Use compensation adjustments for a reusable policy such as a shift premium, pay increase, stipend, or reduction. The rule defines the calculation; the applied adjustment defines where and when it applies. It changes calculated compensation without rewriting employee pay or recorded assignment FTE. Apply a policy separately in labor budget if it belongs there too.

Before you begin

Activity Permission and scope required
Review applied adjustments and calculated results View actual compensation for every included department
Apply, correct, end, or remove an applied adjustment Manage actual compensation for every affected department
Use an organization-wide, job-group, job-code, work-schedule, or shift scope Manage actual compensation for All departments
Change the underlying rule The setup permissions listed in Pay adjustment rules

Actual compensation is protected information. Confirm the pay adjustment rule, scope, and effective date before saving, and do not copy compensation values into position control or labor budget.

Apply an adjustment

Before saving, confirm the fixed-amount coverage, people and assignments included, and any overlapping applied adjustments.

Use Search on Applied adjustments to review existing adjustments by rule, scope, or status before adding another one.

  1. Open Compensation and select Applied adjustments.
  2. Select Apply adjustment.
  3. Choose the effective date.
  4. Choose an existing pay adjustment rule and an optional end date.
  5. Choose who it applies to, then select the department, job group, job code, position, or assignment when required.
  6. Add work-schedule or shift eligibility when the policy requires it.
  7. Open Advanced behavior only when the standard defaults do not match the policy.
  8. Select the applied adjustment to replace or suppress when that behavior is needed.
  9. Save, wait for the result to refresh, and verify a representative assignment.

The effective date is the first included day; the optional end date is the first excluded day. Check the rule’s target, method, value, basis, and duplicate behavior before saving. Ask an authorized administrator to correct a wrong rule instead of adding another adjustment to compensate for it.

Choose the coverage behavior

Coverage Result
Scale fixed amounts with assignment FTE Scales fixed amounts using assignment FTE, including for contracted pay. Fixed pay-rate amounts follow calculated FTE; fixed annual-cost amounts follow recorded assignment FTE.
Apply once per assignment Applies a fixed amount once to each matching assignment. Required for assignment-specific scope.

Percentage adjustments follow the value they modify under either choice. Contracted annual pay is already an assignment total and is not multiplied by FTE again. For example, $60,000 contracted pay plus a $2,000 annual-cost adjustment at 0.6000 FTE gives $61,200 with scaled coverage or $62,000 when applied once.

See Adjustment calculations for rounding, calculated FTE, and a complete worked example.

Choose the scope and eligibility

An applied adjustment can be organization-wide or use one primary scope:

  • Department
  • Job group, including job codes in its subgroups on each selected date
  • Job code
  • Position
  • Assignment

You can also limit the applied adjustment to one work schedule or one shift classification. Work schedule and shift are alternative eligibility choices. An assignment must match the effective period, primary scope, and any schedule or shift eligibility before the rule can contribute.

Prefer the narrowest scope that represents the policy. Use assignment scope for an individual agreement, position or job-code scope for a role-based policy, department scope for a local policy, and organization-wide scope only when the policy truly applies everywhere.

The work schedule used for matching comes from the assignment when the assignment has its own actual schedule. Otherwise, the approved position schedule supplies the match. A shift condition matches the classification of that selected schedule.

Example: assignment schedule overrides the position schedule

A position uses the Weekdays schedule, but one employee’s assignment uses Night shift beginning October 1. A Night-shift premium can match that assignment beginning October 1 even though the position-level schedule remains Weekdays. Other assignments on the position continue to use their own schedule or the position schedule.

Organization-wide, job-group, job-code, work-schedule, and shift conditions can reach departments beyond a limited manager’s scope. Applying or maintaining one of those shared policies requires all-department compensation management. A department, position, or assignment applied adjustment can be managed within the matching authorized scope.

