Project-Based Eligibility
Hours combined across job codes, projects, entities and states before eligibility is measured; stability periods protect coverage through project transitions.
Construction, Operations & Engineering Employee Benefits Administration
Benefits that follow the crew from job site to job site — and the fringe that follows the hour.
General contractors, specialty trades, field-service operators and architecture and engineering firms run three workforces at once: union craft under building-trades agreements, open-shop crews measured job to job, and salaried professionals competing for talent. Benefits Reimagined runs all three on one SAP-native, AI-powered platform — with per-hour employer benefits cost handed to payroll for prevailing-wage projects, eligibility that survives a weather layoff, and every screen in the field on a phone. SAP-native inside SuccessFactors, and ready for Workday, UKG, ADP, Dayforce, Paycom, any HRIS and third-party payroll the company runs.
The plan is the fund: hour banks per quarterPrevailing-wage fringe by the hourReciprocity, apprentice and journey classesUnion craft · open shop · A&E professionals
Benefits Built for the Job Site, the Field and the Studio
Construction, field operations and engineering firms administer benefits for three different workforces with three different rulebooks. Union craft follow building-trades agreements and multi-employer funds. Open-shop crews move between projects, entities and prevailing-wage rules, and their hours decide everything. Salaried professionals — estimators, project managers, engineers and architects — expect the benefits a competitive employer offers. Benefits Reimagined runs all three on one platform: eligibility measured from the hours the job actually recorded, per-hour employer benefits cost handed to payroll for prevailing-wage work, agreements enforced per local, and every screen available in the field on a phone.
Eligibility That Follows the CrewHours across jobs, entities and statesPrevailing Wage Fringe by the HourDavis-Bacon and state-prevailing projectsUnion Craft and Open Shop, Side by SideBuilding-trades locals, multi-employer fundsLayoffs, Recalls and Seasonal SwingsCoverage that survives the weatherProfessionals Who Have OptionsA&E talent, 401(k), PTO, mobility
1recordper employee across every project, entity and state — hours combined before eligibility is decided, deductions posted to the payroll of record
$/ houremployer benefits cost computed per employee per pay period and handed to payroll so the fringe credit on prevailing-wage work is documented, not estimated
300h / quarterthe kind of contribution-hour threshold a building-trades fund sets — when a crew member's hour bank crosses it, an eligibility window opens as an event; there is no classic open enrollment to wait for
3workforcesunion craft, open-shop field and salaried professionals on one tenant, each on its own rule set, plan menu and language
A Contractor's Benefits Flow, Step by Step
From the job trailer to the fund statement — what happens at each step for a union carpenter, an open-shop laborer and a project engineer, and the rule that decides it.
| Who | Where | What happens | Rule at this step |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Field HR · HRIS · time capture | SAP SuccessFactors, UKG (Kronos), ADP or a field time app | Hire, job code, project, entity, state, local union, craft/class (apprentice or journey), hours and effective date arrive nightly. | Local, craft and entity are required inbound; a missing value quarantines rather than defaulting. |
| 2Platform | Segment resolution | Union craft under a local, open-shop field crew or salaried professional — per entity and joint venture — resolved into one dated population. | Entity override › company assignment › default — logged with source. |
| 3Platform | Construction policy pack | Provisions fund-keyed plans per local, hour-bank eligibility, open-shop company plans, prevailing-wage fringe rules, layoff and recall events, professional plan menus and document types. | Each local's agreement gated as mandatory. |
| 4Time capture | Hours and hour banks | Hours combine across job codes, projects and entities; for union crafts the hours-bank year to date accrues per local; the fringe account and contribution rate sit on the record. | Hours of service and contribution hours — never the roster. |
| 5Employee | Mobile app · trailer kiosk | Sees hours to eligibility or the hour-bank balance, the fringe on the current project, coverage dates during a layoff and pending documents — in English or Spanish. | Resumable from the job site. |
| 6Rules engine | Eligibility | For fund locals the hour bank crossing the quarterly threshold fires 'eligibility window opened'; open-shop crews are measured per class with stability periods; recall inside the break-in-service window restores coverage. | Determinations store hours, local, project and rule version. |
