Manage salary types and allocated salaries
Check and maintain salary types, recurring Allocated Salary entries, following salary types, and field locks, which affect calculation, bases, withholding tax, and posting. Payroll professionals and partners do this after the payroll setup and in parallel with setting up employees, before monthly variable data and the payroll run process the components.
Prerequisites
- Payroll and the posting matrix are set up. For more information, see Set up SwissSalary for payroll processing and Set up posting groups and account assignment for payroll posting.
- Benefits are set up if benefit salary types are affected.
- The employee has a salary code, allocation group, and valid employment dates. For more information, see Set up employees for payroll processing.
- You know the difference: Allocated Salary is for recurring components, and Management Rapport Journal is for monthly variable amounts.
Check a salary type before use
Open the salary type and check its entire intended use:
- Check Type: Allowance, Deduction, Expenses, Employer Part, Fictitious, or Heading.
- Check Calculation Type, as well as the default quantity, rate, and factor.
- Check whether a salary rate, daily rate, or daily allowance rate is used.
- Check the contribution requirements for OASI, UI, benefits, the occupational pension scheme, gross salary (AIA), tax, withholding tax, and the social fund.
- Check the withholding tax rate determination for periodic or aperiodic components.
- Check the posting accounts and dimensions.
- Check linked following salary types and time types.
Warnung
Don't make an isolated change to a salary type that is already in production. A change can affect net salary, insurance bases, withholding tax, and posting at the same time. If needed, use a new salary type with a clearly defined effective date for new business rules.
For employer contributions and fictitious salary types, SwissSalary resets the social insurance and tax liabilities when the type changes. A heading salary type can no longer be defined as a heading if salary entries already exist for the number.
Control proration for employment starts and ends
On the salary type, Calculation Employment/Resignation controls how SwissSalary reduces amounts for an employment start or end during a month—provided that Calculation Employment/Resignation is enabled in Payroll Setup. The option values correspond to the pro rata calculation type:
| Option | When to use |
|---|---|
| Calendar Days | Share based on the actual calendar days in the period. |
| 30 Days/Calendar Days | Numerator in calendar days, denominator based on 30-day logic (commercial division of a month). |
| No Shortening | No proportional reduction; the full amount remains. |
| Work Calendar | Share based on the scheduled time of the Working Group in the working calendar. |
| 30 Days/30 Days | Numerator and denominator based on 30-day logic. |
| 21.75/Working Days | Standard of 21.75 working days; actual days from the working calendar or a Monday–Friday count. |
Hinweis
On allocated salaries, Proration Method, or on the salary type, Proration Method, controls whether and at what granularity (¼, ½, 1) an allocation applies proportionally over time.
Choose the salary rate on the salary type
With Salary Rate, the salary type specifies which employee rate SwissSalary copies to journal and allocation lines. A blank value leaves the manually entered or default Rate value unchanged.
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
| (blank) | No automatic rate from the employee master data. |
| Salary Rate | Copies the Salary Rate from the Employee Card (TimeMachine status on the document date or Valid From date). |
| Daily Rate | Derives the daily rate from the annual salary: annual amount ÷ 360, 365, or 261 according to Daily Rate for Salary Types in Payroll Setup. |
| Daily Allowance UVG | Sets the AIA daily allowance rate through the absence/benefit interface (Domain AIA). |
| Daily Allowance HI | Sets the daily sickness benefit rate (Domain DA). |
Additional switches on the salary type:
- Rate per Employment %—multiplies the rate by the employment percentage.
- Rate incl. 13th/14th Payday—adjusts the rate by the share of the 13th/14th monthly salary.
Tipp
For daily rates and daily allowance rates, use Test Process Payroll to check whether the rate and employment percentage produce the expected amount. If the rate is missing on the Employee Card, SwissSalary can display a notification.
Lock fields in the journal
On the salary type, you specify which values users can still change in journal or reporting lines:
| Field (UI) | Effect |
|---|---|
| Amount blocked | The line's Amount can't be set or changed manually. SwissSalary stops with an error message if the salary type is blocked and the line wasn't generated by the system. |
| Debit Cost Center blocked | The line's debit cost center is locked. |
| Text blocked | The line text is locked. |
Wichtig
Use Amount blocked when quantity and rate must control the calculation and freely entered amounts aren't permitted by the business rules (for example, derived deductions). After enabling it, use a test line in Management Rapport Journal to check that the expected error message appears and that system-generated lines continue to be processed.
Related locks on allocated salaries and in journal processing work in the same way: manual entries are prevented, while automatic or system-generated lines remain possible if the process handles them as system lines.
Set up and check following salary types
Following salary types (page Following Salary Type / following salary type) are linked to a parent salary type. As soon as the parent salary type is processed in allocated salaries, the journal, or a payroll run, SwissSalary can automatically create or suggest one or more following lines.
