Producing benefit statements with Fringe Facts is easy when you have all the information you need. Perhaps the most important piece is the company's employee data. Obtaining and entering this data manually can be the most time-consuming and error-prone part of the entire project. But it doesn't have to be!

With Fringe Facts Communicator, the process of collecting this data is simplified and efficient. Everything you need to produce quality, professional-looking statements snaps into place after collecting employee data with the built-in data import feature.

Fringe Facts Communicator makes it easy to import data from other software systems. You don't have to waste valuable time re-entering employee data that is already maintained in another computer system. Fringe Facts permits fast and error-free importing of employee data from your payroll, human resource information systems (HRIS) or other database application to Fringe Facts.

As long as the data can be exported from the payroll, HRIS or other systems to any one of the common formats described below, you'll be able to quickly and easily import and translate the data into a format that Fringe Facts can use.

Most payroll, human resources, or other database programs have the ability to create files in one of the formats described below. Even though a program may not store its data in one of these formats, many programs have an option that allows the user to create a file in one of these formats so that the data can be accessed by other programs.

Here are the file formats you can use when importing employee data into Fringe Facts Communicator:

• CSV (Microsoft® Excel®)
  
  Most Windows software applications have the ability to export data into a file format that is commonly known as CSV (Comma Separated Variable) format. This is a file format that is often used by computer programs to move the data into a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet.
  
  A CSV file has the filename extension of ".CSV". For example, "employeedata.csv" has a primary filename of "employeedata" and an extension of "csv".
  
  If your employee data is currently in a system that permits exporting into an Excel (CSV) file format, simply choose that option. Once your employee data is saved in the Excel CSV format, it can be brought into Fringe Facts as a "comma delimited" file format (see below for a description of "comma delimited" files).
  
  If you already have your employee data in Excel, you can save it in the CSV format by clicking on File, then on Save As. The Save As type drop down box offers the option CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv). Select that type!
  
  
• ASCII delimited format
  
  ASCII is an acronym that stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Although the comma is the most common delimiter (character that separates the pieces of data), Fringe Facts can also accept other ASCII delimiters including tabs or spaces, regardless whether quoted strings (quotation marks that also separate fields) are used. A file with an extension name of CSV is an ASCII comma delimited file format.
  
  

• ASCII fixed length format
  
  Fixed length files do not have to have a fixed record length. If the data is stored in a file without a fixed record length, Fringe Facts can still translate it as long as the end of each record is marked with a carriage return and a new line.
  
  
• dBase III format
  
  dBase III is used by many commercial database programs. dBase III files can be converted directly into Fringe Facts without restructuring your existing data. This means the source file will not have to be manipulated prior to downloading the data.
  
  

You can quickly and easily import information from multiple-source files with Fringe Facts, even if those files are maintained in different formats. For example, the employee census information may be available on your HRIS while the salary information may be found on the payroll system, and the account balances for the company 401(k) plan are on a third party administrator's computer system. Assuming all three of these systems have the ability to export data to one of the three file formats mentioned above, it is possible to transfer all of the employee data directly into Fringe Facts, thus eliminating the manual entry of data.

Fringe Facts has a number of additional features that makes it even more useful:

• Allows you to update data for existing employees. Data can be imported from more than one source file, even if the source files are in different formats or on different computers.
• Has a calculations feature that allows you to insert or modify both numeric and character values from the source file.
• Prints exception reports showing changed values, duplications and other potential problems.

Fringe Facts also allows you to export data from Fringe Facts into a delimited ASCII file format. This means you can access data from within Fringe Facts for special reports or transfer the data directly to another system. The main advantage is the elimination of time-consuming and error-prone data entry.

Any remaining data not available on a computer will have to be manually entered into Fringe Facts.