Getting Started with Personnel Budgeting

Getting Started

In order to get started with Martus’ Personnel Budgeting, you need to enter information about your current payroll. The first steps are to decide on your pay types, set up the configuration values, and create a blank template for the Pay Data file. The Pay Data file can be used to import payroll information.

 

1. Review your compensation and decide on the pay types that you will use to calculate compensation within Personnel Budgeting.
2. (Optional.) Select Pay Types from the Personnel Budgeting Menu and add the pay types that you will use. If you do not add them at this step, you can enter them in the Pay Data file and load them with other payroll information.
3. Select Scenarios from the Personnel Budgeting menu.
4. Confirm that the year displayed is the fiscal year for which you are budgeting. If not, use the dropdown to the select the correct year and click Load.
5. Choose the Config tab.
6. If you have weekly or bi-weekly payroll, enter the first pay date for the payroll in this fiscal year.
7. Enter the FICA Rate as a decimal (typically, .0765 if you are using this feature to calculate both Social Security and Medicare taxes).
8. Enter the GL account to be used to budget FICA taxes.
9. Save the configuration values and click the Scenarios tab.
10. Enter a name for your first scenario and click Add.
11. The scenario will be displayed as shown to the right. Use the Export Pay Data File button to export a template for your Pay Data file. This is in the form of an Excel spreadsheet with several tabs. 

That file will include any information that you’ve already entered into Personnel Budgeting.

The Config tab will be populated with the configuration values you entered above.

If you have already defined Pay Types or entered employees or Position Types, those will also be included in the Pay Data template.

1. Enter employee, position, and pay item information into the Pay Data File. Then use Scenarios screen again to select a scenario, browse for the Pay Data file that you have prepared, and click Import Pay Data File.

 

 

 

 

Moving to a New Budget Year - for Personnel Budgeting

Making the Transition 

When you started using Martus’ Personnel Budgeting, you used the Pay Data File and the Pay Item Grid to load personnel information into Martus. Now, you’re ready to do personnel budgeting for the next year! 

This document provides a guide to the best way to create your base scenario for the upcoming fiscal year.  

Before You Start the Move to a New Year

Take these steps before you start the move to a new fiscal year:

• Review your pay types under Personnel Budgeting > Pay Types
  • During the past year, Martus has released many significant enhancements to Personnel Budgeting, including percentage pay types and personnel allocations. Recent changes include adding support for percentage bonus to be budgeted by employee anniversary or in a specific month, and the ability for a percentage pay type to be calculated on the basis of Regular, Hourly, and Percentage pay type.  If you did not use those features in your last budget cycle, we recommend that you review them now to see if they could be useful to you!  See the Knowledge Base for documents and tutorials related to these topics. Please contact Martus Support to review these features if you need more information.
• Review your allocations under Personnel Budgeting > Allocations
  • In a recent release, Martus has improved the Personnel Allocations module so that you can efficiently enter all allocations for a single employee (or other allocation source, such as a position type, dimension, or pay type) on a single screen -- even if those allocations only last for a few months, or if they vary from month to month.   If you have employees (or other allocation sources) with multiple allocation segments, you will probably wish to combine these into a single segment for that employee. 
• Review your insurance coverages under Personnel Budgeting > Pay Types
  • Look for your pay types within the column of Default Value / Tier base for pay types marked as ‘Coverage 1’ and ‘Coverage 2’ if you have elected to use them both
  • Martus supports two coverage types on the employee, so you can use one coverage type for health insurance (for example), and the second coverage type for other insurance benefits such as dental and vision.  
• Ensure that you have a budget in place for the new fiscal year within Planner > Planner Setup
  • This can be a blank framework budget – or it can be partially or completely filled out – but you must have worksheets in the new year’s budget in order to create positions that are to be budgeted in the dimensions used to define those worksheets. 

Getting Started

The first step is to correct any employee names (reflecting marriages, etc.)  Make these changes directly in Martus under Personnel Budgeting > Employees

Then, export the final scenario from the prior year. This creates a Pay Data File that contains employees, position and pay item data for the previous year, plus with the config data and other set-up information. 

Martus recommends that you update the config data and other set-up information directly in Martus. This is not a requirement; you can choose to update this information in the Pay Data File and re-import it.  Our recommended procedure is documented below. 

Delete all pages from the Pay Data File except the Employees, Positions, and Pay Items pages. (Optional: You can also delete the Pay Items page if you will be using the Pay Item Grid to import all pay information.)

Update the Set-Up Information within Martus

Review and make any needed changes to the Config for the upcoming year.  If you have an Advanced Plus subscription to Martus, set the upcoming year as the Personnel Budgeting year. 

