Understand actual compensation

Actual compensation shows the staffing cost calculated from employee pay and adjustments. For example, Avery’s $60,000 salary plus a 20% benefits estimate gives $72,000 yearly compensation.

Use it to compare the cost of your people with the position budget. Actual compensation is part of Workforce Budgeting. It calculates from the pay you enter; it does not list payroll payments already made.

Before you begin

You need View actual compensation for the included departments to read pay and results. To enter pay or apply adjustments, you need Manage actual compensation. An adjustment for the whole organization or a shared job group, job classification, schedule, or shift requires access to All departments.

Downloading a report also requires the matching export permissions. Pay access remains separate from position access. See roles and permissions if a page is unavailable.

Understand the inputs and results

When something changes, enter it in the place that stores that information.

For example, when someone moves from half-time to full-time, end the earlier assignment and create the new assignment from the change date. A salary increase needs a new dated employee-pay entry. Review assignment pay exceptions separately when creating the new assignment. See Change or end an assignment.

Understand the complete calculation

FTE Tree first calculates each active assignment, then adds those amounts for the position. If a position has two employees, its total includes both.

The selected date determines which pay entry, assignment FTE, hours, schedule, and adjustments apply. Pay entered for a particular assignment takes priority over the person’s general employee-pay entry on that assignment.

Then FTE Tree applies the matching adjustment rules. The Course benefits estimate adds 20% of Avery’s salary. Other rules can change the FTE used in the calculation, the calculated rate, or the final cost. They do not edit the assignment or original pay entry.

For an optional half-time example, a $60,000 salary at 0.5 FTE starts at $30,000. A 20% benefits estimate adds $6,000, giving $36,000. Keep this on a separate practice assignment so the original full-time example remains available.

Pay types and adjustment calculations explain hourly, contracted, part-time, and more complex arrangements.

What happens when compensation data is missing

A blank amount means required information is missing. It does not mean zero cost.

If one active assignment on a position is missing pay, FTE Tree leaves the whole position’s compensation blank. It does not add only the other assignments and present that incomplete amount as the position total.

The page and report explain the missing item with messages such as Needs compensation setup, Needs annual hours setup, Needs employee setup, or Needs adjustment setup. Missing position details or conflicting adjustments can also leave the amount unavailable. Other complete positions can still calculate.

A vacant position has no active employee assignments, so its assignment cost can correctly be zero. A deliberately entered zero pay amount is also a known value. Check which situation applies before changing anything.

Wait for an update to finish before reviewing a correction. Preparing results means there is no completed result yet. Updating means recent changes are still being calculated; an earlier result may remain visible. Up to date confirms that the latest calculation finished, but individual positions can still need missing information. If the page shows Needs attention or Calculation failed, contact Support with the page link, selected date, and message.

Understand Issues

1. Open Issues.
2. Find the affected position, employee or assignment, and date.
3. Follow the link to the missing pay, employee detail, hours setting, or adjustment.
4. Enter the correct information.
5. Wait for the calculation and open the result again.

Choose the Resolved filter in Issues to find problems FTE Tree has confirmed are fixed. Open an issue’s Activity history to review its earlier changes. A review decision does not enter missing pay. Use pay troubleshooting if the amount is still unavailable.

Understand reports and detailed review

Run Actual Compensation Snapshot to save one result for a chosen date. Each row represents one position and includes its number, department, assigned FTE, status, and yearly compensation.

For Patient Services Coordinator on January 1, the result using Avery’s original $60,000 salary is $72,000. After the approved raise is applied, a new report for January 1 shows $75,600. The earlier report keeps its earlier amount.

Use Employee pay and Applied adjustments to understand the entries behind a total. On the position’s compensation calculation, Actual annual cost covers the complete position. Assignment contributors shows the pay and adjustments you have access to inspect. Detail rows can therefore show less than the complete position total; missing rows do not mean those assignments cost zero.

Choose More assignments when another page is available. The position total includes all applicable assignments, not just the displayed page. If the result or your access changes while paging, the list returns to its first page so you can review the current information together.

Opening a pay or adjustment link from a calculation can show the earlier recorded value used for that result. Read the notice before editing. Use View the current entry when you need to inspect or correct the current recorded entry. A correction affects a new calculation; it does not rewrite a completed report.

Each dated result shows what a year would cost using the information for that date. Do not add January and February’s yearly results together. Use financial reports when you want the cost of a particular period.

Choose the detailed task guide

Optional practice: work out Avery’s yearly compensation

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

First complete the walkthrough’s employee pay and benefits steps.

Practice steps and checks

1. Open Compensation and choose January 1, 2027.
2. Open Patient Services Coordinator’s result.
3. Check that Avery has a 1.0 FTE assignment and a $60,000 annual salary.
4. Find the Course benefits estimate adjustment.
5. Calculate the benefits: $60,000 × 20% = $12,000.
6. Add salary and benefits: $60,000 + $12,000 = $72,000.

The position’s yearly compensation should be $72,000. Its separate $84,000 staffed budget leaves $12,000 above that cost.

Avery’s employee record belongs to Outpatient Services. Employee-record access follows the department on the employee record; assigning someone to a position does not move their employee record to another department.