Home

Gradience Cobra™ User Manual

1. Ad it will bring up the first employee name which starts with Ad such as Adams You may move columns according to your preferences To move a column click and drag the title to the left or right Double arrows pointing inward will show you where you will drop the title if you release the mouse button Sorting fields is just as easy Just click on the title of the column you want to sort For example if you wanted to sort by first name you would click on the First Name title You also can set multiple sorts by holding the CTRL key and clicking on fields the sort priority will be displayed above the field names TreeView mode allows you to find or select employees by location and department For example if you were looking for employees who are under the Fort Lauderdale location Merchandising department TreeView mode could show you at a glance Tip In TreeView by default all locations and departments are unchecked A quick way to select just one department is to click on the name of the department This will select all employees under that department Likewise in Browse mode you can select or deselect all employees by clicking on the red checkmark at the top left Managing Employee COBRA This chapter will help you become acquainted with the program layout and how to enter employee information Throughout this chapter there are examples of different program screens You may wish to view the sample database to get a better picture
2. Full Part Time Title Employee Code Active Status If you have Gradience COBRA installed your text file also can include these fields Date of Birth Address 1 Address 2 Home Phone City State ZIP Code Salutation Employee Security Level Security Clearance Date Race EEO Category Sex M F Driver s License Number l 9 Renewal Date Veteran Status 50 10 10 30 14 10 10 30 30 30 30 15 10 25 25 15 10 25 up to 25 characters or numbers MM DD YYYY slashes required Full Time or Part Time only up to 30 characters or numbers up to 14 characters or numbers Active or Inactive or Terminated only MM DD YYYY slashes required up to 30 characters or numbers up to 30 characters or numbers 800 123 4567 dashes required up to 20 characters or numbers Standard U S two letter code e g FL 33325 1234 1234 can be omitted Mr Ms Mrs Dr only up to 16 characters or numbers MM DD YYYY slashes required Must match a valid race on the Employee Detail Feature Must match a valid category on the Employee Detail Feature M or F only up to 15 characters or numbers MM DD YYYY slashes required Disabled Vietnam Era Other Veteran Not 60 Applicable only Office Phone amp Ext 30 800 123 4567 Ext 123 Fax 30 800 123 4567 E mail address 30 upto 30 characters or numbers Address Effective Date 10
3. If selected this will report billing records for the selected date ranges otherwise all billing records will be reported on COBRA Delinquent Payments Report Options Additional options for this report Date Range for Delinquent Payment Report Allows you to specify a date range to report on COBRA Status Report Options The COBRA Status Report produces a listing of important COBRA dates Start Expiration and End Date for all employees and their dependents if applicable 42 Additional options for this report Date Range for Status Report Allows you to specify a date range for the report Show Participants If selected will display all participants on the report otherwise participant names will not be shown Dependents Report Options The Employee Dependents Report produces a report of employee dependents Additional options for this report Show Social Security Number on Report toggles on or off the SSN on the report Dependent Ineligibility Report Options The Dependent Ineligibility Report displays all ineligible dependents up to the date specified Additional options for this report Ineligibility Date Allows you to enter a specific date to run the report up to Display Options Show Social Security Number on Report This allows you the option of displaying the SSN on reports that include this data field ALERT FOR VERSION 7 OPTIMA USERS Options for selecting only Activ
4. COBRA WT Gradience Cobra User Manual Software Features ccccccescceceseeceneeceeeeeceaeeceeeeeeaeeseaeeesaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeseaeeseaaeeceaeesseeeeseaeeseneeeseeeseaees 5 System Requirements seseseseseseeesetesttetttstttsttttttnnttnnttnntEnAtEEAEEEAEEEASEEESEEASEEESE EESE EnSnEnaEn nnen nnn nennen 6 Network Requirements ccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaeeeeeeaaeeeeeaaeeeeeaaeeeeeaaeeeeeeaeeeeesaeeeeneneeeeenenaeees 6 EeKoo E E E TE E A A A 6 CD Menu Instructions cccccecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeaeeecaaeeseaeeseaaeescaeeseaeeeeeaeeseaeeeseeeeseaeesseeesseeseaes 6 SEI T ee e Ee 7 Stand alone Computer Installation Instructons 7 Client Server Installato rear a a uate a a a aaa aa aAa a AE Aaa AAEE 7 Quick Note about Peer to Peer Installations cccccececeeeceeeeeneeeeeeeeseneeseeeeeseaeeseaeeeseaeeseneeeseeeesaas 8 Network Installation EE 8 COMPANY S eUD a e onced aveidiGtareoate uate uzarecnate veitsutare coset gugtliuiate E OE EASES 9 Checklist tor Seting Wp EE 9 COBRA COV aE EE 10 EE Ke EE 10 Company lt Tue EE 10 COMPANY StU EE E 10 Continuation Coverage Period under UGERRA 11 Creating Locations and Department 11 Early COBRA Te rrmiMatio ny na desse csctdshdoes cece EENEG SES CCS 12 Editing Company EE 12 Effective Dates of Required Notices AAA 12 Effect of Second Qualifying Event 12 Extending Maximum Coverage Period Due to Legal Disability ccccececceeseeeeee
5. Grouping Options Location Groups data by Location Department Groups data by Department With Location also selected the report will group by location then department Show Group Totals Shows total number of employees after Location and or Departments with a grand total at the end of the report Location and or Department must be selected for this option to be enabled With both Location and Department unselected the report will group by Last Name in alphabetical order New Hires Report Options The New Hire Report produces a list of selected employees hire dates and titles Notifications Report Options The Notifications Report produces a listing of the notices by creation date or printed date Additional options for this report Notice Created Date Date when selected notice s was initially printed Printed Date Date when notice was last printed Options to report on each of the following notices Newly Enrolled Qualification Election COBRA Unavailability Billing HIPAA Conversion Insufficient Payment COBRA Termination and Rate Change Printing from the Reports Feature or Menu Bar 1 From the Employee Select column select which employees you want to report on you may use either the Browse mode or TreeView mode to select employees 2 From the feature list click Reports and then choose a report 3 Select sorting filtering options in the Feature Pane if needed and click Preview
6. 8 By default the User s name will default to the login that was used to enter the program Change this if you want the reminder to come up for another user or you may select Global which allows the reminder to come up for all users logging in Note You must have access to Reminders Assign Users and Reminders Assign Global under User Security to be able to change this option 9 Enter a description of the reminder if needed 10 Click Save Taking a Picture and Importing It into Gradience Continue following these steps from Step 6a above 1 After selecting your camera as the source click OK 2 Click the Acquire Picture button and click Take Picture The picture should show up on the Twain Import screen 3 Click OK to select the picture Note The instructions for selecting or downloading a picture may be different depending on your camera The Feature Column The Feature Column allows you to select which feature will be displayed in the Feature Pane on the right side To make it easier we also color coded the features of each program For example if you select Gradience COBRA and select Employee Detail from the feature column you will see a light blue title bar The Menu Bar File Menu Maintenance Backup Database This lets you perform a database backup while running the program Import Data Imports basic employee data into the Gradience database Export Data Exports basic employee data from the Gradienc
7. End date for current plan Termination Cycle Options are End of Month or Immediate Minimum Week Hours Number of hours needed to qualify for plan When an employee s Week Hours change on the Employee Detail screen and if the Week Hours fall below the Minimum Week Hours the program will prompt to create a COBRA Event Dependent Age Cap Upper age limit allowed for Students and Non Students Require Beneficiaries Select this option if plan type requires beneficiaries This option will display the Beneficiaries button when assigning this plan to participants employees dependents etc Employee Only Benefit Select this option if plan type is only for the employee and not for dependents or other Enable COBRA for this plan Select this option if you want COBRA options to be associated with this plan The COBRA icon will be available on the Employee Benefits feature Plan Terminated If selected this plan will not show up on drop down options where you need to select benefit plans COBRA Billing Options gives you a choice between Billing Monthly or Using Coupons If you select Bill Monthly bills will be generated monthly If you select Use Coupons bills will be generated through the end of the benefit year The benefit year is based on twelve months beginning from the Open Enrollment Effective Month Benefit Plan Maintenance For example if your Open Enrollment Effective Month is January billing records through De
8. Unavailability Notice may be used in a variety of circumstances such as upon determination that a qualifying event has not occurred or because the qualified beneficiary did not furnish the notice of qualifying event in a timely manner or did not provide complete information You are required to send the Unavailability Notice within 14 days of receiving notification of a qualifying event or the same timeframe applicable to the COBRA Qualification Election Notice It is important that you customize the Unavailability Notice to fit your situation by checking the appropriate reason why COBRA is not available or adding your own explanation under Other Creating a COBRA Event The COBRA feature allows you to track COBRA related information beginning with the qualifying event resulting in loss of coverage Qualifying events typically associated with COBRA are Employee Termination Reduction in Hours Military Leave USERRA Employee Death Divorce or Separation Medicare Entitlement Loss of Dependent Status and Legal Disability See What You Should Know about COBRA NOTE You ll need to have your Benefit Plans set up from the Settings Menu gt Benefit Plan Maintenance option before you can assign COBRA benefits to employees See Setting up Benefit Plans for more info To create a COBRA Event follow these steps 1 From the Benefits Feature screen click the COBRA Event button then New 2 Select the type of Qualifying Event from the
9. www gradiencesupport com Note Gradience cannot provide technical assistance with setting up or maintaining your computer network Please consult your computer manufacturer or network administrator before contacting Gradience Tech Support Company Setup Before you begin using Gradience COBRA follow this checklist to get started quickly Change Administrator Password Set up Global Preferences Set up Locations and Departments Set up Benefits Plans Enter Employee Data Assign Benefits to Participants Add Additional Users Sore NS PLEASE HAVE READ AND FOLLOWED THE PRECEDING CHAPTER ON INSTALLATION BEFORE INSTALLING ANY GRADIENCE PROGRAM Also have available Location and Department names User Information managers and other users who will have access to the data Employee Data Employee name Hire Date Work Status full or part time Active Status Active Inactive or Terminated Location and Department Work Hours and Week Hours Before you begin Have available Location and Department names User Information managers and other users who will have access to the data Employee Data Employee name Hire Date Work Status full or part time Active Status Active Inactive or Terminated Location and Department Work Hours Week Hours Benefit and COBRA information Checklist for Setting Up Gradience COBRA first needs some information set up to correctly track your employee absences to get started please follow t
10. 4 Click the printer icon to print Each report has basic and additional options for that specific report Reminders Report Options The Reminders Report produces a listing of all open reminders sorted by reminder date Additional options for this report Sort Options Sorts by Date Name Topic or User Name 44 Reminder Date Selects the date range of reminders to display Additional Filters User Shows reminders assigned to selected user Display All Users Shows reminders for all users Show Resolved Shows resolved reminders Show Unresolved Shows unresolved reminders Show Global Only Shows reminders assigned as Global Creating a Manual Backup Backups can be done within the program by going to File Maintenance Backup or by using the DB Monitor By default whenever you close out of the program you will be asked you want to perform a backup To use the DB Monitor go to Start Program Files Gradience and select DB Monitor To create a manual backup follow these steps Open the DB Monitor program by going to Start Programs Gradience and clicking on DB Monitor 1 Enter your login and password If you do not have access to the DB Monitor Backup feature you will need to see your Administrator 2 Click the Backup Tab 3 Click Yes to the message Do you want to perform a sweep after the backup completes Note A Sweep is a maintenance feature that keeps the database working at peak perfo
11. History 2 Click Cancel to take the program out of EDIT mode When you first come into the Payment screen it always starts in EDIT mode To edit a record other than the first one you ll need to take it out of EDIT mode by clicking Cancel 3 From the grid left side select the record you want to change 4 Enter the new amount in the Amount field on the right side 5 Make any other changes as necessary 37 6 Click Save Saving a Photo to Disk All the pictures in Gradience are stored in the Gradience database hrware gdb This option will allow you to save the picture to a different directory if needed To save an assigned photo to your computer follow these steps Note The picture must be assigned to an employee before you can save it to a different directory Click Personal Contacts then the Edit Picture button Click Save Photo to Disk Navigate to where you want to save the photo Name the photo Click OK The picture can be saved only as a bmp file OV OO NO Selected Feature Pane The Feature Pane is where the selected feature of the program will be displayed Note Columns can be resized To resize a column move your cursor to the left or right edge of the column until your cursor turns into a double arrow pointing left and right click and drag your left mouse button to the desired width and release The Employee Select Column also can be hidden and unhidden by clicking on the minus or plus sign in the top righ
12. Right Alignment Inserts Bullet Highlights selected text 63 USB Fingerprint BIO Reader Setup Guide Pre setup Requirements The following should be completed before setting up the USB Fingerprint Reader MyBiz 2 3 x x or Optima 8 3 x x and above Device Driver for the USB Fingerprint Reader installed USB Fingerprint Reader connected Setting up User Access for use with the Fingerprint Reader 1 From main menu go to Settings then User Security 2 Either select a user from the list or create a new user 3 Under the Fingerprint heading click on the Add button and follow the onscreen instructions 4 Click the Save button when completed Logging into the program using the Fingerprint Reader 1 Close out and launch the program to get to the login screen 2 Atthe login screen you may log in by fingerprint any time the Fingerprint Scanner Ready message is displaying The Fingerprint Scanner will become inactive after 90 seconds Maintenance Using a nonscratch cloth clean the lens of the Fingerprint Reader as needed 64
13. Tutorial 2 Setting up a Guest User To set up a Guest User account follow these steps 1 From within the program click Settings gt Guest Users 2 Click New 1 Enter a Login Name 2 Enter the user s Full Name 3 Enter a Password Then enter it again to verify the password 50 4 Select the Table Name for the user to have access to and click in the Access block where it has No Access For example to give Read Write Delete access to AbsenceClasses click on No Access then click on the down arrow and select Read Write Delete 5 Follow step 5 to set up access to each table with the appropriate access 6 Click Save 7 Clicking Edit will allow you to make changes to the record Once guest user access is set up the user may connect to the Gradience database through other report writer programs You must have an ODBC driver that is compatible with Interbase 6 Dialect 3 Sort and Filters From the custom report interface you have the option to select which fields you want to sort and filter on Sorting allows you to group by a specific field Fields are referred to as data such as Last Name First Name Date of Birth Location Department etc You may create a sort by Last Name First Name or any other available fields Filters allow you to separate out specific fields in the report For example if you only wanted to view employees from a specific department you could create a filter for this and th
14. additional six months adding up to 24 months in total If there is second qualifying event during the first 18 months of COBRA coverage or 29 months if there has been a disability extension COBRA and USERRA will run concurrently during the first 24 months After 24 months USERRA coverage would expire but COBRA coverage would continue up to the 36 month maximum Similarly if an individual loses eligibility for USERRA leave before the initial 18 month COBRA period expires say for example the individual s military service obligations end after only four months of leave he she still would be entitled to COBRA coverage so long as COBRA eligibility requirements are maintained While COBRA leave is in effect the rules for 29 and 36 month extensions discussed above apply Gradience COBRA automatically calculates the period of coverage for up to 24 months if the user selects Military Leave USERRA as the qualifying event and treats the leave period as COBRA qualifying to ensure compliance with the provisions most beneficial to the affected individual The user may override the automatic calculations to reflect the distinction between a COBRA qualifying coverage period and non COBRA USERRA only coverage period if desired Creating Locations and Departments Locations and Departments are required and must be assigned to each of your Employees see Adding a New Employee to assign Location Department to employees 11 Note When