| 7Employee | Enrollment and elections | No classic open enrollment for fund locals — the window is the event; company plans enroll on their rolling or annual window; professionals on the firm's menu with IntelliSuggest. | A job-to-job move re-evaluates on the effective date. |
| 8Payroll · project accounting | Fringe hand-off | Per-hour employer benefits cost per employee from real elections, allocated to prevailing-wage hours by job with annualization and cash-in-lieu rules, handed to payroll for certified-payroll reporting. | Documented, not estimated; certified payroll stays in payroll. |
| 9Funds · carriers | Integration and reconciliation | Per-hour health-and-welfare, pension and annuity contributions remitted per local; employer remittance reconciled to hours and eligibility; open-shop carriers via 834 or API. | Fund, hours and remittance agree before 'covered' is said. |
| 10Auditor · fund office | Audit trail | Every eligibility, fringe and contribution outcome stores inputs, local, project, entity, rule version and approvals. | The reciprocity and grievance answers are in the log. |
One Crew, Five Moments From Mobilization to Close-Out
Follow Jane Doe — an open-shop laborer who moves between two projects in two states, gets laid off for five weeks of weather, and is recalled — and the Local 1977 carpenter beside her on a Davis-Bacon job.
Eligibility That Follows the Crew
A field employee's hours are scattered across job codes, projects, entities and sometimes states — and benefits eligibility depends on the total. Benefits Reimagined combines hours of service from the time system across every job and entity before measuring eligibility, so an open-shop laborer who worked 80 hours on one project and 62 on another is measured on 142. Multi-entity and joint-venture structures are first-class: the employee has one benefits record, the deductions post to the entity that paid the hours, and ACA is filed per EIN.
What the platform combines
- Hours from UKG (Kronos), ADP, SAP Time or the field time-capture app, combined across job codes, projects and entities nightly
- ACA initial and standard measurement per employee class; stability periods protect coverage across project transitions
- Multi-entity, multi-EIN and joint ventures: one benefits record, deductions to the paying entity, 1094-C per EIN
- Multi-state crews: plan availability, leave rules and state-specific requirements applied by the work location on the record
Why it matters
The crew is measured on the hours they worked — wherever they worked them.
Concurrent employment across entities is native; nothing is re-keyed when a crew is transferred between projects.
Prevailing Wage Fringe by the Hour
On Davis-Bacon and state prevailing-wage projects, the employer's benefits contribution is part of the wage determination — and the fringe credit must be documented per employee, per hour, per project. Benefits Reimagined computes each employee's per-hour employer benefits cost from the actual elections and contributions in the benefits record, allocates it to the hours worked on each prevailing-wage job, and hands it to payroll for certified-payroll reporting. Annualization rules, cash-in-lieu differences and multi-employer fund contributions are configuration, not spreadsheets.
What is computed and handed off
- Per-hour employer cost per employee from real elections — medical, dental, vision, life, retirement, HRA — per pay period
- Allocation to prevailing-wage hours by job code, with annualization applied where the wage determination requires it
- Cash-in-lieu and shortfall handling per project policy, with the calculation stored for the certified-payroll auditor
- Multi-employer health-and-welfare and pension contributions for union craft calculated from the pay record and reconciled to the fund statement
Why it matters
The fringe credit is evidence, not an estimate — and payroll does not rebuild it every week.
Certified payroll itself stays in your payroll or construction ERP; Benefits Reimagined supplies the documented benefits cost per hour it needs.
Union Craft and Open Shop, Side by Side
A general contractor or specialty trade often runs union craft under several building-trades locals and open-shop crews under company policy — sometimes on the same job. Benefits Reimagined holds each local's agreement as its own rule set — eligibility, hourly contribution to the health-and-welfare and pension funds, plan menus where the employer provides coverage — and company policy beside it. Job code and pay code select the rule; a craft worker who moves from a union project to an open-shop one is re-evaluated on the effective date, with the decision cited to the agreement.