Review and make any needed changes to position types. 

Review and make any needed changes to pay types:

• For any pay types with a frequency of “Once”, update the Start Date to indicate the month in which those costs are to be budgeted in the upcoming fiscal year. 
• For any percentage pay types with a limit, update that limit if necessary. For example, if you use a pay type to calculate the employer responsibility for social security taxes, you’ll probably need to change the limit to reflect the limit based on the current social security max wage tax base.
• f you’ve added any pay types that are to be used as the basis for percentage-based compensation costs, update the appropriate percentage pay types to include the new pay types as a Source. 
• Employees and Positions
• Review the list of employees on the Employees page of the Pay Data File 
• Add any new employees.
• dentify any employees that will need to be inactivated.  They cannot be inactivated with the Pay Data File and will need to be inactivated from the Employees selection within Martus. However, don’t make that change yet. That needs to be one of the last updates that you make! 
• eview the list of employees on the Employees page. 
• Review the list of positions on the Positions page of the Pay Data File.
• If a position is held by a different employee, update the employee name associated with the information.
• If you’ve made changes to position types, review the types assigned to each position and update if necessary.
• For any positions that are part-time during the fiscal year (such as interns or seasonal positions), review and update the start/end dates for the upcoming fiscal year.
• Add any new positions.
• Delete any positions no longer needed.

Pay Items

Decide whether you will use the Pay Items page of the Pay Data file or the Pay Item Grid in order to import compensation costs.   

If using the Pay Data File to import pay items:

• Update the employees assigned to positions where necessary. 
• Delete any lines associated with inactive employees. 
• Review and verify all rates.
• Import the Pay Data File.

If using the Pay Item Grid to import pay items:

• Delete the Pay Items page from the Pay Data File you have built (so that it contains only the Employees and Positions pages), then import the file.
• Use Martus to inactivate any employees who are no longer active. 
• Verify that all pay types are correct and updated for the new fiscal year, then export a Pay Item Grid template and populate it with the rate information from your payroll system.
• Import the Pay Item Grid.

Common Errors

If you get errors like this when importing the Pay Data File: Worksheet doesn't exist

They indicate that the necessary worksheets are not present in the default Planner budget for the new fiscal year.

Go to Planner > Planner Setup > Worksheet Management and click 'Add Worksheet' for the dimensions that you are trying to set the employees personnel lines to budget to. 

Once the worksheets exist in the default Planner budget, import the Pay Data file again. 

Personnel Allocations

If you used Personnel Allocations in the prior year, copy the allocation to the current year. Review and update that allocation, deleting any segments that are no longer used and changing target allocations as necessary. You can also now export the current allocation, make changes, and import new allocation values. 

Set the Default Scenario

If you have an Advanced Plus subscription to Martus and will have non-Admin users accessing personnel budgeting information, identify the default Personnel Budgeting scenario. 

Personnel Budgeting - Managing User Access

Introduction

Personnel Budgeting is available at the Advanced Advanced Plus and Enterprise subscription level within Martus. 

Enhanced permissions (to allow non-admins to access Personnel Budgeting for their assigned dimensions) and Personnel Requests are available only at the Advanced Plus subscription level.

Access to Personnel Budgeting – For Admin Users - Personnel Password

If you have certain Admin users who should not be able to access Personnel Budgeting, you can ask Martus Support to set a Personnel Budgeting Password. 

Please email support@martussolutions.com to ask for a password to be set. 

There's only one Personnel Budgeting Password per instance of Martus, and that password is maintained by Martus Support. The password is case-sensitive. 

When there's a Personnel Budgeting Password, the main Personnel Budgeting menu selection has a lock symbol next to it.  

Users are prompted for a password to access the full Personnel Budgeting menu.

A user must only enter the password once during each login session. (i.e., not each time they select Personnel Budgeting selected from the menu).

Access to Personnel Budgeting – For Non-Admin Users Advanced Subscription

With the Advanced subscription, non-admin users who are granted access to Personnel Budgeting have access to position information for all dimensions.

