Salary Structure - HR and payroll

A named set of earning and deduction lines. It is the shape of a salary that people are put on.

When to use it

When setting the system up, and whenever you need a new salary shape instead of a new figure for one person.

Before you start

The salary components must exist, and one of them must be the basic pay that percentage lines are worked out from.

Where to find it

Open the HR area from the main menu, then HR Setup, then Salary Structure.

The fields on this screen

Section	Field (on screen)	What to enter	Required
Structure	Name	The name you will pick this structure by when you assign it to an employee.	Yes
Structure	Code	(not explained yet)	No
Structure	Currency	(not explained yet)	No
Structure	Pay Frequency	(not explained yet)	No
Structure	Effective From	Date this structure starts to apply. It is for your records - it does not stop payroll using it.	No
Structure	Effective To	Date this structure stops applying. Blank means open-ended. It does not stop payroll using it.	No
Structure	Active	Untick to retire this structure. It is still offered when you assign one, and pay still comes off it.	No
Structure	Notes	(not explained yet)	No
Components	Component	The earning or deduction this line pays. Whether it adds to pay or comes off it is set on the component.	No
Components	Calc Type	Type flat, pct_of_basic or pct_of_gross. Any other word makes this line pay zero with no warning.	No
Components	Amount	The figure paid on this line. It is used only when Calc Type is flat; otherwise it is ignored.	No
Components	% Value	Used when Calc Type is pct_of_basic or pct_of_gross: a percent of the Basic line, or of the CTC.	No
Components	Formula	(not explained yet)	No
Components	Order	Where this line sits on the slip. It also decides which line counts as Basic when two could.	No

How it works

You choose a structure on an Employee Salary Assignment, and that is what puts somebody on it. When payroll runs, each line of the structure becomes a line on that person's slip.

Get the calculation type exactly right

Only three words work, in lower case:

flat pays the Amount on the line.
pct_of_basic pays the Percentage of the basic pay line.
pct_of_gross pays the Percentage of the base figure on that employee's salary assignment, not of the slip's own gross.

Anything else makes that line pay zero, on every slip, for everybody on the structure, with no warning anywhere. That includes a blank, a capital letter, a typo, or a sensible-looking word like percentage. It is the most common reason somebody is paid less than expected. Read the calculation type on every line before you use a structure.

The Amount is used only for flat, and the Percentage only for the two percent kinds. A figure in the other box is ignored, not added.

Retiring a structure needs more than unticking Active

The dates and the Active tick on the header do not control payroll. Unticking Active does not retire the structure: it is still offered when you assign somebody, and everybody already on it keeps being paid on it. The effective dates are a note and stop nothing.

To stop paying on a structure, change the assignments that point at it. That is the only way.

Tips and common mistakes

Changing a line changes pay for everyone on the structure from the next run, and for an older period too if that period is run again. Copy to a new structure instead of editing one in use.
The display order also decides which line counts as basic when more than one could, so keep the basic line first.
Build one structure, put one person on it, and read their first slip line by line before rolling it out.

Salary Component, the lines a structure is built from
Employee Salary Assignment, which puts a person on a structure
Salary Slip, where a zero line shows up