What one engine enforces
- Building-trades locals (carpenters, electricians, operating engineers, laborers, pipefitters) as separate rule sets on one tenant
- Multi-employer fund contributions computed per hour from the pay record; remittances reconciled to the fund's statement
- Open-shop company plans with their own waiting periods, contribution formulas and ACA measurement
- Every eligibility and contribution decision records the local, the article and the version — grievance-ready
Why it matters
Two rulebooks on one job, one system, one audit trail.
Mid-agreement rate changes are effective-dated; BR ReVerge computes any retro and explains it on the paystub.
Layoffs, Recalls and Seasonal Swings
Construction runs on weather, funding and the project calendar. Crews are laid off in January and recalled in March; a project closes and forty people move or leave. Benefits Reimagined treats layoff, recall and rehire as events with rules: coverage continues or ends per policy, COBRA notices go out on the event date, and a recall inside the break-in-service window restores coverage and seniority without a new waiting period. Bulk events — a whole crew laid off or mobilized — are one validated upload.
What happens automatically
- Layoff, recall, rehire and project close-out as configured events with effective dates and per-policy coverage rules
- Break-in-service rules per agreement or policy: recall within the window restores coverage, seniority and elections
- COBRA and state continuation through Direct Billing with notices generated on the event date; premium billing for laid-off crew who elect
- Bulk crew events validated row by row — errors returned with the reason, not rejected as a file
Why it matters
Coverage survives the weather, and HR does not re-enroll forty people in March.
Employees see the status on their phone: 'coverage continues through Feb 28; recall restores it automatically'.
Professionals Who Have Options
Estimators, project managers, engineers, architects and field-service technicians are recruited by every firm in the market. Their benefits have to be as good as the offer down the street and as easy to use as the apps on their phone. Benefits Reimagined runs the professional workforce on its own plan menu — with IntelliSuggest ranking plans from each person's own pay and household, 401(k) and HSA contributions from one election record, PTO and mobility benefits, and Athena for the questions between.
What the professional track offers
- Professional plan menus with HDHP/HSA, dental, vision, life, disability and voluntary benefits ranked per employee with reasons
- 401(k) match tiers by tenure, employer HSA seeding and retention contributions applied on the anniversary date
- Relocation, per-diem and project-assignment allowances tracked with the benefits record; global assignments and concurrent roles native
- Employee Home and the mobile app for a workforce that is on site half the week and in the studio the other half
Why it matters
The professional's benefits experience is the recruiting pitch — and the retention plan.
Retention analytics in BR Intelligence show enrollment, match uptake and IntelliSuggest follow rate against turnover by office and discipline.
Rules of Construction and Engineering Benefits
The construction policy pack ships with these rules configured — union craft, open shop and professionals on one engine, with the fund treated as the plan where that is what the agreement says. The same engine runs the transportation, manufacturing and energy and public-sector packs — see the cross-industry hub.
| Rule | What it means on this page | Why it holds |
|---|---|---|
| For union craft, the plan is the fund | Health-and-welfare, pension, annuity and vacation funds are keyed at the fund level; the employer contributes per hour and the fund covers the member. | The only model where the plan belongs to a trust spanning many employers. |
| Eligibility is an hour bank | Contribution hours accrue per local; crossing the quarterly threshold fires 'eligibility window opened' — there is no classic open enrollment. | Rolling eligibility driven by the trade, not the calendar. |
| Remittance is reconciled, not assumed | Employer remittance vs hours vs eligibility is matched per local before coverage is reported; discrepancies route to a case. | The direction of four-way reconciliation, applied to funds. |
| Portability is on the record | Reciprocal transfers between locals carry the hours-bank year to date, contribution rate and fringe account; apprentice and journey classes are fields, not notes. | A craft worker keeps what was earned. |
| Hours follow the crew | Open-shop hours combine across job codes, projects, entities and states before eligibility is measured; stability periods protect coverage through transitions. | One record, two payrolls, one decision. |
| Fringe is documented by the hour | Per-hour employer benefits cost per employee from real elections, allocated to prevailing-wage hours with annualization and cash-in-lieu rules per project. | The number certified payroll needs, with the elections behind it. |
| Layoffs are events with rules | Layoff, recall and rehire carry break-in-service rules; recall inside the window restores coverage, elections and seniority; COBRA runs through Direct Billing. | Forty people restored in March with one upload. |
| Professionals get a competitive menu | Estimators, project managers, engineers and architects run on the firm's plan menu with IntelliSuggest, 401(k) match tiers and mobility benefits. | The recruiting pitch and the retention plan. |
| What stays with partners | Trust-fund accounting, withdrawal-liability and actuarial math, certified payroll itself, certified filing rails. | BR orchestrates and evidences; specialists calculate and file. |
Core Capabilities for Construction, Operations & Engineering
Project-based measurement, prevailing-wage fringe, union and open-shop rules, layoff and recall automation, multi-entity payroll and field-first mobile — the six things a contractor's benefits platform has to do from the job site.