15. computers without the need of a formal client server connection The peer to peer connection must be in place before following these instructions See your Network Administrator for more details on setting up this connection On the host computer the one on which you wish the database to reside follow the instructions above for a Server installation Write down the Server Name and Database Path when prompted Note The Server installation will install both the software client application and database files to the host computer Then install the application Client on the other computer that will be sharing the information entering the Server Name and Database Path when prompted Network Installation To install to a network requires these items Windows based Server PC The included Interbase database is not compatible with a non Windows based operating system such as Novell However you may run the database on a Windows based server or PC connected to a non Windows based network A static persistent IP address so that the database will be always connected to the client application Proper user license The database will only allow the purchased number of users to be connected at any one time to the database Wide Area Networks WAN require a WAN license based on the number of geographic locations The Product Key is affixed to the inside cover of the CD sleeve CD ROM drive or access to our software product downloads area on
16. drop down box 3 As you enter more information more fields will become available to fill in 4 The Must Respond By date Plan Type and Plan Name will be filled in automatically as will the Monthly Rate Participants and COBRA Expiration date 5 Click Save when completed The main screen for COBRA has a grid format with the following information COBRA Event Plan Type Plan Name and Event Date Clicking Edit will open the details for the selected event and New will allow you to create a new event The COBRA Feature has the following options Qualifying Event This refers to the event or circumstance causing coverage to end and starting COBRA continuation coverage Qualifying events typically associated with COBRA are Employee Termination Reduction in Hours Military Leave USERRA Employee Death Divorce or Separation Medicare Entitlement Loss of Dependent Status and Legal Disability See What Is a Qualifying Event Event Date Date of event such as termination date date of reduced hours etc Initial Event Do not select if this is a second qualifying event See Effect of Second Qualifying Event Benefit Ending Date Expiration date of benefit 31 Qualification Election Sent Date when plan administrator sends qualification election notice Must Respond by date This date will automatically fill in according to the program Response Date Date a response was received Response Type of respon
17. edit an existing report select the report and click the Edit button If you attempt to edit the Default report a new name will be automatically assigned To create a custom report follow these steps 1 For this example we will use the original Employee Detail report as a template to create a new custom version of the report Start by navigating to Reports gt Employee Detail 2 Locate and click the Custom Report icon near the top right of the pane 3 Anew window titled Custom Reports Attendance Detail will appear shown below As you can see the current report name in grayed out text is Attendance Detail Template Custom Reports Employee Detail Sei x e A RepotName Date Report Last Modified Employee Detail Template Employee Detal Template 9 6 2006 3 34 22 PM Custom Sort Fields SES Custom Filters en ReportDefaut E gt l Groupi No Filter L Groupe Full ame EmployeelD Haster Filter View Data 4 A Custom Sort can be selected by using the drop down selection in the Custom Sort Fields section Custom Sort Fields work by allowing you to select a field which will be 48 K used to sort the records on your custom report Some built in examples include LastNameand EmployeelD and ReportDefaultappears as the default selection when you create your first custom report you will probably want to change the default selection Click Edit first then click the button to
18. hired If the employee has been hired more than once you should enter the last most recent hire date Work Status Select Full Time or Part time as appropriate Employment Status Select Active Inactive or Terminated to show the employee s status Job Title Enter the employee s current Job Title Location Select the location at which the employee is primarily employed Department Select the Department the employee is currently assigned to Day Hours Enter the number of hours the employee will work in a typical workday Week Hours Enter the number of hours the employee will work in a typical workweek Hide Picture Click in this box to hide the assigned picture To assign a picture see the Edit Picture button under the Personal Contacts Feature 33 Employee Select Column The Employee Select Column allows you to select or find employees quickly and easily as well as select multiple employees for printing reports Browse mode allows you to perform an incremental search for an employee move columns and sort quickly An incremental search allows you to enter the first couple of letters of the employees last name and will go to the first employee who matches those letters and as you enter more letters the search will become more defined For example if you enter the letter A in the Search field the employee list will select the first employee name that starts with A If you enter the letter d so now you have
19. object will bring up Microsoft Word so you may again edit the document If the Display As Icon option is checked then the Word Document or object type will appear as an icon in the Comments field Create from File Selecting Create from File will allow you to insert an existing object type such as a Microsoft Word document PDF file or Excel spreadsheet Normally this will be the option you will use for everyday use If you do not select the Link or Display as Icon option then the object type will be inserted into the Comments field In other words you will see the text as you would see the text on a Word 61 Document within the Comments field Double clicking on this text in the Comments block will bring up Microsoft Word so you may edit the document We recommend selecting the Display as Icon option when inserting an object This inserts the object type within the Comments field however it shows as an icon When you double click on the icon it brings up the object within the program that created it The Link and Display as Icon options will perform the following depending on your selections Selected Link Display As Icon Results Inserts the contents of the file as an object into your document so you may activate it using the program that created it X Inserts a picture of the file contents into your document The picture will be linked to the file so changes to the file will be shown in your document X Inser
20. of geographic locations The Product Key is affixed to the inside cover of the CD sleeve CD ROM drive or access to our software product downloads area on www gradiencesupport com License Options The license options currently available Single User Only one user can run the program at a time Five Users Up to five users can run the program at the same time when connected to a single common database Ten Users Up to 10 users can run the program at the same time when connected to a single common database Unlimited User License Any number of users can run the program at the same time when connected to a single common database Wide Area Network WAN License This is an unlimited multi site license based on the number of geographic locations where application clients are connecting to a single common database CD Menu Instructions To begin installing Gradience COBRA follow these steps 1 Insert the Gradience CD ROM into the appropriate drive of your computer 2 The menu will appear Select which product you want to install If the installation menu does not appear click Start Run The Run dialog will appear In the dialog box type D setup exe where D is the letter of your CD ROM drive Click OK or press Enter Once the installation procedure begins follow the on screen instructions to install the software See Setup Types below for more information It is recom
21. on NOTE These are the only fields allowed a equal to b gt greater than c gt greater than or equal to d lt less than e lt less than or equal to f lt gt not equal to This allows you to enter a field name to filter on This enters the statement Click AND or OR after each statement you create This allows you to set an OR statement this OR that This allows statements that need to be done first such as in Math calculations a b c Description This allows you to edit a line This allows you to delete a line This will check for correct syntax NOTE This only checks to see whether the syntax is correct It does not check to see whether the syntax will work correctly This makes this filter the default filter for the selected report To create a new custom filter follow these steps 1 Select a report from the main menu 52 2 Click Custom Reports 3 Select the appropriate report or click New to create your own 4 Click the NEW button next to Custom Filter 5 Enter aname that will designate what type of filter this will be such as SSN Click OK 6 Click the drop down arrow for Field and select a field to filter on 7 Click the drop down arrow for Operator and select the type of filter 8 Click the drop down arrow for Value and enter a value Example Select LastName for the Field select for the Operator and enter A for the Value After clicking M
22. started quickly Change Administrator Password Set up Global Preferences Set up Locations and Departments Set up Benefits Plans Enter Employee Data Assign Benefits to Participants Add Additional Users NOaAPRONM PLEASE HAVE READ AND FOLLOWED THE PRECEDING CHAPTER ON INSTALLATION BEFORE INSTALLING ANY GRADIENCE PROGRAM Also have available Location and Department names User Information managers and other users who will have access to the data Employee Data Employee name Hire Date Work Status full or part time Active Status Active Inactive or Terminated Location and Department Work Hours and Week Hours Continuation Coverage Period under USERRA Individuals who lose group health coverage due to active service in the military may qualify for alternative continuing coverage under a separate law the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act USERRA USERRA provides for up to 24 months of continuation coverage USERRA applies to all employers even employers falling short of the 20 employee threshold for COBRA coverage USERRA and COBRA are separate laws with unique benefits and protections In the event the two laws conflict the provision providing the greater benefit to the affected individual must prevail Coverage under USERRA and COBRA may run concurrently If an individual qualifies for leave under both laws COBRA coverage may expire after 18 months but USERRA coverage could continue for an
23. the Internet E Mail Requests techsupport gradience com Phone Requests 888 925 7740 8 30 a m to 6 00 p m ET Monday Friday Fax Requests 954 851 1214 Please be sure to consult the user manual and troubleshooting options before submitting a help request Sample Company Tutorial Data A sample company called tutorial database is provided so you may view the different screens with sample data already filled in It is recommended that you use the program with the sample database to get a feel for the program without having to worry about altering live data When you are in the Tutorial Data no changes are made to your live database To open the tutorial database select Start Programs Gradience Sample Database Searching for Help You can search for Help in two ways using the Help File Method 1 Select Help and Search for Help on from the main menu The Help Topics Index will appear Select the Topicthat interests you Method 2 Select Help and Contents from the main menu Click the Find tab If you have not used this feature before the Find Setup Wizard will walk you through setting up the search index Once the search index has been created type in the Keywords you would like to search for and the results will be displayed The F1 Key Pressing the F1 key is another way to obtain online help From most areas of the program pressing F1 will display the topic associated for that screen Typical Issues A list of typical erro
24. the right of the dropdown to edit a Custom Sort field or create a new one A Custom Filter can be selected by using the drop down selection in the custom filter section Since you have already activated editing for items in this window you can go ahead and click the button to the right of the dropdown to edit Custom Filters or create new ones By clicking the View Data button you can see the results of any changes made to the sorts or filters This can be very helpful when creating your own custom reports because you will be able to preview your report before you actually begin editing it in FastReport a 4 E nl si Eist Erir Next Last Close Tan SCH Fort Laud After previewing your data click Close in the viewer window to return to the Custom Reports window If the report you wish to customize is not highlighted in the ReportName section select the desired report now Clicking New or Edit will bring you into the FastReport custom report designer While in the designer you will have the option to save the report as another name or save it to an external FastReport 3 fr3 file You will also have the option to open a previously created FastReport file and save it in your database See Help Help Contents while in the designer for more information 49 Ka FastReport Employee Detail Template File Edit Report View Help De Ble sha Code Pagel Report Functions Classes 2 Gr a Ska 3 Data V
25. then the I Agree button if you agree to the license 9 After the installation click Finish 10 Follow the installation instructions for the Client Workstation Note You only have to run the Server installation once Then you may install multiple Clients for the Gradience Version of Confidential Employee Record Attendance Controller or TimeClock if purchased or to run as a demo on Client Workstation Installation Instructions Install to the Client Workstation by following these instructions Th Insert the Gradience CD on the Client Workstation Follow the CD Menu Instructions above 2 Select Client as the Setup type 3 Select Express then click Next 4 Enter the Server Name and Database Path exactly as you wrote down from Step 4 of the Server Installation Then Click Next Click Next at the Current Settings screen This will install the program files to the Server 6 Click Finish This will start the installation of the needed files to run the database 7 Click Next then the I Agree button if you agree to the license 8 After the installation click Finish 9 Install the Client for any other Gradience versions You do not have to install to the Server again You may also install to other Workstations if needed 10 Double click on the desktop application shortcut the default Login and Password are ADMIN a Quick Note about Peer to Peer Installations A peer to peer connection allows you to share information between two
26. will use the Rate Tier from the selected Benefit Plan otherwise you may manually enter this information Coverage End Date Date when the individual s coverage actually ends Do not fill in a date unless you are actually terminating the individual s coverage under the plan Participants The Participants Grid will display Personal Contacts marked as Spouse or Partner and all dependents A checkmark in the Selected column designates participants on this plan The Creditable Coverage Date is filled in manually and is the date the specified employee started coverage Creditable coverage date Date when individual first had coverage for HIPAA purposes Comments Enter relevant comments History Tab The Benefits Detail History tab displays a record of Benefit changes Clicking EDIT will open the details for the selected benefit and NEW will allow you to create a new benefit Benefit Plans Edit or Update Save Original Entries to History When you click on the Edit button from the main Benefit Plans screen you ll get the option to save any changes you re getting ready to make to a history file If Save Original Entries to History is selected any changes made will be saved so you may go back and review each change that is made Option Checked You ll want to have this option selected when you make official changes that need to be documented Option Unchecked You ll want to uncheck this option when you are correcting missp
27. Attachments Gradience COBRA Version 8 includes new powerful word processing features for all comments and notes fields as well the ability to attach objects and documents within these fields When documenting employee absences you may find it useful to attach Copies of e mails specific sections of reviews Word or Excel attachments you ve used for tardies warnings and Gradience Forms personnel forms for vacation requests FMLA requests and company responses warnings and counseling reports Using the Rich Text Editor When you right click and select Edit the text editor opens in a separate window giving you access to all Right Click Menu commands in a word processor like environment Here s a brief overview Toolbar In New Creates a new document amp Print Prints document d i Find Finds specified text i SpellCheck Checks spelling Requires MS Word installed A Cut Cuts selection and puts it on the clipboard Copy Copies selection to clipboard B Paste Pastes selection from clipboard K Undo Reverses the last action Ta Redo Reverses the last Undo action Format Bar MS Sans Serif D Font Type D D Font Size Bold Italic Underline wh kx E Font Color Left Center Right Alignment Bullet Highlight Ki Changes the font selection Changes the font size Changes the font to Bold Italic or Underline Changes the font color Changes the text to Left Center or
