Apply labor budget adjustments

Add a budget adjustment when a position’s planned cost needs a premium, allowance, or reduction on top of its rate. First choose the rule that describes the calculation, then choose the positions and dates it applies to. Creating the rule alone does not change a budget.

Before you begin

Choose only the positions the policy is intended to affect. Applying an adjustment to the whole organization can change budgets in every department.

Apply an adjustment

Before saving, review the fixed-amount handling, who the policy covers, and how overlapping adjustments will be selected. The explanations and worked examples follow the procedure.

The Applied adjustments page initially shows adjustments in effect on the selected Budget date. Open Filters to search or view scheduled, ended, removed, or all adjustments. Changing the budget date reevaluates which adjustments are in effect without changing their recorded dates.

1. Open Labor budget > Applied adjustments.
2. Select Apply adjustment.
3. Choose the approved pay adjustment rule.
4. Enter Starts on and, when needed, Ends before.
5. Choose Scale with FTE or Retain while Position is active.
6. Choose the overlap behavior and enter its overlap priority.
7. Select the exact applied adjustment when replacing or suppressing one.
8. Choose which positions receive the adjustment, such as one position, a job classification, or a department. These choices determine which positions receive the adjustment. Leaving them blank applies it across the organization.
9. Choose a work schedule or shift only if the policy is limited to people working that schedule or shift.
10. Save and wait for the labor budget result to update.
11. Open an affected position on the adjustment’s start date and check the amount added or removed.

Ends before is the first budget date the applied adjustment no longer contributes.

Apply the rule again with a later start date when the business policy changes. Use Set end date when a valid applied adjustment stops. Use Correct dates or overlap priority when one of those recorded values was wrong. Use Remove incorrect applied adjustment when it should never have applied.

If the applied adjustment uses the wrong rule, records, schedule, shift, or calculation choices, remove that incorrect entry and apply the rule again with the correct choices.

Check the complete result

1. Open Labor budget > Overview.
2. Select the applied adjustment’s budget date.
3. Open one of the positions that should receive the adjustment.
4. Confirm approved and assigned FTE.
5. Confirm whether the base rate came from the position or job classification.
6. For an hourly rate, confirm annual hours per FTE.
7. For each adjustment, check who receives it, whether its fixed amount scales with FTE, which overlapping applied adjustment was selected, and the amount it adds or removes.
8. Add the base amount and adjustments, then compare your total with the final budget capacity and budget assigned.

If the adjustment is absent, check its date, rule availability, selected positions, job-group hierarchy, work schedule or shift, overlap priority, replacement target, and duplicate setting.

If a recent rate or staffing change is still updating, wait before deciding that the adjustment failed. If required inputs are missing, use Resolve labor budget items that need attention.

Understand rules and applied adjustments

An adjustment has two parts:

An authorized administrator creates reusable rules under Settings > Pay adjustment rules. A labor budget manager applies a rule under Labor budget > Applied adjustments.

Creating a rule does not apply it. Applying a rule to actual compensation does not apply it to labor budget. When the same approved policy belongs in both financial areas, apply it separately in each.

Review Pay adjustment rules before applying a policy whose formula or availability is unclear.

Understand the calculation stages

Pay adjustment rules can affect one of three stages:

1. Projected FTE changes the FTE used only in the calculation.
2. Pay rate changes the planned rate before it is multiplied by calculation FTE.
3. Annual cost only changes annual cost after adjusted rate and adjusted FTE are combined.

A projected FTE adjustment does not change approved position FTE. A pay-rate adjustment does not rewrite the base budget rate. An annual-cost adjustment does not change either rate or FTE.

Example: 10% pay-rate adjustment

Use a separate position with a $70,000 full-time annual budget rate, 1 approved FTE, and 0.5 assigned FTE. With no other adjustments, a 10% pay-rate increase gives $70,000 × 1.10 = $77,000.

Example: projected FTE adjustment

A position has 1 approved FTE and an active 0.2 fixed projected FTE adjustment. The calculation can use 1.2 FTEs while the approved position remains 1 FTE.

Use this target only when the policy is about calculated capacity. Do not use it as a substitute for an approved change to the position.

Choose who receives the adjustment

Choose who receives the adjustment. The form calls this its scope. You can apply it to the whole organization or choose one of these:

• Department
• Job group, including job classifications in its subgroups on the selected date
• Job classification
• Position

You can further limit the adjustment to a work schedule or a shift, but not both. For the adjustment to apply, the position must be included in your selection, the date must be within the adjustment’s period, and the chosen schedule or shift must match.

Choose a position for a one-position allowance, a job classification or group for a policy about that kind of work, or a department for a local policy. Choose the whole organization only when every position should be considered.

Example: department policy

On separate practice records, a 4% premium applies only to Outpatient Services beginning April 1. Select that department and use April 1 in Starts on. Positions in other departments do not receive the premium.

Example: job group scope

A benefit estimate applies to the Clinical job group. Positions whose effective job classifications belong to Clinical or one of its subgroups match on the selected date. A job classification moved into or out of that hierarchy can therefore change whether its position matches.

Example: schedule eligibility

An allowance applies only to a Night work schedule. Choose the positions the policy should cover, then select the Night schedule. A selected position with a different schedule does not match.

Choose whether fixed amounts shrink for part-time FTE

The coverage choice answers a practical question: should a smaller part of a job receive a smaller amount, or should the whole fixed amount remain while the position is active?