Access to Personnel Budgeting – For Non-Admin Users AdvancedPlus Subscription or Enterprise

Note: Non-admin users have some limitations within Personnel Budgeting.  Non-admins cannot:

• Post from the Personnel Budgeting module into a Martus budget

Explanation of Privileges Related to Personnel Budgeting Within Advanced Plus

The Advanced Plus subscription includes detailed privilege assignment to Personnel Budgeting for non-admins.  With the Advanced Plus Subscription level: 

• Non-admin users such as department managers may use Personnel Budgeting features of Martus for the dimensions they are allowed to access
• These separate layers of privilege can be granted to non-Admin users of Personnel Budgeting to:
  • View personnel costs
  • Update personnel costs
  • Access non-default Personnel Budgeting scenarios and years
  • Configure personnel budgeting
  • Make Personnel Requests, if that feature is enabled

View Personnel Costs

This privilege allows a user to access the Scenarios selection on the Personnel Budgeting Menu, as well as reports like the Positions & Pay Report, the FTE Analysis, and the Allocations Analysis.  However, the user can only use the reports to see information for the default Personnel Budgeting Scenario for the current or any other budget year and for the dimensions to which they have access. They can use the features of the Summary screen to see data summarized by budget worksheet, employee, and position name, they can use all the filters on these reports, and they can export the data that is displayed. On the Summary, they cannot apply allocations. They can see employee names, but they cannot access or update employee information (name, anniversary date, coverage level, etc.), and they cannot drill down from any of the reports. 

Update Personnel Costs 

With this privilege, a user can see the Position and Detail tabs for the default Personnel Budgeting Scenario for the current or any other budget year, for the dimensions to which they have access.  They can add and remove positions, change pay items, and change rates on pay items assigned to employees. They can access employee information (name, anniversary date, coverage level, etc.) and they can apply Allocations on the Summary screen. 

Can Access Non-Default Scenarios and Years 

This privilege works in conjunction with the View Personnel Costs and Update Personnel Costs privileges, which determine whether a user can only see or also allowed to update personnel information and compensation costs. A user with the privilege to access non-default scenarios must select the scenario that they’d like to work with, each time they go into Personnel Budgeting or switch to a non-default year, if there are multiple scenarios in that year. Note that if you use the Personnel Requests feature of Martus, this privilege does not allow a non-admin user to access the Position Template Scenario; that is only available to Admin users.

Config Personnel Budgeting

This allows the user to see the Employees, Pay Types, and Position Types selections on the Personnel Budgeting Menu, and to view and make any changes to that data. It also allows them to import and export the Pay Data File and the Pay Items Grid, to specify the default Personnel Budgeting Scenario, and to specify the current budget year for Personnel Budgeting. If the client is using the Personnel Requests feature, a user with this privilege can view and modify the Position Template. 

Make Personnel Requests 

This privilege is only available if the optional Martus feature for Personnel Requests has been enabled. It allows the user to request additional personnel. 

How It Works

Non-admin users only see Personnel Budgeting information for the default scenario and the default Personnel Budgeting Year. 

Non-admin users can only see data for the dimensions to which they have access. If you have a user like an HR Manager who is to have access to personnel budgeting information for all departments but should only see their own department’s information in the rest of Martus, you’ll want to set up two profiles for that user (one with access to the single department, one with access to all departments), and grant access to Personnel Budgeting and the appropriate privileges only to the second profile. 

Note: Only Admin users can post from the Personnel Budgeting module into a Martus budget. Also, only Admin users can lock and unlock Personnel Budgeting scenarios, and delete scenarios with positions in them.

Personnel Budgeting Workflow

These charts illustrate the process of incorporating Personnel Budgeting into your regular budgeting process.

Personnel Budgeting - General Documentation

Personnel Budgeting is an optional add-on to Martus that is part of the Advanced and AdvancedPlus subscription levels. 

Personnel Budgeting allows you to develop compensation budgets in detail, then post compensation costs to your budget worksheets.  

Personnel Budgeting is position-based. It includes a suite of features that allow you to build scenarios reflecting compensation for employees as well as non-employees.  Each scenario is made up of all the positions for which you budget, as well as all the pay items for each position in that scenario.  You can create as many scenarios as you wish, for any fiscal year. For example, you might divide scenarios by department or location, or you might choose to create different scenarios to reflect different growth projections. Scenarios can be created from spreadsheets (two forms are used, the Pay Data File nd the Pay Items Grid) or entered/updated manually.  

Once you’ve completed a scenario, you can apply any Personnel Allocations, compare it to prior year budgets and actuals, make any changes desired, then post it into your budget.

Use the link below to access general documentation for Personnel Budgeting. 

Personnel Allocations

Personnel Budgeting is available with the Advanced and Advanced Plus subscriptions to Martus. Personnel budgeting features personnel allocations, with several tools to make that easy:

• Efficient allocation setup through the user interface.  Set up all allocations for the year on a single screen, even with overlapping segments for varying ranges of time. You can also vary the allocation in each month of the year – on this single screen.
• Exporting and importing allocations. Update your allocations in Excel, then import them.
• Allocation Analysis reporting, used to review and analyze your allocations.