28. Benefits Detail screen COBRA Expiration Will be filled in automatically according to the benefit plan Override Expiration Date Allows you to change the COBRA Expiration date manually Actual COBRA Ending This date may differ from COBRA Expiration date if COBRA is terminated before maximum coverage period See Early COBRA Termination Reason for Ending Important for early COBRA termination Comments Add relevant notes for this event Creating a New Reminder There are two types of reminders in Gradience One Time Reminders These are reminders that are only meant to remind you of a one time event such as filing an EEO Report Recurring Reminders These remind you of repeating events Anniversaries Birthdays Performance Reviews l 9 Renewals Deleting Reminders Reminders are deleted from the Main Reminders screen by clicking on the Delete icon Downloading Pictures from Camera Disk Continue following these steps from Step 6b above 1 After selecting this option click OK 2 Click the Download button to download the pictures to your computer 32 3 Select the picture you want to import then click Transfer 4 Click OK to select this picture Note The instructions for selecting or downloading a picture may be different depending on your camera Editing Reminders There are two ways to edit reminders Main Reminders screen From the main Reminders screen you can edit the following columns just
29. E 35 RECEIVING a Paymari TEE 35 Recent Features Pantar iieu na n NAE A AN A 36 Recording a Legally Disabled COBRA Event 36 ln eadove sacl A N ENAA A love sacet sagudibgeva saenn suas libvors 37 Reminders Tool Bar and Pane Layout 37 Reviewing Editing a Payment from History 37 Saving a Photo to Disk asien feteeauteee ENEE EES Een 38 Selected Feature Paheman eege Eege ENEE EENS EN 38 Setting a Reminder E 38 Taking a Picture and Importing It into Gradience eseeeeeeseeeseeereereeretertsttrstnnstenstnnstensrennrenee 39 The Feature Columnes deiae iaei ia da Alastair 39 Re RR HEEN 40 Using GradienGe CORNET 40 Using Twain MAPO redee ete eieae idinaan E AELA dE ENEE ENEE 40 Viewing Printing COBRA Notices c cccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeeaeeceaeeeeeeeesaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeseaeeseneeseneeees 41 Waiving Benefit Plan vue neces ce iecct creel ceeedcneerbdotiees ARAA TAREHE AA AE TENOREA eee 41 ele 41 Report Men DIS dagegen deigreng dedeauersasecedsviveaclesylacenivateneurcvaguetarstenularesvantitpenesesanvehae ates 41 ee die le EE 42 Employee Detail Report Options t sieren rinna annaran e aeaaea etea aaae Garana aara aean raea aeaa 42 Creating and Printing REDOMS ans meenemer aaaea aapa ae aae E a aa aaea Oe aodo eirates 42 Benefits Report O IONE e a a a aa aa aa aa las EE aa Aaa aaae EIERE ee 42 COBRA Billing Report Options sr einstein oeae raae aapa ae aaa a a a a aeaa eia adeat tegen 42 COBRA Delinquent Payments Report O
30. Extending Maximum Coverage Period Due to Legal Disability COBRA requires group health plans to provide certain qualified beneficiaries an 11 month disability extension of an 18 month period of COBRA coverage resulting in a total of 29 months of COBRA coverage provided the qualified beneficiary or any other qualified beneficiary who is a member of his or her family is both a determined by The Social Security Administration to be disabled during the first 60 days of COBRA coverage and b provides notice to the plan of The SSA s disability determination within 60 days after the date of the determination The notice must be provided before the end of the first 18 months of continuation coverage Extending Maximum Coverage Period Due to Legal Disability COBRA requires group health plans to provide certain qualified beneficiaries an 11 month disability extension of an 18 month period of COBRA coverage resulting in a total of 29 months of COBRA coverage provided the qualified beneficiary or any other qualified beneficiary who is a member of his or her family is both a determined by The Social Security Administration to be disabled during the first 60 days of COBRA coverage and b provides notice to the plan of The SSA s disability determination within 60 days after the date of the determination The notice must be provided before the end of the first 18 months of continuation coverage General Settings The General Settings Tab allows yo
31. MM DD YYYY slashes required Using the Notes Comments Editor and Attachments Gradience COBRA Version 8 includes new powerful word processing features for all comments and notes fields as well the ability to attach objects and documents within these fields When documenting employee absences you may find it useful to attach Copies of e mails Word or Excel attachments you ve used for tardies warnings and specific sections of reviews Gradience Forms personnel forms for vacation requests FMLA requests and company responses warnings and counseling reports Inserting an Attachment To insert an attachment follow these steps 1 Find the Comment or Note field you want to insert an attachment into Right click on this field and select Insert Object Select Create from File Click Browse to navigate to the file you want to attach and click Open Select Display as Icon Click Change Icon and change the Label if necessary to make the name more descriptive 7 Click OK then OK one more time motto Insert Object Options Create New Selecting Create New allows you to insert a new object you want to create from scratch For example selecting Create New and clicking on Microsoft Word Document for the Object Type and then clicking OK will bring up a blank Word Document for you to enter text When you close out of the Word Document it will appear in the Comments field Double clicking on the Word Document
32. aid Dental Plans Prescription Drug Plans Substance Alcohol Treatment Plans Free standing Psychiatric Plans Vision and Hearing Plans Long term Care Plans and Section 125 Medical Reimbursement Accounts Plan Terminated If selected this plan will not show up on drop down options where you need to select benefit plans COBRA Billing Options gives you a choice between Billing Monthly or Using Coupons If you select Bill Monthly bills will be generated monthly If you select Use Coupons bills will be generated through the end of the benefit year The benefit year is based on 12 19 months beginning from the Open Enrollment Effective Month Benefit Plan Maintenance For example if your Open Enrollment Effective Month is January billing records through December will be created Note Billing records for the next benefit year will be created approximately 25 days before the end of the current benefit year Rating Tiers some plans may have different rate options for the same plan such as Single Single 1 Family etc Clicking New will allow you to add different tier levels Rate Effective Date This is the date the Rating Tiers are effective from Tier The program automatically numbers the tiers as they are created Tier Name Name should be specific to the plan tier such as Med Self Med Self Il Med Self III Rate This is the dollar amount that is paid to the insurance company Apply Contributio
33. ake Default and OK when the report is previewed it will show all names that start with the letter A 9 Click AND to set the query This will bring it into the window 10 Set any other queries as needed 11 Click Make Default 12 Click OK 13 Click Preview to show your settings TIP If you have several lines in a query and you delete the first one make sure the top one doesn t begin with AND Import and Export The import feature allows you to add new data from a text file into the Gradience program Conversely the export feature allows you to export data from the Gradience program The software you export your data from must be able to export the required information to a tab delimited or fixed length text file See required import fields Please note that we cannot provide support for other software program s Please contact the software vendor or manufacturer for more information on how to export data from your other software Exporting The export feature is used to transfer basic employee information into a text file you can open in any word processor or spreadsheet application Only the basic information see Field Layout will be exported To export your information follow these steps 1 Click File Export 2 Select Tab Limited or Fixed Length for the Export File Type 3 Enter a path and file name or keep the default name 53 4 Click Export Your export file will be created as the file d
34. ariables Detail e Mem PageHeader Paiste DS ocountry fo Setti ble Ca TD Eb oPeger l Ep Picture obj SettingsTable CompanyName DS oPtone DS OMobilePhom SG OENail DS PersonID S employeelv D CortactOrder E CommentBlot By CorkactMeme 9 MasterTable Gs EmployeelD SG FirstName D LastName SG MiddleName SG Fullyame S employeenan JSettinas able Keportiitie frxReport1 TrreReport Properties Events 4463 12 144 DataSet assigned gt H EngineOrtior TrrxEngineOptic w MasterTable Personalhemo S Ki Picture object PreviewCptic ThrxPreviewOpt PrintOptions TrrxPrintOption ReportOptior TfrxReportOptir Version 3 22 rds W161 Br ea DataSet Links the object to the dataset that contairs the field t i represents i DS X a T abl z 3 ER B xl B ki SO 10 Once you are finished editing your custom report in the designer click File gt Save Save As or Exit to close the report to return to Gradience Edit Design Screen You can create your own customized report from the data provided for each report type by clicking on the New button from the Custom Reports main window When the design screen appears you see the Report Wizard It walks you through the process of creating a basic report If you wish to learn how to create your own report a step by step guide to creating a report from scratch is provided in Custom Report
35. artments to a location Setting up Benefit Plans Benefit Plan Maintenance is where you will create and set up benefit plans You do not assign the plans to employees from here Benefit Plans are assigned to employees from the Benefits feature To set up Benefit Plans follow these steps 1 From Settings Benefit Plan Maintenance click New 2 Fill in information as needed 3 Click Save 18 Benefit Plan Maintenance has the following options Type Types include general category types such as 401k COBRA Medical Dental etc and are set up from Setting gt General Codes gt Benefit Plan Types Plan Name Plan names should be more specific such as Medical Self or Dental Dependent Insurance Company Name Name of the insurance company for the selected type Telephone Number Customer Service Number that can be reached in case you have questions Street Address 1 and 2 Mailing address of insurance company City State ZIP Mailing info of insurance company Open Enrollment Effective Month Month when plan permits open enrollment typically January of each calendar year Termination Date Date when plan terminates Termination Cycle Options are End of Month or Immediate If the plan terminates coverage on the actual date of a qualifying event such as an employee s termination date enter Immediate If the plan allows coverage to run until the end of the calendar month du
36. ata ccccececeeeseeeeeneeeeeeeeeaeeceaeeeeeeeseaeeeeaaeeseaeeseeeeseaeeseeeeseeeseeeess 47 Searching for Help 47 TEET EE 47 MeVPIGAIMISSUCS cect eeh Ee a bre ee teehee adie bear tee atest Sead ebro tot 47 Custom Reports erer Ee Ee See deet 47 Edit Design Green 50 Setting up a Guest User 50 Stola Metale BEE 51 te Top FIGS erases naa a eege arta eet EE seet 52 impor and Export EE 53 Seele EE 53 Feat t ous cates casicsnecin cance cehedi sions canvases ENEE GEES Edel 54 lut eine BEE 54 PROQUIFE BEE 54 TROUDISSHOOTIA e EEN 55 Unable to connect to Interbase Server cccccceccceseeeeseneeeeneeeceaeeeeaeeesaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeeseaeeseneeeseaeeseas 55 IMABIE toi CONV EEE T A A E pains N tuna 57 Exceeded the Authorized User Count ssssssesssessreesresrreerestresitsttnstinstinsttnstenttrnttrnstrntnnternnenn 57 SQL Parse Error EOF in String Deteched AAA 58 Unable to install on a Win NT or 2000 system 0000 eee ee eeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeaeeeeeeeaeeeeeeeaeeeeeteaeeeeeteaaeeeenaes 58 Using the Notes Comments Editor and Attachments eesseesieesieesieesiresirsrirserrtrinreinreineerrseresenne 61 Inserting an Attachment deeglech e deed EENS 61 Insert Object Options ania Alar ie tine el eee en aT 61 Right Click Menu Commande 62 Using the Notes Comments Editor and Attachment 63 Using the Rich Text e e TE 63 USB Fingerprint BIO Reader Setup Guide ccccceeceeeeeeeceneeeeneeeeeneeeeaeeeseaees
37. bution as Comments Add any relevant notes in the comments field Setting Up Locations and Departments Departments are assigned to Locations To set up your Locations and Departments follow these steps 1 Click on Locations and Departments from Settings menu Click Locations and then click New Enter the Location name Click Save Click New again to create other Locations Click the Departments Tab and then click New Enter the Department name Click Save 9 Click New again to create other Departments that will be assigned to the Location 10 After all departments are created click the sign next to Location in the right pane 11 Select the assigned departments by clicking in the box next to the department ONO AR WN Note As you add more locations and departments you ll see that each location has ALL of the departments kou ve created However only those departments you assign to a location will show up when assigning them on other screens You may not remove a Department from a Location if an Employee is still assigned to that Location Department combination State Laws Related to COBRA Many states have enacted legislation providing more favorable continuation and conversion options to employees than available under COBRA Federal COBRA provisions apply to all group health plans but plans that pay benefits out of an insurance policy may be subject to COBRA related state laws Plans operating in states with COBRA relate
38. by clicking in the field Reminder Date Title Resolved and Description Edit Reminders screen Clicking on Edit from the main Reminders screen will bring up the Edit Reminder screen You also may double click on the title of a reminder The Edit Reminders screen allows you to change the Title Reminder Date User and Description Note If you need to change the Employee Name that this reminder is about you ll need to delete the reminder and then re add it Employee Detail Feature The Employee Detail Feature is the main data entry and viewing screen for employee information It is shared between the Gradience versions of COBRA Attendance and TimeClock If only one program has been installed the features for the others will not be seen The screen is divided into two sections the search and browse view on the left and the main data entry screen on the right Note Pictures are assigned to an employee through the Edit Picture button under the Personal Contacts or Employee Detail Feature Detail Fields Include Salutation Select Mr Mrs Ms as appropriate this field is not required First Enter employee s First Name MI Enter the first letter of the employee Middle Name Middle Initial Last Enter the employee s Last name SSN Employee s Social Security number or other National ID as selected under Global Preferences General Settings ID Enter a unique ID for the Employee Hire Date Enter the date the employee was
39. ce is due to be sent as soon as you enter a qualifying event even though you may have additional time under the guidelines explained above 4 Notice of COBRA Unavailability Alternatively if the plan administrator determines that an individual is not eligible for COBRA continuation coverage the plan administrator must send a notice to each qualified beneficiary explaining why COBRA coverage is unavailable This notice must be delivered within the same 14 day window applicable to the Qualification Election Notice The unavailability notice must be furnished when the plan administrator denies coverage after receiving a notice of qualifying event regardless of the basis of the denial and regardless of whether the notice involves a first qualifying event a second qualifying event or a request for a disability extension For example the unavailability notice would be required to be provided when a plan administrator denies continuation coverage because it has been determined that no qualifying event had occurred or because the qualified beneficiary did not furnish the notice of qualifying event notice in a timely manner or did not provide complete information Gradience COBRA provides a notice to help you comply with this requirement 5 COBRA Election COBRA allows each qualified beneficiary at least 60 days from the date the qualification election notice is provided or the day health care coverage ends whichever is later to elect continuatio
40. cember will be created Note Billing records for the next benefit year will be created approximately 25 days before the end of the current benefit year Rating Tiers some plans may have different rate options for the same plan such as Single Single 1 Family etc Clicking New will allow you to add different tier levels Rate Effective Date This is the date the Rating Tiers are effective from Tier The program automatically numbers the tiers as they are created Tier Name Name should be specific to the plan tier such as Med Self Med Self Il Med Self III Rate This is the dollar amount that is paid to the insurance company Apply Contribution as This toggles whether the Employer Rate Employee Rate Regular Admin Fee and Disabled Admin Fee will be entered as a dollar amount or percentage Employer Rate The rate the employer pays Can be a dollar amount or percentage depending on option for Apply Contribution as 21 Employee Rate The rate the employee pays Can be a dollar amount or percentage depending on option for Apply Contribution as Regular Admin Fee The rate that the employer charges for this type of administration Can be a dollar amount or percentage depending on option for Apply Contribution as Disabled Admin Fee The rate that the employer charges for this type of administration Can be a dollar amount or percentage depending on option for Apply Contri
