Employee Status
The "Employee Status" field on pre-tax demographics files will determine how an employee can access their Forma account.
- Active: Employees can log into their Forma account using their work email for SSO or by requesting a magic link. If they do not have a work email, they can login by requesting a magic link to the email provided to Forma on the demographics file.
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Leave: Employees can log into their Forma account using their work email for SSO or by requesting a magic link. If they do not have a work email, they can login by requesting a magic link to the email provided to Forma on the demographics file.
- NOTE: Employees may not have access to their work email or SSO while on leave. If that’s the case, they can reach out to Forma Support and request a one-time magic link be sent to a personal email address they have access to.
- Terminated: Employees can log into their Forma account by requesting a magic link to be sent to the personal email. If Forma does not have a record of their personal email from previous demographics files, terminated employees can reach out to Forma Support for further assistance.
Employees can always log into their Forma pre-tax account regardless of their employee status.
Account Status
The "Account Status" field pre-tax election files will determine varying levels of access to an employee’s pre-tax benefits on Forma.
- Active: Employees can incur new expenses, submit claims, use their pre-tax Forma card, and request a card. Auto-deposit will continue to be processed.
- Temporarily Inactive: Employees can only submit claims. They cannot incur new expenses, use their pre-tax Forma card, or request a new card. Auto-deposit will be paused, but contributions files can be processed.
- Terminated: Employees can submit claims only if a post-termination run-out period is given. They cannot incur new expenses, use their pre-tax Forma card, or request a new card. Auto-deposit will stop, but contributions files can be processed.
- Permanently Inactive: Employees will have no visibility to a given account. This status should only be used when an account is incorrectly created. Permanently inactive accounts will also not show on Forma Admin or on reports.
The only exception is HSA. Regardless of the Account Status in the elections file, as long as the bank account is not closed, HSA members can incur expenses, get reimbursements, use their pre-tax Forma card, and request a card. Auto-deposit does not apply to HSA.
To abide by HIPAA regulations, employees can view their transaction history for 7 years under ‘active’, ‘temporarily inactive’, and ‘terminated’ account statuses. Transaction history is not available when the account status is ‘permanently inactive’.
Summary table: ‘Employee Status’ & ‘Account Status’
| Account Status | Account Visibility: Member | Account Visibility: Admin | Card Transactions | Claim Submissions | Auto Deposit | Contribution file processing | Request a Pre-tax Forma Card | Fund Rollover |
| Active | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Temporarily Inactive | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Terminated | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Permanently Inactive | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
The ‘Employee Status’ on the demographics file will not impact employee access to pre-tax account(s), but updating ‘Account Status’ will. However, a ‘Terminated’ employee status will update account statuses accordingly.
When an account is terminated, it does not actually become terminated until the post-termination run-out period ends. The account will remain ‘Temporarily Inactive’ during this period so claims can still be submitted.
Relationship between Employee Status and Account Status
When the 'Employee Status' in the demographics file is marked as 'Terminated', all active pre-tax accounts will be automatically terminated. Despite this, Forma recommends additionally marking 'Terminated' for the 'Account Status' in the elections file for each pre-tax account associated with the terminated employee.
When ‘Employee Status’ is ‘Active’, attempting to update the account status to ‘Terminated’ will trigger a warning for parking and transit accounts. These accounts should only be terminated when an employee is terminated. For example,
- John is an active employee who wants to stop contributing to his Transit account in May. John has been contributing to this account since January.
- Leave “Account Status” as “Active” and update the “Employee Pay Period Election” to $0 to reflect the change.
- Updating “Account Status” to “Terminated” will remove John’s access to the account so he would be unable to spend the funds he has already contributed.
An employee may lose pre-tax eligibility and is not terminated. In this case, account access should be terminated. For example,
- John is contributing to an FSA at the beginning of the year, then becomes a part-time employee in May. Your company does not offer a group medical plan for part-time employees, so John will lose his FSA eligibility.
- In this case, update ‘Account Status’ to ‘Terminated’ on the elections file for John’s FSA.
- You don’t need to update ‘Employee Status’, as John is still an active employee.
Below are common reasons an active employee may lose eligibility for the pre-tax benefits:
Relocation
Employees should be on US payroll (i.e. subjected to US payroll taxes) to be eligible for pre-tax benefits. If John moves to Canada and remains on US payroll, his eligibility remains the same; but if he is now subjected to Canada’s payroll taxes following relocation, he will lose pre-tax benefits. See Managing Relocated Employees: Updating Files for Address Changes for more information.
Change in employment type
Generally, only full-time employees are eligible for group medical plans, a prerequisite of FSA and LPFSA..
Lose dependent eligibility
DCFSA can be used to cover qualified dependent care expenses. To learn more, see Who does my pre-tax benefits cover?. If there is a dependent status change, an employee may no longer be eligible to incur new DCFSA expenses. Still, employees can continue to make contributions and file claims for past services. For example:
- John’s son’s birthday is on 5/10/2001. His son turns 14 years old in May 2025.
- John is enrolled in 2025 DCFSA. Only expenses incurred for the son between 1/1/2025-5/9/2025 will be eligible for reimbursement. If a service continues beyond 5/10/2025, the expense cannot be reimbursed because his son no longer qualifies as a dependent.
- John can continue to make contributions after 5/10/2025, and use the contributions to pay for the expenses incurred from 1/1/2025-5/9/2025.
It is the employee’s responsibility to remain compliant. Updating ‘Account Status’ is not required in this scenario. However, there is a risk that an employee will continue to use their pre-tax Forma card to pay for expenses that should not be eligible.
Lose commuter eligibility
Transit and Parking accounts can be used to cover public transportation or parking fees when commuting back and forth to work. Expenses must be work-related. If an employee begins working remotely, they may become ineligible to be reimbursed for new commuter expenses. For example:
- John takes the metro to work. Metro fares are an eligible service under his transit account.
- John starts working remotely 6/1/2025. On June 2, John pays a metro fare which will not be eligible because it is not work-related.
- John can continue contributions to his transit account, but it is not advised because he can no longer incur new expenses, nor should he use new contributions to be reimbursed for the past expenses.
Similar to DCFSA, it is the employee’s responsibility to remain compliant. Updating ‘Account Status’ is not required in this scenario. However, there is a risk that an employee will continue to use their pre-tax Forma card to pay for expenses that should not be eligible.