Reading the guidance and guardrails

Read what your tells you about each proposal, so you know before you submit which ones are fine, which need explaining and which have to change. You need a worksheet with proposals on it — see Entering a merit increase.

The guidance

The Guidance column is where each person starts: the guidance that the merit matrix suggests from their and where their pay sits in their . In a cycle that plans ranges, it is a guidance range, from a low to a high, shown as, for example, 2.5%–4%, and its midpoint is the figure the arrow applies. In any other cycle, it is one percentage. It’s a suggestion. You can accept it, or enter any number of your own.

In a cycle that plans ranges, when your merit is inside the range, the guide shows a = mark, and hovering it reads Inside the guidance range. In any other cycle, the mark shows when your merit equals the guidance, and hovering it reads Guidance accepted. A row with no merit entered has no mark.

Sometimes your compensation team sets an employee’s guidance by hand instead. That row’s guide carries a small mark, and hovering it reads Set by admin. The range works exactly like any other guide — the arrow beside it still applies it — and it stays marked for as long as it is the admin’s number. The mark says who set it and nothing more: whatever reason the admin recorded stays with them.

The guardrails

Your compensation team can set two ranges around what a person’s merit increase, promotion and bonus should be, before the cycle launches, and they can’t change once it has — see Setting guardrails for managers. Each of the three is measured on its own number: the merit increase on the merit percentage, a promotion on the promotion percentage, and a bonus as a share of the new base. A promotion no longer pushes the merit increase out of its range, and a bonus never does.

The is the expected range. A number inside it is within the . For the merit increase in a cycle that plans ranges, the soft range is the employee’s guidance range.
The is wider, and is the outer limit.

Where the cycle has no range set for one of them, that number is never flagged.

Each row carries one Status chip, and it names the number that is out of range and which way:

Status	Where the number is	What happens
Within guardrails	Inside the soft range	Nothing more is needed.
—	The cycle sets no range for any number on the row, or its guardrails are off	Nothing is flagged. Hovering the dash reads No guidance or guardrails apply to this row.
Merit above guide, Merit below guide, Promotion above guide, Promotion below guide, Bonus above guide or Bonus below guide	Outside the soft range, inside the hard range	Allowed, and flagged. Whether it needs an explanation depends on the guardrail.
Merit above maximum, Merit below minimum, Promotion above maximum, Promotion below minimum, Bonus above maximum or Bonus below minimum	Outside the hard range	Refused when you submit, until you bring it back inside.
Justification needed	The row still owes a , a or both	Refused when you submit, until you give it.
Not reviewed	You haven’t entered a number yet	Nothing is flagged; the row still holds the guidance.

A number exactly on a limit counts as inside it. A row has one chip, so it names the most serious thing first: a number past its hard range, then what the row still owes, then a number outside its soft range. Within each, merit comes before the promotion, and the promotion before the bonus.

Outside the soft range: allowed, flagged and explained

A number outside the soft range is saved like any other, and its row is flagged. What it owes is whatever your compensation team set for that guardrail:

a reason code and a rationale, a reason code only or a rationale only — the row’s Status reads Justification needed, and the summary strip counts it under need a justification, until you give what’s asked. In the person’s details under their row, only the fields that are asked for are marked required. See Providing a rationale.
neither — the row is flagged, and nothing is owed. Its Status reads Merit above guide or Bonus below guide, and the strip counts it under outside guardrails only. In a cycle that plans ranges, a merit increase outside its guidance range has a chip that also names the range, as Merit above guide (2.5%–4%). Your approvers see that it is outside the guardrails.

Once what’s asked is given, the Status goes back to naming the number — for example Merit above guide — and the strip counts it under outside guardrails only. It’s still outside the guardrails, and your approvers see that it is, but it no longer stops you submitting.

A promotion outside its soft range is the same, with one difference: a promotion always owes a reason code and a rationale, so there is nothing extra to give for being outside the range. Once those are there, the row reads Promotion above guide or Promotion below guide and owes nothing more. See Submitting a promotion.

Outside the hard range: refused

A number outside the hard range is saved too, so you can see what it does to the numbers. The Merit input is outlined as an error when the merit increase is the one that’s out. Its Status names the number, for example Merit above maximum, Promotion above maximum or Bonus below minimum, and the summary strip counts it under outside guardrails.

The worksheet can’t be submitted while it’s there. Review before you submit lists each one under outside a hard range, naming the person and which number is out. Submitting is refused with a message that says how many proposals breach a hard guardrail and must be corrected, and names each person and the number. An explanation doesn’t lift it: change the number until it’s back inside the hard range.

The budget

Your budget, in the summary strip above the table, shows what your team’s plan spends against the budget allocated to it. When the plan spends more, it shows the amount over budget. The budget is advice only: a plan over budget can still be submitted.

When your compensation team set limits on a pool, its meter also marks them: a yellow tick at the Soft limit, a red tick at the Hard limit, and a grey one at the budget. Under the bar a line says where your plan stands:

Within limits, with what remains of the budget. A plan can be over budget and still inside its soft limit, and the line says both, for example $3,375 over budget · within the soft limit.
past the soft limit, a note is due at submit — you can submit, and you write a note for that pool in the review.
past the hard limit, this worksheet can’t be submitted — bring the plan under the limit first.

A pool with no limit shows no ticks. A pool funded by a fixed amount never has any. See Reviewing and submitting the worksheet.

See the math behind a number

Any figure the worksheet works out for you can show how. Hover it, or tab to it, and a card opens with the figures behind it. On a touch screen, tap the number; tap it again, or tap anywhere else, to close the card. On a keyboard, Escape closes it. A number with a card is underlined with dots.

The card only lays out figures the worksheet has already worked out. It adds nothing of its own, so it always agrees with the number it hangs from.

Compa — the employee’s current base, the midpoint of their pay band and the , on one line such as $142,000 ÷ $154,000 = 92% · Below midpoint. With no pay band, the card says so instead — see Compa-ratio and range position.
Guidance — the employee’s performance rating, the compa-ratio and the guidance the matrix gives for that pair, a range in a cycle that plans ranges. When your compensation team set the guidance by hand, the card says Set directly by your compensation team and shows no matrix line.
Status — the merit you entered, as an amount and as a percentage, the soft and hard ranges, the verdict, and a sentence on what happens next, such as that a reason code is needed before you submit. It describes the merit increase and what the row still owes.
Your budget — the amount allocated, the amount spent so far, what remains and how much of it is used.

The same cards appear in a person’s details under their row, beside the compa-ratio, the , the guidance and the compa-ratio after the increase.

An approver sees the same cards on the and on a . A row’s compa-ratio there shows the card the manager sees on the worksheet. A section’s planned figure, and the Planned increase and Planned bonus tiles, show the employees, the planned increase and the planned bonus behind them, with the bonus kept separate from the increase. A rollup or a package has no budget of its own, so its cards show none. See The rollup worksheet, explained.