Create a following salary type
- Open the Salary Type (parent salary type).
- Open the linked Following Salary Type.
- Enter the Following Salary Type (number of the following salary type).
- Define the calculation factors:
- Amount Factor—multiplies the amount,
- Rate Factor—multiplies the rate,
- Quantity Factor—multiplies the quantity.
- Decide whether Following Salary Type - Transfer Dimensions copies dimensions from the parent line.
- Use Following Salary Type - Suggestion Line to decide whether the following line appears as a suggestion line.
- Optional: weekdays, Time From / Time To, day types, quantity field (Time / Day), minimum/maximum amounts and quantities, and limit calculation by current record, month, or year.
- Prevent recursion: A following salary type must not cyclically refer back to the parent salary type or a chain.
Warnung
Following salary types change net salary, bases, and account assignment without every line being entered manually in the journal. Always test changes with Test Process Payroll and check the generated lines, including dimensions and signs.
When following salary types apply
- When you maintain or change Allocated Salary entries (validity, quantity, amount), linked following allocations can be updated.
- When you enter or import journal lines, following lines can also be written (unless the import disables Following Salary Type).
- In the payroll run and special processes (for example, the 13th/14th monthly salary, vacation pay, or transfer of KLE daily allowances), configured following salary types are processed as well.
Use Where-Used Following Salary Type before you modify or delete a salary type that is in production.
Typical control questions
- Is the following salary type itself classified correctly (allowance, deduction, employer contribution)?
- Do the factors and signs match the business rule?
- Should dimensions be copied?
- Are weekday or time filters taking effect unintentionally?
- Does the import create duplicate following lines because the source system already supplies the deductions?
Copy or merge salary types
Actions for Copy and Merging are available on the salary type overview.
- Copy generally also copies following salary types and account assignments. After copying, check the number, description, locks, and following salary types before putting the new salary type into production.
- Merging assigns historical and current uses to another salary type. This affects the traceability of salary entries.
Warnung
Merge salary types only after their business and accounting equivalence has been clarified. Create a backup first or work in a test company, and document the source and target numbers.
Assign a recurring salary
- On the Employee Card, open the Allocated Salary page.
- Enter the Salary Type No..
- Set Valid From.
- Set Valid To if the allocation is temporary.
- Depending on the salary type, complete Quantity, Rate, or Amount.
- Check the cost center, cost object, allocation, and Bank Code if these fields are used.
- Check Proration Method if the amount is to be calculated proportionally for an employment start or end.
- Run Test Process Payroll.
SwissSalary filters the available salary types based on the employee's salary code. Blocked and fictitious salary types aren't available for a normal allocation. When you select a salary type, SwissSalary copies, among other things, the description, type, default rate, default quantity, Bank Code, and proration setting from the salary type.
Manage validity periods
Use validity periods so that changes remain traceable:
- End the old allocation with Valid To.
- Create the new allocation with the subsequent Valid From date.
- Avoid unintentional overlaps for the same salary component.
- For retroactive changes, check periods that have already been calculated or posted.
- Check future allocations when employment ends.
Changes to Valid From, Valid To, quantity, or amount can update linked following salary types. Therefore, check not only the edited line but also the allocations that were created or adjusted from it.
Enter one-time and variable components
Use Allocated Salary for recurring or time-defined components. As a rule, enter or import monthly variable amounts, quantities, expenses, hours, and corrections in Management Rapport Journal.
This separation helps you:
- keep the employee master data clear,
- avoid unintentionally repeating one-time payments,
- check monthly data together before the payroll run,
- trace the timing of recurring components.
Check changes
After a change, check:
- Does the correct salary type apply for the correct period?
- Are the quantity, rate, amount, and sign correct?
- Are the social insurance and tax liabilities correct under the applicable rules?
- Are the following salary types complete and nonrecursive?
- Do Amount blocked and related locks work as expected in the journal?
- Are the cost center, Bank Code, and foreign currency values correct?
- Does Test Process Payroll show the expected effect, including automatic following lines?
- Can the discrepancy in the Difference List be explained?
Tipp
Document the business reason for new salary types and temporary allocations outside the technical description. This makes subsequent checks and questions easier.
Good to know
- You make an isolated change to a salary type that is in production—net salary, bases, withholding tax, and posting shift for everyone affected.
- You enable following salary types without Test Process Payroll or allow recursive chains—amounts multiply or the run stops.
- You allow validity periods to overlap or remain open after employment ends—duplicate or subsequent payments are made without entitlement.
- You enter monthly variable amounts in Allocated Salary instead of the journal—the same amounts repeat every month.
- You merge salary types without clarifying their accounting and historical identity—reports and corrections lose their reference.