Create and Manage Plan Years

This guide outlines the process for creating and managing plan years in BambooHR to enhance the benefits experience. It includes steps for entering plan year details, assigning carriers, and setting enrollment rules for new hires. The guide covers creating a plan year, managing carrier selections, and adding benefit plans. Users can choose to upload carrier files or add plans manually. It also details the optional steps of defining open enrollment periods and setting rules for new hire enrollments. After setting up, users can manage plan years by filtering, editing, or deleting them as necessary. Notifications will alert users if benefit plans are not assigned to a plan year, ensuring proper connections before enrollment windows open.

Jul 8, 2026
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This guide walks you through how to create and manage plan years in BambooHR to support a seamless benefits experience. Included in the benefit plan setup is entering key plan year details, assigning carriers and benefit plans, and setting new hire enrollment rules. It also outlines how to manage plan years after setup to keep your benefits process organized and up to date.

Table of Contents

Creating a plan year
Managing plan years

Creating a plan year

To begin setting up a plan year, go to Settings > Benefits > Plan Years. On the Plan Years tab, click either +New Plan Year or Create Plan Year. This will open the setup page with the following steps:

Plan Year Basics
Carriers
Plans
Open Enrollment (optional)
New Hire Enrollment

You can complete optional steps now or later, but each required step must be completed before the plan year can be activated.

The plan year setup is accessible to Account Owners, Full Admins, and custom access level users with access granted to Benefits.

Plan Year Basics

When creating an enrollment window, you will need to choose a plan year, which includes the benefit plans you selected for that plan year. Plan years are typically created in a 12-month cycle and need to have a start date and end date.

In the Plan Year Basics step, complete the following fields:

Plan Year Name: Name the plan year. Choose clear, consistent naming (like "2026 Benefits Plan Year") to make future management easier.
Plan Year Started & Ended: Enter the start and end dates. These dates determine when benefits apply and which enrollment windows fall within this period.

You can select Save & Finish Later at any time to save a draft. When you reopen the plan year, it takes you to the start of the last step you saved.

Carriers

In this step, select the carriers that will provide benefits during the plan year. You can do the following:

Select carriers already listed in your account
Add new carriers
Return later to update your selections

Only carriers selected here will be available when adding benefit plans in the next step. If you are editing a plan year, you can make carrier additions and removals in this step.

You can manage carrier information in Settings > Benefits > Carriers. Keeping carrier information accurate helps ensure enrollments, reporting, and ongoing benefits administration run smoothly.

Plans

The Plans step is where you determine what benefits employees can enroll in during the plan year. For each selected carrier, click + Add Plans.

From here, you can add plans in one of the following ways:

Upload carrier files to create plans automatically.
- When you upload carrier files, BambooHR scans the documents and creates draft plans for you to review and verify all details before adding them to the plan year. Uploading carrier files can give you a head start on basic plan details, but you will still need to complete most of the plan setup manually.
Add plans manually by clicking Add Plan Manually.

If you have existing plans within the plan year's effective dates but without a carrier assigned, click View Unassigned Plans to select the plans associated with the carrier. Once assigned, the plan cannot be removed from the carrier.

The gear icon to the right of each carrier allows you to edit the carrier name or update it with another carrier if needed.

Add plans manually

From the Plans step, select Add Plan Manually.

After clicking Add Plan Manually for a carrier, select one of the two options based on your company's benefits setup:

Start from scratch: Creates a new plan
Start with existing plan: Copy over an existing plan with new changes

Both options will take you to the benefit plan setup, and you can click Back to Setup Checklist in the top navigation bar to return to the plan year setup.

Once you assign a plan with complete details to a carrier, a Setup Complete note will appear to the right of the plan name in this step. Click Done to confirm your additions and move on to the next step: Open Enrollment.

Upload carrier files to create plans

From the Plans step, select Upload Carrier Files.

Then, upload one or more carrier documents, such as Summary of Benefits and Coverage, Master Group Application, or Summary of Plan Description. (You can remove files as needed or cancel and return to manual plan creation at any time.)

After uploading a file, click Find My Plans to begin the parsing process.

Under the Review Draft Plans section, every plan found in the uploaded files will have a drafted plan with the following auto-populated details (when applicable):

Plan Name
Plan Category
Group Number
Start and End Dates

You can edit or remove draft plans in this section. Draft plans must meet validation requirements, such as the 50-character plan name limit, before they can be added to the plan year.

You will still need to provide additional plan information, such as eligibility and cost details, once the plan is added to the plan year. Click Add Plans to Plan Year to continue.

