This new feature could save you from having to print, stuff, address, and purchase postage to snail-mail year-to-date statements every quarter or so to every participant. Instead, via email, you can just give each employee a unique link (URL) to his statement web page or email the statement to him as an email attachment.
 
Here is an example of a statement web page for a fictional character named Stanford Burgess that was generated by Fast-Flex Plus.

A statement file is built for each plan participant and is written to the "\HTML" folder under the company's data folder which is under the Fast-Flex Plus program installation folder. For example, if Fast-Flex Plus is installed in the default "C:\Program Files\FFPRO4\" program folder, and the Company folder is HERC01, the web pages will be in C:\Program Files\FFPRO4\HERC01\HTML.  Note:  For Windows 7 and later, the default program folder is:  "C:\Program Files (x86)\FFPRO4".  Please make this substitution everywhere you see "C:\Program Files\FFPRO4", below.

In addition, within this folder, there will be a file named "EMAIL.DAT" that contains the email address, the plan participant's name, and the name of his .HTM statement file. The email address is taken from the employee record (Main Menu/Data Entry/Employee File). By using the information in EMAIL.DAT with your email client software, you can send the participant his current statement via email attachment, or alternatively, simply notify him with a link to his statement web page which you have previously posted to the internet (or intranet).

Note: If you plan on publishing statements to the internet, it is recommended that the participant's personal data (Social Security Number and address) be suppressed for privacy reasons. This can be accomplished on the "Export Statements or Balances" form.

Here are step-by-step instructions for publishing *.HTML statements:

1. From within Fast-Flex Plus, go to "Main Menu/Utility Programs/Export Statements" . Select "Statements" and click "OK". This automatically creates the up-to-date "HTML" statements (the easy part!)

2. Exit Fast-Flex Plus. From Window's "Start" button click "Programs/Windows Explorer"

3. Go to the Fast-Flex Plus "HTML" folder. This is probably in: 

                    "C:\Program Files\FFPRO4\YourCompany2002\HTML"

Where: "YourCompany2002" is the folder with the company's data that you are administering. (If you installed to a network file server, you will need to find the appropriate data folder.)

4. Double-click on any file in this \HTML folder to view it and examine the statement. (Double-clicking should fire-up your web browser - Internet Explorer or Netscape.) Note that there is also a file named "email.dat" in this folder that contains the plan participant's e-mail addresses, names, and the name of his/her "HTML" statement file. If it asks for the appropriate program to browse it, select Wordpad.

5. Now that you have located and verified the individual statement files, exit your web browser and fire up your e-mail software.

6. One at a time, you can paste the e-mail addresses (found in the "email.dat" file) into your email software's "To:" field and attach the appropriate *.HTM file to the introductory letter you have written explaining the statement, whom to call for questions, etc.

That's all there is to it! However, you should consider an alternative way to share these "HTML" statements with your plan's participants:

Instead of including the statements as e-mail attachments as described in Step #6, you can have your webmaster upload all of the *.HTM files to your intranet or internet webserver. Once this is done, simply send an e-mail announcing the availability of the updated statement to each plan participant with a link to his specific statement's URL in the body of the e-mail.

NOTE: First, load the entire "email.dat" file into Wordpad and do a "search and replace all" to change the "*" in the name of the participant's statement file to the appropriate base URL. For example, change "*" to "http://www.mycompany.com/statement".

IMPORTANT TIME-SAVING HINT: We highly recommend that you use an inexpensive e-mail automation product called MaxBulk Mailer to cut your statement handling time to almost zero. This software will notify each of your participants individually and effortlessly that their year-to-date cafeteria plan statement has been updated. Using MaxBulk Mailer will eliminate the need to manually paste each employee's e-mail address into your email software one at a time as described in Step #6 above. In fact, the "Email.Dat" file that Fast-Flex Plus creates has been designed specifically for import by MaxBulk Mailer! Simply tell MaxBulk Mailer to use this list of e-mail addresses and you are done. Honest!

To learn more about this software that can help you automate your customer communications, please click here for more information!

NOTE: Regardless of how many participants you have in your plan, MaxBulk Mailer will notify each and every one quickly and effortlessly. As a result, there is no limit on how often you send out statements to your customers/employees. We believe that this unique ability to use Fast-Flex Plus with MaxBulk Mailer will save you a considerable amount of time and money. It is a great way to keep your plan participants informed on a timely basis regarding the amount of money that is in their cafeteria plan accounts.