Efficient Allocation Setup

Efficiently set up a year’s worth of allocations for an employee on a single screen, no matter how many allocation segments are needed and whether they overlap. You can even vary the allocation each month of the year, on the same screen.  Handy features include:

• Quantity – enter an amount here to use that value in each month of the year. Enter 0 to set all months to zero.
• Monthly amounts – enter a specific amount or zero in any month to add a value or override the default quantity.
• Percentages checkbox – this controls whether the allocations are shown as percentages of the Source Quantity.  Uncheck this to suppress the display of percentages.

Note: Allocations can be based on a single employee, a position type, a pay type, or a dimension (such as an entire department).  For simplicity in this documentation, we use the term “employee” and our examples follow just adding an allocation to an employee. 

Create New Allocation

1. Personnel Allocation > Budgeting
2. Click 'Add New Allocation'
3. Name the Allocation
4. Click Save
5. Click 'Edit' to the left of your new Allocation group 

Determine Your Source Quantity

1. Source Quantity will be set to 100.00 as a default
2. The Source Quantity can be any number total from which you want to allocate a portion or all of the items in your selected Source Lines
3. The most common practice is to leave the value at 100 in order to allocate on a simple percentage basis
4. Source Quantity can also be used as a total number of hours or total dollar amount to allocate.
5. The Quantity entered in each Target Line is then divided by the Source Quantity to calculate a percentage to be allocated for each month in that allocation segment. 
6. For example, if a Source Quantity of 1500 is used (representing 1500 hours per year), and a Quantity of 150 hours is entered on a Target Line (representing 150 hours per year), the resulting allocation to that target will be 10% each month.

Setup Your Allocation

1. Click 'Add New Allocation Segment'
2. Add the name of your allocation in the 'Name' box
3. In source lines you will filter to find the line that we want to allocate for
4. In this example we want to allocation an employee so you will:
5. Find your employee in the drop down
6. Filter further to tell Martus which line you need the allocation set to
7. Find the scenario you want and hit 'Find Matches' to show the current allocation of that employee

Determine Your Allocation Location

1. Click 'Add New Target' under 'Target Lines'
2. From the list find where you want this employees other allocation to come from 
3. Click 'Select' 

Show Percentages

1. By having the box of 'Show Percentages' ticked you can tell Martus to you want to see employees Allocation percentages
2. By having the box of 'Show Percentages' not ticked you can tell Martus you do not want to see this employees Allocation percentages

Example of Allocation by Percentage

1. We have our 'Source Quantity' set to 100
2. By having the box of 'Show Percentages' ticked you can tell Martus to you want to see employees allocation percentages
3. You can free hand type every % into each month or
4. Type the percentage split into the 'Quantity' box and hit the green plus sign to auto fill all the months
5. Be aware that when you setup an allocation the unallocated percentage still remains in the employees home department
   1. In this example 50% of this employees pay is coming from 'Fundraising' which means that the other 50% will come from their home department 
6. Click 'Save' if you are done or
7. Click 'Add Another Segment' if you need to add a different segment if their pay is allocated in more than two ways

Example of Allocation by Flat Amount

1. By having your 'Source Quantity' set to this employees salary
2. You can free hand type every flat amount into each month or
3. Type the flat amount split into the 'Quantity' box and hit the green plus sign to auto fill all the months
4. Be aware that when you setup an allocation the unallocated percentage still remains in the employees home department
5. Click 'Save' if you are done or
6. Click 'Add Another Segment' if you need to add a different segment if their pay is allocated in more than two ways

 

Allocation Analysis 

This report is a tool to review and analyze your allocations.

Go to Personnel Budgeting > Scenarios > ensure you have a scenario checked as 'current' and then click the 'Allocation Analysis' tab at the top 

• You can use it to see allocations for an employee (by compensation amount, percentage, and FTE) to ensure that they are fully allocated and not over-allocated.
• You can also use it to see all allocations for a particular combination of dimensions, such as all employees allocated to a specific grant, by compensation amount, percentage allocation, and FTE.

Format the Allocation Analysis Report

Use the dropdowns to format the report:

• Make sure you have 'View With Allocation' drop down chosen otherwise the allocations will not show
• Use the Rows dropdown to show information by Employee or Dimension combinations.
• Use the Columns dropdown to show monthly totals by Compensation Amount, Percentage allocated, or FTE.

Notes:

• The employee’s home dimension is shown in italics, when Rows are set to Employee.
• Row and column totals are hyperlinks. Click on them for additional details.
• If an employee is over-allocated, the month and annual totals are shown in red.
• If you use the automatic tax feature of Personnel Budgeting, tax is included in the display.
• The FTE allocation breakdown is available only for allocations that include all pay types for a position. For example, an FTE breakdown is not calculated for an allocation of only the health insurance pay type.

