Payroll and compensation

Keep a history of each person’s pay and record payroll periods with gross, deductions, taxes and net pay, behind separate payroll permissions.

Payroll in UnitX is a record of pay, not a pay calculator. Compensation records hold each person’s pay arrangements over time. Payroll periods collect one entry per employee with gross pay, deductions, taxes and net pay. You enter the figures, and UnitX keeps them, tracks their approval and keeps them away from anyone who shouldn’t see them.

Key concepts#

Compensation record: One pay arrangement for one person from a date onwards: a type (salary, hourly, commission, bonus, allowance or other), an amount, a currency and a frequency. A person can have several at once, such as a salary and an allowance.
Payroll period: A pay run with a start date, an end date and a pay date. It moves from open to processing to closed.
Payroll entry: One employee’s pay in one period: gross, deductions, taxes and net. It moves from draft to approved to paid.
Itemized deduction: An optional breakdown line under an entry, such as a pension contribution, with a type, amount and description.

Who can use it#

Permissions

payroll.viewpayroll.manage

payroll.view shows the Compensation section on employee records and the Payroll tab under Org structure. payroll.manage lets you add compensation records, create periods and entries, and move them through their statuses. These are separate from the employee.* permissions on purpose: an HR administrator doesn’t see pay unless their role also has a payroll permission.

Every look at pay is audited

Each time someone opens a person’s compensation, UnitX writes an entry to the audit trail saying who looked at whose pay and when. The amounts themselves are never written to the log.

Compensation records#

Add a compensation record#

Open the employee record
Go to People, click the person, and scroll to Compensation at the bottom.
Fill in the arrangement
Choose a Type, enter the Amount, a Currency (defaults to USD if left blank), a Frequency (free text, such as “annual” or “monthly”) and the Effective from date.
Click Add
The record appears as, for example, “145000 USD · annual”, with its dates (“– present” while it has no end date) and a type badge.

Records are listed newest first and are never overwritten. A raise is a new record from its effective date, so the history of what someone was paid stays intact.

Note

Records can’t be edited or deleted from the screen, and there’s no field there for an end date. Add a new record when pay changes.

Payroll periods#

Create a period#

Open the Payroll tab
Go to PeopleOrg structurePayroll.
Enter the dates
At the bottom, pick the Period start, Period end and Pay date.
Click Create period
The period appears with an open badge.

Add entries#

Expand the period
Click the period’s dates to expand it.
Fill in the entry
Choose an Employee… and enter Gross. Optionally enter Deductions, Taxes and a currency (USD if blank).
Click Add entry
UnitX works out net pay as gross minus deductions minus taxes. The entry shows, for example, “gross 12000 · net 8400 USD” with a draft badge.

Each employee can have only one entry per period.
You can’t add entries to a closed period.
To itemize deductions, click an entry to expand it, enter a type, amount and description, and click Add. Itemized lines are a breakdown only. They don’t change the entry’s deductions or net amount.

Move periods and entries forward#

With payroll.manage, each period and entry shows a button for its next status: Mark processing then Mark closed for a period, and Mark approved then Mark paid for an entry. Statuses only move forward, one step at a time.

Item	Status flow
Payroll period	Open → processing → closed
Payroll entry	Draft → approved → paid

Limitations#

There are no tax tables, jurisdiction rules, payslips or filings. Every figure is one you enter.
Entries aren’t built from compensation records, timesheets or attendance. You enter gross pay yourself.
Periods and entries can’t be edited or deleted, and a status can’t be moved back.
Nothing is paid out. Mark paid records that payment happened elsewhere.

FAQ#

Who can see someone’s salary?

Only people whose role includes payroll.view, and every time one of them opens it, the audit trail records who looked at whose pay.

I can see people but not the Compensation section or Payroll tab.

Viewing people and viewing pay are separate permissions. Ask an administrator to add payroll.view to your role if you need it.

Why does a position say “Salary band hidden”?

Salary bands on positions are also pay data and need payroll.view. See Org structure.

Still stuck? Search the docs with ⌘K, open Help inside UnitX, or contact support.