41. ch as Gradience Attendance and TimeClock you have access to all programs and features from one convenient interface The main parts of the Gradience user interface are the Menu Bar Program Bar Feature Column Employee Select Column Selected Feature Pane and the Recent Features Pane Using Twain Import The Twain Import button allows you to import pictures directly from your Twain compliant digital camera You ll need to install the software that came with your digital camera To import a photo from your digital camera follow these steps 1 First you ll need to make sure your digital camera is Twain compliant and that the software that came with your camera is installed on the same computer where you will run Gradience 2 Connect your digital camera to your computer 3 Open Gradience and navigate to the employee you want to add a picture to 4 Click on the Personal Contacts Tab 40 5 Select the Edit Picture button and click on the Twain Import button 6 Click the Select Source button and then on your camera name You may have one or two options available a Camera Name This option allows you to take the picture and import it to Gradience Go to Taking a Picture and Importing to Gradience below to continue instructions b Photos in Camera Name This option will allow you to download and view the pictures on your camera s disk if you ve already taken pictures Go to Downloading Pictures from Camera Disk below
42. d statutes should review their state laws to ensure compliance with conflicting provisions What Benefits Are Covered under COBRA Qualified beneficiaries must be able to obtaincoverage identical to that available to similarly situated beneficiaries who are not receiving COBRA coverage under the plan generally the same coverage the qualified beneficiary had immediately before qualifying for continuation coverage A change in the benefits under the plan for the active employees also will apply to qualified beneficiaries Qualified beneficiaries must be allowed to make the same choices given to non COBRA beneficiaries under the plan such as during periods of open enrollment by the plan What Is a Qualifying Event Qualifying events are certain events that would cause an individual to lose health coverage The type of qualifying event will determine who the qualified beneficiaries are and the amount of time 22 that a plan must offer the health coverage to them under COBRA A plan at its discretion may provide longer periods of continuation coverage Qualifying Events for Employees Voluntary or involuntary termination of employment for reasons other than gross misconduct Reduction in the number of hours of employment Qualifying Events for Spouses Voluntary or involuntary termination of the covered employee s employment for any reason other than gross misconduct Reduction in the hours worked by the covered employee Covered emplo
43. duction in hours or Medicare entitlement Notice must be provided by the employer to the plan administrator if different from employer within 30 days after the qualifying event However for any plan under which continuation coverage begins with the date of loss of coverage the 30 day period for providing the notice of qualifying event must also begin with the date of loss of coverage rather than the date of the qualifying event 3 Notice of COBRA Qualification and Election Rights The plan administrator must furnish an election notice to qualified beneficiaries within 14 days after the receipt of notice of a qualifying event When the employer is also the administrator of the plan an election notice must be furnished not later than 44 days after the date of the qualifying event or if the plan provides that COBRA coverage starts on the date of loss of coverage the date the qualified beneficiary loses coverage under the plan This applies in cases in which the employer has the obligation to notify the plan administrator of the qualifying event i e for employee s termination reduction in hours death or entitlement to Medicare 15 Gradience COBRA generates a qualification election notice and reminds you to send the notice to each qualified beneficiary affected by the qualifying event entered To help you comply with the strict time limitations for providing the notice Gradience COBRA will indicate that your qualification election noti
44. e Inactive or Terminated employees no longer appear within the Report Options Pane However if you do need sort by employment status you can do so through the Sorting Filter Page under the View menu Employee Anniversary Report Options The Anniversary Report produces a list of employees whose hire dates fall within a specified date range Additional options for this report From Date To Date Runs the anniversary report according to this date range Sort By sorts by specified order Employee Detail Report Options The Employee Detail Report shows pertinent employee information including accrual plan assignments balances initial balances and notes from the Employee Detail Feature Additional options for this report e Print Picture allows you to toggle on or off the assigned employee picture on this report e Show Social Security Number on Report allows you to toggle on or off the SSN on this report Employee Summary Report Options The Employee Summary Report shows an employee s date of hire title status and work status Use this report when you want an employee listing 43 Export Options Disable Headers on Export When saving a report from the preview screen you have the option to save in different formats such as txt csv and xls With this option checked this saves the file without headers so the data can be manipulated more easily without the headers throwing the rows and columns out of place
45. e are field names and should not be changed These items are fields that are pulled from the database If items in brackets are modified the application will not be able to filter information automatically from the database to the notification To customize a notification follow these steps 1 From Settings COBRA Notification select a notification then click Edit 2 Make changes as needed such as adding your company name 20 3 Click Save Once you change a notification under Settings the new version will be generated automatically each time you use the notification To prevent this you may modify an individual notification at the employee level when viewing printing notifications instead of using Settings see Viewing Printing COBRA Notices Benefit Plan Maintenance has the following options Type Types include general category types such as 401k COBRA Medical Dental etc and are set up from Settings gt General Codes gt Benefit Plan Types Plan Name Plan names should be more specific such as Medical Self or Dental Dependent Insurance Company Name Name of the insurance company for the selected type Telephone Number Customer Service Number that can be reached in case you have questions Street Address 1 and 2 Mailing address of insurance company City State ZIP Mailing info of insurance company Contract Start Date Start date for current plan Contract End Date
46. e Gradience database is installed 2 Click the Connections button 3 Click the Refresh button to verify that all connections are N not active 4 If all connections are N then click the Clear Inactive Connections button this will reset the connections 5 If you wish to close the DB Monitor not recommended if you have automatic database backups scheduled right click your mouse on the icon Gradience Database Monitor in the system tray area select Shutdown Database Monitor and click OK to close DB Monitor 6 Otherwise click the Hide button SQL Parse Error EOF in String Detected Issue Getting the above error message when logging in Description This is caused when pressing the comma key and Enter key at the same time Possible Resolution s Avoid pressing the comma and Enter key at the same time Unable to install on a Win NT or 2000 system Issue Doesn t finish installation Description This usually happens if you do not have full administrator rights on the Win NT or 2000 computer Possible Resolution s 58 Make sure you have full administrator rights before installing Import Export File Format You may import and export only the fields on the Field Layout page There are two different formats you may use Tab Delimited and Fixed Length For a Tab Delimited format you may use any program that allows you to save as Tab Delimited Excel and Access are two that will allow this This is the eas
47. e database See Import and Export Delete Employee Deletes an employee from the Browse or Employee Detail screens Note This cannot be undone and deletes all data for the selected employee Exit MRU list Most Recently Used list Allows you to quickly select an employee by clicking on his or her name View Menu Filter Page Gives other options for sorting and filtering such as hiding terminated or inactive employees Open Reminders Brings up all open reminders those not checked as resolved Checklist Displays Checklist screen that helps you set up the program You may select I am finished with the Checklist to not display the Checklist on start up You may access this screen again by going to View Checklist Welcome Displays initial Welcome screen that pops up when you first run Gradience You may select Don t Show this Message Again to not display the Welcome screen the next time on startup You may access this screen again by going to View Welcome Settings Menu 39 User Security Allows you to set user access to features locations departments and employees Global Preferences Allows you to set program preferences such as Company Info Report Options and other program options Locations Departments Allows you to add edit locations and departments and assign departments to a location Benefit Plan Maintenance This is where you set up your Benefit Plans before they are assigned to em
48. e the records from the COBRA event The main COBRA Billing Feature is in a grid format and has the following options Payment Allows you to apply received payments against bills New Allows you to create a manual bill payment We recommend having the program create the bills automatically which is done after a COBRA event is created however the ability to create a manual bill is there if needed Edit Allows you to edit an existing record Again we recommend having the program create the bills automatically however this ability is there if needed Print Prints the COBRA Billing Report on the amount due and how much was paid Help Brings up the help file associated with this screen COBRA Notice Reprint This screen will be displayed if you have previously printed a notice It will show a history of the selected notice and save any changes To reprint a notice select the appropriate one and then click Print A preview of the notice will be displayed You may make any changes if needed and then click Print This history file will be updated with the latest date 30 NOTE If you make any additional changes to the notice it will be saved and added to this reprint history along with the originally printed notice COBRA Unavailability Per COBRA regulations if you determine that an individual is not eligible for COBRA continuation coverage you must send a notice explaining why COBRA coverage is unavailable The
49. eaeeeeaeeseeeeseeeetaas 64 Welcome Thank you for choosing Gradience to track your company s employee information Our software application includes many features based on the suggestions of our customers and we certainly welcome any further comments or improvements you may have Gradience COBRA was created to help employers administer continuation coverage in compliance with the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act COBRA and the Department of Labor s final regulations issued May 26 2004 affecting COBRA notice requirements The final regulations apply to COBRA notice obligations that arise on or after the first day of the first plan year beginning on or after November 26 2004 Thus calendar year plans had to comply beginning January 1 2005 COBRA continuation coverage provisions generally require group health plans to provide participants and beneficiaries who under certain circumstances would lose coverage the opportunity to temporarily extend benefits under previous group health coverage The final regulations set minimum standards for the timing and content of the notices required under the continuation coverage provisions and establish standards for administering the notice process When combined Gradience Attendance Records TimeClock and COBRA these powerful tools help you keep critical employee information without entering data twice Software Features Open ended licensing Unlike many human reso
50. ect Tab Delimited or Fixed Length This should correspond with the way the import file was saved 3 Select Skip First Line if you have title headings Do not select Yes if you dont have title headings or you may lose the first line of data 4 Click Load File to preview the file At this point you should make sure all column headings match the fields that will be imported Note the column titles above SSN Lastname Firstname and Middlename check each column to make sure the appropriate data are in the correct column For example the SSN number should have an 11 digit number plus two hyphens 1 Select which fields to check for duplicates in the Check Duplicates box Duplicates will be checked during the Test File phase 2 Click Test File This checks for blank required fields and in the case of Location and Department it checks to make sure that the name of the Location and Department has already been set up within the program CAUTION If duplicates were detected and you click on Import these fields will be imported into the program 3 Once it passes the Test portion you will be able to click on Import File Required Fields 54 The following are required fields for importing Last Name First Name Location name must be in the Gradience database before importing Department name must be in the database before importing Date of Hire Full Part Time Active Status Active Inactive or Terminated Troubleshooting Here a
51. ected printer Printer Setup Allows you to change the printer and printer settings 41 Help Displays help pertaining to this screen Report Options The following details options found on each report Employee Detail Report Options The Employee Detail Report shows pertinent employee information including accrual plan assignments balances initial balances and notes from the Employee Detail Feature Additional options for this report Print Picture allows you to toggle on or off the assigned employee picture on this report Show Social Security Number on Report allows you to toggle on or off the SSN on this report Creating and Printing Reports There are two ways to preview and print a report You may preview and print from the individual feature by clicking on the Printer icon associated with that feature or You may go to the Reports drop down menu or feature list for more sorting filtering options Benefits Report Options The Benefits Report produces a listing of each employee s benefit status Additional options for this report You can show all plans or select one plan to report on Show All Plans If selected will report on all plans Plan Name If Show All Plans is not selected then you can report on a specific plan COBRA Billing Report Options The COBRA Billing Report produces a report on billing records Additional options for this report Date Range for Billing Report
52. ecurity numbers Print Picture Toggles ability to print Picture on printout Print Totals Toggles whether Totals show up on reports File Menu Maintenance Backup Database This lets you perform a database backup while running the program Import Data Imports basic employee data into the Gradience database Export Data Exports basic employee data from the Gradience database See Import and Export Delete Employee Deletes an employee from the Browse or Employee Detail screens Note This cannot be undone and deletes all data for the selected employee Exit MRU list Most Recently Used list Allows you to quickly select an employee by clicking on his or her name View Menu Filter Page Gives other options for sorting and filtering such as hiding terminated or inactive employees Open Reminders Brings up all open reminders those not checked as resolved Checklist Displays Checklist screen that helps you set up the program Welcome Displays initial Welcome screen that pops up when you first run Gradience Settings Menu User Security Allows you to set user access to features locations departments and employees Global Preferences Allows you to set program preferences such as Company Info Report Options and other program options General Codes Allows you to add edit fields for most drop down fields Locations Departments Allows you to add edit locations and departments and assign dep
53. eeeeeeeeeaeeseeeeseeeseneeess 25 Setting up Access to Specific Program Features 26 Managing Employee COBPA 26 Adding an Employee Picture kk 27 Adding ENEE ul elle TEEN 27 Assigning a Benefit Plan to an Employee 0 cceeeeeeceeeeeenneeeeeenaeeeeeeaeeeeeeaeeeeteaeeeeseaeeeeteaeeeene 27 Assigning a Benefit Plan to an Employee 0 cccceeeeeeeeeeeesneeeeeeeaeeeeeeaeeeeseaaeeeeeeaaeeeeseaeeeesenaeeeeee 28 Benelts Foara i accx fancies soe aE AAA ATAA A AARAA AAAA a AAAA AAA tess 28 Benet Fans Editor Wpdate neari a E R AA aetna R 29 COBRA Billing Detail Ed 29 COBRA Billing Detail NEW 30 COBRA Billing Feature cccccececeeeeseeeeeeeeeeeeeceaeeseaeeeeeaeeceaeeeseaeeseaeeseaaeesaaeeeeeesseneeseeeeseeeseeeees 30 COBRA Notice Heprint tnnt Entt EAA tEESEEAAEEAEEAEEAEEAEESEEEn EEn nEnEn nanenane 30 COBRA Unavailability c ccccccececeeeceeeeeeeeeeeneeeceeeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeeceeeeseaeeseaaeeseaeeesaeesseaeeseeeeseeeseeeees 31 Creating a COBRA Event 31 Creating a New Reminder cccecceeeeceeseeeteneeeceeeeseaeeeeeaeeceaeeeceaeeseaeeeeaaeeseaeeseaeesseaeeseeeeseeeseeeees 32 Deleting sde CHE 32 Selten le CN 33 Employee Detal ROAtUre cs cecsiscovs cxteeses e isen a canbde A A TARG 33 Employee Select Column AANEREN 34 Managing Employee CORBPA 34 lu Elle EE 35 Personal Contacts Details AA 35 Personal Contacts Feature sacetisc abs aai aena aa vanes suede aveicteiann E a E A AAPEEE RAER ESEN 35 Programi TE