This choice changes how fixed money amounts are applied. A fixed Projected FTE change still uses FTE units: adding 0.1 means adding 0.1 calculated FTE. Percentage adjustments still follow the calculation order. Non-compounding percentages each use the same starting amount for their stage, while compounding percentages use the amount left by the previous step. See the worked calculations for examples.

A fixed Pay rate adjustment changes the hourly or yearly rate before the result becomes an annual cost. Annual cost only changes the yearly amount after pay rate and FTE have been calculated. The chosen method determines whether percentages also apply to the added amount. Retaining a fixed amount keeps the whole amount where the adjustment applies instead of reducing it for part-time FTE.

For example, a $60,000 annual rate at 0.5 FTE starts at $30,000. A retained $2,000 annual pay-rate increase adds the whole $2,000, giving $32,000 before percentages. With Scale with FTE, it adds $2,000 × 0.5 = $1,000, giving $31,000. For rounding when coverage differs, see Pay adjustment rules.

Example: fixed amount scaled with FTE

A $10,000 fixed annual-cost adjustment applies to a position with 1 approved FTE and 0.5 assigned FTE.

Example: fixed amount retained while active

The same $10,000 fixed annual-cost adjustment uses Retain while Position is active.

The retained amount contributes once even if assigned FTE is zero, so it does not create additional vacancy impact. Use this behavior for a fixed cost that stays with an active position even when it has no employee assignment, not for a per-FTE amount.

Example: retained amount before percentages

A $60,000 annual budget has a retained $1,000 amount included in the percentage basis, followed by a 10% annual-cost adjustment. The result is ($60,000 + $1,000) × 1.10 = $67,100. Using the fixed amount after percentages would instead produce $60,000 × 1.10 + $1,000 = $67,000.

Example: retained reduction

A retained $1,000 reduction after percentages reduces a $60,000 annual budget to $59,000. It remains a reduction when the position is active with no assignments; the assigned result stops at zero if there is no cost left to reduce. The calculation identifies any part of the reduction limited by the zero minimum. See Pay adjustment rules for combined reductions.

Control overlapping applied adjustments

FTE Tree finds every applied adjustment active on the selected date that matches the position, then resolves overlaps before calculating the result.

Overlap priority decides which matching use of a rule is considered first. A higher number comes before a lower number. An adjustment for one position does not automatically win over one for the whole organization; enter different priorities when the intended result depends on that choice.

Use these rules to predict the result:

• Additive adjustments from different pay adjustment rules can all contribute.
• A higher overlap priority alone does not replace an applied adjustment from a different rule.
• When the same rule matches more than once and Allow duplicates is off, the matching adjustment with the highest overlap priority contributes.
• If matching adjustments have equal overlap priority, the earlier start date is considered first. Use distinct overlap priorities whenever the business result depends on the selection.
• When Allow duplicates is on, each matching additive adjustment can contribute.
• Replace and Suppress affect the exact applied adjustment selected in Replaces. Overlap priority does not select that adjustment automatically.

Example: broad policy with a department exception

An organization-wide allowance has overlap priority 100. A department-specific use of the same rule has overlap priority 200. When duplicates are not allowed, the department adjustment contributes for matching positions and the organization-wide adjustment contributes elsewhere.

Example: two different additive policies

A 3% benefit load and a $2,000 equipment allowance use different pay adjustment rules. Both are additive and match the position. Both can contribute regardless of their overlap priorities.

Replacement and suppression preserve the original applied adjustment and its activity history. They change which adjustment contributes; they do not erase the earlier record.

Form choices

Use this reference to choose form values. Available choices depend on the task, selected date, and your access.

Coverage

This choice controls fixed monetary amounts on the labor budget. Percentage and fixed FTE adjustments retain their own calculation meaning.

A $10,000 fixed annual-cost allowance scaled with 0.5 FTE contributes $5,000. Retaining it while the position is active keeps the $10,000 contribution. Choose retention for a cost the organization still bears without a staffed assignment, then check both capacity and assigned budget results.

Overlapping applications

Choose whether this applied adjustment adds a contribution or changes the effect of another specific applied adjustment.

Replace and Suppress require the exact applied adjustment being replaced or suppressed. The selected records and dates determine where the exception applies. Overlap priority does not select the target automatically. Check one record inside the exception and one outside it to confirm the intended behavior.

Scope

Choose the records this budget policy applies to. Job-group scope includes its subgroups on each budget date; schedule and shift selections add restrictions.

Review the included records before saving. A schedule restriction limits which of those records match; it does not include records outside your selection. For an exception, choose the affected records and the existing applied adjustment to replace or stop.

Applied adjustment to replace or suppress

Select the existing applied adjustment whose contribution should stop where this exception matches.

Choose the existing applied adjustment you want to change, checking its records and dates. Choosing only the reusable rule is not enough. Leave this blank when the new adjustment should add to the existing ones. Check that the target is the intended broad policy before saving an exception.

Optional practice: add a 20% benefits estimate to the budget

For exercises that change records, use a separate practice organization and complete the preparation below.

Practice steps and checks

First create the Course benefits estimate rule.

1. Open Labor budget > Applied adjustments and choose Apply adjustment.
2. Select Course benefits estimate.
3. Choose the Patient Services Coordinator position and start it on January 1, 2027.
4. Choose Scale with FTE and Add with other applied adjustments. Leave schedule and shift restrictions blank for this example.
5. Save and wait for the updated result.
6. Open the position’s budget calculation.

You should see $70,000 × 20% = $14,000 of benefits, giving $70,000 + $14,000 = $84,000 yearly budget.

This percentage adds to annual cost; it does not change the entered salary budget or approved FTE. Apply the same rule separately in compensation to estimate benefits on Avery’s salary.