 

Exporting and Importing Allocations 

Editing The Exported File

Do not change the names of the tabs or any of the column headings if you plan to import the file back into Martus

The First Tab: Allocations

The first tab of the export identified the allocation name and year. Do not change anything on this sheet.

The Second Tab: Segments

The second sheet lists the allocation segments.

• If an employee is used to define a segment, they are identified by a combination of the employee external ID, first name, and last name (just as this is used in the Pay Data file).
• The CalendarStartMonth and CalendarEndMonth define the beginning and ending months for this segment. These numbers correspond to the number of the month in the year (in this example, July through June). These represent calendar months, not months in the fiscal year.
• The PayType, PositionType, SheetDim1, and SheetDim2 columns are filled in if the allocation is based on this information, rather than being based on an employee.

The Third Tab: Segments

The third sheet lists the allocation for each segment:

• There is one line for each allocation within a segment. Enter the desired quantity in each month. If the same quantity applies to all months, then it is in the Quantity column. If that Quantity does not apply to some months, enter 0 in those months.
• The headings Month1, Month2, etc. apply to the months of the fiscal year.
• The worksheets to which the segment applies are identified by their IDs.
• The TargetWorksheetName is optional. It will be filled in by the export, but you don’t need to enter it on the import.  

Personnel Requests

With Personnel Requests:

• Only available for AdvancedPlus customers
• Users can request new positions
• These requests can be approved or rejected by a designated Personnel Request Approver
• When approved, the requested positions will be added to the default Personnel Budgeting Scenario.

The Personnel Requests feature is part of the Advanced Plus Subscription level.  It must be activated by Martus Support.

Some other features of the Advanced Plus level are also of interest:

• Non-Admin users such as department managers may use Personnel Budgeting features of Martus for the dimensions they are allowed to access
• These layers of privilege can be granted to non-Admin users of Personnel Budgeting so that they can:
  1. View personnel costs
  2. Update personnel costs
  3. Configure personnel budgeting
  4. Make Personnel Requests, if that feature is enabled

Setup and Configuration for Personnel Budgeting 

For clients with the Advanced Plus subscription to Martus who wish to allow non-Admin users access to Personnel Budgeting and/or plan to use Personnel Requests, two defaults must be set. These values can only be set by an Admin level user or a non-Admin user with the Config Personnel Budgeting permission.

• default Personnel Budgeting year
• default Personnel Budgeting scenario 
• Personnel Request Approver for the default Personnel Budgeting Year

Default Personnel Budgeting Year

A specific year must be set as the Personnel Budgeting Year to identify which year’s information is available to non-Admin users.

To set this, select Personnel Budgeting/Scenarios and click the Config tab. Verify that the desired year is displayed, then click the button to Set that year as Personnel Budgeting Year.

 

Default Personnel Budgeting Scenario

A default Personnel Budgeting Scenario also must be defined to determine which scenario non-Admin users may access. If privileged, non-Admin users may view and update personnel costs within that scenario.  Approved personnel requests are added to the default scenario.

Only the default scenario is visible to non-Admin users. Admin users may set any scenario as “current” to specify which scenario they want to work with.

To set this, select Personnel Budgeting/Scenarios. Click the appropriate button to set the default scenario.

 

Personnel Request Approver

If using the Personnel Requests feature, you must identify a Personnel Request Approver for each year.

• This responsibility for approving requests can be assigned to an Admin or a non-Admin user.
• This user may but does not have to have any other access to Personnel Budgeting information.
• The user assigned as the approver can approve or reject any Personnel Requests, regardless of any dimensional limitations for that user.
• This user can only approve personnel requests for the year(s) to which they are assigned.   

To set this, select Personnel Budgeting/Scenarios and click the Config tab. Use the Personnel Request Approver dropdown to select the user who is to be the approver.

 

Personnel Requests

This feature allows users to request new positions for their personnel budgets. You control what positions can be requested, and the compensation cost for those positions, by setting them up in the Position Template Scenario.  Users can only request positions that are defined in the Position Template Scenario for the dimension(s) to which the user has access.

When this feature is enabled, there is an additional selection on the Personnel Budgeting menu: Personnel Requests. It is used to manage all aspects of personnel requests:

• Request additional personnel
• Review pending and processed personnel requests
• Approve or reject requests

When a request is approved, the request status is updated and the requested position is added to the default scenario. When a request is rejected, the request status is updated. An email is always sent to the requester whenever a request is approved or rejected.

Position Template Scenario

The Position Template Scenario defines all the positions for which personnel requests can be made. These are called “position templates”. Each position template must be assigned a title, a position type, dimensions for an existing budget worksheet, and the default pay items for that position.

