Define Benefit Area
Benefit areas allow you to have separate administration of different benefit plan pools. This division is primarily for administration purposes and would not normally be used for eligibility.
As you create your benefit areas, consider the following factors:
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A benefit area can be administered in one currency at a time only. So for each currency you have, you must define a minimum of one benefit area.
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If benefit plans are to be administered by different benefits offices in your organization, you can use different benefits areas to make this distinction.
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If your subsidiaries are in the same country yet have vastly different benefit plan pools, you can create a benefit area for each subsidiary.
Note: Do not create more benefit areas than you strictly need because each benefit area is set up separately, and you need to set up a plan in each benefit area in which it is used.
You must also ensure that authorizations are maintained for your benefit areas. The benefits module allows you to control user access to benefit areas. For information on how to set up the authorization P_BEN_ALL see Maintain Authorizations in the Personnel Administration IMG.
Example 1
An organization provides a different set of benefits to employees in different regions.
Benefit area
Country grouping
01 Calif/Mary/Pens
10 USA
02 DC/NewEngland/Mass
10 USA
Example 2
An international organization with two subsidiaries acquires a third. The employees in the subsidiary still use the benefits from their previous company.
Benefit area
Country grouping
01 General Co.
10 USA
02 Subsidiary 1
10 USA
03 Subsidiary 2
08 Great Britain
Recommendation
The association of employees to a benefit area is done using the feature BAREA. This is accessed from the Benefit Area view using the feature function.