Payroll concepts are the individual components that define how an employee’s salary is structured — including what they earn and what is deducted from their paycheck. For example, fixed monthly salary, meal vouchers and tax deductions. These concepts make it easier to manage and analyze payroll data inside Factorial.
Categories of Payroll concepts
In Factorial, payroll concepts are organised into categories to help structure employee compensation and deductions in a clear, consistent, and analysable way. These categories reflect how different types of payments or deductions impact an employee’s salary and the company’s accounting. Here's a breakdown:
- Earnings – Fixed salary (e.g., monthly wage)
- Earnings – Variable (e.g., sales commissions)
- Earnings – Benefits in kind (e.g., company car)
- Earnings – Others (e.g., bonus or reimbursement)
- Deductions (e.g., taxes or social security)
- Company contributions (e.g., employer-paid benefits)
- Summarised values (totals and summaries for reporting)
Where are Payroll concepts used?
Payroll concepts are used across the platform to ensure consistent salary management. You will find them in:
- Compensation definition: Assign concepts to employee compensation types.
- Payroll results import: Match data from imported payroll documents with concepts.
- Financial workspace: View employee cost breakdowns using payroll concepts.
How can Payroll concepts be managed?
The Compensation module is an add-on, so access to this functionality depends on your subscription plan. To manage payroll concepts through the Compensation settings, this module must be included in your plan.
You can manage payroll concepts in the Compensation settings section.
- In your sidebar, go to Settings
- Access the Compensation section
- Select payroll concepts configuration. Here’s what you can do:
- Click on the + icon to create new payroll concepts to match your company needs
- Click on the arrow next to a concept to Edit it if you need to update names or categories
- Enable or disable the concepts you want to use or not
Note: Some payroll concepts come by default in Factorial. You can rename or archive them to match your organisation’s needs.
What does a Payroll concept include?
Each concept contains the following details:
- Category: The group the concept belongs to (e.g., "Earnings - Fixed salary")
- Name: The title of the concept (e.g., "Monthly base salary")
- Custom name: This name will appear wherever this payroll concept is used.
- Unit: What the concept measures (e.g., money, time, quantity)
- Description: A short explanation of the concept (e.g., "Fixed monthly payment agreed in the employee's contract”)
