DB Precision's Worktrack system allows users to track the progress of common tasks for a pension plan sponsor that are related to pension administration. The most common examples of such tasks include the following:

1. Retirement Requests: tracking the process of when a participant decides to retire through until when payment is made from the pension trust.
2. Death Benefit Election: when a plan has employee-paid pre-retirement death benefits and the pension plan participant must provide paperwork to either elect or revoke coverage.
3. Annual Valuation: the process of producing the actuarial valuation report for a sponsor's plan.

If a plan sponsor has portal access, any Worktrack task in DB Precision can be configured to be both viewable and trackable in the portal. Furthermore, any task can be set up such that plan sponsor contacts and/or participant can create individual tasks.

The most common example of using Worktrack within the portal is for the retirement request process. Below are the steps you would go through to configure this:

1. Create the Task: open the sponsor, right-click Worktrack Tasks, and then select Add from the menu to add a new task. Rename the item and then double-click this new task's name to open the Task Definition screen. Instructions for page items can be found here.
2. Analyze Current Process: using both the questionnaire as well as conversations with the employees of the sponsor that are responsible for retirement processing, break down the process into steps. Common steps include calculation of benefits, reviewing election forms returned by the participant, and submission for payment to the trust. Keep the following in mind when analyzing current processes:
   
   1. Authorization: every step in Worktrack has both a completion process as well as an optional authorization/review process. Therefore, when determining the steps, authorization or review of another step should never have its own step.
   2. Keep Steps to a Minimum: anything over 5 steps usually indicates that you have not done enough to generalize the process.
   3. Request Start: creation of a task is not a step. For example, when a participant decides to retire and initiates this through the portal, this is part of the request process and should not have a separate step.
3. Determine Relevant Individuals: determine all individuals who could potentially be involved in this process including both individuals within your company as well as individuals working for the plan sponsor.
   
   For all individuals working for your company who might be involved, make sure that they are set up as Sponsor Users (defined within the Sponsor Basic Information screen) for this sponsor. For all individuals working for the sponsor, make sure that they are set up as Sponsor Contacts for this sponsor.
4. Alerts: for tasks that are in progress, alerts can be displayed on the main portal page for sponsor contacts. As you are analyzing the process, you need to consider the points in the process that you would want such alerts to be displayed. This includes points both before and after completion and authorization of each step.
5. Emails: when a task is created, steps are completed or authorized, or the task is completed, cancelled, or put on hold, any one of these events can be configured so that emails are then sent to relevant parties. As you are analyzing the process, you need to think of who should be notified at each of these points and what the email should say.
6. Sample Walkthrough: to ensure that the process will work in a true real-life situation, you should create a sample participant and walk through the process from request to completion. This involves setting a conference call with parties who will be involved in the process and then completing each step. Have the sponsor create a task for the sample participant using the portal and then have each party complete/authorize the steps until the task has been completed. This will give you a final chance to further refine the process, alerts, and emails.