For positions to be requested, every combination of position type and dimensions must be unique. For example, you cannot use a generic position type (“Musician”) and then have two requestable positions in the same department with that position type, but different titles. Instead, you must have a position type for each kind of musician (“Cello”, “Violin”, “Keys”, “Vocal”).  This allows different departments to use different titles for the same position type, if desired. If you try to add another position with the same type and dimensions as one that already exists, you’ll see a message like this, if entering the template position manually:

 

Or like this, if importing a Pay Data File into the Position Template Scenario.

Position requests cannot be deleted if they have pending requests that are based on them:

The Position Template Scenario, and the positions in it, can only be edited or updated by an Admin user or a non-Admin user with the Config Personnel Budgeting permission.

To create a Position Template Scenario, select Personnel Budgeting/Scenarios. Enter the name for this scenario and click Add.

 

 

When ready to work with the Position Template Scenario, set it as current. Then, the Positions, Detail, and Summary tabs are available to add positions, review them, and update them manually. You can also add and update positions by using the Pay Data File and the Pay Items Grid.

The name of the Position Template Scenario can be edited when the scenario has been set as current. (To do this, use the Edit icon next to the template name on the Scenarios screen.)

There is only one Position Template Scenario per year. The Position Template Scenario cannot be copied. When ready to transition to a new year, the Position Template Scenario can be exported and imported into the new year.

Adding Positions to the Position Template Scenario

You can add positions to the Position Template Scenario manually via the Martus user interface or by importing a Pay Data File. Positions in the Position Template Scenario never have an employee name. (These are only template positions!)   As with all other positions, the Position Name is filled in automatically by Martus and cannot be changed.

• To add positions manually, set the Position Template Scenario as current, then select the Positions tab. All existing positions in the scenario will be listed. Click the Add New Position button to add a position.
• Positions and their pay items can also be added to the Position Template Scenario by importing information from the Pay Data File and the Pay Items Grid. We recommend that this be done in two steps:

1. Add positions, using the Positions page of the Pay Data File.
2. Add Pay Items, using the Pay Items grid.

The Pay Data File and Pay Items Grid for the Position Template Scenario

The Pay Data File for the Position Template Scenario only has two pages: Positions and Pay Items. You will use the Position page to add positions. You can use the Pay Items page to add pay items, but it is recommended that you do that with the Pay Item Grid, which is easier to fill out and more efficient to use.

When adding positions, provide the Title, Type, whether the position is taxable, and the dimensions where the position will be permitted to be requested.  Do not enter anything in the Id, PositionName, Employee, and Start/End Date columns. For reference, here is a sample of the Positions page of the Pay Data File:

 

Sample of the Pay Item Grid:

When completing the Pay Item Grid, remember that the column PositionName is reserved for Martus and should not be changed in any way. For more info about completing and importing this file, see Using the Pay Item Grid in the Martus Knowledge Base.

 

Making Personnel Requests

To request additional personnel, select Personnel Budgeting/Personnel Requests. Any pending requests will be displayed at the top of the screen. Scroll to the Create New Request portion of the screen and click Select Target.

 

A list of worksheets for which positions can be requested will be displayed. Select the desired worksheet.

Select the position type to be requested. The Position Type dropdown will list only the position types available for this budget area, based on the information in the Position Template Scenario.

Then, enter the quantity requested for this position, along with a starting month and number of months, if applicable. Leave the Number of Months blank if the position is to be open-ended.

 

 

 

 

 

Reviewing the List of Personnel Requests

As positions are requested, they’ll be listed at the top of the Personnel Requests page. Use the filters at the top of this list to view pending, approved, rejected, or all requests. Personnel requests are visible only to the requester, an Admin user, and the user designated as the Personnel Request Approver.  This list is used to delete pending requests; only the requester can delete pending personnel requests.

 

Approving and Rejecting Personnel Requests

The Personnel Request approver can approve and reject personnel requests. Select to approve, reject, or ignore the pending requests. Add comments as necessary, then click Save. An email will be sent to the requester to inform them of any approvals or rejections. The comments will be included in the email. Any requests that are set to be ignored will remain pending for later review. Whenever a request is approved, that position will be added to the default Personnel Budgeting scenario.

 

Reviewing Approved Personnel Requests

Approved personnel requests are added to the default Personnel Budgeting Scenario. They are listed on the Position, Detail, and Summary screens, and personnel allocations could be applied to them, just like all other positions.  In addition, the Summary has a special filter to limit the display just to approved Personnel Requests.  

Personnel Budgeting Training - Prep Guide

The guide linked below will help you prepare for your Personnel Budgeting training. 

