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Benefits: Plan Administrator Handbook

Our guide to managing your benefits digitally through Collage!

Stephanie Smith avatar
Written by Stephanie Smith
Updated yesterday

Disclaimer: This only applies if your organization has Benefits Sync through Collage. To learn more about this service click here.

Today, most insurance companies still use PDF or paper forms as the primary tool for managing benefits plan enrolment for their members Collage’s Benefits Sync module provides a powerful alternative to managing a benefits plan manually.


With Collage HR, you can manage your benefits plan directly from within your HRIS.

  • No more PDF forms: Benefits enrolment is done online as part of the new hire onboarding flow in Collage

  • No more paper enrolment forms: Collage syncs directly with your insurance provider, meaning you don't have to worry about adding new hires to your benefits plan or updating your insurance provider when there’s a change to an employee’s record

  • Benefits Module: Employees can access plan information, update their enrolment data, and add dependents

Use Collage’s Benefits Sync for most plan administration activities:

  • Adding a new employee to the benefits plan

  • Terminating an employee from the benefits plan

  • Looking up an employee’s enrolment details, such as certificate ID, benefits class, effective date, etc.

  • Update an employee's job information that affects benefits, such as job title, benefits class, hours worked, salary and location

  • Assist an employee to make administrative updates:

    • Update personal information

    • Change to extended health care and dental status

    • Change to spousal/common-law/civil union status

    • Update dependent information like birth of a child, student status, or any other dependent information updates

Use your insurance provider login for claims, bills and speciality forms:

  • Submitting claims as a plan member

  • Accessing coverage balances

  • Completing beneficiary designations

  • Downloading your billing information

Click on People on the left-hand side navigation and then click Hire

Alternatively, you can type in “hire” into the search box at the top of the app and select Hire an Employee

  • Complete the required fields in the new hire form

  • Under Benefits, select the carrier, benefits class/division and probation period from the drop-down menus

  • Click Send Invite at the bottom of the form

  • The new employee will receive an email invitation to onboard and digitally enroll in the benefits plan

Head to Benefits on the left-hand side navigation and find the employee’s name.

  • Click the three dots beside their name

  • Click Enrol in Benefits

  • Under Benefits, select the carrier, benefits class/division and probation period from the drop-down menus

  • Once you’re finished, click Save

The employee will receive an email to complete their digital enrolment to their benefits plan

Head to Benefits on the left-hand side navigation

  • Select the employee to be terminated

  • Click on the three dots beside their name

  • Click Terminate Benefits

  • Fill in the termination details, including the last day of benefits

  • Once you’re finished, click Save

The employee won’t be able to see their termination until after the termination date has passed.

When you terminate an employees benefits coverage, regardless of if they are leaving the company or simply opting out of benefits, you will be asked to provide them employee's personal email address. This is so that we can send them out a message advising they may be eligible to convert certain coverage to a person plan.

If the employee's personal email address is not provided then the Plan Administrator will be notified to advise the employee that they may be eligible to convert certain coverage to a person plan.

As an employer, it is your responsibility to inform the employee of their option to convert certain benefits into an individual plan.

Click here to read more on how to terminate an employee in Collage.

Head to Benefits on the left-hand navigation

  • Select the employee to change classes

  • Click on the three dots beside their name

  • Click Change Enrolment

  • Select the new division & class

  • Click Save

Head to People on the left-hand side navigation

  • Select the employee

  • Click Job

  • Select Update then click Place on Leave

  • Complete the required fields then click Save

*Placing the employee on leave will keep benefits active. If benefits should be terminated during the leave, please terminate benefits

  • Open Company Settings on the left-hand side navigation.

  • Click Roles & Permissions

  • Select Add Custom Role

  • Name the role and select which features the role should have access to, then click Save

  • Navigate back to Company Settings

  • Click Users

  • Select the user, then click the three dots beside their name

  • Select Edit Role then check the box for the new role

  • Click Save

This user will now have full permission to make changes to Benefits.

Learn more about creating Custom Roles here.

  • Open Company Settings on the left-hand side navigation.

  • Click Roles & Permissions

  • Select Add Custom Role

  • Name the role and select which features the role should have access to, then click Save

  • Navigate back to Company Settings

  • Click Users

  • Select Invite External User

  • Enter the name and email address of the person you'd like to invite

  • Select the role(s) you'd like to add them to

  • Click Save

This user will now have full permission to make changes to Benefits.

Learn more adding External Users here.

Beneficiary designations are very important for employees to fill out during the onboarding process. An onboarding task can be created to remind the new hire to have it complete and returned.

  • Click on the employee's profile, select Documents

  • Click Add Documents

  • Assign the task to Employee, set the due date and description

  • Click Create

The completed form can be stored on the employee’s profile:

  • Click on the employee’s profile, select documents

  • Click Add Document

Learn more about creating Onboarding Tasks here.

Other features

Reminders

Set up reminders to keep track of important events. A reminder can be set up to notify an employee, a manager or a specific person.

  • Click Company Settings, Reminders, then Add Reminder

  • Select First day of Benefits from the list of prompts and set the reminder to Employee

  • Check the box for the reminder to send On due date

  • Click Save reminder

Learn more about creating Reminders here.

Custom Fields

Configure custom fields to store additional information about your employees.

  • Click Company Settings, Custom Fields, then Add Custom Field

  • Complete the required fields and indicate if the employer or employee needs to fill out the field

  • Click Save

Examples of benefits related custom fields:

  • Health care spending account allotment

  • Cost Centre

  • Beneficiary name (as a reminder)

  • Interest in optional insurance coverage

NOTE: The Collage team is not notified when a custom field is created and/or updated

Learn more about creating Custom Fields here.

Glossary

Invited

The employee has been invited to onboard Collage, but they haven’t opened the email invitation yet

Onboarding

The employee has opened the email invitation to complete onboarding, and are currently entering their information

NOTE: The onboarding status will be removed when the employee clicks “finished” to submit their information

Status = Probation

The employee has been enrolled in the benefits plan and is satisfying the probationary period before their benefits are active. The status will automatically update to Active on the benefits effective date

NOTE: Probation period means the same as waiting period

Not Enrolled

The employee is not enrolled in the benefits plan

Enrolment Date

The first day of work or the date the employee meets the eligibility criteria to be enrolled on the benefits plan

Pending Termination

The employee’s termination has been entered on Collage, but the date is in the future. The status will automatically update to Terminated upon the actual termination date

Have questions reach out to our team at support@collage.co or click on the messenger icon in the lower right-hand corner of the Collage platform.

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