54. eeeeteeeeeeeeees 13 General Settings EE 13 Global Freteremge zegin ed arc ees nites Mies sevice aie dia ini aiiai i aa 14 How Long Does COBRA Coverage Last 14 Logging Infor the IC al 14 Notifications and Timeframes AA 15 Other Gradience Tabs geesde teen eevee Ais EES ENEE ENEE Eed 17 Premium Payments oeii VE deeEEEdE sted cance Eiir EAEAN ENERE ERENER LANE EEN dE een 17 elei die le EE AEAEE A E E E fates 18 Setting up Benefit e EE 18 Setting P E TE We te EE 20 Setting Up Locations and Depnartmments 22 state Laws Related to COBRAS sel eedetgug ed ere aapa deeg a EES d eege 22 What Benefits Are Covered under COBRA ss ssssssssssssssssessnrsnterrteinternternterntsrenernnstetstenstenstenntennt 22 What IS Qualifying Eyent einn ena a aena par a eara aaea aae a aa a a aaa deat ege 22 ADOUU GOBRA E E E A E EA adie seideauds basete syaueetabeyestic iy itebed tepenaecsatenbe legen 23 Who Is Entitled to COBRA Benefits AAA 23 Elle lee 23 dienen eg TE 24 Detail Tab COMMON Features 24 Forgotten Password Feature ccceceeeeneeeeeeeneeeeeeeneeeeeeeaeeeeeeeaeeeeseeaeeeeseeaeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeseeneeeeeneaes 24 Frequently Asked Questions c ccceecceeceeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeceaeeseaaeeceaeeseaeeesaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeesaeessueeeseneesaas 25 Program Features COBRA c ccccsccceeeeeeeeeeneeeeeneeseaeeseaaeeceaeeseaeeesaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeseaeesseeseeaeesaas 25 Setting up Access to Common Features Detail Tab 0 c ccesceeeeeeeeeeeeeee
55. elled words or items that don t need to be tracked Clicking OK will bring up the Benefit Detail screen for you to make any necessary changes Clicking Cancel will take you back to the previous screen COBRA Billing Detail Edit 29 Clicking the Edit button while on a selected record will allow you to manually edit the following Bill Due Date click the drop down arrow to bring up a calendar or enter a date in this format mm dd yyyy Bill Amount enter an amount up to decimal places Dollar sign is not needed Comments enter any relevant notes pertaining to this record Normally you won t have to change any of these fields however this option is there if you need it COBRA Billing Detail NEW Clicking the New button will allow you to create a new record Normally you won t have to create a new record because the program will create these records for you however this option is there if you need it Bill Due Date click the drop down arrow to bring up a calendar or enter a date in this format mm dd yyyy Bill Amount enter an amount up to decimal places Dollar sign is not needed Comments enter any relevant notes pertaining to this record COBRA Billing Feature COBRA Billing records are automatically created when a COBRA event is recorded You can create new bills or edit existing amounts by clicking on the New or Edit button respectively however we recommend having the program automatically creat
56. en only those employees from the department you specified will show up on the report To create a new custom sort follow these steps Select a report from the Reports menu 1 Click Custom Reports 2 Select the appropriate report or click New to create your own 3 Click the NEW button under the Custom Sort Fields 4 Enter a name that will designate what type of sort this will be such as Last Name or SSN Click OK 5 Select which field s you want to sort on by either double clicking on the field or clicking once on it and clicking the right arrow button The sort order will be designated by which field is at the top For example if you have selected to sort on the Last Name and EESSN fields with the Last Name field at the top it will sort first by Last Name and then by SSN on the report You may change the order of the fields by clicking on the UP and DOWN buttons 6 Click MAKE DEFAULT This keeps the sort settings assigned to the selected report 51 7 Click OK 8 See below for setting up custom filters 9 Click EDIT or PREVIEW See Appendix C for a tutorial that will walk you through editing and creating reports Custom Filters This feature allows you to filter on one or more fields The filter drop down box allows you to select saved filter settings Feature Field Operator Value AND OR Feature Edit Del Test Make Default Description This allows you to select the field to filter
57. enefits An individual must be a qualified beneficiary to become eligible for COBRA continuation coverage A qualified beneficiary is an individual covered by a group health plan on the day before a qualifying event defined below who is either an employee an employee s spouse or an employee s dependent child In certain cases a retired employee the retired employee s spouse and the retired employee s dependent children may be qualified beneficiaries In addition any child born to or placed for adoption with a covered employee during the period of COBRA coverage is considered a qualified beneficiary Agents independent contractors and directors who participate in the group health plan may also be qualified beneficiaries Security Options 23 Due to the confidential nature of information stored in Gradience COBRA security is always turned on This will help prevent unauthorized persons from accessing critical employee data The use of security is required and setting up access to Gradience COBRA and any other Gradience programs you have should be the second thing you do The first thing you should do is set up Locations and Departments Common Features Features under the User Security Features Tab are shared among Gradience COBRA Attendance and TimeClock For instance Locations and Departments are common to all three programs as are Global Settings Even if you have only one of the listed programs you will need to follo
58. ent your COBRA Notifications from generating and may interfere with other important COBRA administration features The COBRA tab has the following options Administrative fee to be charged to COBRA Participants Use fees from Plan Rate Tiers If checked this option will use the Admin fee rates from a specific Plan s Rate Tier otherwise if unchecked rates will be used from here Regular Regular admin fees can be up to 2 Disabled This admin fee can be up to 50 Default for To Do List days out Displays the To Do List this many days out according to the number entered here COBRA Administrator Enter the info as needed for the COBRA Administrator Company Information The Company Information screen allows you to enter your company name address and logo The company name is required because this will print out on Reports Having a company logo is recommended but not required If you have one this also will print out on Reports Company Name required for report headings Address City State ZIP and Country Code optional Bitmap filename for your Company Logo optional If you have your company logo available in a bitmap bmp file format you can have this logo appear on reports COBRA supports bmp file formats not to exceed 200 x 200 in size Enter the directory where the bitmap file is stored or use the Browse to locate it Company Setup 10 Before you begin using Gradience COBRA follow this checklist to get
59. esignated in the file block You may rename the file but we recommend keeping the file extension of txt After exporting you may open the file from within any other spreadsheet or word processor program Note Only the information in the Field Layout will be available for export Features Load File Loads the selected file into the data window Test This tab will not highlight until a file is loaded This checks for blank COBRA and ensures that the department and location names being imported are already in the database Import This tab imports the file into the database Help This brings up the Help file pertaining to importing Close This closes the Import screen and takes you back to the main screen Import File Type This allows you to select the file type Tab Delimited We recommend exporting or importing as this type of file Fixed Length Gradience may export or import fields with a fixed length See Field Layout Skip First Line Headers This will take out the first line in case you have headers Import File This allows you to enter the path or navigate to the file you will be importing Check Duplicates This allows you to check for duplicates against the import file and the files already in the database Importing To import your information follow these steps From within the program click File gt Import 1 Enter the path of the file or click onthe to navigate to it 2 Sel
60. ge Periods Based on Beneficiary and Qualifying Events Qualified Beneficiary Qualifying Event Period of Coverage Employee Termination 18 months Spouse Reduced hours Dependent child Logging In for the First Time 14 After installation run the application by double clicking the desktop application The default Login and Password are ADMIN Notifications and Timeframes 1 Initial Notification of COBRA Continuation Rights The plan administrator must provide written notice to each newly enrolled covered employee and spouse of the covered employee if any of the right to continuation coverage provided under each plan The notice must be furnished to each employee and each employee s spouse within 90 days of the date on which such individual s coverage under the plan commences or if later 90 days after the plan first becomes subject to COBRA continuation coverage requirements The COBRA regulations set forth the required minimum content of the general notice These content requirements cover basic information regarding COBRA and the rights and responsibilities of qualified beneficiaries that a participant or beneficiary would need to know before the occurrence of a qualifying event to be able to protect his or her COBRA rights New regulations clarify that a plan administrator may deliver a single notice addressed to a covered employee and the covered employee s spouse at their joint residence provided the plan s latest informati
61. he Gradience version In the Gradience installation process it will ask whether you want to install the Conversion Utility click Yes and follow the prompts When you open the Gradience program it will ask whether you want to convert your data click Yes Exceeded the Authorized User Count Issue You have exceeded the authorized user count Your product license allows up to number of licensed users simultaneous users There are connections at this time The connections is a number greater than one that changes each time you close and reenter the program Description Users may experience this issue when closing the program by clicking Exit under the File menu Users who exit the program by clicking the close window icon in the top right corner will not experience the problem but we still recommend downloading and installing the latest update Possible Resolution 57 Download and install the latest Gradience Attendance Controller update from our Updates area on our Website at www gradiencesupport com Please follow the installation instructions After downloading and installing the update this should clear the connections automatically If you re still receiving the error message follow the steps below to clear the connections Close Gradience Attendance Controller and any other Gradience Programs that are open 1 Open DB Monitor and log in if it is not already running The DB Monitor resides on the computer where th
62. he checklist below Change the Admin password by going to Settings User Security If needed set up access for others who will need to continue setting up the program If you need to give access to specific locations and departments or individual employees set these up first and then come back to User Security and complete security access Set up Global Preferences Create Locations and Departments Set up Benefit Plans Enter employee information and Personal Contact Info Assign Benefits to Participants Add Additional Users if needed COBRA Coverage Group health plans for employers with 20 or more employees are subject to COBRA Both full and part time employees are counted to determine whether a plan is subject to COBRA Each part time employee counts as a fraction of an employee with the fraction equal to the number of hours the part time employee worked divided by the hours an employee must work to be considered full time Under COBRA a group health plan ordinarily is defined as a plan that provides health care benefits for the employer s employees and their dependents through insurance or another mechanism such as a trust health maintenance organization self funded pay as you go basis reimbursement or combination of these COBRA Tab It is important that you enter all requested information in the area titled COBRA Administrator under Global Preferences gt COBRA Tab before getting started Failure to do so may prev
63. here will be an icon in the system tray next to the clock The icon graphic appears as a gray tower with a green flag When you put your mouse over the icon it will read Interbase Guardian This icon will not appear on a Win NT 2000 system You may check to see whether it is running on a Win 95 98 NT 2000 system by clicking on Start Settings Control Panel and clicking on the Interbase Manager If it is not running click on Start from within the Interbase Manager then try to open the Gradience application again If encountering the message when running from a Client Workstation try this Check the Server Name and Database Path by going to the Server opening the Gradience application and clicking on Help System Information and printing out this information from the Tech Support tab If you don t have the Tech Support tab then you have an earlier version of Gradience and will need to do a screenshot of the System Information screen and Current Users screen and print them out Once you have the Server information go to the Client Workstation you cannot connect to the Server with From the Workstation click on Start Run and enter HRWARE INI Verify that the Server Name and Database path are the same NOTE The printout of the Server Name and Database path you were asked to print or write down when installing the Server side must be exactly the same when entering this information on the Client Workstation s The Client needs to ha
64. iest format When entering your information into a spreadsheet such as Excel you will need to follow the order of the field names according to the Field Layout page For example the columns should have SSN first then Last Name First Name etc Also you will need to leave a blank column for any fields you will leave blank For example following the format on the Field Layout page we create a Tab Delimited file with the fields SSN Last Name First Name blank column for Middle Initial field Location Department Date of Hire Full Part Time blank column for Title field blank column for Employee Code field and Active Status All of the fields in bold are required You still need to have a blank column for MI Title and Employee Code in the order of the fields For a Fixed Length format you may use the DOS Editor or any other editor that shows you the field length The lengths of each field must correspond to the Length column under the Field Layout page We recommend using the Tab Delimited format The following is the field layout for importing text files into Gradience COBRA Fields shown in bold type are required and all import text files must include them Field Name Length Format if fixed length format Social Security Number 11 123 45 6789 Last Name 20 upto 21 characters First Name 20 upto 21 characters Middle Initial 20 upto 20 characters Location 50 upto 25 characters or numbers 59 Department Date Of Hire
65. kday and workweek These numbers are used as defaults when generating report totals Assigning a Benefit Plan to an Employee 27 Benefits need to be tracked whether an employee elects to participate in a benefit plan or even if he or she waives the benefit Gradience COBRA allows you to track both of these events To assign a benefit event to an employee follow these steps 1 From the Benefits Feature screen click New Enter the Effective Date of this Plan Select the Benefit Type Plan and Rate Tier Select whether to use the Plan Rate Tiers or enter rates manually Select the participants who will be taking part in this benefit plan Enter the Creditable Coverage Date Save your changes N OTe ON Assigning a Benefit Plan to an Employee Benefits need to be tracked whether an employee elects to participate in a benefit plan or even if he or she waives the benefit Gradience COBRA allows you to track both of these events To assign a benefit event to an employee follow these steps 1 From the Benefits Feature screen click New Enter the Effective Date of this Plan Select the Benefit Type Plan and Rate Tier Select whether to use the Plan Rate Tiers or enter rates manually Select the participants who will be taking part in this benefit plan Enter the Creditable Coverage Date Save your changes NoN AOON Benefits Feature NOTE You ll need to have your Benefit Plans set up from the Settings Menu gt Benefit Plan Maintena
66. king in the Feature Access Rights block until a drop down arrow shows up Clicking on the arrow will allow you to select from the following a NO ACCESS no access to selected feature b READ ONLY this allows user to view only cannot make any changes C READ WRITE this allows user to view add and edit no deleting allowed d READ WRITE DELETE this allows user full editing rights to feature 3 Click Save Managing Employee COBRA This chapter will help you become acquainted with the program layout and how to enter employee information Throughout this chapter there are examples of different program screens You may wish to view the sample database to get a better picture of how employee COBRA looks once entered See Sample Database for more details Make sure you have gathered the following information for each employee before attempting to enter employee COBRA 26 Social Security Number Name First Middle Last Employee Identification Number Date of Hire Job Title Number of hours in a day the employee works Location Department Full or Part time Active Inactive or Terminated Status Required data Adding an Employee Picture A photo gives you a visual image of an employee his or her dependent s or emergency contact person s Photos are not required We recommend you use a digital camera to take your photos and save the images in the i