This document provides:

• A list of questions about your organization's compensation practices that you should be prepared to answer
• A list of items that you should prepare before the training
• Links to pre-requisite videos 

Be sure to review this guide carefully, prepare the requested information, and review the pre-requisite videos before your Personnel Budgeting training!

Payroll Taxes

Add Payroll Taxes - Choosing the Right Method

There are two methods of calculating the employer responsibility for payroll taxes.

• Automatic: controlled by the Config settings along with the tax status settings on pay types and positions
• Pay Type: By assigning pay types with appropriate percentages to each position to be taxed

 

You can use the automatic method for calculating payroll taxes if both of these are true:

• You use a single GL account for both the Social Security and Medicare components of FICA.
• You have no employees whose compensation is high enough to be affected by the Social Security tax limit, or if the difference that this would make in your budget is minimal enough that you wish to disregard it.  (Social Security tax limit is set by the IRS each year. For 2022, it is $147,000.  No Social Security tax is due on compensation above that amount.)  

 

You must use the pay-type method for calculating payroll taxes if either of these are true:

• You use separate GL accounts for the Social Security and Medicare components of FICA.
• You have employees affected by the Social Security tax limit and you want to budget more precisely for the effect on employer payroll tax.

Note: This document is written from the perspective of US payroll tax requirements. Martus also supports payroll tax methods in other countries. The automatic method is of limited usefulness outside the US, but the pay-type method is very flexible and supports a wide variety of payroll tax requirements. Martus Support can help to configure pay types for payroll tax needs in countries outside the US.

Using the Automatic Method for Payroll Taxes

Three settings work together to determine what compensation is taxed.

• The Config settings define the tax rate for each fiscal year.

 

 

Using Pay Types to Calculate Payroll Taxes

If you use the pay-type method, you will create pay types for payroll tax and assign them to positions. (You will not assign them to positions that are not subject to payroll tax.)  

Each payroll pay type is associated with source pay types (such as Salary, Wages, Bonus, etc.)  When you assign a payroll tax pay type to a position with any or all of these source pay types, the tax amount is calculated automatically. If you change the rate for any of the source pay types on that position, the payroll tax amounts are updated automatically.  

If you use separate GL accounts for Social Security and Medicare, you will need two separate pay types. You’ll only need one pay type if you only use one GL account for FICA (and chose to use the pay type method because the Social Security tax limit has a significant impact on your compensation budget).

This example illustrates how to set up a pay type for Social Security tax.

Tax – Use the dropdown to set this to Is Tax.  (Non-taxable is also acceptable, although the Is Tax setting supports additional features within Martus.)

 

 

 

For each percentage pay type, assign the source pay types which are to be used as the basis for the payroll tax calculation.  The illustration shows just three source pay types, but you can assign as many as you need. This makes the payroll tax dependent on these source pay types.

 

Notes:

• When you use the automatic method, payroll tax is not shown on the Position screen or on the Detail screen.  You can see payroll tax on the Summary screen, although you’ve also got a flag on that screen so that you can exclude taxes from the display.
• Whenever you post a scenario to a Martus budget, the calculated payroll tax is always included.
• If you use the automatic method, be sure to verify the Config rates each year as you prepare for budget season!

 

Using Pay Types to Calculate Payroll Taxes

If you use the pay-type method, you will create pay types for payroll tax and assign them to positions. (You will not assign them to positions that are not subject to payroll tax.)  Each payroll pay type is associated with source pay types (such as Salary, Wages, Bonus, etc.)  When you assign a payroll tax pay type to a position with any or all of these source pay types, the tax amount is calculated automatically. If you change the rate for any of the source pay types on that position, the payroll tax amounts are updated automatically.  

If you use separate GL accounts for Social Security and Medicare, you will need two separate pay types. You’ll only need one pay type if you only use one GL account for FICA (and chose to use the pay type method because the Social Security tax limit has a significant impact on your compensation budget).

This example illustrates how to set up a pay type for Social Security tax.

Tax – Use the dropdown to set this to Is Tax.  (Non-taxable is also acceptable, although the Is Tax setting supports additional features within Martus.)

Category – Use the dropdown to set to this to Percentage.

Frequency – This must be set to Month.

Limit – This specifically supports the US Social Security tax limit, where the employer responsibility for payroll tax is calculated until the employee’s compensation exceeds the limit.  For the Social Security pay type, enter the result of multiplying the tax rate (currently 6.2%) by the annual limit established by the IRS for the calendar year in which your fiscal year starts. For example, if your fiscal year starts in July 2022, use the 2022 tax limit ($147,000) as the basis for this calculation.  

Leave the Limit blank if you have no employees whose compensation is high enough to be affected by the Social Security tax limit, or if the difference that this would make in your budget is minimal.  

