Once you have made all of the changes reported by your client for the valuation, you should run a snapshot.

By running a snapshot, DB Precision will determine everybody's status as of the valuation/snapshot date as well as produce a file which can then be imported into your valuation software (ProVal or DBVAL for example).

In addition, by running a snapshot, DB Precision will create a record of each person in the plan that is a snapshot of their data as of the snapshot date. Even if you changed something for a person such as date of birth, if you opened a snapshot record for that person, you would still see the prior date of birth.

You can view the snapshot record for a Person by opening that Person, double-clicking Actuarial Valuation Data, and then double clicking on the snapshot you want to view.

To produce the snapshot, open the Plan Document and then press Valuation Snapshots on the Valuation tab of the main ribbon. Then press the Add button. This will open the Create Valuation Snapshot screen.

For detailed instructions on items found on this screen, click here.

Note that when running the snapshot, because the process can sometimes be time consuming, DB Precision is designed to let you continue to work on other things while the snapshot is processing.

After the snapshot runs successfully, you will see a screen which summarizes the participant counts as of the snapshot date. A View button on this screen will open the valuation extract file. The format of this file is described here.

You should quickly look to see whether the counts shown are similar to the counts from the prior year. DB Precision looks at the underlying data to determine status (click here for details on how status is determined). If data was not entered into DB Precision properly, then it will not be able to properly determine status.

Once the valuation data has been fully reviewed (usually after the valuation has been mailed), it is a good idea to lock the snapshot. This will prevent the accidental deletion or overwriting of the snapshot (which can create problems when doing next year's valuation). To do this, press the Valuation Snapshots button on the Valuation tab, select the snapshot that needs to be locked, and then press the Lock button. Note that once you have locked a snapshot, only a System Administrator may unlock it so do not do this until you are sure the data is final.

The valuation extract file includes certain standard items such as name, DOB, hire date, etc. in every extract file without additional action from the user. However, items such as Reported Amounts and certain calculated plan items (Formula Derived Items, Account Definitions, and Service Definitions other than credited, vesting, and participation service) must be explicitly chosen for inclusion in this file.

The items required should have been defined upon conversion to DB Precision. However, if there is an item that you need that is not in the file, you can easily add it to the extract. Note that adding an item only needs to be done once and does not need to be done each year.

To do this, open the Plan Document and double-click into either the Reported Amount or Plan Item (a Formula Derived Item for example). You will see a button, Val Extract which you should press.

This will open the Val Extract Column screen. Here you can choose to put the item into one of the 20 columns available (there are 20 columns allocated for Reported Amounts and 20 separate columns for calculated plan items).

You also can define a header name for the column as well as have text values rather than conversion values displayed for Reported Amounts that have numeric to text conversion (for a group code for example).

Note that when extracting a Reported Amount, the latest amount as of the snapshot date will be extracted.