67. ld have his or her own login name and password with access rights to specific features Can I set up each user to view only his or her individual employee information Yes See Setting Up Access To Locations Departments and Individual Employees If I use Attendance will users need to be entered again Gradience COBRA shares the security file with Gradience Attendance and TimeClock so if you are using these programs there is no need to enter basic information twice have a Single User License but want three other users to access the program how many computers may put the program on with a Single User License The Gradience applications are single user licenses and can only be installed on one computer If you need more flexibility and need to install to a network environment we recommend checking out our Gradience applications that allow networking Program Features COBRA Show COBRA Tab Selecting YES for this option will display and allow access to the COBRA program COBRA Billing Allows READ WRITE and or DELETE access to this feature COBRA Billing is accessed from the main features COBRA Tasks Selecting YES allows access to this feature COBRA Tasks are accessed from the View Menu COBRA Allows READ WRITE and or DELETE access to this feature COBRA is accessed from the Benefits feature Benefits Allows READ WRITE and or DELETE access to this feature Benefits is accessed from the main fea
68. lick New 3 Enter First Name Last Name and Relation information required fields Enter other fields as needed Salutation Maiden Name Birth Date SSN Student Disabled and Dependent info 4 Click Save 5 Click the Edit Picture to assign a photo to this contact person 6 Click Address to add an address to this contact person Personal Contacts Feature The Personal Contacts Feature allows you to add and edit dependent contact information The main screen is in a grid format and allows you to quickly locate contact information for an employee The first Relation listed will always be the selected employee This helps identify which employee you are assigning contact information for The Personal Contacts main screen has the following options New Allows you to enter a new contact Edit View Allows you to change an existing contact Print Prints the Employee Detail Report Help Brings up the help file associated with this screen Program Bar The Program Bar allows you to select the Gradience program you wish to use and displays its features in the Feature Column The programs are color coded as follows Attendance Green COBRA Red TimeClock Purple COBRA Light Blue Receiving a Payment 35 To receive a payment follow these steps 1 Select the appropriate employee and then select COBRA Billing 2 Click Payment When you enter the Payment screen it will be in Edit mode which means
69. mended that you accept the default setting for each step of the install process If you are installing the software in a network environment Client Server Installation you should consult your network administrator before installation You must have proper network rights in Windows 2000 NT and XP to install Gradience software When installation is complete the Gradience program group will be added to your Start menu and a Gradience COBRA icon will be on your desktop Note Make sure to close all running programs before beginning installation Setup Types After Standalone Use this option if you are installing to a stand alone computer This will install both the program files and database files to your local drive Server This is the first of two steps in the Client Server Installation either for true client server configurations or peer to peer network that may be using a workstation PC for the database Choose this option to install the database and application files on the Server and before installing the Client application to PC workstations Client This is the second step in the Client Server installation clicking on a Setup Type you will have the following options Express We recommended that you select this option if you are installing or upgrading Gradience COBRA for the first time This will take you through the installation process with minimum user intervention Custom This op
70. n a Server Prompt for Backup on Exit This option allows you to turn on or off the message prompting for backup when you close out of the program Backups are very important We recommend that you turn this feature off only if you have scheduled backups within the DB Monitor Global Preferences To access Global Preferences go to Settings gt Global Preferences This Global Preferences screen allows you to control your default program settings such as Company Info Report Options and specific program options If you are setting up for the first time please follow the Checklist order NOTE Before editing any of the Global Settings you must first click the EDIT button How Long Does COBRA Coverage Last COBRA establishes required periods of coverage for continuation health benefits A plan however may provide longer periods of coverage beyond those required by COBRA COBRA beneficiaries generally are eligible for group coverage during a maximum of 18 months for qualifying events due to employment termination or reduction of hours of work Certain qualifying events or a second qualifying event during the initial period of coverage may permit a beneficiary to receive a maximum of 36 months of coverage Coverage begins on the date coverage otherwise would have been lost by reason of a qualifying event and will end at the end of the maximum period unless terminated earlier for reasons discussed in the next section Maximum Covera
71. n as This toggles whether the Employer Rate and Employee Rate will be entered as a dollar amount or percentage Employer Rate The rate the employer pays Can be a dollar amount or percentage depending on option for Apply Contribution as Employee Rate The rate the employee pays Can be a dollar amount or percentage depending on option for Apply Contribution as Regular Admin Fee This must be entered as a percentage even if contribution rates are set up in dollars Disabled Admin Fee This must be entered as a percentage even if contribution rates are set up in dollars Comments Add any relevant notes in the comments field Setting up COBRA Notifications Gradience COBRA provides several types of customizable notifications The notifications are grouped under the following categories f Newly Enrolled Qualification Election Conversion Billing Rate Change Insufficient Payment COBRA Termination HIPAA COBRA Unavailability For more information about the purpose content or timing of these notifications see Notifications and Timeframes under You can print the notifications from the Reports Menu Gradience COBRA notifications are attorney developed and designed to comply with current COBRA Regulations If you wish to make content modifications you are urged to have them reviewed by counsel to ensure compliance When making changes be aware that items in brackets such as NoticeDat
72. n coverage Each qualified beneficiary may independently elect COBRA coverage A covered employee or the covered employee s spouse may elect COBRA coverage on behalf of all other qualified beneficiaries A parent or legal guardian may elect on behalf of a minor child Remember plans may allow for longer notification periods but may not shorten them To the extent that a plan provides a covered employee or qualified beneficiary a period of time longer than 60 days to provide notice of COBRA election to the administrator the terms of the plan shall govern 6 Notice of Conversion Rights Some plans allow participants and beneficiaries to convert group health coverage to an individual policy If this option is generally available from the plan a qualified beneficiary who pays for COBRA coverage must have the option of converting to an individual policy at the end of the COBRA continuation coverage period The option must be provided within 180 days before COBRA coverage ends The premium for a conversion policy may be more expensive than the premium of a group plan and the conversion policy may provide a lower level of coverage The conversion option however is not available if the beneficiary ends COBRA coverage before reaching the end of the maximum period of COBRA coverage Gradience COBRA generates a conversion notice and reminds you to send it within 180 days of COBRA coverage s ending Note If conversion is not available under your plan y
73. nce option before you can assign Benefits to employees See Setting up Benefit Plans for more info on setting up The Benefits feature allows you to assign and track benefits such as 401 k COBRA FMLA dental medical life insurance disability and others for employees The main Benefits screen has the following options Buttons New Allows you to assign benefits to participants under the selected employee Edit View Allows you to edit and or review existing benefit options Delete Deletes the selected benefit and any COBRA records associated with it NOTE Deletions are permanent Print Help Brings up the help file associated with this screen COBRA Event Allows you to create a COBRA event associated with the selected benefit Benefit Detail Effective Date This is the date the employee first becomes covered under the plan Type Lists the type of plans available i e Medical Vision Dental 401k etc 28 Plan Lists the type of plans listed according to the Type selected For example if you selected Medical as the Type then you would only see Plans that were under Medical Type Rate Tier Lists the rate tiers associated with the selected Plan Waived this benefit If selected this marks the benefit as being waived by the employee NOTE If a participant other than the employee is taken off the plan you should unselect them from the Participants table Use Rates from Tier If checked the program
74. ndustry standard JPEG JPG picture format or Bitmap BMP format An image size of 200 x 200 pixels works best If your picture is larger than this the program will squeeze your larger picture into the displayed picture frame If your digital camera has TWAIN support you can import the picture right into Gradience using the Twain Import feature To add an employee picture follow these steps 1 From either the Personal Contacts or Employee Detail Feature select the employee you want to add a picture to 2 Click Edit Picture 3 Click Assign New Photo 4 Navigate to where the employee picture is Select it and click Open If your photo is larger than the recommended size 200 x 200 pixels you may get a message that asks whether you still want to assign the file If you click Yes the program will try to squeeze your larger picture into the frame however the larger size of the file will be maintained and may make the database larger 5 Click OK Adding a New Employee 1 Click the New icon or select Edit and New Employee from the main menu Click Next button after entering data for each screen 2 Enter the Required Fields You can use the TAB key to move from field to field or hold down the SHIFT key and press TAB to move back a field 3 Required Fields First and Last Name Hire Date Work Status Employment Status Location Department Hours Day and Week This is the amount of hours an employee works for a typical wor
75. o Locations Departments and next to the location and department name to expand the list 3 Click in the box next to the location and department name to select access to these areas or individual employees within these departments This will put a checkmark in the box Click in the box again to unselect 4 If you already have entered your employees in the program and assigned locations and departments to them when you expand a department you will see all the employees assigned to that location department combination You then may select access to individual employees at this point by clicking in the box next to the employee Note If you haven t entered your employees through the Employee Detail feature or Import Data under the File Menu into the program you still will be able to assign access to a location department combination just not down to the employee level You later may assign access down to the employee level after you enter your employees and assign a location department to them 5 Click Save For instructions on setting up user access to any other Gradience program e g Attendance or TimeClock please see Security Options in the appropriate user manual Setting up Access to Specific Program Features Once the above steps are completed follow these steps to set up access to specific program features 1 From Settings then User Security click on the COBRA Tab 2 Select what type of Feature Access users will have by clic
76. o the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 HIPAA plan administrators are required to provide a Certificate of Group Health Plan Coverage to individuals after coverage ends under a group plan Gradience COBRA generates this Certificate revised to comply with new HIPAA regulations effective July 1 2005 and reminds you to send it upon termination of benefits Other Gradience Tabs Additional Gradience programs must be installed for these options to display See the appropriate manual for setting up these options Premium Payments Qualified individuals may be required to pay the entire premium for coverage up to 102 employers may charge up to 2 as an administration fee of the cost to the plan For qualified beneficiaries receiving the 11 month disability extension of coverage the premium for those additional months may be increased to 150 up to 50 administration fee of the plan s total cost of coverage COBRA beneficiaries remain subject to the rules of the plan and therefore must satisfy all costs related to co payments and deductibles and are subject to catastrophic and other benefit limits The plan must allow participants to pay premiums monthly if requested but may allow payments at other intervals weekly or quarterly The plan is not required to send monthly premium notices to trigger payment obligation Failure to make timely payments may result in loss of coverage The initial premium payment mus
77. of how employee COBRA looks once entered See Sample Database for more details Make sure you have gathered the following information for each employee before attempting to enter employee COBRA Social Security Number Name First Middle Last Employee Identification Number Date of Hire Job Title Number of hours in a day the employee works Location Department Full or Part time Active Inactive or Terminated Status Required data 34 Open Reminders Open reminders will appear for the user they are assigned to unless the Global option is checked If a reminder is marked with Global then it will show for all users You may view open reminders by opening the program or selecting Reminders from the feature list Note If you have security access to Reminders Assign Users see Security Options you may view reminders set up by other users You also may resolve reminders from the Open Reminders screen Personal Contacts Details Clicking on New or Edit allows you to enter dependent and contact information All dependents need to be entered through this screen before assigning them to a benefit plan The first Relation on the Contact Detail Feature is the Employee you want to add dependents or contact information to The title Employee under the Relation drop down box for this person cannot be changed To add a dependent or other contact follow these steps 1 Select an employee from the employee list 2 C
78. on indicates that both reside at that address A single notice would not be permitted however if a spouse s coverage under the plan begins at a different time from the covered employee s coverage unless the spouse s coverage begins before the date on which the notice must be provided to the covered employee and a single notice is then timely sent to their joint address Gradience COBRA provides an Initial Notification of COBRA Continuation Rights and reminds you to send the Notification within 90 days of adding a newly enrolled individual to a plan 2 Notice of Qualifying Event The covered employee or a family member has the responsibility to inform the plan administrator of the following qualifying events divorce legal separation disability or a child losing dependent status under the plan Notice must be provided within 60 days after the qualifying event Notice may be provided to the plan administrator by any individual who is either the covered employee a qualified beneficiary with respect to the qualifying event or any representative acting on behalf of the covered employee or qualified beneficiary and the provision of notice by one individual shall satisfy any responsibility to provide notice on behalf of all related qualified beneficiaries with respect to the qualifying event Employers have a responsibility to notify the plan administrator of the following qualifying events employee s death termination of employment or re
79. ording a Legally Disabled COBRA Event requires two separate events to be recorded the initial event such as End of Employment or Reduction in Hours and the Qualifying Event of Legally Disabled To record a Legally Disabled COBRA Event follow these steps 1 From within Gradience COBRA click on Benefits select which benefit to record an event for then click COBRA Event 2 The COBRA Events Detail form should come up so you may start recording the initial event If you see a list of events instead then you may already have an initial event set up Skip to Step 3 The initial event should be something other than Legally Disabled such as End of Employment or Reduction in Hours Once you have entered all relevant information for the initial event click Save 3 From the COBRA Events screen click New Record this qualifying event as Legally Disabled and mark No for Initial Event Once you have entered all relevant information click Save 36 Note The Event Date for the qualifying event of Legally Disabled should be the effective date of the disability as noted in the SSA determination The Event Date should fall within the first 60 days of COBRA continuation coverage to qualify for an 11 month extension If it doesn t you may reject the extension and generate an Unavailability Notice Reminders The Reminders Feature will show you all open unresolved reminders and allow you to create delete and resolve reminders If you ha
80. ou are urged to seek legal advice regarding compliance with this notice requirement 7 Early COBRA Termination Notice Continuation coverage may be terminated earlier than the end of the maximum period for many reasons as discussed above If COBRA coverage is being terminated before the maximum coverage period the plan administrator is required to send each affected individual a notice indicating that coverage is ending The notice is not required to be furnished before COBRA coverage can be terminated or within a specified time frame However it must be provided as soon as reasonably practicable following the administrator s determination that continuation coverage shall terminate The purpose of providing a notice of 16 early termination is to allow qualified beneficiaries the opportunity to take appropriate action to protect their access to health coverage either on a group or individual basis New regulations establish that the notice must include a the reason that continuation coverage has terminated earlier than the maximum coverage period b the date of termination of continuation coverage and c any rights the qualified beneficiary may have under the plan or under applicable law to elect an alternative group or individual coverage such as a conversion right Gradience COBRA provides a notification for COBRA termination designed to comply with this requirement 8 HIPAA Certificate of Group Health Plan Coverage Pursuant t