Calendar Limit – If your fiscal year starts in January, or if you have not set a Limit above,  leave this blank.  If your fiscal year starts in any month other than January and you specified a limit, then select this checkbox. The limit calculation will take the payroll tax presumed to have occurred in the months between January and the start of the fiscal year into consideration.

Employer Percent – This should be set to 100% for all payroll taxes.

Source Percent – Enter the tax rate here. For US Social Security, the current rate is 6.20. For US Medicare, the current rate is 1.45.

Add the Pay Type to the Position

Once you have set the pay item up you then can add the pay type to the employee under Personnel > Scenarios >Positions > click the pencil icon of the position you want to edit > click 'Add Pay Type'

The Taxable flag on each position. When set, the tax percentage defined in the Config settings is used to calculate payroll tax on any taxable pay types assigned to this position. This should be left blank on positions to which payroll tax does not apply.

 

For each percentage pay type, assign the source pay types which are to be used as the basis for the payroll tax calculation.  The illustration shows just three source pay types, but you can assign as many as you need. This makes the payroll tax dependent on these source pay types.

 

 

Notes:

• When you use the pay-type method, the Taxable flag on positions is ignored.
• If you use the pay-type method, be sure to review the rates and limits each year, in preparation for budget season.

 

Viewing Payroll Taxes

The Summary screen has a checkbox that controls the display of payroll tax information. This applies to automatic payroll taxes and Is Tax pay types.  

 

The Detail screen only shows payroll tax information if you are using the pay-type method.  Taxes calculated with the automatic method do not show on the Detail screen.

 

Budgeting for Pool Positions

Included on Positions in Personnel Budgeting is a setting for creating pooled positions: “Is Pool”.

When set, the FTE value of that position will be multiplied by the compensation indicated in the assigned pay items to determine the total compensation for that position. A special note under the list of pay items reminds you that compensation for this position is based on the FTE value assigned.

Create A Pooled Position

1. Go To Personnel Budgeting > Scenarios > Positions Tab
2. Click the pencil icon of the position you want to make pooled
3. Check 'Is Pooled'
4. Enter the FTE value of the position 

How To Calculate the Correct FTE

1. (Total Hours Worked) / (Your Full Time Equivalent Work Week) = x
2. (x) * (number of employees who we need to budget for)

Example:

My interns will work 20 hour weeks. 

My company's full time equivalent work week is 40 hours. (20/40) = .5

I have 6 interns. (.5)*(6) = 3

The FTE I will apply will be 3

The FTE value of that position will be multiplied by the compensation indicated in the assigned pay items to determine the total compensation for that position. 

NOTE: If you use a pay item with a limit for your social security tax, you will want to use a separate pay item, with no limit, for pool positions.

Use the filter on the Positions list to select only Pool positions for review.  

Add Health Insurance Coverage Mid Year

Step 1 - Determine Coverage

We first have to determine if the pay item we are adding mid year has a coverage attached to it. 

Go to Personnel Budgeting > Pay Types > Search for the pay type you need to add > click the pencil icon and scroll down 

You should also see the coverage levels that are associated with this pay type. We will add the coverage in the next step. 

If there is a coverage attached follow Step 2 - otherwise skip to step 3 

For example: 

I want to add Health Insurance to my employee mid year. The pay type 'Health Insurance' is set as 'Coverage 1'

Step 2 - If Coverage - Update Employees Coverage

If there is a coverage - you must update the employees coverage under Personnel Budgeting > Employees > Edit > Coverage > Save

For example: 

My employee is going to be adding Heath Insurance - so I choose the drop down under 'Coverage 1' to their tier of Health Insurance. This employee has the coverage level of 'Employee' for Healthcare so I choose that option and hit 'Save' 

Step 3 - Add The Pay Type to the Employee

Add the Pay Type to the employee under Personnel Budgeting > Scenarios > Positions tab > Click the pencil icon of the employee you need to edit > Add 'Pay Type' > Choose from the drop down > edit any areas needed > Hit 'Save' 

You will see if there is a 'default' amount that it will automatically pull that number in for you - you can leave that area blank if the starting value is correct 

Step 5 - Zero Out Months 

To 'zero out' the months that the employee did not have this pay type 

Click the 'Detail' tab > Filter for the position that was updated > check the box for the line we need to update > Click 'Update Pay Items' 

Choose the time frame the employee should not have had health insurance and then choose 'Flat' and we are going to add the original month amount as a negative number going out to 5 decimal places and then click 'Update' 

For example:

The employee did not have Health Insurance from Jan - Mar. The health insurance costs 400.00 a month. To zero it out we change our time frame to Jan- Mar and then make the figure -399.99999,