SyncStream has a new tool designed to forecast the cost of employee benefits.
The Benefits Analysis Toolkit automates a variety of benefits calculations to free up HR department time and eliminate human error.
SyncStream Benefits Analysis Toolkit
Small Business Trends recently spoke with Arthur Tacchino, Chief Innovation Officer at SyncStream, about their new Benefits Analysis Toolkit.
The toolkit has been designed to look forward several years into a small businesses’ future. It looks at benefits in the light of taxes, finances and budget to help see what’s ahead for a small business’s bottom line. It even updates tax and regulatory requirements.
Foundational Surveys
A survey is used to collect employee information to allow year over year comparisons and benchmarking.
“Ultimately they can use the data collected to do a three year model of the cost of any particular benefit,” Tacchino said. “This toolkit also allows the HR person or advisor to enter a lot of variable data.”
These variables are important for small businesses trying to keep ahead of the cost of benefits like healthcare. The reports that can be edited include an Affordable Care Act Decision Tree, and costs of employee turnover to name a few. There are several other plugins for employment equality and taxes as well.
Toolkit Flexibility
Beyond being automated, the toolkit has a flexibility that stands out as another great option for small business trying to see what’s on the road ahead, Tacchino explains.
“This toolkit allows you to make assumptions things like the number of enrollments. It allows you to play with numbers and compare certain contribution levels versus other ones.”
After you’ve put together a few different scenarios you can run comprehensive reports to get a clear picture of where each benefit road leads. Small business HR people can also plug real time data into the toolkit. Not only does this product tell what your benefits will cost based on information you feed it, it also offers alternatives.
Specific Company Benefits
For example, the tool can show you what it would cost to offer a particular benefit from a specific company based on the data you input. It also takes into account other factors like rising premiums. And it can build in other factors like tax savings for the benefits where those apply.
Perhaps most important for today’s small businesses is the fact that the tool’s business logic will alert your company if you might be facing penalization under the Affordable Care Act.
Financial Landscape
Want to see what your businesses’ financial landscape will look like without any benefits? The Benefits Analysis Toolkit can give you that picture too by moving the cash allocated.
“ You can even find out what it would look like to drop health care coverage in terms of employee turnover,” Tacchino says. “ You can find out what it would look like to use alternative contribution structures too.”
Another distinct advantage with the toolkit is the fact you can run a number of scenarios. The reports you can get from each make for a great side-by-side analysis of your small business benefit options.
You can get a quote for SyncStream’s Benefits Analysis Toolkit by following this link.
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