81. ployees See Setting up Benefit Plans and Assigning Benefit Plans to Employees COBRA Notifications After setting up your Benefit Plans you can review and edit the COBRA Notices as needed Reports Menu Previews and prints up several reports you can also access this list and select a report by clicking Reports on the left Feature Column Help Menu Contents Brings up the Help File System Information Displays database information and current users About Displays program version number and current license Alter Current Product License Allows you to enter edit product key code To Do List Now that Gradience COBRA is set up you ll get a To Do List of notifications that need to be printed and mailed whenever you open the program You also may get to this list by going to the View Menu gt COBRA Tasks and you ll be able to view this information for each individual employee from the COBRA Notices Feature Colored Records mean White Printed Green No action needed yet Yellow Becoming due Need to print out and mail notice soon Red Past Due needs immediate attention The To Do List tasks and dates are generated by Gradience COBRA based on information you have entered and the legal timeframes imposed by COBRA requirements See Notifications and Timeframes Using Gradience COBRA Gradience COBRA is now easier to navigate than ever before Even better if you have other Gradience software installed su
82. ptions cccccceeccceeeeeeeeeneeeeneeeseeeeeeeeeeeaeeseeeeseaeeseieeess 42 COBRA Status ele lag e NEE 42 Dependents Report Optionsi cis aar araa a aa aaa a a aaa a a Aarra raae Na E ASAA Aa EA AOAR event eg 43 Dependent Ineligibility Report Options sssesssessseeseeesreesressrestrestrnstrnstrnstinstnstentttnnrnsennenntennnenn 43 Display le le 43 Employee Anniversary Report Options ccccceceeeeeneeeeseeeeeaeeeeaeeeseaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeeeeaeessueeeseeeeeaas 43 EXPO nti O PtlO MS ic scn cars ese cese ch seed TE E EES E E eege 44 Grouping eler ET A4 New Hires Report Options ccccecceceeeeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeaeeseaaeeseaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeeseaeeseueeeseneesaas 44 Notifications Report Options ccccccccceeeceeeeneeeeneeeeeeeeseaeeceaaeeceaeeseaeeesaeeseaeeeseaeeseaeeseaeessueeeseeeeeaas 44 Printing from the Reports Feature or Menu Bar ssessseessiseesrirerrrrsstirrsetirnnntrinnteirnnsrrnnnerrnnnernnnt 44 Reminders Report Options s sessesseeestessresstesstesttnsttnsttntttnttrnttrnttrnterntrntcrntereterenstenstenstenstenntennt 44 Creating a Manual Backup 45 Restoring from a Backup ccccssccceeessecceeeeseneeeenseneesensenseseaensesensenseseaaensesesensenensensensnsaaeenensensess 45 Scheduling Automatic Backups ccccecceceeeeeeeceneeeeneeeeeeeeseaeeeseeeeeeaeeeeeaeeseaeeseeesseaeeseeeeseeeseeeee 46 ele WEE 46 Contacting Technical SUpport EE 46 Sample Company Tutorial D
83. re s also a full text editor available Quick print reports In each program feature you ll find a print icon that lets you quickly create related reports Combined with the new faster Employee Select Column this makes printing reports a breeze System Requirements Required o Windows 98 SE or later Pentium 266 Mhz or faster processor 64 MB available RAM Random Access Memory 50 MB available hard disk space Access to a CD ROM drive SVGA monitor with 800 x 600 16 bit color depth or higher Recommended Pentium III or higher processor 128 MB available RAM Random Access Memory 50 MB available hard disk space CD ROM drive SVGA monitor with 1024 x 768 High Color or higher Windows compatible graphics quality printer Network Requirements Windows based Serveror PC The included Interbase database is not compatible with a non Windows based operating system such as Novell However you may run the database on a Windows based server or PC connected to a non Windows based network A static persistent IP address so that the database will be always connected to the client application Proper user license The database will only allow the purchased number of users to be connected at any one time to the database Wide Area Networks WAN require a WAN license based on the number
84. re the most common issues that you may experience when using COBRA Unable to connect to Interbase Server Users affected Gradience Attendance Gradience COBRA Gradience TimeClock Issue When launching one of the programs above the following message may be encountered This program was unable to connect to your Interbase Server This is likely due to the fact that the default Interbase User Account has been changed Please provide a User Name and Password with Administrative Privileges to Interbase Description Users may encounter this issue for one of the following reasons If running from a Server If you re using an NT server and trying to install the database files to a drive other than C permissions to the database folder may be incorrect If running from a Standalone Computer Interbase Guardian may be shut down If running from a Client Workstation Incorrect Server Name and or Database Path Client needs to have TCP IP installed Server may be down 55 Possible Resolution If running Gradience from a Server and encountering the above issue try each of these solutions Check your permissions for the Database folder Full Control access must be given to System for the database folder You may add to the Permissions by going through Windows NT Explorer and going to Properties by right clicking the database folder Check to make sure InterbaseGuardian or Interbase Manager is running On a Win 95 98 system t
85. ring which the qualifying event occurs enter End of Month It is extremely important that you enter this information accurately Minimum Week Hours Number of hours needed to qualify for coverage under the plan Dependent Age Cap Upper age limit allowed for dependents to receive plan coverage Enter the plan s age cap for Students and Non Students Require Beneficiaries Select this option if plan type requires beneficiaries This option will display the Beneficiaries button when assigning this plan to participants employees dependents etc Employee Only Benefit Select this option if plan type is only for the employee and not for dependents or other Enable COBRA for this plan Select this option if you want COBRA options to be associated with this plan The COBRA icon will be available on the Employee Benefits feature It is important for you to accurately designate whether a plan is COBRA eligible By law most plans are deemed COBRA eligible However short term and long term disability plans workers compensation coverage and wellness plans generally are not COBRA eligible Life insurance plans are only COBRA eligible if required by state law The renown plan types generally are required to offer COBRA continuing coverage Preferred Provider Organizations PPOs Health Maintenance Organizations HMOs Exclusive Provider Organizations EPOs Medical Indemnity Insurance Plans Dental Indemnity Plans Prep
86. rmance 4 Click OK at the Select Directory screen It is highly recommended that you keep the default location Note Version 7 1 x and above allow you to back up to a mapped drive Version 7 0 x only allows you to backup to the same computer where the database resides 5 Click Close when the backup is complete Restoring from a Backup Remember restoring a backup will overwrite all data in the current database Restore may be run only from the DB Monitor on the Server or Stand alone computer where the database resides To restore follow these steps Go to the Server where the database files are kept Restore cannot be done from a Client Installation 1 Open the DB Monitor program by going to Start Programs Gradience and clicking on DB Monitor 45 7 Enter your login and password If you do not have access to the DB Monitor Restore feature you will need to see your Administrator Click the Restore Tab Click the database to restore Click Browse and double click the backup you wish to restore Click Start Restore After Restore is complete click OK You may open the Gradience program to see your restored data Scheduling Automatic Backups To create a scheduled backup follow these steps 1 2 NO oR Help Open the DB Monitor program by going to Start Programs Gradience Gradience and clicking on DB Monitor Enter your login and password If you do not have access to the DB Monitor Backup feat
87. rs or messages that were known at the time of publication is listed in Troubleshooting For more complete information please refer to one of the following Readme txt file in the gradience cerf8 program directory Help File in gradience cerf6 or accessible from the Start Menu Internet site www gradiencesupport com Custom Reports From any report feature and after selecting filters and options such as Date ranges Location and Department groupings etc you can begin the process of creating a custom report Custom Reports are a function of the FastReport engine built into Gradience The purpose of this tutorial is to take you through the process for creating a custom report editing some basic information inside FastReport thenshowing you the outcome For a full tutorial on working with FastReport please see the FastReportdocumentation 47 Custom Reports give the user the option to present data from the original template report in new and exciting ways How it works is the default Gradience report called a template inside the application is used as a base for the new custom report The user can always start a new report from scratch but it is usually easier to create a new report by modifying a copy of the original template To create a custom report based on an existing report you would click the Save As button and select a new name for the report You would then proceed to edit the new copy of the report To
88. rt to gain access into the Gradience program To use this feature we require that a statement on a company letterhead and signed by a supervisor be sent by fax or mail stating that the user is allowed full access into the program We keep statements on file Call Gradience Tech Support if you have forgotten or lost your Gradience password Forced Writes for Interbase If running the Gradience database on a Stand alone computer this option will help to keep the database more stable A Workstation is more 13 prone to lock up or crash than a Server If the Gradience database is installed on a Workstation and the program is open at the time the computer locks up or crashes the database is prone to becoming corrupt and possibly irreparable A computer lockup or crash can be attributed to several things including having too many programs open at the same time than what your computer memory can handle Note If the database is installed on a Workstation or Stand alone computer we recommend keeping this option checked The performance may lag a little but unless you have more than 800 employees you may not even notice it We also recommend having a current backup created within Gradience or DB Monitor available If the database is installed on a Server normally a backup of the whole Server is created on a daily or regular basis We still recommend setting up Scheduled backups within DB Monitor but having this option checked is not as important o
89. se received Accepted Waived etc COBRA Unavailable This option should be used when you determine that an individual is not eligible for COBRA continuation coverage COBRA regulations require you to notify individuals if COBRA coverage is not available to them See Notifications and Timeframes If you determine that COBRA coverage is unavailable insert a check next to Generate Unavailability Notice to create the required notification For more information on the use of this notice click Help on Unavailability Notice Plan Type This will automatically fill in according to the type of plan assigned Plan Name This will automatically fill in according to the type of plan assigned Plan Tier Tier s that is available to the participants according to the benefit plan Fee Type Allows you to choose between Regular or Disabled for the Fee Type Monthly Rate Including Admin Fee Field will be filled in automatically according to the benefit plan Clicking the checkbox for Override Fee will allow you to manually change this amount COBRA Start Date Beginning date of COBRA coverage Subscriber Bill Payer Lists the available names to choose from These are the names that are entered in Personal Contacts COBRA Participants Eligible participants will automatically populate this area Participants are taken from the assigned Benefit Plans in the Benefits Feature Note To add Participants return to the
90. setting up Locations and Departments for the first time a Location must be set up FIRST and then you may assign a Department to that Location Early COBRA Termination COBRA continuation coverage may end before the expiration of the maximum coverage period if Premiums are not paid on a timely basis The employer ceases to maintain any group health plan After the COBRA election coverage is obtained with another employer group health plan that does not contain any exclusion or limitation with respect to any pre existing condition of such beneficiary However if other group health coverage is obtained before the COBRA election COBRA coverage may not be discontinued even if the other coverage continues after the COBRA election After the COBRA election a beneficiary becomes entitled to Medicare benefits However if Medicare is obtained before COBRA election COBRA coverage may not be discontinued even if the other coverage continues after the COBRA election When COBRA terminates before the expiration of the maximum coverage period the plan administrator is required to notify affected individuals under COBRA notification requirements see Notifications and Timeframes Note If USERRA only coverage is expiring due to an individual s military service s ending and the individual is no longer entitled to USERRA or COBRA coverage the user should select Other as the reason for ending coverage and should manually enter the reason for termina
91. ss to create modify Custom Reports Import Data This allows access to import employee data into the database Export Data This allows access to export employee data Forgotten Password Feature The program has a Forgotten Password feature that can be used in case of forgotten or lost passwords Please follow these instructions in this case 1 Fax a statement on your company letterhead to our Technical Support Department The statement should be signed by a manager or supervisor authorizing you to have a password that allows full access to the security feature within the program See Contacting Technical Support for our Support Fax number Example Statement authorized name and title is authorized to have full access to the name of program Signed by supervisor name title and contact information 2 Once the fax is sent contact our Technical Support Department at the phone number Please have the program opened to the Login Password screen The representative you 24 get in contact with will walk you through the next few steps to get you back into the program Frequently Asked Questions What is a user Simply put this is the person using the program He or she may be entering or viewing data The Administrator may set specific access to only those features a user will need access to How many different users can be set up The security file can contain a list of as many users as you desire For example each user wou
92. t be made within 45 days after the date of the COBRA election by the qualified beneficiary Payment generally must cover the period of coverage from the date of COBRA election retroactive to the date of the loss of coverage due to the qualifying event Premiums for successive periods of coverage are due on the date stated in the plan with a minimum 30 day grace period for payments Payment is considered to be made on the date it is sent to the plan date of postmark or hand delivery If premiums are not paid by the first day of the period of coverage the plan has the option to cancel coverage until payment is received and then reinstate coverage retroactively to the beginning of the period of coverage If the amount of the payment made to the plan is made in error but is not significantly less than the amount due less than 50 or 10 the plan is required to notify the individual of the deficiency and grant a reasonable period for this purpose 30 days is considered reasonable to pay the difference 17 Report Options Tab These settings affect how reports will appear by default Print Preview Toggles turns on and off showing preview first before printing Header Bold Toggles bolding for Header Title Header Line Toggles putting a line under the Header Title Header Shade Toggles shading for Location or Department title row Data Lines Toggles lines to separate data information Print SSN Toggles ability to show Social S
93. t corner Setting a Reminder One Time Reminder 1 Click on Remindersfrom the Features Column 2 Click New 3 Select check One Time Reminder 4 Enter a Title and Reminder Date 5 If you want the reminder to be associated with specific employees select the checkbox Assign to all selected checked employees This is optional and will create a separate reminder that is associated with each employee 6 If you selected the checkbox in Step 5 you will need to select check any employees this reminder is about in the Employee Select Column Otherwise skip to the next step 7 By default the User s name will default to the login that was used to enter the program Change this if you want the reminder to come up for another user or you may select Global which allows the reminder to come up for all users logging in Note You must have access to Reminders Assign Users and Reminders Assign Global under User Security to be able to change this option 8 Enter a description of the reminder if needed 9 Click Save Recurring Reminder 1 To create a recurring reminder follow these steps 2 Select Reminders from the feature list 3 Click New 4 Select check Recurring Reminder 5 Select the type of reminder Anniversary Birthday Performance Review or l 9 Renewal Select a Through Date when do you want to stop the reminder from occurring 7 Select how many days you want to be reminded before the event D 38
