The Bonus page of a compensation cycle setup allows admins to include bonus target adjustments, bonus plan payouts, and one-time bonus payouts in the cycle.
Before you start
- Disable the Adjust Bonus Target option if employee bonus targets will not be updated in the cycle. Bonus targets are assigned to employees in the Employee Pay table.
- The budget for bonus plan payouts and one-time bonuses is managed separately from the budget for merit and promotion raises set on the Budget page.
- Bonus target adjustment and payouts must be configured during cycle setup. Once configured, admins can modify the following during an active cycle:
- Bonus target adjustments via CSV upload
- Bonus plan payout guidance via CSV upload
- One-time bonus budget and payout ranges
- One-time bonus eligibility status via CSV upload
Bonus
There are three ways Bonus can be included in a compensation cycle:
- Adjust bonus targets: Update bonus targets for employees on a bonus plan. These adjustments are forward-looking and will not impact the payout of any existing bonus plans.
- Bonus plan payout: Pay out bonuses in the compensation cycle. Only employees with a bonus amount assigned in the Employee Pay table are eligible for bonus plan payouts.
- One-time bonus payout: Allow managers to award one-time discretionary bonuses in the compensation cycle.
Adjust bonus targets
Toggling on this option will allow you to adjust an employee’s bonus target in a compensation cycle to reflect a role change, promotion, or refresh of an existing bonus plan.
A bonus target is the amount that an employee is eligible to earn through their company’s bonus plan. This may be expressed as a percent of their base pay (a 10% bonus calculated based on $100,000 in base pay) or as a flat monetary value ($10,000).
Bonus targets adjusted in a compensation cycle are considered part of their forward-looking cash compensation package and are not considered payouts. Payouts of existing bonus targets are handled separately through bonus plan payouts.
To adjust bonus targets:
- Toggle on Adjust bonus targets.
- Under How should these adjustments be made?, select one of the following options:
- Automatically adjust target bonus payout based on comp bands: Automatically update an employee’s bonus target based on their assigned compensation band. This update will only apply to eligible employees in your cycle who are assigned to a compensation band with a Bonus target defined.
- Upload custom bonus targets via CSV: Update bonus targets for eligible employees by uploading a CSV with a target bonus percent (calculated as a percent of their base pay) or a target bonus amount (expressed as a monetary amount such as “5000”).
- (Optional) If you are uploading manual target bonus adjustments, complete the following steps:
- Click Upload manual bonus target adjustments.
- Download the Bonus target adjustment CSV template.
- Update the New bonus target column with a target bonus percent or a target bonus amount. If the target is a percent of the employee's base pay, include the percent symbol (%). If the target is a dollar amount, include no symbol. Note: All other columns in the file are present for reference only. Any changes made to columns other than New Bonus Target will not impact the values assigned to each employee.
- Upload the updated CSV.
- Select Save.
Bonus plan payout
Admins can choose to pay out an existing bonus plan as part of the compensation cycle. Eligibility for a bonus plan payout is based on whether an employee has a bonus target assigned. You can review existing bonus targets via the Employee Pay table under the column Bonus Amount.
To configure bonus plan payouts:
- Toggle on Bonus plan payout.
- (Optional) If managers (recommenders and approvers) should have permission to adjust the bonus payout amount during the cycle, check the box for All managers to edit the bonus payout amount. Otherwise, managers will be able to view but not edit bonus payouts.
- Click Upload bonus payout.
- Download the Bonus plan payout CSV template.
- Update the Bonus payout guidance column with the payout amount, as a number. Do not include currency symbols. Note: All other columns in the file are present for reference only. Any changes made to columns other than Bonus Payout Guidance will not impact the values assigned to each employee.
- Upload the updated CSV.
- Select Save.
One-time bonus payout
Select this option to pay out one-time bonuses, also known as ad-hoc or discretionary bonuses, as part of a compensation cycle.
To configure one-time bonus payouts:
- Toggle on One-time bonus payout.
- Under Budget, set an overall budget for one-time bonus payouts. This budget will be visible to and tracked by the admin only.
- (Optional) Under Payout range limits, set a range as guidance for managers giving one-time bonuses in the cycle for one-time bonus payouts. These ranges will be visible to compensation recommenders and approvers during the cycle.
- You can set different ranges for each currency if multiple currencies are included in the cycle.
- Under Who is eligible for a one-time bonus?, choose one of the following options:
- All eligible employees
- Select employees
- (Optional) If you are limiting eligibility for one-time bonus payouts to specific employees, complete the following steps to identify those employees.
- Click Upload one-time bonus eligibility.
- Download the one-time bonus payout CSV template.
- Update the One-time bonus eligibility (Y/N) column with Y to make an employee eligible.
- Upload the updated CSV.
- Select Save.
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