If no plan details are found in the uploaded files, you will be prompted to review the file(s) and try uploading again.

Avoiding duplicate plans: BambooHR creates a draft for each plan it identifies in your uploaded files. If you have multiple documents, upload documents after creating plans manually, or if a document references the same plan more than once, you may see duplicate draft versions of the same plan.

Before adding plans to the plan year, review the drafts carefully. Compare details like plan name, group number, and effective dates, then keep the most complete version and remove any duplicates.

This will bring you back to the Plans step. Plans created from uploaded carrier files show as incomplete until you finish reviewing and verifying their setup. To open a draft plan, hover over the plan and click the edit icon.

Make sure you click Finish & Save Plan after completing all required sections. If you would like to save your progress and return later, click Save & Finish Later. If you exit without clicking one of these options, your changes will not be saved.

The plan will then show as Setup Complete in the plan year setup. Click Done to confirm your additions and move on to the next step: Open Enrollment.

Open Enrollment

Open enrollment defines when benefits-eligible employees can choose to update their benefits. If you decide to create an open enrollment window, review the Create an Enrollment Window guide for more details. This step is optional, and if preferred, you can skip this step and return to it at a later time.

New Hire Enrollment

Automated new hire enrollment windows are always tied to a plan year and cannot be created independently. They are also separate from open enrollment windows.

New hire enrollment rules must be defined as part of the plan year setup in order to complete the process. You can choose how and when eligible new hires can elect benefits.

From the five available options, the first four options create automated new hire enrollment windows while the fifth requires manual enrollment window creation for customized cases.

Rule	How It Works
Immediately upon hire	New hires can elect benefits starting on their hire date.
After a waiting period	New hires can elect benefits after a set waiting period (days, weeks, months, or years).
Before hire date	New hires can elect benefits before their hire date. If you choose this option, the new hire will need access* to their account in advance of their hire date so that they can start electing their benefits. Fill out the Add New Employee form to add the new hire and select from either of the following access settings on the form: Allow Access to BambooHR (automatic access):The new hire will have employee access automatically enabled and receive a password reset email that will allow them to log in to their BambooHR account and complete their benefit elections. No Access (scheduled access): Grant them access at a specific time before their hire date. At that time, send them a password reset email so that they can log in to their BambooHR account and complete their benefit elections.
First of the month following a waiting period	New hires can elect benefits on the first day of the month following a waiting period. This option helps admins who need to standardize the start date for benefits regardless of when a new hire is hired within the month.
It will be different per employee	If you prefer to manually create an enrollment window for each new hire, select this option.

Hire date reminder: If you add a new hire date to a new hire who has a previous hire date, the system will not automatically assign them to the automated new hire enrollment window. Instead, you will need to create a new hire enrollment window specific to that new hire.

If you choose an automated option, the system will automatically create a new hire enrollment window for a new hire, as long as they have a hire date entered on their employee profile and is eligible for at least one benefit plan. They will need access to BambooHR in order to submit their elections. If access is granted after the window starts, they will not receive an email notification to enroll in benefits.

You can review and approve submitted elections from Settings > Benefits > Windows. The enrollment window name automatically includes the new hire's name, the window type, the hire date, and the plan year.

Once your rules are defined, click Finish Plan Year Setup to complete the setup.

Managing plan years

Once you create a plan year, it will appear on the Plan Years tab with the following settings:

Filter: You can use this filter to view active, scheduled, or closed plan years.
Plan year information: For each plan year you create, you will be able to view the number of associated benefit plans, the plan year status, duration, and how many employee elections are pending, approved, and incomplete for that year.
Additional settings: If you need to edit or delete a plan year, click on the gear icon for the plan year and select Edit or Delete from the dropdown menu. From here, you can choose to create a new enrollment window that includes the plan year and its associated benefit plans.
Update missing information: If you have missing employee, dependent, or company data within a specific plan year, click Update Missing Info to resolve it. Click here to learn more about this process.

If a benefit plan is not assigned to a plan year, a notification will show on both the Plans tab and under Notifications on the Benefits homepage. This helps ensure plans are properly connected before opening enrollment windows for employees.

To assign a benefit plan to a plan year, click Add to Plan Year.

In the Add to Plan modal, use the dropdown menu to select a plan year with dates that align with the benefit plan's effective dates. You may be able to assign the plan to multiple plan years if their dates do not overlap. Once completed, click Add to Plan Year. If no matching plan year exists, click Create New Plan Year.

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