Prevailing Wage Fringe Engine
Per-hour employer benefits cost computed per employee from real elections, allocated to prevailing-wage hours with annualization and cash-in-lieu rules, handed to payroll for certified-payroll reporting.
Union & Open-Shop Rules
Building-trades locals as separate rule sets with fund-keyed plans, hour-bank eligibility, per-hour fund contributions, reciprocity and apprentice/journey classes; open-shop company plans beside them; every decision cited to the agreement.
Layoff & Recall Automation
Layoff, recall, rehire and close-out as events with break-in-service rules; coverage restored on recall without a new wait; COBRA through Direct Billing.
Multi-Entity Payroll Sync
One benefits record across entities, EINs and joint ventures; deductions to the paying entity in Employee Central Payroll or any payroll; ACA filed per EIN.
Field-First Mobile
Every employee screen in the mobile app — enrollment, documents, life events, ID cards, tickets and Athena — resumable, in English and Spanish.
Built for the Office Trailer and the Home Office
A contractor's benefits decision runs through HR, payroll, project accounting and the crews themselves. Each gets what they need.
Rules per local, policy per entity
- Union and open-shop rule sets on one tenant
- Layoff and recall events with break-in-service rules
- Ticket intelligence via BR Resolve
Fringe documented, deductions reconciled
- Per-hour benefits cost per employee for certified payroll
- Deductions to the paying entity in any third-party payroll
- Multi-employer remittances reconciled to fund statements
Coverage that follows the risk
- Hazard classes mapped to life and disability rules
- ACA per EIN across entities and joint ventures
- Evidence stored for every determination
Everything from the phone
- Enroll, upload and ask from the job site
- Athena in English and Spanish
- 'Am I still covered?' answered during a layoff
Generic Benefits Software vs. a Platform Built for Project Work
The vertical is served by construction payroll suites that sell job costing first and by fund administrators that serve the trust, not the employer. Neither puts union craft, open-shop crews and professionals on one benefits record.
| Moment | Fund administrator or construction payroll suite | Benefits Reimagined |
|---|---|---|
| Industry fit | A payroll suite with benefits riding along, or a fund office that serves the trust. | A construction policy pack on one engine — fund-keyed plans, open-shop plans and professional menus on one record. |
| Hours across projects | Eligibility measured per entity or per job; the total is nobody's job. | Hours combined across job codes, projects and entities before the measurement — one record, one decision, cited. |
| Prevailing wage | Fringe credit estimated in a spreadsheet each week. | Per-hour employer benefits cost per employee from real elections, allocated to prevailing-wage hours and handed to payroll, documented. |
| Union craft | Fund contributions calculated outside the system. | Per-hour H&W, pension and annuity contributions per local from the pay record, remitted and reconciled. |
| Weather layoffs | Terminate and re-enroll forty people by hand. | Layoff and recall events with break-in-service rules; coverage restored on recall, COBRA via Direct Billing. |
| Multiple entities | A tenant per EIN; employees duplicated. | One benefits record across entities and joint ventures; deductions to the paying entity, ACA per EIN. |
| Professionals | Same portal as the field, same generic plan list. | IntelliSuggest ranks the professional menu per person, 401(k) and HSA from one record, mobility tracked. |
| Employee questions | A benefits office in the home office. | Athena from the job site, from the employee's own record, in English and Spanish, with a source. |
Athena at the job site
Meet Athena: Answers From the Trailer, Not the Home Office
Crews ask their benefits questions at 6 a.m. in the trailer, during a layoff, and on the drive between projects. Athena answers from the employee's own hours, agreement and elections — on the phone, in English or Spanish — with a source, and never enrolls anyone.
