Client" status).
- Only use the "Override existing employees data" checkbox option when you want to replace the census that is currently in the platform. This option will also update any current employee's personal information.
Using the "override" checkbox option will NOT terminate employees from a group.
- Click the blue "Upload census file" button at the bottom of the page.
- You will notice a series of checks the platform is working through to validate the files.
Census Options
There are three options after uploading the census. You can "Save and continue later," "Export and remove invalid records," or "Remove and upload new file." Review each section below to determine which option is best for you.
- You can filter by "All records," "Invalid records only," or "Valid records only." You can also search by typing in an employee's first/last name and clicking the blue "Search" button.
Save and continue later
If you are managing several projects at once, select this option to come back and work through the census later. This is the best path if you only have a few invalid records with a couple of missing data points.
- Determine what data points are missing or need to be corrected in the census.
- On the top right corner of the page, click the three dots and select "Save and continue later"
- You will be navigated back to the "Census Management" page and the census will have a "PENDING" tag on the top right corner indicating it was not uploaded to the group yet. To continue to work on the census, click the blue "Continue" button on the census file to navigate back to all the records.
To learn how to manually correct records and apply valid records, read the instructions below.
Export and remove invalid records
This option is best if you have several invalid employee records. You can export the records and reshare them with the employer contact to receive updated information. You can upload the updated information at a later time.
- On the top right corner of the page, click the three dots and select "Export and remove invalid records"
- First, be sure to click the "Export invalid records (.CSV) to create a file to reshare with your employer contact for corrections. This file will download to your computer with the name "invalid_rows_Employer Name."
SAFETY FIRST: When working with employer groups on census data, don't forget to work collaboratively in a secure location to ensure no employee's personal information is compromised.
- Then click the blue, "Yes, remove invalid records" button.
- You now have a valid census to upload.
- Don't forget to get the corrections for the invalid records and add the employees at a later date.
- When uploading the corrected file later, please remove any data in the "Benefitbay ID" column.
- When you add the corrected census later, do NOT click the override checkbox option.
To learn how to apply valid records, read the instructions below.
Remove and upload new file
Don't you wish sometimes life could give you an erase button? Well we think you deserve one! This is a great option when a majority or all your records are invalid. You can delete and try again!
- On the top right corner of the page, click the three dots and select "Remove and upload new file"
- Click the blue "Yes, upload new census file" to delete the uploaded census. If you select "Cancel" you can go back to select other options or work on the invalid records.
- You will be navigated back to the Census file page to upload a new file.
Manually Correcting Individual Invalid Records
If you only have a few errors, the best path would be to correct the errors in the record. Follow these instructions to complete this task.
- Click on the record you would like to edit. On the top of the record are two tabs, one says "Employee Information" and the other says, "Employment." Navigate to the tab with the red triangle.
- Then scroll down on the page to find the red box indicating the error.
- Edit the information on both tabs as needed to update all errors. Once all the information is updated, click the blue "Save and validate" button at the bottom of the screen.
- You will notice the red triangle on the tabs will disappear indication the record is now valid. Click the "Go back" on the top of the page. Continue to work through each record until all records are valid.
Don't forget you have options to save your work on the errors at a later time.
Apply Valid Records
Once you have corrected all the invalid errors (or exported them) you will be ready to apply the records!
- To apply, click the blue "Apply valid records" in the top right corner of the page.
- A confirmation page will appear, select the blue "Yes, apply valid records." If you select, "Cancel" you will be navigated back to the records page.
- You will notice the progress of the platform adding the records.
- Upon completion, a green message at the top of the page will indicate the number of applied and validated records.
- An option to download the census is also available now. You can select the blue "Download (.CSV) located at the top of the page.