Results for “ben_benfts_grp”

AI-generated from documented ETRM metadata — verify critical details on the linked pages.

Overview

BEN_BENFTS_GRP is a core configuration table in the Oracle Advanced Benefits (BEN) module of Oracle E-Business Suite, valid in both the 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 releases. The table stores benefits groups, which are grouping items that can be applied to participants to enable them to be eligible for the same benefits. In practice, a benefits group is a reusable eligibility construct: rather than attaching eligibility criteria to individual participants one at a time, administrators define a named group and then assign participants to it, so that every member inherits the same set of eligible plans, programs, and options. The table is owned by the BEN schema and is exposed primarily through the Benefits Group setup and eligibility configuration functions within the Advanced Benefits responsibility.

Applying the heuristic Data Vault classification derived from the foreign-key structure, BEN_BENFTS_GRP is hub-leaning. It holds the durable business key that other tables reference, and it behaves as a central reference point for dependent relationship and eligibility records rather than as a transactional satellite. This classification is offered as a modeling suggestion only; the table is a standard EBS transactional configuration entity, not a formally implemented Data Vault artifact.

Key Information Stored

The table comprises 41 documented columns. The most significant are the following:

• BENFTS_GRP_ID — the system-generated surrogate primary key, uniquely identifying each benefits group. It is the column most frequently referenced by foreign keys in downstream tables.
• NAME — the user-defined name of the benefits group, forming the primary business identifier alongside the business group.
• BUSINESS_GROUP_ID — the operating unit or business group (HR security group) to which the benefits group belongs, providing multi-tenant separation of configuration data.
• BNG_DESC — a descriptive text field for the benefits group, used for documentation and reporting.
• BNG_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY and BNG_ATTRIBUTE1 through BNG_ATTRIBUTE30 — a flexible descriptive flexfield (DFF) segment set that allows implementers to capture client-specific attributes against each group without modifying the base schema.
• LAST_UPDATE_DATE, LAST_UPDATED_BY, LAST_UPDATE_LOGIN, CREATED_BY, and CREATION_DATE — standard EBS audit columns recording who created and last modified the row, and when.
• OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER — used for optimistic concurrency control, incremented on each update to detect conflicting changes.

Two unique indexes are documented. BEN_BENFTS_GRP_PK enforces uniqueness on BENFTS_GRP_ID and is the surrogate primary key. BEN_BNFTS_GRP_UK enforces uniqueness on the combination of NAME and BUSINESS_GROUP_ID, which is the true business-key candidate: a benefits group name cannot be duplicated within the same business group. The surrogate key remains the stable join key, while the unique index governs data entry validation.

Common Use Cases and Queries

The most common access pattern is lookup and validation: resolving a benefits group from its business key, or confirming uniqueness before inserting a new group. A typical query is:

SELECT b.benfts_grp_id, b.name, b.bng_desc, b.business_group_id
FROM   ben.ben_benfts_grp b
WHERE  b.business_group_id = :p_business_group_id
AND    b.name = :p_name;

Reporting queries frequently join BEN_BENFTS_GRP to the eligibility profile table BEN_ELIG_BENFTS_GRP_PRTE_F to list which eligibility profiles reference each group, or to BEN_BENEFIT_ACTIONS to trace where a group has been used in life-event processing. Administrators also use the table to audit configuration drift, for example by listing all groups created after a given date:

SELECT name, creation_date, created_by
FROM   ben.ben_benfts_grp
WHERE  creation_date >= :p_since
ORDER  BY name;

Because the DFF attributes are client-specific, extract queries for data warehousing typically include the populated attribute segments only when BNG_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY is non-null.

Related Objects

The documented foreign-key relationships identify the principal dependent objects:

• BEN_BENEFIT_ACTIONS — references BEN_BENFTS_GRP via BENFTS_GRP_ID, linking benefits groups to life-event and enrollment actions.
• BEN_BENFTS_GRP_RT_F — references BEN_BENFTS_GRP via BENFTS_GRP_ID, storing the runtime/date-tracked realization of the group.
• BEN_ELIG_BENFTS_GRP_PRTE_F — references BEN_BENFTS_GRP via BENFTS_GRP_ID, connecting benefits groups to eligibility profiles and their predicate logic.

These three tables are the primary consumers of the hub key and should be consulted when tracing how a benefits group influences participant eligibility. The Benefits Group setup forms and the BEN eligibility APIs operate against this table as the underlying persistence layer.