94. ting coverage eg end of military service or no longer eligible for coverage Editing Company 1 Click Edit 2 Enter Information as needed 3 To add a company logo click Assign New Logo Navigate to where the directory path is and click on the bitmap logo then click Open 4 Click Save Effective Dates of Required Notices By Plan Administrator A required notice is considered furnished by a plan administrator as of the date of mailing if mailed by first class mail certified mail or Express Mail or as of the date of electronic transmission if transmitted electronically When hand delivery is the chosen method of delivery however a notice would not be considered furnished until actually received by the individual to whom the notice is directed By Participant Beneficiary In the absence of written plan procedures to the contrary that are communicated to participants and beneficiaries the same standards apply to notices provided by covered employees qualified beneficiaries and other persons acting on their behalf to plan administrators Effect of Second Qualifying Event 12 Dependent beneficiaries who elect COBRA continuing coverage following the employee s termination of employment or reduction in work hours are eligible to extend COBRA coverage if a second qualifying event occurs causing loss of coverage Coverage may be extended for a total of up to 36 months from the original COBRA start date
95. tion is for Advanced Users who have specific installation needs Stand alone Computer Installation Instructions Installing to a Stand alone Computer is quick and easy Follow these steps 1 ONO AR WD Insert the Gradience CD on a Stand alone Computer Select Stand alone as the Setup Type Click on Express and then click Next Click Next at the Current Settings screen This will install the program files Click Finish This will start the installation of the database files Click Next then the I Agree button if you agree to the license After the installation click Finish Double click on the desktop application shortcut the default Login and Password are ADMIN Client Server Installation Installing a Client Server setup is a two step process You will need to install to the Server first and then the Workstation s Server Installation Instructions Install to the Server first by following these instructions 1 2 3 Insert the Gradience CD on the Server Follow the CD Menu Instructions above At the Setup Type select Server Click Next Select Express Click Next 4 IMPORTANT STEP Write down the Server Name and Database Path EXACTLY as they appear on the screen Click I have written this information down Click Close 6 Click Next at the Current Settings screen This will install the program files to the Server 7 Click Finish This will start the installation of the database files 8 Click Next
96. to continue instructions Viewing Printing COBRA Notices The COBRA Notices Feature shows at the employee level the status of notices whether they re becoming due soon green or yellow overdue red or have been printed The categories of notices that can be printed are Newly Enrolled Qualification Election COBRA Unavailability Conversion Billing Rate Change Insufficient Payment COBRA Termination HIPAA For more information about the purpose content or timing of these notifications See Notifications and Timeframes Once you print a notification it is automatically saved with the date and time of printing This becomes a record of when you sent the document and what it included You may not save the document without first printing it Waiving a Benefit Plan If an employee elects to waive a benefit it is marked by following these steps 1 From the Benefits Feature screen click New 2 Select the Benefit Type Plan and Rate Tier 3 If participants are waiving this benefit select the Waive checkbox 4 Enter the Date Effective 5 Save your changes Reports Gradience COBRA creates many reports that relate to employee recordkeeping For additional reporting capability please try Gradience Attendance which offers you the power to track absenteeism and time off benefit balances Report Menu Options Preview Displays the report with options to print and setup printer Print Sends the report to the sel
97. ts the contents of the file as an object into your document so you may activate it using the program that created it It will be displayed as an icon X X Inserts a shortcut that represents the file The shortcut will be linked to the file so changes to the file will be shown in your document Right Click Menu Commands Right click on any notes or comments field the menu shown will pop up with the following options Edit Opens the full text editor Cut Copies to the clipboard and deletes the currently selected text Copy Copies the currently selected text to the clipboard Paste Pastes the currently selected text into the comments or text field Font Brings up a standard font edit window with settings for font style size effects and color Bullet Style Toggles bullets for selected paragraphs on and off Paragraph Brings up a standard paragraph settings window for alignment style indentation and line spacing Tabs Lets you set tab stops for selected paragraphs Find Searches for the text you enter Replace Searches and replaces text according to your settings Insert Object Opens the Insert Object window and lets you select either a new object to insert into the notes comments field or attach an existing file Check Spelling Launches the Microsoft Word spellchecker 62 Using the Notes Comments Editor and
98. tures COBRA Notices Allows READ WRITE and or DELETE access to this feature COBRA Notices are accessed from the main features Setting up Access to Common Features Detail Tab Click New from the User Security Detail screen Enter a Log In and Password letters and numbers only and the user s Full Name Select options for Displaying Reminder Alarms and Hints for this login Select Yes to allow the user to begin logging in after giving access Setting this option to NO is a good security measure when users are out of the office for several days Select what type of Feature Access users will have by clicking in the Feature Access Rights block 6 Clicking on the arrow will allow you to select from the following NO ACCESS no access to selected feature READ ONLY allows user to view only cannot make any changes Pons a 25 READ WRITE allows user to view add and edit no deleting allowed READ WRITE DELETE allows user full editing rights to feature YES allows access to feature i NO no access to feature 7 Click Save Setting up Access to Locations Departments and Individual Employees You already should have set up your Location and Department names see Locations and Departments Now you will want to set up users access to the Locations and Departments by following these steps 1 Click on Location Department Tab from Settings gt User gt Security gt Detail 2 Click on the plus sign next t
99. u to set the program defaults such as the Epoch setting default hours in a day and SSN format among others Epoch Setting We strongly recommend keeping the default settings This setting will allow the program to appropriately interpret any two digit year entered that is between 1920 and 2019 For example with the default Epoch setting of 1920 If you enter a date such as in the Hire Date field of 03 05 78 the program will interpret this as 03 05 1978 If you enter a date of 03 05 01 within the program it will be interpreted as 03 05 2001 Note If you need to enter a year before 1920 or after 2019 in a date field within the program you may enter the year as a four digit number Default Hours in a Day These are the default hours that will be assigned when creating a new employee The Day Hours on the Employee Detail screen will be filled in automatically with these default hours when a new employee is created National ID Number Format Label Selecting one of these options will allow you to set the mask for the National ID Number Format The default mask is set to the USA SSN format With this selected whenever you enter a new employee the dashes will automatically come up in the xxx xx xxxx format The label is the title that will appear on the Employee Detail screen SSN by default Allow use of Forgotten Password Utility This option allows access to a utility that can be used only with assistance from Gradience Tech Suppo
100. urce software applications Gradience does not require annual licensing However we do encourage you to purchase upgrades so you have the latest enhancements and newest features to make your job easier Easy stand alone PC installation We designed Gradience to be simple to install and get up and running Password security Anyone who uses the program must have a login ID and password and you can set different access levels for each user Data import If you already have information from a spreadsheet or other program you can save time setting up Gradience by importing it Reminders Set pop up reminders for important dates such as employee anniversaries birthdays l 9 renewals and reviews Reports You can choose from several standard reports and change options to get the information you need Export information to other file formats such as Excel or text too FREE Technical Support When you ve thoroughly searched the help and troubleshooting information provided in this User s Guide you can contact Technical Support for free assistance Automatic reminders Instantly create recurring reminders for events for all employees Add file attachments to notes comments Store all documentation in one place Attach Word Excel PDF and image files to any notes or comments field For instance you can attach a Gradience Forms FMLA Request Form to the comments field of the Benefit Detail screen for that employee The
101. ure you will need to see your Administrator Click the Backup Tab Click New Backup Enter the Backup Type by selecting Daily Weekly or Monthly Enter the military time in which you would like the backup to take place It is recommended to keep the other default settings of Performing Sweep and the path of the backup A different backup will be created for each scheduled backup Note The name of the backup will be Type _Backup_ mm dd yyyy _ time to distinguish it from other backups For example Weekly _Backup_08 02 2001_ 2300 or Monthly_Backup_09_01_2001_ 1700 Click Save The backup will be performed within a minute of the scheduled time Note The Server or Stand alone Computer where the database is kept must be turned on for the backup to complete If the computer is not on at the scheduled time the DB monitor will try to create the backup the next time it is opened The Help Menu Select Help and Contents from the main menu A listing of help topics is displayed Select the Book that interests you using a double click and then double click the topic you wish to display Contacting Technical Support Technical Support for COBRA is available as follows Internet www gradiencesupport com To view our technical support website please click the Help menu Gradience online Tech Support This will link you directly to our Tech Support website 46 Note Before clicking this link please be sure your computer is connected to
102. ve TCP IP installed This is done through the Network Neighborhood Properties Please see your Network Administrator if you need more assistance in setting this up 56 If everything is the same on the Client as it is on the Server and you re still unable to connect then try this If your Server has a static IP Address try entering this for the Server name when installing to the Client Workstation If running from a Client Workstation and you went through the steps above and it didn t fix the issue check with your MIS or Network Administrator regarding the status of the Server Unable to Convert Issue Conversion program not installed unable to convert Description This is usually caused when installing the Gradience program on a computer that doesn t have Version 6 already installed and you need to convert your Version 6 data Possible Resolution s Install Version 6 either Attendance or COBRA doesn t matter which one then reinstall the Gradience program You may get Version 6 either from the Gradience CD or from our Website at www gradiencesupport com Installing from the Gradience CD Through Windows Explorer click on the CD ROM drive with the Gradience CD Click on the folder BIN Legacy and Atcon 6 0 or Cerf 6 0 and then double click on the Setup exe file Accept all the defaults by clicking Next Once installation is finished open the Version 6 program to the main screen and then close out Then install t
103. ve created a reminder it will show up when you first open the program starting on the reminder date Reminders will continue to display until you click Resolve Reminders Tool Bar and Pane Layout Tool Bar First Prior Next Last arrows navigates through selected reminders New Creates a new reminder Edit Allows you to make changes to a reminder Save Saves reminder Cancel Cancels current changes Delete Deletes selected reminder Print Lets you print the Reminders report for selected employees Help Brings up help for this screen Pane Layout Reminder Date Date reminder should first display Title Heading of reminder Resolved Checkbox displays checked for resolved or unchecked for open unresolved Employee Name Displays name of employee the reminder is associated with User Displays name of user the reminder will display for Description The purpose of the reminder shows here Filters User Allows you to view reminders associated with specific users must have access to Reminders Assign Users under User Security Show Resolved Displays Resolved reminders only Show Unresolved Displays Unresolved open reminders only Reviewing Editing a Payment from History The Payment History feature allows you to review receipts and edit payment amounts as necessary To edit a payment from history follow these steps 1 From COBRA Billing Feature click Payment and then Show Hide
104. w these instructions to set up user access rights Note You will not see the Attendance and TimeClock tabs if those programs are not installed Detail Tab Common Features Search For This allows you to search by User Name Save As This allows you to create additional users based on the access rights of another user Employee Record Access This allows access to view add or delete employee COBRA Employee Detail This grants access to the Employee Detail screen View SSN This allows access to view Social Security numbers Run Reports This allows access to run reports Reminders This allows access to add and delete reminders Reminders Assign Global This allows access to assign reminders as Global Reminders Assign Users This allows access to assign reminders to other users User Security This allows access to add edit and delete users and user access Location Department Maint This allows access to assign location department access for users Global Preferences This allows access to edit global preferences Database Monitor This allows access to the DB Monitor Database Backup This allows access to Backup from the DB Monitor Database Restore This allows access to Restore from the DB Monitor Alter Product License This allows access to change one or more Product License Conversion This allows access to run the Conversion Utility Custom Reports This allows acce
105. yee s becoming entitled to Medicare Divorce or legal separation of the covered employee Death of the covered employee Qualifying Events for Dependent Children Loss of dependent child status under the plan rules Voluntary or involuntary termination of the covered employee s employment for any reason other than gross misconduct Reduction in the hours worked by the covered employee Covered employee s becoming entitled to Medicare Divorce or legal separation of the covered employee Death of the covered employee About COBRA The landmark COBRA health benefit provisions became law in 1986 The law amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ERISA the Internal Revenue Code and the Public Health Service Act to provide continuation of employer sponsored group health coverage that otherwise might be terminated COBRA contains provisions giving certain former employees retirees spouses former spouses and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates This coverage however is only available when coverage is lost due to certain specific events Group health coverage for COBRA participants is usually more expensive than health coverage for active employees because usually the employer pays a part of the premium for active employees while COBRA participants generally pay the entire premium themselves It is ordinarily less expensive though than individual health coverage Who Is Entitled to COBRA B
106. you can start entering your data If you click on the Show Hide History button you ll need to press the Cancel button to get out of Edit mode otherwise you ll get a message stating An amount is required Please enter an amount or cancel your changes 3 Inthe Amount field enter the amount of the received payment NOTE If the amount received is equal to or less than the first record s Bill Amount the amount received will be applied to the first record If the amount received is more than the first record with multiple records displaying then the amount received will be applied to the first record and then to the second record until the full amount received is used You may manually set which records to apply the amount received to by clicking on the checkbox and entering the amount manually in the Payment Amount Field Amount field Enter a Reference Number if needed Enter the Receipt Date Enter the payment Type See Payment Types below for more info Apply the amount received to a record s if needed Click Save Or GON Payment Types Note Payment types are just to record the type of transaction They do not adjust balances Cash Check Money Order Credit Adjustment Recent Features Pane This is a list of the most recently used features Clicking on a feature from this list will bring it up in the Feature Screen It s a quick way to get back to a previous screen Recording a Legally Disabled COBRA Event Rec

Gradience Cobra™ User Manual

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents

Gradience Cobra&trade; User Manual

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents

Gradience Cobra™ User Manual