Control overlapping applied adjustments

FTE Tree first identifies applied adjustments that are active on the selected date and match the assignment. It resolves explicit replacement and suppression, then applies the remaining rules in the calculation order configured under Settings > Pay adjustment rules. An applied adjustment cannot change that shared order.

Overlap behavior Use it when
Add with other applicable policies This applied adjustment should contribute alongside the other selected policies.
Replace a selected applied adjustment This applied adjustment should contribute instead of the specific applied adjustment selected below it.
Suppress a selected applied adjustment The selected applied adjustment should not contribute, and this suppressing adjustment should add no amount of its own.

Use these rules to predict the outcome:

  • Additive applied adjustments for different rules can all contribute in their rule-level calculation order.
  • When the same rule could match more than once and Allow duplicates is off, the applied adjustments conflict. End, remove, replace, or suppress the overlap rather than expecting FTE Tree to choose one.
  • When Allow duplicates is on, each matching additive adjustment can contribute.
  • Replace and Suppress act on the specific applied adjustment selected in Replaces.

For example, an organization-wide cost-of-living applied adjustment and a department applied adjustment using the same rule would both match employees in that department. If the rule does not allow duplicates, explicitly replace or suppress the organization-wide applied adjustment for that exception, or use a different rule that represents the department policy.

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

Example: replace a broad applied adjustment with a local exception

A 3% organization-wide rule applies to every matching assignment. One department instead needs a separately defined 4% rule for the same period.

Apply the 4% rule to the department, choose Replace a selected applied adjustment, and select the organization-wide 3% applied adjustment. Matching assignments in that department use the replacement; assignments elsewhere can continue to use the broad applied adjustment.

Example: suppress a policy without adding another amount

An organization-wide equipment allowance should not apply to one assignment. Create a narrowly scoped applied adjustment for that assignment, choose Suppress a selected applied adjustment, and select the allowance applied adjustment. The suppressing applied adjustment contributes no amount of its own.

Do not turn on Allow duplicates merely to clear this conflict. Use it only when the business policy truly intends every matching use of the same rule to contribute.

Correct, end, or remove an applied adjustment

Open the applied adjustment and choose the action that matches the event:

Action Use it when Important limit
Correct applied adjustment Its dates, scope, eligibility, fixed-amount handling, or overlap behavior were recorded incorrectly The underlying pay adjustment rule is locked during correction
Set end date The applied adjustment was valid and should stop on a known date The end date is the first excluded date
Remove incorrect applied adjustment The applied adjustment was entered by mistake and should never have applied Do not use removal for a policy that was valid for part of its period
Apply this rule The same reusable rule needs another valid dated applied adjustment Confirm that the new applied adjustment will not create an unintended overlap

If the wrong rule was selected, remove the incorrect applied adjustment and apply the intended rule. The rule cannot be changed during correction.

Use the Activity history clock in the top navigation to review who made each change, when it was made, the earlier values, and the stated reason. The detail page shows what applies now.

Verify the result

  1. Open Employee pay and confirm the employee’s applicable pay entry.
  2. Open Applied adjustments, select the rule name, and confirm the applied adjustment, scope, eligibility, and calculation details.
  3. Run an Actual Compensation Snapshot for the date you are checking.
  4. Confirm the affected position, assignment FTE, and final annual compensation in the report.
  5. Calculate one representative assignment independently from the pay entry, assignment FTE, and matching adjustments.

The report shows one combined amount per position, using its assignments. It needs complete information for every assignment. If one assignment is incomplete, the whole position amount stays blank. The report does not list every applied rule as a separate row. Check the adjustment details and each employee’s pay, then add the amounts and compare them with the position total.

If the adjustment is absent, confirm the report date, rule dates, scope, schedule or shift eligibility, overlap behavior, duplicate rule, and the rule’s calculation order.

If adjustment setup is incomplete or applied adjustments conflict, the affected position remains blank and Issues identifies the correction. If any required compensation or employee information is missing, use Resolve items that need attention.

After a correction or end date, check both sides of the changed date and any replacement for an unintended gap or overlap.