Key Terms and Definitions 

Throughout Personnel Budgeting, Key Terms are used to configure the Data Model Manager and upload employees to the Positions tab. This FAQ article will walk through the Key Terms and provide definitions and examples. 

Below, you will learn the definitions of the following key terms: 

• Steps
• Grade
• Standard Hours
• Merit vs. Tenure
• Filled Position Key Terms
• Mandatory and Optional Fields for Positions 

Wage Schedule Key Terms 

In the Data Model Manager Tab under Wage Schedules, important Key Terms impact calculations.

Steps - Steps are increases in the Employee’s rate of pay. Steps might come from a Pay Schedule or a Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

• Not every organization utilizes a Step Schedule, so it is okay to use just One Step and fill in the salary or hourly rate.  Steps can be renamed to just “Salary”. Or you could use three steps and name them “Min, Mid, Max”. Note: If you use only one step, set the Progression to Merit. See more information about Progression below. 

Grade - Grade allows you to consistently view jobs based on standard grade. Grade is used to standardize wages across job titles. Grade is fully optional, if you apply it to the Wage Schedule, it will auto-populate for the Employee.

Standard Hours - Annual Standard Hours, for example, you would type “2080”. Annual standard hours can be unique per job. 

Wage Schedule Progression 

Merit - Merit Progression allows for the flexibility to change each Employee’s wages outside of the Wage Schedule. Merit will not auto-advance through their steps, and will require the Editor to update Wages. 

Tenure - Tenure Progression will auto-advance the Step schedule based on the number of days since the Initial Step Date. Employees in Tenure Wage Schedules cannot have unique salaries outside of the step amounts. If each Employee needs unique wages, consider adding those jobs to a Merit wage schedule instead. 

• Selecting Tenure will present a green banner in the Wage Schedule displaying the number of days since the Initial Step Date. See the screenshot below for an example. The number of days for the first step will always be zero. 

For additional information about Wage Schedules, see our training & support article: Creating and Managing Wage Schedules 

Filled Positions / Employee Key Terms 

In the Positions Tab under Filled Positions, various key terms are related to each Employee. 

1. Navigate to the Positions tab and select the Filled Positions subtab.
2. Select the Add Filled Position button in the upper right-hand corner of the Employee Manager table.

Filled Position ID - Enter an employee ID. This field must be unique for each employee.

Job Code - Assign the employee to the appropriate job title. If bulk uploading, the Job Code must be entered exactly as it is in the Wage Schedule. This gives the Employee their specific Job and puts them in their step schedule. 

Grade - If the role you’ve selected has an associated grade set in the Wage Schedule, it will populate automatically. You can manually assign or change the grade if necessary. 

Position Code - The Position Code field plays an important role in the Position Control feature in Personnel Budgeting. The Position Code tracks if a Position is currently filled with an Employee or unfilled with a Vacancy. Position Control allows concurrent jobs and the ability to auto-create vacancies upon Employee departure. 

For additional information on Position Control, see our training & support article: Turn on Position Control

Without Position Control - Without Position Control, the Position Code is optional and can be used as a free space to enter any internal notes about the Employee. Note: Only letters, apostrophes, commas, numbers, periods, and dashes are allowed in position codes

Initial Step - Initial Step is the Step they are in at the start of this budget. 

Initial Step Date - Select the date of the employee’s last step advancement. Although only tenure-based roles will automatically advance, this field is required for all employees. Note: Merit can also auto-advance if there is a Next Step and Next Step Date included.

FTE - FTE stands for Full-Time Equivalency. In Personnel Budgeting, FTE acts as a wage multiplier, so in most cases it would be 1.0.  FTE can be unique per individual employee. 

• For example: If a job makes $50,000 per year, and the FTE is set at 0.5, their annual salary will be $25,000. 

Next Step - Next Step will be automatically calculated for tenure wage progressions, but you can include it for Merit if you want to set a Next Step and Next Step Date. 

Next Step Date - Leave blank for Tenure Employees. For employees in Merit progressions, you can include a Next Step and Next Step Date to allow them to auto-advance and provide blended rate calculations.

Start Date - Select the employee’s Start Date. Note: This information helps the application calculate the wages of an employee who has started in the current fiscal year. Otherwise, it is informational.

Service Time Start Date if the service time differs from the employee start date. Service Time Start Date is used when calculating milestone pay. 

• For example: An employee started their position in 2020 but they’ve been at the city since 2005 

Which Fields are Mandatory and Optional? 

Knowing which fields are Mandatory and Optional will save time during the Employee bulk import. Each of these fields are columns in the template that you can leave blank, depending on whether the Employee is on a Tenure or Merit wage schedule.

Mandatory Fields

• Filled Position ID
• Last Name, First Name
• Job Code
• FTE
• Start Date
• Initial Step
• Initial Step Date 

Always Optional Fields

• Grade
• Position code - Can be used as a free space to add any internal notes pertaining to the Employee, unless you are using Position Control (see above).
• Current Hourly Rate
• Current Annual Salary 

Note: Including a current hourly rate or annual salary will override the default salary or hourly rate for the role and step selected for that employee if they are in a Merit wage schedule. 

Leave Blank for Tenure Fields

For Employees in Tenure Wage Schedules, you must leave the following columns blank, because they will be calculated automatically. 

• Current Step
• Current Rate
• Current Salary
• Next Step
• Next Step Date

Optional Fields for Merit 

The following fields are optional for Merit. If not included, the Employees will retain the Step amount set in the Wage Schedule, and they will never step up automatically. 

• Next Step and Next Step Date - Including Next Step and Next Step Date allows Merit to auto-advance on that Date which will calculate blended rates for that year.
• Current Rate - Overrides the hourly rate set in the Wage Schedule for their job.
• Current Salary Note: For Current Annual Salary remove all commas to ensure a smooth import. 

For additional information about bulk-importing Wage Schedules and Employees in Personnel Budgeting, see our training & support article: Bulk Importing in Personnel Budgeting