Understanding Table Lookups

How Table Lookups Work

Pension plans can use tables for actuarial factors, interest rates, and regulatory information (such as the taxable wage base and the 401(a)(17) and 415 limits).

Tables can also be used to look up unknown information corresponding to other, known information. For example, you can look up the social security normal retirement age (SSRA) that corresponds to an employee's date of birth.

To use the Pension Administration table lookup, you have to create the lookup table.

In its most basic form, a table lookup finds a value corresponding to another known value, which is called the lookup basis. For example, a code might assign numbers to each letter in the alphabet. You can then decipher numeric messages by looking up the letters that correspond to the numbers.

When you look up information on a pension table, the lookup basis is either an employee variable or a date. For example, you look up an early retirement factor based on an employee's age, and you look up federal midterm rates based on a date.

A table lookup consists of two parts:

• The physical table where you store the information.

  This table must conform to strict requirements regarding the number of columns and what is in each column.

• The instructions for using the table.

  These are the parameters you set up on the Table Lookup Alias page. They include:

  • Information about the lookup basis.

    For example, if you're looking up an early retirement factor based on an employee's age, you have to provide an alias for the age.

  • Parameters for handling situations where the lookup basis is not on the table.

    For example, an employee's benefit commencement age is 62.25, and the table includes only whole numbers. The table lookup settings tell the system whether to use the early retirement factor that corresponds to age 62 or age 63.

There are two types of table lookups:

• A regular table lookup has one result that is constant throughout a calculation.

• A program-generated lookup has different values at different times—for example, an interest rate that changes over time.

Regular Table Lookups

A regular table lookup locates information based on an unchanging data value. For example, it can look up a social security retirement age based on an employee's date of birth, and an early retirement factor based on an employee's benefit commencement age.

The lookup basis—for example, the birth date or benefit commencement age—is an alias that is resolved once per calculation. When you set up a regular table lookup, you put this alias directly into the table lookup parameters.

When you set up a regular table lookup on the Table Lookup Alias page, set Lookup Values to Use Alias.

Program-Generated Table Lookups

When you apply interest rates or grant cash balance credits, you may need to look up information that varies from period to period. For example:

• If you use federal midterm rates for interest on employee contributions, you need to look up the new rate every period.

• If cash balance credits are determined at a different rate for earnings above and below the taxable wage base (TWB), you need to look up the new TWB every period.

• If cash balance credits increase based on an employee's age, service, or both, you have to look up the age and service values every period.

In these situations, the function that requires the lookup knows the dates to use for the lookup, and therefore it provides the lookup basis. Such lookups are classified as program-generated because the program provides the lookup basis. When you set up table lookup parameters, you do not enter a lookup basis.

Applying 401(a)(17) limits also requires looking up limits every period. PeopleSoft delivers pre-configured program-generated lookups to use with 401(a)(17):

• The TRA86 lookup uses the TRA 86 Limits table.

• The OBRA93 lookup uses the OBRA 93 Limits table.

You can examine both of these lookups on the Table Lookup Alias page.

When you set up a program-generated table lookup on the Table Lookup Alias page, set Lookup Values to Program Generated.