- "I'm on two jobs this month — do my hours count together?" — the combined total across projects and entities, the threshold and the date
- "Am I still covered during the layoff?" — the continuation rule in force, the end date and what the recall restores
- "¿Cuánto es mi fringe en este proyecto?" — the per-hour employer benefits cost on this job, cited to the elections behind it — in Spanish
- "Does my Local 58 pension keep building on an open-shop job?" — no — with the agreement cited — and what the company 401(k) offers instead
- For administrators — "which crews are inside the break-in-service window and due for recall?" — the list and the coverage each recall restores
We got laid off for weather yesterday. Am I still covered?
Athena · from your recordYes. Under the open-shop policy your medical, dental and vision continue through February 28 without a deduction. If the recall comes before April 12 — inside the 13-week break-in-service window — your coverage, elections and seniority are restored automatically with no new waiting period. If it runs past that, you'll get a COBRA notice from Direct Billing. Want a reminder at the window's end?
Set a reminderShow my coverage dates
Last month I worked on 4412 and 4420. Did both count for eligibility?
Athena · from your hoursYes. August was 80 hours on job 4412 (Entity A) and 62 on job 4420 (Entity B) — 142 combined, above the 130-hour threshold. Hours are combined across projects and entities before your eligibility is measured.
Show my hours by job
Ask about your benefits… / Pregunta sobre tus beneficios…
Why Contractors, Operators & Engineering Firms Choose Benefits Reimagined
Fringe You Can Document
Per-hour employer benefits cost per employee from real elections — the number certified payroll needs, stored with the elections behind it.
Eligibility That Follows the Crew
Hours combined across projects, entities and states before the measurement; coverage protected through transitions and weather.
Union and Open Shop on One System
Building-trades locals and company policy side by side — fund contributions computed, remitted and reconciled; every decision cited.
Layoffs That Don't Break Benefits
Layoff, recall and rehire as events with break-in-service rules; forty people restored in March with one upload.
Built for Multi-Entity Structures
One benefits record across entities, EINs and joint ventures; deductions to the paying entity; ACA per EIN — on SAP BTP and AWS.
Field-First, Not Field-Also
Every screen in the mobile app for crews and professionals alike, resumable, in English and Spanish, with Athena riding along.
Four Job-Site Stories — and One on Another HRIS
Every story runs on the same engine, enrollment flow and audit trail; only the construction pack's rules apply.
The hour bank crosses 300
Jane Doe's contribution hours under Local 1977 cross the quarterly threshold; an eligibility window opens as an event, the employer's remittance is reconciled to her hours, and the fund statement agrees before she is told 'covered'.
Fund, hours, remittance — all three agree.Two entities, one measurement
An open-shop laborer's 80 hours on Entity A and 62 on Entity B combine to 142 before the 130-hour test; the October weather layoff sits inside the break-in-service window and the recall restores coverage with no new wait.
One record, two payrolls.Fringe handed to payroll
Week 38 on job 4412: per-hour employer benefits cost per employee from real elections, allocated to prevailing-wage hours with annualization, handed to payroll with the elections behind it.
Documented, never estimated.Transferred to another local
A journey electrician moves from Local 58 to a reciprocal local on a job in another state; the hours-bank year to date, contribution rate and fringe account carry on the record and the audit entry cites both agreements.
What was earned travels with the worker.SAP SuccessFactors · Workday · UKG · ADP · Dayforce · third-party payroll
The same contractor on ADP or a field time app
A contractor whose office staff run SAP SuccessFactors and whose field crews are paid through ADP from a field time-capture app sends the same job codes, locals, crafts and hours. The construction pack applies identically, remittances reconcile the same way, and the BR Intelligence fringe-by-project view is the same screen.
See SuccessFactors & HRIS SyncBuild Benefits That Survive the Project Calendar
From the job trailer to the engineering studio, Benefits Reimagined gives contractors, field operators and A&E firms one platform for union craft, open-shop crews and salaried professionals — with the fringe documented, the layoff survivable and every screen in the field. Bring a prevailing-wage project, a local's agreement and last winter's layoff file — we'll run all three live.
Prevailing-wage fringe by the hourBreak-in-service rulesMulti-entity · multi-EIN
Construction, Operations & Engineering Benefits FAQs
It's the management of eligibility, enrollment, contributions and compliance for a project-based workforce — union craft under building-trades agreements, open-shop crews measured job to job, and salaried professionals — including prevailing-wage fringe documentation, layoff and recall rules, and multi-entity payroll.
It computes each employee's per-hour employer benefits cost from the actual elections and contributions in the benefits record, allocates it to prevailing-wage hours by job code with annualization and cash-in-lieu rules per project policy, and hands the documented figure to payroll or the construction ERP for certified-payroll reporting. The calculation is stored for the auditor.
No — certified payroll stays in your payroll system or construction ERP. Benefits Reimagined supplies the per-employee, per-hour employer benefits cost those reports need, with the elections behind it, so the fringe credit is documented rather than estimated.
Hours of service from the time system are combined across job codes, projects and entities nightly before eligibility is measured. The employee has one benefits record; deductions post to the entity that paid the hours; ACA is filed per EIN; state-specific rules apply by the work location on the record.
Each building-trades local is a rule set. Health-and-welfare, pension and annuity contributions are calculated per hour from the pay record, remitted with the contribution report and reconciled to the fund's statement. Open-shop company plans run beside them, and every decision cites the local, the article and the version.
Layoff, recall and rehire are configured events. Coverage continues or ends per policy with COBRA notices on the event date through Direct Billing; a recall inside the break-in-service window restores coverage, elections and seniority automatically with no new waiting period. Whole crews are handled in one validated upload.
Yes. One benefits record spans entities, EINs and joint ventures; deductions go to the paying entity in Employee Central Payroll or any payroll; ACA produces a 1094-C per EIN and assigns each employee-month correctly, including transfers mid-year.
Yes — SAP SuccessFactors, UKG (Kronos), ADP, SAP Time and field time-capture apps through the HRIS Sync control plane, plus Workday, Dayforce, Paycom, any HRIS and third-party payroll. Hours flow in; deductions and per-hour benefits cost flow out. IntelliMap maps a new time-capture export in weeks, with a person confirming every field.
Yes. A&E firms run the professional track: plan menus ranked per employee by IntelliSuggest, 401(k) and HSA from one election record, PTO and mobility benefits, concurrent roles and global assignments native, and the same Employee Home and mobile app.
One Employee Home on the phone: hours to eligibility across jobs, coverage dates during a layoff, the fringe on the current project, pending documents, IntelliSuggest rankings with reasons and Athena — in English or Spanish.
Contribution hours accrue per local on the employee's record; when the bank crosses the fund's quarterly threshold an 'eligibility window opened' event fires and the member elects — there is no classic open enrollment. Employer remittance is reconciled to hours and eligibility before coverage is reported, and the hours-bank year to date travels with the worker on a reciprocal transfer.
No. For union craft the plan is the fund, keyed at the fund level with the contribution rate and fringe account on the employee's record; the employer's job is to contribute per hour and reconcile. Open-shop company plans and professional menus are employer plans on the same tenant. Trust accounting, withdrawal liability and actuarial math stay with the fund's specialists.
Employee, legal entity, project and job code, state, local union, craft or class, recorded hours and effective dates. If the local, craft or entity is missing, the record is quarantined and a case opens rather than defaulting silently.
Explore Benefits Reimagined Today
Fringe documented by the hour, eligibility that follows the crew, coverage that survives the weather — and a phone that answers the question in the trailer.